The Twins' New Guys, Part 3: Craig Monroe

This is part three of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 3rd of the 4 free agent pickups. Technically, he was not acquired as a free agent, but I will treat him as if he was. Enjoy.


Craig Monroe

Craig Monroe is a veteran of 8 major league seasons, primarily spent with the Detroit Tigers. After his rookie season in 2001 with the Texas Rangers, Monroe was claimed off of waivers by the Tigers. He became a regular part of the Tigers' lineup in starting in 2002, averaging almost 500 at-bats between 2002 and 2006. However, Monroe struggled mightily in 2006 and 2007, eventually being traded to the Cubs at the trade-dealine in 2007, where he continued to struggle. The Cubs were unwilling to pay anywhere near the $4.8 million Monroe made in 2007, considering his poor production. The Cubs were ready to release Monroe, making him a free agent, until the Twins came along.

The Cubs agreed to trade the rights to Monroe to the Twins for a marginal minor league player (Doug Deeds). This gave Minnesota exclusive rights to bargain with Monroe, instead of having to fight the competition for Monroe in the free agent market. The Twins hoped to get Monroe to agree to a lower salary, considering the likelihood that he would make anywhere near $4.8 million in the free agent market was unlikely. Monroe agreed to a $3.82 million, one year contract. So, although the Twins technically traded for Monroe, he was going to be released anyway and thus would have been a free agent, who the Twins would likely have signed anyway.
Reason for signing: At the time Monroe was acquired, the question of who would be starting in center field had still not been answered. The Monroe signing gave the Twins another option for center field, as a fourth outfielder, or even as a designated hitter. Monroe has historically hit left-handed pitchers very well, therefore, the Twins planned to use Monroe against left-handers in place of Jason Kubel, who figured to get most of the at-bats as DH versus right-handed pitchers. Regardless of his position in the field, the Twins certainly hoped that Monroe would provide some power for a fairly light-hitting lineup. Monroe's 28 HRs in 2006 intrigued the Twins enough that they felt it was worth the risk of a one-year deal for under $4 million for someone who has the potential for big power numbers, despite his struggles in recent years.

So far this season: Craig Monroe hasn't had the finest year so far. He hit a memorable pinch-hit 3-run homerun against the Royals on May 28th to cap off a 5-run 9th inning rally. But that is pretty much the high point of his season. Jason Kubel has spent a lot of time in the DH spot against right-handed pitching and even some days against left-handed pitching. And with the play of Carlos Gomez so far this season, Monroe has found it difficult to find at-bats. When he has been in the lineup, Monroe has been the player he's been the last two season, swinging at everything, striking out a lot (currently, he's struck out in an astoundingly high 38% of this at-bats), and hitting for a low average. Monroe has shown some power, hitting seven doubles and five homeruns, which comprise just under half of his hits. So, I guess if you want a bright side, that might be it. In the rare cases where he's gotten hits, they've been for multiple bases.

Outlook for the rest of the season: Barring any sort of injury that necessitates otherwise, Monroe will pretty much keep the role he has today. He'll start at DH against lefties, make an occassional spot-start to give one of the regular outfielders a day off and he'll pinch hit at the end of games when the Twins are behind, hoping he'll repeat his performance in KC a few weeks ago. Ultimately though, his numbers will remain poor overall. His average will be sub-par (to the tune of about .220), he'll hit for some power, but strike out so often that the power is pretty much negated.

Synopsis: Another swing-and-a-miss by the Twins. I won't say that signing Monroe is quite on par with the signings of Tony Batista and Sidney Ponson, but its not far off. I don't understand the logic of trying to rekindle the career of someone who had success for a couple of years, but has been absolutely horrendous for the last couple of seasons. I mean really, what are the chances that he's going to put up the numbers that he did between 2004 and 2006? His minor league track record also indicates that those years were statistical anomalies, meaning that there is really no chance that he will return to the form the Twins were hoping for. Paying somebody almost $4 million to play in less than 60% of the teams games and strike out nearly 40% of the time seems like a bad investment to me. Honestly, they could pay me $200,000 a year and I could strike out 38% of the time (maybe less). I'm not saying that the options in the minor league system are great, but at least they're inexpensive and in most cases they're younger, so there's the chance of improvement. Seriously, at some point the Twins need to realize that spending millions of dollars on washed up veterans who weren't ever that good anyway is a bad idea. Trust your minor league system and give some youngsters a chance and save a few dollars. Or just get it over and call me up.

Big Tuna Joke of the Day

Partially because it was requested and partially because it just happened yesterday, I thought I would take a small break from my baseball-related posts and tell another Big Tuna story. This will be a fairly short post, but don't worry, I have something planned for next week. The Big Tuna is leaving on vacation next Tuesday for three whole weeks, so I thought I would have a send-off post to celebrate. So, be sure to tune in next week for that.

