Plouffe

[twinslover]

So Trevor Plouffe starts raking after he gets steady at bats. Why wasn't he an everyday player from opening day? I keep seeing stat lines detaling his production before May, which was putrid, and after, which has been spectacular. I'm happy as a pig in s#i! with his production, but is there anyone else asking themselves why he didn't get more playing time and at bats before May?

[James]

Where were they going to have him play? I know they had him play in RF a little, but that spot was also used for Revere, Parmalee, sometimes Doumit to start off. Plouffe probably should have seen more time out there instead of Komatsu, but Plouffe hasn't been great in RF either.

 

The real key was that Valencia was doing poorly enough to get sent down, leaving a spot where Plouffe could play and get comfortable. And I think it is pretty obvious what has been happening when he's playing somewhere where he is comfortable.

[twinslover]

Doumit has hardly played in RF, Parmelee is considerably worse than Plouffe, and Revere just came up. You forgot to mention the two week Clete Thomas debacle as well. Plouffe will not likely develop into a .300 hitter and won't be earning any gold gloves. He needs to improve his pitch recognition and plate discipline to cut down on strikeouts but he could end up similar to Willingham with a .260 - .275 average with 25 - 35 HR. What really irritates me is this organizations utter failure when it comes to developing power hitters. Who was the last legitimate right handed power hitter the Twins developed? A case could be made for Torii as he probably had 4 or 5 seasons with at least 25 HRs and he did hit 30 once, but really you'd have to go back to Gaetti, who made his MLB debut 30 years ago. I just don't understand why you would run Clete Thomas out for two weeks when a developmental player with power potential just sits on the bench and gets inconsistent at bats. Who knows what Plouffe will become, but am I really the only one who wanted to see him playing over Komatsu or Thomas or whoever?