While he’s at it, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should take this opportunity to realign all six divisions and allow National League teams to use the DH (allowing for traditionalists, at a competitive disadvantage, to continue allowing pitchers to hit).  The discrepancy between the AL and the NL would essentially disappear and bouncing a few teams from league to league would not be such a big deal.

Geographically, the MLB is heavily weighted by teams on the East Coast and in the MidWest.  There is another nice cluster of teams out on the West Coast, but Between Kansas City and California there is pretty much a baseball wasteland.* I know there are a lot of reasons why there are no teams out there, but it seems like a missed opportunity to add two more teams and have two 16 team Super Conferences, but I digress.

  *If a metro area of at least 1.5 million people is what’s needed to support a MLB franchise (That’s what they have in the Milwaukee area, the smallest metro area that is home to a team), then you should add a team in Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada; maybe even stretch to get a team in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Salt Lake City, Utah; if you were really trying to expand to “western markets.”  

In the unlikely event that Bud Selig and the owners adopt such a strategy, here are the 6 new divisions they should adopt.  (more…)

Chase Headley is a third basemen for the San Diego Padres.  His 2011 Topps baseball card reminds fans that just about a year ago, June 10, 2010, Headley started the rare triple play, a triple play he called, “The most routine one I’ve ever seen.”  Yup, just your average 5-4-3 triple play.  Happens all the time.  Maybe not, but that’s that kind of guy that Headley is, he just goes out there and does his job and makes things happen.  And he’s out there almost every day.  Since becomming a regular in 2009, Headley has played 156 and 161 the past two seasons.  In 2011 Headley looks like an iron man again, missing just one game heading into this series against the Minnesota Twins.

In preparation for this Padres series I spent a couple of days last week watching the Padres and here is what I’ve seen from Headley: a switch hitter who does a pretty good job hitting balls on the outside of the plate, has a good eye for balls off the outside of the plate, and struggles to hit balls off the plate on the inside.  He hits for a fairly high average and he can steal a base here and there.  As a righty he has a tendency to pull the ball down the left field line, but as hitting as a lefty he does a pretty good job of spreading the ball around, with plenty of opposite field hits out to left field.  He should keep the Twins corner outfields busy, whoever Gardenhire decides to put out there (Delmon Young, Michael Cuddyer, Ben Revere, Jason Repko).   Headley just turned 27 this past May so Headley still has a lot of productive baseball in front of him if he can continue to stay healthy.  (more…)

When the team you love is not fun to watch, and all the players on that team that you love to watch are on the Disabled List or playing AAA quality baseball, you have to find other things to brighten your day. Luckily, the Twins are off today and that means that their bullpen can rest, their starters have a chance to regroup, the position players have an opportunity to watch some film, and the fans have a break from watching mediocre baseball. The Cleveland Indians also have a day off today so the Twins will not be losing any ground on first place.

At the end of the day Twins fans, and baseball fans, just need something to look forward to. While we miss a day when our Home Nine is not on the field, let’s take a moment and find some positives from this dreadful start to the season and look for trends during the upcoming week. Here are five positives to keep you going as the Twins head to Chicago and Boston.   (more…)