Lord, Beer Me Strength

Why did Juan Rincon play last night? At US Cellular field, he has given up 21 runs in 31 innings. Batters hit .297 (.817 OPS) off of him there. With runners on second and third, batters have hit .387 (1.351 OPS) off of him over his career, his statistically worse line. And, he entered to face someone with 15 home runs and 50 RBIs.

Now of course, I can't expect Gardy to have someone waiting on Baseball-Reference to cross-check every one of his decisions, and I shouldn't expect him to abandon all of his managerial intuition in favor of statistics. So I won't even include that his worst ERA comes after two days of rest, like last night, or that batters hit .324 (.843 OPS) when he enters in the 5th inning, like last night. I won't even mention that batters hit his first pitch at a .314 pace (.786 OPS), and that Blackburn had been getting his first jacked all night, so he shouldn't make it hittable. But together, all of this lead to his first offering to Quentin being knocked out of the park to add three more runs, and I think that even a casual fan could have seen it coming.

Rincon was already struggling, and it was obvious. Everyone would like to see him work out of it. But bringing him in last night was not the way to do it. The pitcher to replace Blackburn should be one that can "stop the bleeding". Bringing in Guerrier, Crain, Bass or Boof might have provided the stitches. Bringing in Rincon just widened the wound.

. . .

I have been complaining for most of the season that Mauer should be batting second in the order. But Casilla has held down the second spot for a couple of weeks now, and is looking very good there. Mauer hardly struggled with other players batting in front of him, but he has been especially effective when following the second baseman. In the past sixteen games in which he has batted after Alexi, Mauer has batted .375 (1.027 OPS), with 2 home runs and 9 runs batted in. The current lineup has been relatively effective simply because of its structure. Gomez could definitely improve upon his .304 OBP, but he does bring speed. After him come Casilla and Mauer, with the second-best and best OBPs on the team, with .400 and .415, respectively. Casilla finally gives Mauer someone to drive in. Morneau then follows him as the RBI leader. At least on paper, it looks like they should find their stride soon.

The rest of the order needs to step up, however. Here are the Twins' batting averages by order position. Unfortunately, like most years, numbers seven through nine have struggled, batting just .256 (.669 OPS). The players at those positions will likely continue to rotate (except for Young, and I don't want to get into that headache again), so it's unlikely that they will hit their stride any time soon.

For awhile I am going to try wrapping up posts with a link to the rundown of the Twins batters' success against the upcoming starter. Tell me if you like it. It's something that most people don't see, and if you memorize a couple of the lines, you can be a true fan by blowing the minds of your friends with your statistical knowledge and criticizing Gardy when Mike Redmond doesn't get to bat.

Saturday in Chicago:
Livan Hernandez v. Mark Beuhrle