Is Butera's Reign of Terror Over?

The Twins had a lot of players miss significant time last season, but no one's absence was felt more than Joe Mauer, who sat out 80 games with a variety of ailments.

This isn't just because he is the team's best player. It's also because no position carried less depth in the Twins organization than catcher. Mauer was able to start only 47 games behind the plate, and when he was unavailable those nods largely went to Drew Butera, whose miserable .167/.210/.239 hitting line tagged him with the second-worst OPS in the majors among players with 200 or more plate appearances.

Shockingly, Butera might have actually been the best option. When the alternatives are Rene Rivera and Steve Holm – similarly inept hitters who provide less value with the mitt – it's hard to fault Ron Gardenhire for continually writing in Butera's name with the starter sidelined.

Gardenhire's affinity for Butera may have played a role in the front office failing to provide adequate depth at catcher, but there's no question that it was a massive tactical misstep displaying a glaring lack of foresight, especially considering that Mauer's health had already shown signs of deteriorating late in the 2010 season.

Mauer's health remains a question mark as we head into the 2012 campaign, and even if he shakes his injury concerns there's still a good chance he'll spend significant time away from catcher. Butera remains on the roster, but fortunately there are a couple guys who can legitimately push him for the top backup job this year.

One of those players is J.R. Towles, who was signed as a minor-league free agent back in December. Towles, who came up in the Astros system, holds a Butera-esque .187/.267/.315 hitting line in 484 major-league plate appearances. However, while one would expect Butera's horrendous offensive production in the bigs based on his .613 career OPS in the minors, Towles absolutely raked at every level of Houston's system, accumulating a .295/.394/.465 line in 409 minor-league games, including an .831 OPS at Triple-A. Prior to the 2008 season, Baseball America ranked him as the 53rd-best prospect in all of baseball.

Towles has failed in numerous short stints in the majors and it's possible he's one of those guys that will never catch on against MLB pitching, but he's still only 27 (younger than Butera) and there's a chance he could be a late bloomer. He's obviously got some ability.

The other backstop that will be worth keeping an eye on is Chris Herrmann, whom the Twins drafted in 2009. He has split time between catcher and outfield while coming up through Minnesota's system, but if he can stick behind the plate his bat is very intriguing.

After struggling at Ft. Myers in 2010, Herrmann got off to a torrid start there last year and earned a quick promotion to New Britain. There, he continued to excel, batting .258/.380/.392 with seven homers and a 68-to-64 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 406 plate appearances. He also obliterated the Arizona Fall League after the season, batting .380/.456/.620 with six doubles, two homers and a 6/7 K/BB ratio in 15 games.

Herrmann's outstanding plate discipline, combined with moderate pop and a dash of speed (he totaled six triples and 10 steals last year) gives him a very solid offensive skill set, especially for a backup catcher. If his defense holds up, his only downside is that unlike Butera and Towles, he swings lefty so he doesn't match up as a platoon caddy for Mauer.

It's tough to say with much confidence that Mauer will be able to return to catching 130 games this year, but thanks to the presence of guys like Towles and Hermann, a scenario in which the Twins' starting catcher can't do much catching figures to be far less catastrophic than it was in 2011.

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If you weren't aware, my friend Lindsay Guentzel, who has worked with KFAN and Fox Sports North, is making a bid to spend the summer covering baseball in the MLB Fan Cave this year. With her bubbly personality and legitimate knowledge of the game, she's a great candidate to represent Twins fans in this NYC-based "MLB dream job."

Lindsay has been promoting non-stop as she vies for this highly competitive position. You can view her latest YouTube video, in which she talks about what she'd do with the various MLB players who are scheduled to make appearances at the Fan Cave this year, here.

Please join me in helping support her quest. If you're on Twitter, tweet the hashtag #LindsInNYC at the @MLBFanCave account. If you're on Facebook, show some love for Lindsay on the MLB Fan Cave page. Let's a get a (very awesome) Twins fan in the Cave in 2012!

Position Analysis: Catcher

Today I launch my annual Position Analysis series. Over the next few weeks, I'll break down each position on the 2011 Twins, sorting through depth and setting expectations for the starter's performance.

