Minnesota Twins: In Charge for a Year

What if your wildest dream came true?

Do you dream of winning the lottery, being president, or just finally having that hot chick at work talk to you?

Well my dream would be to coach the Minnesota Twins.

As it seemed on Friday, the planets have finally aligned. With one mighty swing from Joe, the Twins still have much room for improvement.

What do we need to address? The bullpen, the log jam in the outfield, sending some youngsters to AAA, or do we dare trade an outfielder?

Luckily for you I have all the answers, or at least I think I do.

As I type this I just found out the Twins sent Jose Morales down to the minors. During his brief stint in the big’s he was batting .380.

Let’s all just take a moment and realize this is a small sample. No one can tell if he could keep this up for a season. My best predictions would be .270 avg, 8 HR, and maybe 50 RBI. Definitely nothing amazing considering who is ahead of him behind home plate.

Jose played infield when he first was coming up through the ranks and was moved to catcher where his defense is still in question.

But who do we keep as a backup Morales or Redmond?

My answer is Redmond, I mean come on we are already paying him.

So what happens to Morales? I am having him switch to right field. So the long jam in the outfield just got another log.

When looking at the outfield, the only player that is not going anywhere is Span. He can play all three spots, has the bat, and the speed on the bases. So I hate the term but he is untouchable.

So with the three remaining outfielders what do I do? This hurts to type it but, Cuddyer is on the trading block.

Don’t get me wrong I love the guy—he is a great Twin in my book. But he is on his downhill slide. I would trade him for some minor league setup guy, someone that can eat up some innings for us in the future, not this year but hopefully next.

So I still have 4.5 outfielders if you count Kubel.

As if the Twins fans don’t already hate me for trading Cuddyer, I am also sending "Go Go" to the minors. He wants to be a three hitter, but he need to work on his plate discipline. This way he can get more at bats and work with our great minor league coaching staff. Hopefully I can call him up in August.

So my starting outfield is Morales in RF, Span in CF, and Young in LF. If Young starts turning it on as the season progressive, I will be listening to trade talks. In the long run I just don’t feel he fits in with the Twins organization.

With the move of Morales I will either be coach of the year or coaching the Snappers next year in the minors.

Now on to the infield.

First base is doing "OK" in my book and the backups will fill in nice when Morneau needs a break.

Third base is set with Crede and Buscher backing him up work well. I know for a fact Crede is gone after this year and I feel Buscher can fill that spot for a while until one of our minor league guys show a little more pop.

Punto at short is actually doing a great job this year.

That might have been the hardest sentence I have had to ever type.

Casailla at second is our only weak spot. I am gonna give him a little more playing time with Gomez in the minors so he can work on his swing and put Harris in the starting lineup. I will probably get booed for this move also.  

I am hoping that Casilla will be back in a month.

I have no problem with the starting rotation.

I think with Mauer back behind the plate everything will come around. Mauer does need a little time to work with R.A. Dickey.

The bullpen on the other hand needs help.

In a brave move that for some reason Gardy shy’s away, from I am going to let Nathan get me more than three outs a game. Some nights maybe even five!

He hasn’t pitched a lot of innings this year and don’t worry I won’t over use him. But you need to have him in there for more than an inning every once in a while.

My starting lineup:

1. Span CF (L)

2. Morales RF (S)

3. Mauer C (L)

4. Morneau 1B (L)

5. Kubel DH (L) *

6. Crede 3B (R)

7.  Young RF (R)

8.  Punto SS (S)

9. Harris 2B (R)

* Whoever has the hot right handed bat will hit in the 5 hole and I will move Kubel down a spot to break up the lefties.

So in review Gomez and Casilla to the minors for a short stint.

Cuddyer to another team for bullpen help.

If Young starts producing I am waiting for that phone to ring.

Morales to RF, if he keeps producing and his defense is average, otherwise back to the minors and Hello "Go Go" Gomez.

So we have two open spots on the roster. Maybe three depending on what we get for Cuddyer.

These spots will be filled with Hughes or Valencia at third and some help in the bullpen. We can get these young guys a taste of the majors until Casilla and Gomez are ready to go.

Let me know what you think, or what you would do.