In my introduction to the Big Tuna, I mentioned that he likes to re-tell the same, not funny jokes all the time. He thinks that he's a real comedian, but really, all he ever gets is pity laughs. In any case, one of the most annoying things about a lot of his jokes is that they rely on "audience participation". The "rock" joke I mentioned last time is a great example. The joke is initiated by him asking you a question or making a comment in your direction (e.g. "So how big was the rock?"). At this point, the "audience" is required to respond in an appropriate way in order for the joke to be completed (e.g. "What rock?"). Finally, after the response from the "audience", he hits you with the punchline (e.g. "The rock you used to iron that shirt"). A pretty high percentage of the Big Tuna's jokes follow this pattern.

True to form, the Big Tuna dropped another one of his favorite jokes of this type on us yesterday. This particular joke needs to be put into context for you. In order to tell the joke in the office, it must be told on a weekday, other than Friday. Thursday being the ideal day. The person telling the joke or the person listening to the joke must be leaving for the day. Alright, with that in mind, the joke goes like this:

Big Tuna: OK, see you guys on Monday.
Audience: Oh, you're not here tomorrow?
Big Tuna: No, I'm here tomorrow, but I'll see you on Monday too.
Audience: (laughing so hard that milk comes out of everybody's nose at once)

Like all of them, this is a joke that I and everybody else in the office has heard many times. So, yesterday, three of us were standing around talking when the Big Tuna comes by on his way out the door. After chatting with us for a few minutes, he attempts to initiate this joke with the "OK, see you guys on Monday" line. The thing is, all of us have heard it so many times (and don't want to hear it again) that none of us provide the "audience participation" part. So, what ends up happening is there is about 15 seconds of awkward silence as the Big Tuna waits for someone to take the bait. But nobody does. So, he's forced to just walk away, without completing his joke.

The funny part is that you can just tell that he is furious that nobody took the bait. He needs to be the funny guy, so if nobody bites or nobody laughs at his stupid jokes, he gets super offended. Its awesome. He acts like a 4 year old. We're so cruel. Although, sometimes, to "save face", even if nobody takes the bait and does the "audience participation" part, he still tells the punchline, which is equally funny, because the joke is incomplete and doesn't really make any sense without the "audience participation" part. And then there are the times where he explains to you that you're supposed to say "Oh, you're not going to be here tomorrow", like we don't realize it after hearing the same joke a thousand times. Good times.

Ok, this post ended up a bit longer than I expected. But I will leave you with another classic Big Tuna joke that I just thought of. This one comes up on a day where you didn't shave and have some stubble.

Big Tuna: Did you hear that the strike is over?
Audience: What strike is that?
Big Tuna: The Gillette strike. You'll be able to shave now.

Absolute hilarity.

I have more than one reader?

It has been brought to my attention that people other than my fiance read this blog on occasion. That's weird. It has also been brought to my attention that not all of said readers are familiar with much of the baseball statistic lingo I use. Therefore, in an effort to appease the audience, I have added a legend on the right side, which contains a list of the baseball statistics that I commonly use and a brief definition for each entry. I will try to keep that up-to-date as I reference other stats. Leave me a comment if I use something that I don't add to the legend that you would like clarified.

I have also decided to add a disclaimer on the right side as well. Basically, I don't want people to get the idea that I'm try to "prove" my claims using stats. If I were attempting that, I would be blasted by people who are a lot more knowledgable about statistics than I am, as my use of statistics wouldn't really not be adequate. Essentially, I am "cherry-picking" stats that support my claims, but really, most of what I write is based solely on observation and my opinion. I just felt like I needed that to be there.

Finally, in a further effort to please my audience, feel free to put comments in the comments section of any post with suggestions or requests for post topics. I will do my best to oblige such requests. I aim to please! You are all a valued part of this blog and I appreciate your patronage!

The Twins' New Guys, Part 2: Adam Everett

This is part two of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 2nd of the 4 free agent pickups. Enjoy.

Adam Everett

Like the free agent we looked at last time, Mike Lamb, Adam Everett is also a veteran of 8 seasons. Also like Lamb, Everett came to the Twins from the Houston Astros. Everett spent all 8 seasons of his career prior to coming to Minnesota with the Astros. First and foremost, he is a superb defensive player. He has excellent range (a 4.30 career RFg, versus the league average of 4.00) at SS and a decent arm, allowing him to take away hits on a regular basis. However, he is an abysmal .246/.297/.356 career hitter. His career OPS+ is 69, meaning that offensively, he is about as bad as you can get and still have a job in the Majors.

Reason for signing: Provide defensive stability up the middle. With a high likelihood of having a young starter at 2B (e.g. Brendan Harris, Alexi Casilla), the Twins hoped that Everett would be a steady, defensive presence, unlike the departed Jason Bartlett (this is the Twins' view of Bartlett's defense, not mine).

So far this year: Everett has played in just 25 games for the Twins so far this season. He has spent two different stints on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder issues. In his 25 games played (74 ABs) he has hit to the tune of .189 batting average and a 54 OPS+. These stats, of course, are from a fairly small sample size, but he has really struggled at the plate when he's been up there. On the defensive side, where the Twins felt he would provide the most value, he has also struggled, committing 4 errors already this season (he committed just 8 errors all of last season). His defensive range remains solidly above average, but his throws have been an issue, perhaps due to the continuing shoulder issues.