Likely Starter: Joe Mauer

Potential Backups: Drew Butera, Steve Holm, Rene Rivera

We kick off this year's series of Position Analysis pieces with the most important position for the Twins: catcher. I say this not just because the starter there is the team's best and highest paid player, but also because the drop-off from starter to backup is the most drastic on the roster -- and perhaps in all of baseball.

As such, the health of Joe Mauer will be paramount to the Twins' success this year. Quite simply, if Mauer is healthy he'll be one of the best players in the league and a pivotal difference-maker. The three times in his career that he's amassed 600-plus plate appearances in a season, Mauer has won three batting titles and finished first, fourth and sixth in the American League MVP balloting.

The fact that he has reached that 600-PA plateau only three times in a seven-year career, however, helps illustrate what a pervasive issue the injuries have been. And this spring, as is often the case, the stud catcher's health is a point of uncertainty.

While Mauer managed 584 plate appearances over 137 games last season -- very respectable numbers for a catcher -- there's little doubt that various ailments took a toll on his performance. Over the course of the summer, he dealt with a bruised left heel, tendinitis in his right shoulder and inflammation in his left knee (not to mention other issues we likely weren't privy to). It's that last injury that has presented an ongoing concern.

Mauer's balky knee -- the same one that cost him most of his rookie season -- bogged him down late in the season and into the playoffs, sapping his power by limiting his ability to push off from his back leg. He underwent surgery during the offseason but admitted that when he reported to camp this spring he was "a mess"; and he's received multiple injections over the past several weeks to lubricate the achy joint. He caught two bullpen sessions over the weekend and is reportedly set to begin seeing some action at DH this week, but there's still no timetable for him start crouching behind the plate in actual games.

If the offseason surgery proves successful and Mauer's left knee is close to full strength this season, there's little reason to expect anything other than a stellar campaign. If not, we'll start seeing more and more (somewhat warranted) discourse about the necessity of a position switch, and we'll also be exposed to increased dosages of his backup, Drew Butera.

Butera is a good defensive catcher with an excellent arm, but his complete lack of ability with the bat renders him a considerable liability as a regular. His .533 OPS last season reflects his offensive chops with a fair amount of accuracy (he posted a .613 OPS in the minors) so if Mauer goes down and he becomes a starter, Butera essentially erases the AL advantage of a designated hitter because his production isn't far from what one would expect from a pitcher.

The depth behind Butera is even more disconcerting. The Twins signed a couple veteran minor-leaguers in Steve Holm and Rene Rivera during the offseason, but might be better off looking to one of their own prospects like Chris Hermann or Danny Lehmann. In any case, we'd be looking at a backup who would be extremely overmatched in the big leagues.

The hope is that this doesn't become an issue. For a multitude of reasons, it's absolutely vital to the Twins' chances that Mauer stay healthy and productive this season. He's shown in the past that he can take the field by storm without much of a spring tune-up, putting together the best month of his career in May 2009 after skipping all of March and April, so there's plenty of reason to believe that once he finally suits up Mauer will be ready to once again stake his claim as one of the best players in baseball.

Predicted 2011 Hitting Line for Mauer: .340/.430/.520, 17 HR, 90 RBI

Protecting Mauer

Joe Mauer is the Twins' most valuable asset. I'm not breaking any ground with that statement; he's the proverbial "face of the franchise" and his salary consumes roughly 20 percent of the team's total payroll.

There's no question that when he's healthy, Mauer can be one of the league's biggest difference-makers. As such, it could be argued that the single most important priority for Ron Gardenhire this year is doing everything within his power to keep his star catcher free of injury.

That's no secret to Gardy. He has always made a point of resting Mauer at regular intervals throughout the season (for instance, when the team plays a day game following a night game).

Resting Mauer carries a price, though. Now that the Twins have traded away every other catcher in their organization with any semblance of offensive ability, they're left with Drew Butera as their sole backup option at the position. While I find Butera to be a likable player and easy to root for, it's not a stretch to say he might be the worst-hitting position player in the major leagues. He hit .197/.237/.296 last season, and considering his .214/.296/.317 career line in the minors, we should expect more of the same in the future.

