Happy 4th Of July, Twins' Fans

JOE MAUER

It's the 4th of July, the Twins are 35-45, eight games behind Chicago and in last place in the Central Division. They do have a five-game winning streak going and have taken two of four so far from Detroit, but only Seattle, which has played three more games, has a worst A.L. record.
I decided to take a look at the Twins statistics for the past 30 days. Here are some observations:

Joe Mauer is the hottest Twin, batting a steady .419 with a .457 On-Base Percentage. He's hit two dingers over the past 30 days and both have come in the last week. Mauer's scored 11 times and driven in 13 runs. He's struck out 19 times and has six walks.

Ben Revere has hit .358 with a .385 OBP during the period and doing well on base paths with 11 of his 16 steals coming over the past month. He's scored 14 times but has 109 at-bats, the most of any Twins' player over the period.

Darin Mastroianni is hitting .303 (.378 OBP) in 33 at-bats and has walked four times with eight strike outs. He's scored over 16 percentage of the times he's been to the plate.

Trevor Plouffe and Josh Willingham have been grabbing the headlines with their home run and RBI production, Justin Morneau has slowed in his production over his last 24 games. He's hit one homer, one triple and four doubles and only Brian Dozier and Alexi Casilla have a worst slugging percentage (.337) among the position players.

Jamey Carroll has lifted his average to a (still less than respectable) .243 with the sixth best average among the Twins over the past 30 days. He's crossed the plate 14 times in his 90+ plate appearance and has 10 walks.

Denard Span is hitting .213 (.295 OBP) over his last 94 at-bats but has walked 11 times and has scored 14 runs.

Free-swinging Brian Dozier has scored 11 times but has struck out 17 times while only taking four walks in 98 plate appearance.

Luke Hughes vs. Justin Morneau

The Twins took the finale of their 3-game series with Detroit on Sunday, 11-4, thanks in large part to two home runs hit by Australian infielder Luke Hughes. The dingers were number 5 & 6 this season which gives him more than Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer combined. (BTW: Trevor Plouffe also has six homers.)



Above is a chart from which we can compare the batting production of Hughes and Morneau. It's obvious we're getting more production from Hughes and if you tell me that Morneau has more doubles and RBIs than Hughes, I'd still tell you to have a look at the last for categories.

Also, I have to ask - Does Joe Mauer want to be a Hall of Famer? I don't think sitting on the bench complaining of sore neck is the way to get there. I think it's an insult to Harmon, Tony, Rod, Bert and the greats that came before him.

Now Starting In Right Field. . . #7 Joe Mauer

I was under the assumption that the Twins had plenty of outfielders? Isn't that why we traded away Delmon Young despite the fact that Denard Span is sitting on the bench with migraines and Cuddyer has a herniated neck?

Now comes news that Joe Mauer is starting in right field tonight against the Bronx Bombers because Jason Kubel is on leave with family issues. Now I'm not knocking Kubel, of course. Family comes first but that will leave us with an outfield of Rene Tosoni in left, Ben Revere in center and Mauer in right (Oh by the way, according to Gardenhire, it was either Mauer or Morneau).

Trevor Plouffe could play the outfield (he's done it before and more often than Mauer - which is NONE) but he's playing second base because Matt Tolbert has a sprained left wrist and Alexi Casilla is on the disabled list.

Why don't we put Span, Cuddyer and Tolbert on the disabled list too. Did we run out of spots on the DL? Luke Hughes is now that only person on the bench who can actually play! (see screen shot below).



Billy Smith, what have you done to our team? Hey, maybe tomorrow we could let Jim Thome play right field or is Drew Butera so Mauer can go back behind the plate?