Thursday, May 28, 2009

Sign Ray Durham

Sorry to step on your post, W, but I had a few minutes here and saw Tolbert is in the lineup again today.

You won't see me suggesting the Twins sign a washed-up veteran very often, but I haven't had the misfortune of watching the Matt Tolbert/Nick Punto middle-infield combo before this season. The Twins need to do something, and maybe that something is Alexi Casilla. So unless he officially retired, I say the Twins should go out and sign Ray Durham for the rest of the season.

What can a team expect from Durham this year?

Last year his AVG / OBP / SLG was .289 / .380 / .432
Baseball Prospectus puts his 2009 projections at .273 / .359 / .425

His ultimate zone rating (UZR)/150 games last year was -0.9, so he'll probably cost the team a couple runs with his glovework.

But what will Tolbert give the Twins?

2009 offensive projection: 100% suck
His UZR/150 numbers at second base have been brutal over the last two years, -16.8 last year and -28.3 this year.

Crappy offense, crappy defense, but a hell of a lot of Ecksteinian hustle and grit.

There's a chance (possibly a good chance) that Durham would be a repeat of the Bret Boone experiment from a few years ago. But the bar is so low right now that I have to think he'd be an improvement over the current 2B performance.

9 comments:

who do you think? said...

The sidler sucks.

Dharma Bum said...

Good idea. Get Bill Smith on the phone.

WWWWWW said...

Is Durham even looking to play this year?

snacks said...

gardy will never give up on his guy tolbert. you should know this by now.

SSF said...

WWW check your DWG email.......there is awesomeness waiting for you. And there WILL be a charge.

bogart said...

Maybe you should chime in on this WWWW:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9616228/New-and-improved-Joe-blows-'em-away

Also, are you ever going to give me props for my pre-season call of Greinke as the AL Cy Young?

WWWWWW said...

From that article, Gardy says, "He looks bigger and stronger to me." and yet Mauer says "I keep telling everybody that I haven't done anything different."

So he didn't change his workout routine, but he's bigger and stronger. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Bogart - consider these your props on Greinke, great call.

SSF - I will post your thing when I get a chance, tonight at the latest.

SSF said...

dumpster it for all I care....I didnt do it for me I did it for all of you. Your Welcome in advance.

Dharma Bum said...

I was looking at the twins stats today because I wanted to see how Crede was doing (low obp but good power, just what was expected) but something else stuck out. Gogo Gomez is hitting better than Delmon Young. Why is one of them not in AAA? We should be playing Gomez in Center with Span in left. This would help our defense (all of our pitchers are fly ball pitchers) immensely and not hurt the offense. Bill Smith, make it so.