The idea of taking Mauer out from the catcher position every fourth game or so was more palatable when his backup was Mike Redmond, a thoroughly competent offensive player, but when you sit Mauer in favor of Butera you're replacing one of the best bats in the league with one of the worst. Shifting Mauer to DH only means that you're replacing a quality bat like Jason Kubel or Jim Thome with Butera's meager stick.

The challenge for Gardenhire will be finding the right opportunities to rest Mauer while limiting the negative impacts of increased Butera dosages. Last year, Gardy's savvy handling of this issue may have had a significant impact on the team's fortunes.

Midway through the summer, Mauer was banged up. An array of ailments was taking a toll on his performance, and frustration came to a head when the reigning MVP elected to lay down a bunt in a vital late-game situation in July.

When the All-Star break rolled around, the Twins' season was seemingly hanging in the balance. They had sunk to third place and their best player just wasn't hitting. So Gardy took the opportunity to provide Mauer with some additional rest. In the five weeks following the break, Mauer caught only 19 of the Twins' 32 games, seeing an increased mix of DH duty and full days off. During that span, the Twins went 24-8, rising from 4.5 games out in the AL Central to 5 games up -- a commanding lead they'd never relinquish. It could be said that this was the defining stretch of their season.

The team's success during this span, with Mauer catching a little over half their games, can be attributed to a few different things, some not relating to the catcher position. Butera had maybe his best offensive stretch of the season, maintaining a .757 OPS over 14 games. Incidentally, it was also a relatively soft spot in the schedule, with 19 of the 32 games coming against the Indians, Royals, Orioles, Mariners and Athletics.

Most importantly, though, Mauer responded extremely well to the increased rest, hitting .442 with a 1.185 OPS.

It was an ingenious bit of strategy from the man who would go on to win Manager of the Year. Gardenhire recognized that his star player was lagging, noticed a lull in the schedule, and responded accordingly. Over the course of a full season, Gardy will have a hard time getting away with playing Butera at catcher more than 40 percent of the time, but during stretches like that one, the opportunity is ripe to rest up and rejuvenate Mauer.

It's a formula that Gardenhire would be wise to follow again this year. Mauer certainly will need his time off, as he's still experiencing issues with his surgically repaired left knee, but his resting pattern shouldn't be as simple as "every Thursday/Sunday afternoon and whenever Carl Pavano is pitching." The manager should seek to limit Butera's exposure against strong opponents as much as possible, and to react appropriately when Mauer seems to be especially tender.

Of course, this whole topic will likely reignite the debate over whether or not Mauer should at some point be moved away from the catcher position. For the long-term, that course of action is starting to seem more and more logical. He's had an extremely difficult time holding up over a full season at the game's most physically demanding position, and with $23 million owed to him annually over the next eight years that's becoming more and more tough to stomach.

Unfortunately, the front office traded away last year the one player in the organization with a decent chance at becoming an everyday big-league catcher. So unless a younger prospect can rise meteorically over the next couple seasons, Mauer's replacement would likely have to come from outside the organization.

OK, So I Might Not Hate Drew Butera

I've played a lot of organized baseball in my lifetime. From tee-ball up through high school, I was on a team every summer, and during my lengthy involvement with the game I forged a lot of great relationships and created a lot of amazing memories.

But there's one game that stands out above all others as the most memorable in my playing career. It wasn't the best game I've ever played or anything, but it's one that I'll always cherish and think back to as a transcendent moment.

Back in little league, when I was probably just entering my teens, I was playing in a park board league. Our group of guys had been playing together for several years, as had another team in our league called the SlugRats.

The SlugRats were widely reviled. They were the Yankees of park board ball -- they recruited talent and basically played the game with a repellent sense of arrogance. Their coach was a ruthless, scowling disciplinarian reminiscent of Viktor Tikhonov, coach of the 1980 Soviet Olympic hockey team. Their star pitcher was a "kid" who appeared to be at least five years older than anyone else in the league and whose blazing fastball tended to zip past hitters in the blink of an eye.

