For the love of Nick “Nails” Punto

I hope Jeff Cirillo knows that he will not be the opening day starter at third base. Nick Punto is a no-brainer for that position, and here is why.

Nick Punto is the founding member of the Piranhas and will man 3rd base for us, full time, for the forseable future--and for good reason. Cirillo has a history of injuries and large fluctuations in offensive productivity. Cirillo was injured for large parts of the 03-05 seasons before hitting .319 last year. In the last five years, Cirillo has hit .319,.281,.213,.205,.249. It's hard to know which Cirillo we will get. Also, he doesn't drive in runs, walk, or steal bases. He played 112 games last year and only had 23 RBI, 21 walks and 1 SB. The bottom line is that he is 38, injury prone and doesn't manufacture or drive in runs. Punto is only 30, batted just under .300 last year, steals bases, drives in lots of runs per at bat and plays amazing defense. Punto, in my opinion is the obvious 3rd baseman of the future for the Twins, which is why Gardy probably wants him to focus on the hot corner rather than back up second or third (as Beane mentions in the following article). I don't know anyone who is not a fan of Nick Punto. How can you not root for a guy who puts his heart, soul and bodily safety on the line every play? His effort alone is reason enough to love him--which is why I have dubbed him, "NAILS."

Leeeewwwww????

We all know who will be roaming the outfield this April when the Twins head north from Fort Meyers, FL to the lovely confines of the H.H.H. Metrodome. Unless something tragic happens during spring training, we can expect Rondell White, Torii Hunter and Michael Cuddyer to be our main guys.

While it seems very likely that we should have some outfield stability this year, I am wondering how Gardy will man the bench. This year, unlike previous years, our question mark coming out of spring training will be the pitching staff. We have grown accustomed to having a very consistent pitching rotation and bullpen. In the past, we had the luxury of filling out the rest of our roster with guys that could fill in when needed.

In Joe Christensen’s Star Tribune blog he stated that he believe that both Lew Ford and Jason Tyner will make the opening day roster. That is an interesting thought but one that I find to be somewhat unlikely for several reasons. When heading back to Minnesota Gardy must determine which 25 players he wants to bring with him. Typically there are between 10-12 pitchers on staff and the rest of the lineup is filled out with position players.

Pitchers guaranteed to make the roster:
Santana
Bonser
Silva
Nathan
Rincon
Crain
Guerrier
Neshak
Reyes

That leave 2 more starting pitchers (at minimum) to be placed. Counting the two additional starting pitchers, the number of pitchers comes to 11. If the Twins only take 11 (which I personally think that they will bring at least one more) that would leave 14 players left.

Position players to make the roster:
Morneau
Mauer
Castillo
Bartlett
Punto
White
Hunter
Cuddyer
Kubel
Cirillo
Redmond

This leave us with 3 more players. I feel that Gardy will be forced to bring up the youngster Alexi Castilla. He is very athletic and can fill in at second or short. Gardy has said publicly that he does NOT want to use Punto at short or second to replace Bartlett or Castillo. Two other players are left. This is where Joe Christensen believes that both Ford and Tyner will make their mark.

I personally believe that they will only take one more position player. This is due to the Twins taking an additional starting pitcher. I think that Gardy will end up going with Ponson, Ortiz and either Garza or Perkins/Durbin.

So, who will be the lone remaining outfielder? I think that it will be Tyner. Tyner was part of the famed Piranha’s last season. He compiled a .312 batting average and had a .345 OPS in 218 at bats. The Twins feel that they can bring Ford back to his 2004 but unforuntately I think that the AL pitchers have figured out how to pitch to him. He’ll have to change his approach and I’m not sure that he’ll be capable of doing that. If the Twins do not decide to keep Ford on the 25-man roster it makes me wonder why they didn’t cut him instead of filing for arbitration. After all, his salary went from 425,000 to just over 900,000.

In a few short weeks we’ll find out who makes the Trip north. It will be an exciting Spring Training.