FanHouse MikeLamb

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Minnesota Twins.

Last year was supposed to be the season in which the Minnesota Twins finally had to deal with reality. They traded Johan Santana to the Mets because they couldn't afford him any longer, and the heart and soul of the team, Torii Hunter, left for the glitz and glamor of Los Angeles. Then the Twins went out and won 88 games and were one run shy of making the playoffs after losing to the White Sox in a one-game playoff for the Central title. This is just what the Twins do. They defy everyone's expectations but their own, and odds are they're going to do it again this season.

The season is already off to a disappointing start for the Brewers and their third baseman, Bill Hall. Entering Spring Training, Hall had his eyes on a return to his 2006 form -- when he hit 35 home runs. Instead, he injured himself during conditioning activities and may not be ready for the beginning of the season.

Hall has been diagnosed with a partially torn calf muscle in his left leg. The injury typically takes four to six weeks to heal, and we're just over seven weeks away from Opening Day. He'll have missed most of his spring training reps by that point.

It seems that no matter how many times we see it, baseball fans just never learn. Every spring baseball fans and experts alike say that this is the year that the Minnesota Twins are going to finish below .500 and at the bottom of the AL Central. Then summer comes along a few months later, and there they are. Sitting on top, or near the top of the division while the rest of us scratch their heads.

Though it happens every season, it still catches us all by surprise, but this season has been the most baffling of all. There is just no way that the Twins should be sitting at 40-36, only a game and a half behind the first place White Sox. The obvious reasons for this are that the team said goodbye to both Johan Santana and Torii Hunter during the offseason, and that Francisco Liriano has spent his time on the disabled list.

Still, it's not exactly a new phenomenon that teams carry on and continue playing well after saying goodbye to their stars. The Athletics have been doing it for years along with the Twins, so we know it can be done. The difference between these Twins, though, and the Twins and Athletics teams of the past is how they're doing it.

The guys who were supposed to replace what was lost have been horrible so far, yet they're still winning.

Now that Alex Rodriguez has opted out and Joe Girardi has been named the 32nd manager in franchise history, the Yankees can turn their attention to figuring out who will man the hot corner for them next season. There are no shortage of options. Several free agents and potential trades are out there, as well as a couple of in-house options, so let's look at at some of the potential solutions.

Miguel Cabrera

Pros - A younger version of Manny Ramirez at the plate, Cabrera can flat out rake. His 162-game averages are .313, 31 home runs and 118 RBI and he's the only player with the potential to produce a reasonable facsimile of Rodriguez's production in the middle of the lineup. He turns 25 next April so he'd be a long-term solution who could be the first great player at the new Yankee Stadium.

Cons - He's also a younger version of Ramirez in the head. Doesn't care much for fielding, which would be a disaster playing next to the aging Derek Jeter. Cares even less for conditioning. Would cost quite a bit in a trade and the Yankees should be resistant to deal any of their young pitching.

With yesterday's blockbuster deal that saw Ty Wiggington go from Tampa to Houston for Dan Wheeler, not only did the Astros secure the NL Central crown, they also gave birth to a couple of new questions.

Are they going to move Mike Lamb? What will they do with Morgan Ensberg?

One of those questions was answered this afternoon.

The Houston Astros designated Morgan Ensberg for assignment on Sunday morning, meaning the team has 10 days to trade, release or send the third baseman to the Minor Leagues.

"As we just told Morgan, it's not our intention to send him to the Minor Leagues at this stage," Astros general manager Tim Purpura said. "It's not an option I think for him or us. So we'll try to see if we can make a trade for him and give him another opportunity elsewhere."

Ensberg has spent his entire career as a Houston Astro, and was a big reason why the team made it to the World Series in 2005. Since then, it's been a struggle. Ensberg has lost playing time and is only hitting .232 with 8 home runs and 31 RBI.

