The Rake Magazine

To me, one of the great mysteries of 2006 was how Joe Mauer, a guy who had an on base percentage of .429, somehow managed to avoid scoring or driving in 100 runs. Three guys who hit behind him combined for 337 RBI (Morneau: 130; Cuddyer: 109; and Hunter: 98). Mauer had 86 runs scored and 84 RBI. You'd have to assume that he was on base a good deal of the time when Morneau, Cuddyer, and Hunter were at the plate, and also that some of their RBIs were available to him when he was at bat.

The stats say that Mauer hit .367 with runners on, .360 with runners in scoring position, and .408 with runners in scoring position and two out. Those are some pretty astonishing numbers, and make it even more difficult to explain his run production.

Over the winter I was determined to go through every 2006 game to see if I could figure out who exactly crossed the plate on every run-producing play. In other words, who scored those 130 runs that Morneau drove in?

I kept getting sidetracked on this project --it was an extremely slow process-- and didn't end up getting very far. In the early going, at least, it was all very random, and the runs were pretty evenly distributed up and down the line-up, but that was when I was working with April's games and the Twins weren't scoring a whole lot of runs.

I'm still curious. Maybe somebody else has done this, or does it every year. Maybe this information is available somewhere. Anybody know?

Here's some other random stuff that helps to put last year's remarkable production in context:

In 2005 the Twins didn't have a single player with 100 runs batted in or scored. It was even worse than that: the Twins finished that season 13th in the AL in runs, and didn't even have a single player with eighty runs or RBI.

In 2004 it was pretty much the same story --not a single player with 100 runs or RBI. Lew Ford, of all people, led the team with 89 runs, and Torii Hunter was the club leader with 81 RBI.

Before 2006 the last Twin to drive in 100 runs was Hunter, who finished with 102 in 2003.

The last time Minnesota had a player score and drive in 100 runs was in 2001, when Corey Koskie pulled it off (100 runs, 103 RBI). Koskie's 2001 season, in fact, was almost a mirror of Michael Cuddyer's 2006. Koskie finished with a .276 BA, 37 doubles, and 26 home runs (and 118 strike outs and 68 walks). Here are Cuddyer's numbers from last year: 102 R, 109 RBI, .284 BA, 41 doubles, 24 HR, 130 Ks, and 62 walks.

I know it's all about money, but today's decision to send Matt Garza to Rochester nonetheless stinks to high hell from a fan's perspective.

Someone tell me: how exactly is J.D. Durbin worth protecting? The guy is 25 years old and out of options. I say send him packing and if somebody else wants to roll the dice and put him on their roster, well, good luck to them and good luck to J.D. As it is he'll be around to drag his mop out to the mound every time a game gets out of hand. Silva could have just as easily served that role out of the bullpen, which is exactly where he deserves to be when the Twins kick off the regular season next week.

Anybody want to wager on how long it takes for Garza to make the return trip from Rochester? I'd also be interested in hearing whose place you think he'll take when he does come back up. My guess is it may not even be Silva's.

[Update: Ok, so the Twins aren't keeping J.D. Durbin. Which means what exactly? Chris Heintz, I guess, but I have absolutely no idea at the moment. Somebody clue me in.]

Damn, I love Sidney Ponson.

I've always been a fan of the big man, and nobody was happier than I was to see the Twins swoop in and snag one of the huge Hot Stove League bargains, but after today's stellar start (and --yeah, yeah-- the Real Deal had to come in and blow up Souffle Sid's masterpiece) I'm guessing that Jim Leyland is going to have a tough time choosing between Santana and Ponson when it comes time to name his All Star Game starter.

I say Sid is a lock --a freaking lock, I'm telling you-- to win 18 games. Minimum.

Carlos Silva's performance against Pittsburgh today (3.1 IP, 11 hits, nine earned runs) should make Ron Gardenhire's decision a whole lot easier. The Twins love Silva, and he's a first-rate clubhouse character, but given the way he's pitched this spring, and the way he pitched in what was clearly a make-or-break game for him this afternoon, there is no way the Twins can give him a spot in the starting rotation.

The question is what the hell do you do with him? That's a tough question, particularly given the fact that the Twins picked up Silva's option (for $4.3 million) in the off-season.

Although it goes against the organization's general philosophy, it sure seems like Alexi Casilla, the kid the Twins nabbed from the Angels in exchange for J.C. Romero, deserves a spot on the roster when the team breaks camp at the end of the month.

As much as Terry Ryan and company might want Casilla to play every day at Rochester, the 22-year-old shortstop/second baseman is exactly the kind of player the Twins could use right now, and would seem to have a clear advantage over Luis Rodriguez, except for the fact that Rodriquez has played some third base and Nick Punto is hobbled at the moment and hasn't had a good spring. Casilla, though, is a switch hitter and a speedster of the sort the Twins haven't had in a while (he's six-for-six in stolen base attempts this spring, and had fifty SBs --in sixty attempts-- between Fort Myers and New Britain last year). He can spell either Jason Bartlett or Luis Castillo (and Castillo is a notoriously creaky character who's almost certain to come up lame at some point in the season). The wild card in all this, of course, is Jeff Cirillo, who will likely split time at DH and can play anywhere in the infield in a pinch.

It looks like the Twins will do the predictable thing and send Casilla to Triple A, but I'll also wager that he won't be there for long.

The battle for slots in the starting rotation has been interesting all along, but with the struggles of Carlos Silva and the strong performances from Boof Bonser, Matt Garza, and Glen Perkins (at least until he scuffled a bit in his last outing), it looks like more of a horse race all the time. Ramon Ortiz has nailed down a spot following Santana, but the other three positions are still apparently up for grabs. I'm supposing the Twins will go ahead and give Sidney Ponson a chance to pitch himself out of the rotation, and Silva, despite his awful spring, will probably get a shot as well, but I don't see how you could decide between Bonser and Garza for the fifth spot. Hell, a decent argument could be made that either of them should be the third starter.

What say you?