MVN - Most Valuable Network

Rookies making Gardenhire earn his pay

Coming into the 2008 season, every position was filled and there seemed to be little controversy on who was going to get the majority of playing time at each position. Who knew in only a couple of weeks that players who were seemingly over looked would make Manager Ron Gardenhire’s job a tad more difficult.

When Matt Tolbert made the big club coming out of Spring Training, many had no idea who this 25 year old infielder was. Tolbert has been in the Twins system since 2004 but he was hardly touted as a coveted prospect. In 2007, Tolbert played for the Twins AAA affiliate Rochester hitting .293 in 121 games. During Spring Training, Tolbert continued to swing well as he recorded a .435 average in 11 exhibition games. Tolbert was brought north to be a bench player.

After losing a heated battle to Carlos Gomez, center fielder Denard Span wasn’t as fortunate as Tolbert and was sent to Rochester to start the season. It took an injury to a star player for Span to finally take an at bat at the major league level. Span hasn’t necessarily lit imaginations with his bat, but he hasn’t been all that bad for a rookie.

Coming into today’s game against Detroit, Tolbert is hitting .435 with one RBI while Span is hitting .300 with two RBI and one stolen base. Span has also showed his range in right field making numerous reaching catches and preventing extra base hits with his speed. Tolbert is also playing well in the infield committing one error in 35 chances.

With these two rookies performing well enough to deserve to play everyday, what is to be done with the players they are replacing? I was in favor of keeping Span in the field even when Cuddyer comes back, some weren’t as enthused as me (Right, Scotty?) but if a player is hot, why take him out? Span has been a bit shaky so I backed off the idea of him being in the outfield most of the year, but what about Tolbert?

Tolbert has been playing in place of second baseman Brendan Harris and shortstop Adam Everett off and on. Tolbert played a handful of games in the past week in place of Everett due to a sore shoulder. What did Tolbert do with that playing time? He produced. Oh by the way, Everett is hitting .185 this season in 27 at bats. Doesn’t that remind you of Nick Punto’s 2007 campaign? If you said “cannot hit a lick but is only in there for his glove?” You’re correct!

Is it time to let Tolbert play and put Everett in a coming off the bench roll? I believe so. I know defense is very important to the success of a team, but is Everett’s gold glove worth his ten cent fart for a bat? I don’t believe so. Now people will be saying “Oh, Everett’s glove is much to good for Tolbert replace him. Bad idea!” Well the fact is that Everett already has three errors this season. If you do the math, Everett has three errors in 50 total chances. That’s an error every 16.6 chances. As I stated earlier, Tolbert has one error in 35 chances. I don’t need to do the math for you. Well, I’ll do it for all you Indians fans out there…Tolbert has one error every 35 chances.

So in my “arm-chair manager” position, I say let Tolbert play instead of Everett. Whether that means to let Tolbert play short or let Tolbert play second and let Harris go back to short, it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is if Tolbert play instead of Harris. You simply can’t lose Harris’ .351 average. So please Gardy, we don’t need Everett playing every day. He will still be valuable if you need a defensive specialist to play in the ninth to protect a lead, but honestly, that’s about it.

With Span, it’s a little harder. Span busted his butt and finally got called up, now he’s producing. What do you do with him when Cuddyer comes back? Send him back down? Probably not. Craig Monroe is hitting .133 in 15 at bats. Can you send him down or release him? Depends. Who will come off the bench if you need some pop when Kubel and Cuddyer are in the line up? Who knows. I’m just happy I’m not in Gardenhire’s shoes right now. He has some decisions to make when Cuddyer is ready to reclaim right field. Except for taking out Everett in place of Tolbert!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 5:45 pm and is filed under Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, Ron Gardenhire, Michael Cuddyer, Matt Tolbert, Adam Everett. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.