Twins Baseball

If you’ve been following baseball over the last few years, you know that there’s been a pretty significant shift towards valuing defense within the game. The Rays, A’s, Red Sox, Mariners, and Blue Jays, among others, have made a point of putting quality gloves at as many positions as possible in order to keep their opponents from outscoring them.

However, at the same time that a bunch of teams were shifting their rosters towards run prevention, an interesting thing was happening up in Minnesota – the original pitching and defense organization decided to try something else.

For years, the Twins have practiced a very specific brand of baseball. Hit the ball on the ground to take advantage of the turf, run like the wind, bunt like crazy, manufacture runs, throw strikes, and play good defense. They didn’t have a single player hit 30 home runs in a season between 1988 and 2005, which is still one of the most amazing records you’ll ever see. Small ball, pitching, and defense – this was Twins baseball.

The 2010 Twins are not that kind of team, and if there was any doubt left about what the team was emphasizing this year, it was put to rest last night, when the Twins ran out the following line-up.

Denard Span, CF
J.J. Hardy, SS
Joe Mauer, C
Justin Morneau, 1B
Jim Thome, DH
Michael Cuddyer, 2B (!)
Jason Kubel, RF
Delmon Young, LF
Nick Punto, 3B

With regular starting second baseman Orlando Hudson unavailable, Ron Gardenhire’s Plan B was to take his starting right fielder and stick him at second base. He essentially chose the offensive production of Jason Kubel or Delmon Young over a more traditional defensive alignment that would have seen Brandan Harris play third, Punto at second, and Cuddyer in his normal right field spot.

When faced with the choice of offense (Kubel or Young) or defense (Punto at second, Cuddyer in right, and live with Harris at third), Gardy chose offense. It paid off, too, as Cuddyer, Kubel, and Young all slugged home runs and the Twins won their fifth consecutive game, pushing their lead in the A.L. Central to 4 1/2 games.

As much as we have talked up defensive value, the underlying point has always been that the goal is to outscore your opponent, and it doesn’t really matter how you do it. After decades of trying to beat their opponents 1-0, the Twins have finally decided to try putting together a roster of guys who can whack the baseball, and it’s working really well.

It’s just a little humorous that as baseball moves more towards the Twins model, the Twins are simultaneously moving away from it.