It's that time of year for a new player or group of player's to be elected to baseball's prestigious Hall of Fame. As such, the raging debate surrounding Bert Blyleven's candidate will undoubtedly be renewed in many different places.
This year seems like a prime opportunity for Blyleven to gain entry to the Hall and, as a staunch believer that he belongs, I'm very hopeful that he's able to get in.
If you'd like to read (or take part in) some entertaining debate on the subject, head over to Granny Baseball, where our old pal TT seeks to dispel five "myths" about Blyleven's candidacy.
A few other notes as we chug toward the end of the week...
* Happy birthday shout outs to our good friend Karlee, author of the OMG Twins blog, and to Mr. Carlos Gomez, who turns 23 exciting years old today.
* Make sure to stop by and check out the re-designed Twins Most Valuable Blogger site!
* Yesterday, the Twins reportedly made a two-year offer to Casey Blake at about $6M/yr with an option for 2011, though Blake's agents wants a guaranteed third year to seal the deal. The Twins and Dodgers are both reportedly in hot pursuit of the 35-year-old third baseman, but it seems like there's a fairly good chance the Twins will land him (much to the chagrin of a certain semi-retired SBG citizen).
Here's my question. If the Twins sign Blake, does that basically guarantee that Nick Punto will be re-signed to play short? I cannot imagine that a defensive-minded club such as that would possibly go forward with Blake and Brendan Harris as the left side of their infield, and Punto is a stout defender whom they are comfortable with at shortstop.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
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5 comments:
I think it certainly becomes more likely that they resign Punto, but they could also move forward with Tolbert and, to a lesser extent, Tolleson.
It is worth pointing out that Punto did have the 6th highest VORP last season, so resigning him may not be such a bad idea. It all depends on price.
I don't know if Tolbert or Tolleson would be options, mainly for the same reason that Harris wouldn't be an option. The team is going to need to get some strong defense at SS to offset Blake's deficiencies at third.
I know, I'm worse than Jay-Z, right? :)
Maybe it becomes more likely that the Twins re-sign Punto if they sign Blake, but does that really make any sense? With or without Blake, the Twins need a middle infielder. (Harris is a corner infielder and the rest of the non-Casilla middle infield options should be restricted to reserve duty.)
If they don't sign Blake, they would have more funds to allocate towards acquiring a new middle infielder. If they are convinced that the more-expensive-than-Punto options don't make sense, then they should get off their butts and sign Punto already.
If Blake's defense is so bad that it pigeonholes you into a limited selection of middle infielders, that's just another reason not to sign him.
Well I figure if they were able to pull off a trade for, say, Beltre, they could live with a guy like Harris at short. I just figure you need to have at least one plus defender on the left side.
I was just reading Joe Posnanski's blog, and it's nice to know that there are some people out there still pulling for good ole Blert Blyleven to get in to the hall....
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