Infield Woes

Thursday afternoon’s 4-3 loss to the Yankees cost the Twins more than just a tally in the L column.  The Twins newly acquired 3million dollar second basemen, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, suffered a broken left fibula from a hard slide by Nick Swisher. I’ve had a broken fibula, twice actually.  Once from a sweet skateboarding accident on a 24″ miniramp.  This is unrelated to Nishioka, but now we’re brothers, IN BONE!

After signing with the Twins this off-season, Kaz Matsui had three pieces of advice for Nishioka.  One of those pieces of advice “Be careful about getting spiked during double plays.”  While Kaz Matsui hasn’t been able to find the formula for success here in the states himself, his advice seems to have been quite sage.

With Nishi going to the DL what are the Twins going to do during his absence?  Luke Hughes will get the call from AAA to come up to the bigs where many fans, myself included were hoping he would start the season.  After a few mid-day texts back and forth with the other half of the Twins Twins we quickly formulated what we believe to be the best course of action.  Neither of us think that Tolbert can be the everyday guy for the Twins for any length of time.  Hopefully Luke Hughes will be inserted into the lineup for Tsuyoshi leaving Tolbert available off the bench “for speed and Thome’s pinch runner” as Eric put it. Not only that, but I’m fairly certain that Hughes’ presence in the lineup has two other bonuses, one of which is baseball related.  1. Having two Hughes on the team could lead to opponent confusion.  2. Luke Hughes is a handsome kid, this could bring more ladies to the ballpark, which in turn, is good for the Twins Twins.

Gardy was quoted today as saying “He (Nishioka) must’ve told me a thousand times that he plays hurt.”  Let’s hope that Nishi can come back from this without too much delay, because with Nishi on the DL an already suspect infield just got worse.

Whether the Twins decide to go with Tolbert, Hughes or a combination of both, lets hope that we can stay healthy and that next time a “break” goes the Twins way that it’s not delivered to some one’s bone.  Tolbert gets a bad rap, because he isn’t Snoop Dogg.  Again, unrelated, but warranted.

(Italics from Eric Pleiss, the other Twins Twin)