Credit: Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE

The Pittsburgh Pirate’s recent contract extension with Andrew McCutchen demonstrates their commitment to turning their baseball club around.  That they were willing to let Ryan Doumit leave town, probably says more about their frustration with his inability to stay healthy (has only played more than 81 games in 3 of his 7 Major League seasons), than it does with Doumit’s ability.  Doumit, along with Josh Willingham, is part of a pair of free agent acquisitions that the Twins hope will replace the offensive void left by the departed outfield/DH combo of Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel. While neither Doumit or Willingham is a perfect replacement for either Cuddyer of Kubel, the two new Twins will provide manager Ron Gardenhire with the defensive flexibility of Michael Cuddyer and offensive power of Jason Kubel.  Doumit’s role on the Twins will likely be to serve as the regular DH while also giving Mauer a rest behind the plate, or serving as a late inning pinch hitter in games he does not start.

Defensively, Doumit leaves something to be desired.  He’s below average as a catcher and at 1B (where he is hesitant to play in 2012, per recent commentsfrom Ron Gardenhire), and while he’s not as bad as an outfielder, he’s still -2 runs worse than average by Total Zone ratings.  Offesnively Doumit is coming off his best season since 2008, earning 1.5 Offensive Wins Above Replacement, despite just 236 plate appearances.  Doumit is a career .271/.334/.442 (BA/OBP/SLG) hitter, and he’s been slightly better over his past 4 seasons, posting an OPS+ of 111.  While he will not generally hit for a high average, due in part to a 17.2% career K rate, Doumit has drawn walks in almost 8% of his plate appearances since 2009, putting him on base more than 1/3 of the time.  When he does make contact, more 34% of his hits are for extra bases.  (more…)

Kevin Slowey will not be reunited with Michael Cuddyer after all. Just six weeks after the Twins dealt Slowey to the Rockies, Colorado turned around and flipped him over to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for reliever Zach Putnam and a little spending cash. The Tribe are apparently looking at Slowey as a possible replacement for the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona. If Slowey does manage to win a spot in the Cleveland rotation, he’ll probably get at least two or three chances to pitch against his former team. That should make for some good viewing, partly because it’s always fun to see former players play against the Twins, and partly because there was some well-publicized animosity between Slowey and the Twins’ clubhouse.

Despite that, I’m a little irked by this trade for two reasons. First, I kind of wanted to see how well Slowey would do at Coors Field. Slowey is an extreme flyball pitcher, and Coors is a stadium where baseballs jump over the fence at an alarming rate. If Slowey pitched well there, that would prove he can pitch anywhere (which would make the Twins look bad). If he didn’t succeed, that could have created some potentially hideous stat lines (which would have made the Twins look good). (more…)

Last year’s squad was filled with on-base-challenged players. The lack of base runners was a significant factor in the Twins’ failure to score runs and thus, to win games. Fortunately, it looks like the numbers will improve big time in 2012.

First, let’s grimace at how bad the story was in 2011. In the modern MLB, a .300 OBP is pretty much a bare minimum for an everyday player. Ideally, if a player can’t get on base 30% of the time, he should never stay in the Majors long enough to reach 100 PAs, unless he is an Ozzie-Smith-Level defensive superstar. The Twins had not one, not two, but nine players with at least 100 plate appearances who failed to achieve a .300 OBP, and none of them were Ozzies. In descending order, they were: Danny Valencia (.294), Luke Hughes (.288), Justin Morneau (.285), Tsuyoshi Nishioka (.278), Rene Tosoni (.275), Jason Repko (.270), Matt Tolbert (.252), Rene Rivera (.211), and Drew Butera (.210). The Twins finished with the worst record in the AL, while the League Champion Texas Rangers had ZERO players with 100 PAs and an OBP under .300. Somehow, I don’t think that was a coincidence.

Okay, that was depressing. But the good news is that the on-base situation is virtually guaranteed to get better in 2012. Here’s why: (more…)