Outlook for the rest of the season: I don't expect much from Everett the rest of the season. He is not expected to return to the lineup until after the All-Star break, since his shoulder is still causing him some issues. Based on his offensive track record, I don't think that we can expect Everett to have a huge, or even a marginal, offensive impact in the second half of the season. Admittedly, defense hasn't been the Twins strongest point so far this season, particularly in the middle of the infield. When Everett plays, assuming he's healthy, I think his defensive will be fine. Perhaps the best we can hope for is for Everett to share some of his defensive knowledge with Brendan Harris, who should expect to see a lot of time at SS, with Nick Punto back on the disabled list.

Synopsis: In short, I don't agree with the Twins on this one. The Twins made a mistake in trading Jason Bartlett. He was a decent bat who played better defense than the organization believed. Bartlett is only a career .266/.333/.348 hitter in the Majors, but his Minor League track record showed much more offensive potential. Bartlett was a .297/.363/.415 hitter in 6 Minor League seasons. And Bartlett's defensive ability was far better than the Twins believed. He had a tendency to make a bad throw on occasion, but his offensive ability made up for his throwing errors (at least in my eyes). Adam Everett has a career OBP that is 30 points lower than Bartlett and an OPS+ that is 13 below Bartlett. The value that Everett provides defensively does not make up for his offensive inability. Given the other options to start at SS, both in-house and on the free agent market, the Twins felt that Everett was the best option. Looking at the free agent market for SS last season, you can see why. The only other viable option would have been David Eckstein, who would have commanded about double the $2.8 million contract given to Everett. In light of the trade of Jason Bartlett, the Twins were left with few options, so from that standpoint, the signing of Everett to a one-year deal, for relatively little money, as a temporary band-aid until one of the younger, in-house options is ready, it is an OK move. But I still believe that the Twins gave up on Bartlett when they shouldn't have.

The Twins' New Guys, Part 1: Mike Lamb

I like baseball. A lot. Therefore, you can anticipate several baseball posts in the future. For the most part, they will be focused on my hometown (and favorite) team, the Minnesota Twins. There are two baseball-related topics that I hope to post about over the next couple of days:

• The "new guys" on the Twins, their impact so far, outlook for the future and some general commentary.
• The state of play-by-play and analysis provided by broadcasters during televised games. I will use the Twins broadcasters as examples, but will probably touch on some better-known, national broadcasters as well.

I will get to the broadcaster topic at a later time, I hope. But for now, I want to talk about the Twins' newest players. I will break these up into several posts, each one looking at one or two players, as time allows.

The Twins' new players can be broken into two categories: those acquired this last off-season and call-ups that weren't with the major league club to start the season. Let's start with new off-season acquisitions. The Twins were busy in the off-season, acquiring 4 new players via free agency and 3 more via trades (more than 3 were acquired via trades, but only 3 are with the major league club and I won't talk about those down in the minors). The free agent acquisitions were all signed for specific reasons, which I will try to identify. So, let's get to it.

Mike Lamb

Mike Lamb is a veteran of 8 seasons, playing for the Rangers and most recently the Astros. He is a career .279/.336/.421 hitter. His career OPS+ is 95, meaning that offensively, he is slightly below average for a third baseman. Lamb has a reputation of being somewhat of a liability defensively at third base.

Reason for signing: Provide some offensive production at a position that has been a glaring sore-spot for the Twins for several years.

So far this year: Lamb has started the season very slowly with the Twins, hitting just .247/.283/.335 in the first two months of the season. He has just one HR so far and is slugging a measly .335, which is well below the league average of .393. The expectation that Lamb would provide more pop than Nick Punto did last season as the primary third baseman hasn't been met so far. And he certainly doesn't have the flashy glove that Punto does. However, he has been adequate defensively, showing approximately average fielding range (2.50 RFg, versus the 2.44 RFg leage average at 3B).

Outlook for the rest of the season: Lamb has shown signs of breaking out of his early-season slump, as his batting average has jumped 30 points in the last couple of weeks. However, Lamb is not a power bat and will provide will offensive pop that the Twins need. I think Lamb will probably get his batting average back up into the high .260s or low .270s, which will be enough for Gardy to keep him in the lineup on a regular basis. But he is unlikely to hit more than 10 HRs. He will continue to play average defense at third base.

Synopsis: Lamb is an upgrade over Nick Punto. That's about all I can say. Despite Punto's reputation for being a great defensive player, his defensive stats beg to differ to some extent. Lamb still isn't quite the defensive player Punto is, but even Lamb's average offensive statistics make him a definite upgrade. Since the Twins seem to not want to give a chance to younger players in the minor league system (i.e. Brian Buscher, who for the record is hitting .327/.415/.524 in AAA, a .939 OPS!), we have to look at the bright side that Lamb is an upgrade over last season. But long-term, Lamb is not the solution at third. His batting average is acceptable, but he doesn't walk much, hits for little power, and is only average defensively at third. Oh yeah, and he's 33. If he continues what he's done in AAA so far this year, Brian Buscher should get a chance to win the job next season. Overall, Lamb was an OK signing for the Twins this season (since they're unwilling to take a chance on Buscher), but I don't think that he is going to provide the Twins the offensive production they were hoping for.