The Twins’ infield is suddenly coming together.
One day after adding former Astros shortstop Adam Everett, the Twins signed free agent Mike Lamb, the Houston third baseman who has played alongside Everett for four seasons, to a two-year contract (with an option for 2010).
The 32-year-old Lamb, who also played four seasons with Texas, has batted .288 or better in three of his four seasons with the Astros, and averaged 12.2 home runs over that span.
The presence of Lamb, who will compete for playing time with Brian Buscher, and Everett likely makes Brendan Harris, acquired last month from Tampa Bay, the favorite to start at second base.
-- Phil Miller
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I'm an Astros fan, and just wanted you all to know what a fine player you signed in Mike Lamb. He has a lot of talent, and a lot of pop in the bat. He was very well liked here, and many felt that he should have been our permanent 3rd baseman, and lobbied for him to be re-signed by the Astros. He is a team player, and will always give you 100%. One thing I always liked about him was that he could go 4 for 4 and still give his teammates the credit. (And, no, I'm not his brother! Just a fan.) While I can't say I'm a Twins fan, I will follow Lamb there, and hope he does well.
You will also really like Adam Everett's glove. He's one of the best infielders anywhere. He doesn't hit a lot, but can make up for it with some dazzling plays. Both of these guys are good guys, and are all class. Good luck to them both, I hope they help the Twins be successful. They will be missed here by many.
*yawn*
So let me get this straight. We've signed a non-hitting, buck-fifty weighting shortstop and an extra outfielder who has a career average roughly comparable to Tim Teufel and we only had to spend $7 million on them. Now we've spent another $3+ million this season on a guy who plays a corner infield spot, traditionally a power hitter's position, and he's averaged 12.2 dingers a year...
$10+ million dollars out the window for someone else's trash and we're to be excited? Spare me.
Wake me when Bill Smith is fired. He's clearly in over his head.
You're an idiot.
Look at the full numbers before you make a comment like that.
With a decent CF now, the Twins' offense projects to score something like 820 runs. That's a 100 run improvement over last year, and our best offense in YEARS.
Bill Smith has done a fabulous job with this club.
Always good to see a professional comment like that. First, I think it's a reach to assume we get a "decent CF." If we get Jacoby Ellsbury, great, but Rowand has been signed and Melky Cabrera isn't exactly a headliner offensively. So with Punto II at shortstop and an unproven talent at 3B, how do you perceive us to be so much better? We could put Punto at SS and get the same productivity offensively as we will with Everett. The only difference is the $ we throw away. Monroe was signed for God-knows-why. To DH? Do you want a DH who averages .256 throughout his career? Or wait, was it to play a corner outfield position? Oh I forgot, we have Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer - WHO ARE BOTH CHEAPER - already entrenched. So essentially we wasted another $4 million.
Then a twins front office rep (Antony) tells us Mike Lamb will compete with Buscher for the 3B job because we don't give anything away here without earning it." So does he really expect us to believe that a guy making $3+ million is going to ride the pine if Buscher has a good spring training?
This new front office regime is so awash in its own BS that it makes me gag.
And your mom is fat.
I don't mean to be unprofessional, but your comments do suggest that. Look at the numbers.
How are we better? Let's see:
Everett is about the same as Punto offensively, but defensively it's not close. Everett is the best SS defensively since Ozzie Smith. I'm not a big believer in defense "saving runs" but in Everett's case, it's true. He's that good. You can find a number of articles that will lay his value out statistically better than I ever could. Everett is about the same overall player as Bartlett. And if he hits to his career averages, we will be in the same place we were last year offensively at SS, just below average, with the best defensive SS in baseball bringing the net effect to an average SS.
At 2b, we have improved offensively with Harris.
We have improved our bench greatly with Pridie/Monroe/Punto/Macri or Buscher vs. Tyner/Ford/LRod/G. Jones.
At 3b, we have a monumental improvement in Lamb. He was the best FA 3b available after ARod/Lowell, which I would argue were barely even true FA's (we knew where they were going). That is a HUGE improvement over last year.
At DH, massive improvement, going from White/Tyner/Redmond to primarily to Kubel/sometimes Monroe against lefties (who is very good against them).
In LF, massive improvement with Young, who should take a step up with lineup protection and Mauer teaching him plate patience. Essentially he should replace Hunter's offense by himself.
And then a "decent" CF I refer to by any of Cameron/Lofton/Ellsbury. If we just sign Cameron or Lofton, that's fine. They're really not much worse than Hunter at all. Cameron would miss the first 25 games, but Pridie could easily help us make do there for that span.
And then you have Cuddyer/Morneau/Mauer who all figure to improve/have improved health over last year.
That lineup projects to score about 820 runs next year with average years from everyone and a step up from Young. That would be the best Twins' offense since 1996. And would be about equal to what Cleveland did last year.
That's partly why I'm really in favor of keeping Johan and signing him. His contract will look like a bargain in a couple of years. And we have the money for it.
Nathan we should trade if we can get a reliever in return (like Marmol, as has been reported).
Also, money is not really an issue at this point. Assuming the payroll is allowed to reach a max of $80 M this year (as has been alluded to) we are still about $25 M short of that with this team, with more money coming off the books next year in Everett/Monroe/likely Rincon. Plus if Nathan is dealt that is another $6 M.
That is more than enough money to sign Johan and cover raises to Morneau/Mauer/Cuddyer/Kubel, plus sign a guy like Cameron or Lofton for $6-8 M per year.
Make no mistake, we are a FAR better team today than we were last year. And at less cost. And Bill Smith's not even done yet.
I didn't think you could do it, but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong. You make excellent points.
I stand corrected.
Thanks.
And my apologies for calling you an "idiot."
That was classless and wrong.
Go Twins!
I should also point out that Lamb was never really a full time 3rd baseman before. The closest he came was his first year with the Rangers when he got 420 at bats. Most years his total at bats was closer to 300. If he truly is the full time 3rd baseman, he should get more at bats. More at bats should mean more home runs.
Did someone astually say sign Kubel? What a joke haha he's terrible like the other 4-5 starting players on this team. When teams realize that Kubel is terrible and he doesn't get signed to any club he can always go in to advertising for the "little Rascal" or the "scooter store" the guy can't run/jog/walk or probably crawl! he would be a great rep for those companies, not to mention he CANT HIT EITHER LIKE 90% of this TEAM!
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