As it stands heading into today, the players that would essentially make up the Twins bench heading into 2010 is absolutely atrocious. Jose Morales, Matt Tolbert, Jason Pridie and someone else isn't exactly given manager Ron Gardenhire much flexibility nor is it striking much fear into opposing pitchers.That's why the reported one-year deal between Jim Thome and the Twins makes me positively giddy.
Hopefully the Twins don't use him strictly off the bench or on rare occasion. I personally would like to see this mean that Delmon Young's playing time will get chopped off and we see Jason Kubel out in left field a lot more allowing Thome to be inserted into the DH spot.
He's a veteran, he's powerful and he makes our lineup even that much scarier.
Welcome to Minnesota Mr. Thome!
[Photo courtesy of Keith Allison]
I still don't get this signing.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to get 2-3 at bats per week and if he gets on base as a pinch hitter, he's going to have to be pinch ran for leaving just two on the bench. So by bringing Thome in, you're essentialy having a three man bench instead of four.
I strongly disagree with you. I think (and hope) he's going to end up cutting Delmon Young's time down a lot as Thome will see a lot of DH time with Kubel playing left.
ReplyDeleteI really hope this is the case as he makes our lineup scary.
Span, CF
Punto, 2B
Mauer, C
Morneau, 1B
Cuddyer, RF
Kubel, LF
Thome, DH
Hardy, SS
???, 3B