Wiggington is not only more productive with his bat than Ensberg, but he's also more versatile. Not only can the man play third, first, or the outfield, but he delivers babies! There's no way Ensberg can compete with that.

Previously at FanHouse:
Ty Wiggington Traded to the Astros

Say you're the GM of a 40-55 team that's found themselves in last place of what is arguably the worst division in baseball. Do you think admitting that you have no idea why your team sucks is a good idea? Because for some reason, Tim Purpura does. From the Houston Chronicle:

"It's totally unexpected," he said while working the phones from Houston. "In some ways, you can't believe that we are where we are given the kind of talent that's on the club."

[...]

"Even at the All-Star Game," Purpura said, "a number of people from other clubs said, 'Don't give up because you're a lot better than you're showing,' and they point to the fact we swept Seattle and they went back and got in the race.

Why are the Astros bad this year? Hmm. It could have something to do with losing Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte and somehow thinking Woody Williams and Jason Jennings would replace them, putting Craig Biggio's run at 3,000 hits before the team's success, starting the season with Hunter Pence in AAA, Lance Berkman getting older, Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta not having regular positions while Morgan Ensberg and Adam Everett (when he's healthy) do, and having a crappy bullpen. Or it might just be really bad luck that no one could've ever seen coming. Really, it could be either or. I'm on the fence myself.

The NL Central already has Adam Dunn and Chris Duncan patrolling the outfield on a regular basis. The Astros offensive woes have gotten so bad it might be time to add one more lumbering body to the those ranks: Lance Berkman.

But the Astros' offense has been struggling, and in an effort to remedy that issue, Garner has been working Mike Lamb and Mark Loretta into the lineup, at third base.

But if Berkman moved to the outfield, that would clear room for Loretta and Lamb to play at the same time. Both have experience at first and third.

This would probably mean that Luke Scott and Jason Lane, the incredibly ineffective Wonder Twins in left thus far, would be banished to the bench, but the goal is to improve the team's offense and benching those two would probably help things. Berkman himself is amenable to the move:

Said Berkman: "I'd rather play first base, but what the heck? I could go out there right now and feel perfectly fine. Just catch the ball if it's in the air, stop it before it gets to the wall, throw it back to the infield."

As recently as 2002, Berkman was the Astros starting centerfielder and through 2004 he still played mostly in the outfield. He was also much skinnier back then, but that's neither here nor there. The problem is that Berkman is slugging .349. He could play anywhere, first base, right field, catcher, shortstop, and a .349 SLG won't help the Astros.

The Houston Astros have been having trouble scoring runs lately. That's no secret. They're so desperate to do something about it that they called up top prospect Hunter Pence to try and add some pop to the lineup. Even with Pence in the lineup today, they turned in one of the most pathetic performances in recent memory when they loaded the bases against the Brewers' Claudio Vargas in the third, fourth, and fifth innings and emerged with no runs. That's not a typo, they loaded the bases three innings in a row and didn't score once. In fact, they loaded the bases with only one out in both the fourth and fifth innings and didn't score. I don't even know what the odds on that happening have to be, but it's gotta be astronomical.

Needless to say, the Brewers won today 3-1 and at least some credit should certainly go to the man that stranded all the runners, Claudio Vargas. From the wire report:

"Sometimes, you focus a little bit more when we get into that situation," Vargas said. "That's the place where you have to make the pitches and get out of it for the club."

Someone needs to give Claudio a little bit of incentive to concentrate before the bases are loaded, I think. He only made it five innings today because those five innings took him 98 pitches, which is what happens when you load the bases that much. The Brewers' pen shut down the Astros over the last four, though, only allowing a Mike Lamb solo homer (which is fitting). The Brew Crew offense came from a Geoff Jenkins solo homer and RBI hits by Tony Graffanino and JJ Hardy. Those all off of Woody Williams, who continues to be old and not worth the $6 million the Astros are paying him. He falls to 0-4, though he did lower his ERA to 5.66.

Previously at the Fanhouse
Houston Has a Problem