stringer bell

In that case, I will take a productive out. Do you IBB Colabello?

Who's up now, ninth inning Trevor or extra inning Trevor?

Man, if Dozier keeps walking this much, he might be the best leadoff guy in a long while, even with a sub-.250 average.

Did P-Flo have any homers hitting RH last year? If he did, I don't remember. His rep was that RH was his strong side, but he just didn't hit at all from that side of the plate last year. BTW, if no one has noticed, the Twins are scuffling vs. LH pitching. They've faced three left handers on this road trip and lost all three and won both games started (against them) by right handers.

Who's available today? I presume Thielbar, Tonkin, Burton and Perkins. Anyone else? Maybe Deduno?

I'm sure the 7-11 will be open.

Not exactly a clean fifth.

And the implosion begins.

Pretty sure the Colabello homer will be on mlb.com. It is worth seeing a couple times.

This game might last four hours.

After the five straight Ks, who saw this coming?

Get him in Fuld-see!

Nice AB Herrmann!

Maher/Escobar should have gotten the double play.

Another good crowd at the Trop.

Swing at the first pitch Joe.

7 and 8 made contact anyway.

New bottom of the order--sounds like runs! Here we go!

Those size 14s couldn't find the bag?

Shades of 2013.

I like the lineup, too. I don't think Herrmann will get many more chances so he had better hit now or he's going to end up in Rochester, NY.

I'm just a couple years younger. I went to the old Met with the family at least once a year. I remember a thundershower during a twi-night doubleheader. Dad took us home and an hour later they were playing. I also remember one of the last years of the Met. I took a bus from the State Fair and watched a bad Twins team play Seattle (they had Richie Zisk). Pete Redfern pitched a good game and won. Zisk hit a solo homer. There were about as many foul balls as fans on a nice early September day.

I have thought since last fall that what is best for Hicks' development is at least six weeks in Rochester to reacquire his swing and gain confidence. I thought Presley would be a good stopgap and then become the fourth outfielder when Hicks was recalled, but he lost a job that he had with a really poor showing in the spring. Hicks is just about where he was last year--a couple more hits and a few more walks--but still well below the Mendoza line and looking overmatched at the plate. Being optioned to Rochester still might be the best move, no matter that Sam Fuld shouldn't be a starting center fielder.

The season is now 18 games old and some trends can be determined. The Twins are hitting .231 vs. left handers with an OPS of .670, while they have hit .261 vs. right handers and put up an OPS of .773. Looking at splits when the season is only 11% complete means that the sample sizes are really small, so there will be outliers. However, I think the numbers tell us something. Some items of note: Three right handed hitting regulars (Dozier, Plouffe, and Pinto) have reverse splits. All are hitting markedly better against right handed pitching than against left handers. Colabello also has a slightly higher OPS vs. RH pitching, but he's hit well against everybody. Going into this season, Dozier and Plouffe were thought to be lefty mashers, but so far they've reversed that trend. Pinto is only 3-20 vs. LH pitching, but two of his hits have been homers. The Twins two left handed regulars (Kubel and Mauer) have been better against right handers. All of the Twins switch hitters haven't hit much. Hicks, in full-time play, has a dreadful .139 BA and .395 OPS with a still-substandard .208 BA and .636 OPS vs. southpaws. Escobar is 4 for 11 vs. right handers (.727 OPS), but 1 for 7 (.393 OPS) against lefties. Florimon has been terrible across the board, but particularly against RH pitching (.115 BA, .409 OPS). The most substantial splits are Dozier (.942 OPS vs. RH, .454 OPS vs. LH), Kubel (1.006 vs. RH, .714 vs LH), Suzuki (.959 vs. LH, .707 vs. RH), Hicks (.636 vs. LH, .395 vs. RH), Pinto (1.057 vs. RH, .820 vs. LH) and Mauer (.755 vs. RH, .575 vs. LH). What conclusions can we draw from this? First of all, it is early and one good game can change bad numbers into acceptable numbers. For now, it looks like Suzuki should be playing against left handed pitching and that Pinto has no problem with right handers. If the numbers continued, that would set up a platoon of Suzuki vs. left handed starters and Pinto vs. the righties. The numbers say that Kubel should be platooned if a decent RH bat is available and that Colabello has mashed against everybody and deserves to be playing every day, at least until he cools off.

Of the so-called five tools, the "hit tool" seems to me to be the hardest to project. Sometimes it is curve balls, sometimes it is high fastballs, sometimes it inability to adjust to a certain location, but some guys just never develop that tool, including very good athletes. Torii Hunter and Carlos Gomez are two other Twin center fielders who couldn't really hit until much later in their careers. Maybe Hicks will develop like one of those guys or maybe he'll hit like Rich Becker.