- 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.
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