That ace pitcher happened to be toeing the rubber for one summer game in which my team was facing off against the SlugRats. The result of the game was nearly a foregone conclusion, for while my team was certainly one of the more talented in this league, we were routinely blown out by the mighty SlugRats (much like all other opponents).

But, on this particular day, our guys had the timing of that scorching fastball down. For whatever reason, I was all over it in particular. We won the game 5-4, and celebrated like we were hoisting a World Series trophy. I drove in four of our team's five runs on that day. You couldn't wipe the smile off my face with napalm.

Sure, the stat sheet would say that I had some hits and four RBI, but those numbers couldn't possibly encapsulate the feeling I had, born out of doing everything in my power to help my team win.

I think a lot of baseball bloggers and analysts played baseball at one point in our lives, but over time we forget about the special moments like that. The stats and numbers are important and they tell an unbiased tale of what has happened on the field, but they can sometimes overlook the smaller niceties of the game. And they can keep us from appreciating a kid like Drew Butera.

I wrote about Butera in late July, noting that his increased presence in the lineup was bound to become a drain on the team's offensive proficiency. Those feelings have not changed; in spite of the fact that he has posted a thoroughly competent .781 OPS in 27 plate appearances since I posted that article, Butera remains an enormous offensive liability. His overall hitting line this year (.208/.245/.333) is surely more reflective of his actual ability than his recent performance.

Yet, as I watched Butera gleefully slap hands with his teammate in the dugout this weekend after perfectly executing a suicide squeeze to help the Twins manufacture a crucial run, I came to a realization: I'm sort of starting to like the kid.

It's ironic, I know. I've been one of Butera's fiercest critics, and by no means does my softened stance indicate that I think he should be in the lineup any more often than he is now.

But one can't overlook Butera's contributions. Despite his relative lack of talent, he's played his ass off and managed to make Joe Mauer's limited availability over the past month a relative non-issue. That the Twins have gone 11-3 in the last 14 games started by Butera doesn't prove he's a lucky charm or a winner by nature, but it does indicate that he hasn't exactly been holding the club back.

Regardless of his recent performance at the plate, Butera is simply never going to be an asset offensively. And the stat-head inside me is still driven mad every time he's written into the starting lineup, essentially erasing the inherent American League advantage of a designated hitter.

But there's no denying that he's a strong defender at a crucial position, and while I don't necessarily believe that his presence behind the plate meaningfully improves any of the Twins pitchers, there's a clear comfort level there.

The fascination with pro athletes who appear to be "having fun" has been completely played out, run into the ground by John Madden's absurd infatuation with Brett Favre. But with Butera, I really can buy it. This is a kid who, based on his complete inability to hit in the minor leagues, might have never gotten a shot to play in the majors under different circumstances. But now he's playing and contributing on a team with playoff aspirations, helping fill the void left by an ailing MVP and Gold Glover. And he's having the time of his life.

How can I tell? Because the smile on his face as he sat in the dugout after pulling off that beautiful squeeze bunt (or after he guns down a base stealer, or hangs on to the ball during a vicious collision at the plate, or manages to muscle a ball over the fence) was the exact same one on my face after I helped lift my team to victory over the SlugRats so many years ago.

In the end, that's what this game is all about.

Credit Where It's Due

It's easy to be impressed by the results of the Twins' four-game series in Tampa Bay this week. They went on the road to face arguably the best team in baseball and came away with a split. They rebounded from tough losses in the first two games of the series to gain big victories in the final two, building momentum as they travel to Cleveland and Chicago for the final two legs of their current road trip.

It's less easy to be impressed by the way they achieved those results. On Wednesday night, the Twins let a one-run lead slip away in the ninth inning, wasting a brilliant start from Scott Baker and forcing a 13-inning marathon before finally managing to pull off the victory. Today, Kevin Slowey and the bullpen crumbled late in the game as the Rays erased a 6-0 deficit before the Twins, again, were able to scratch out a late victory.

It was tough to watch the Twins allow a pair of games they'd been in complete control of slip away late. But these are the types of games that are extremely difficult to win on the road, especially against a fantastic team like the Rays, and the Twins do deserve a lot of credit for managing to finish the job in both the final two contests in this series.

They probably won't experience the good fortune of having a routine pop-up hit off a cat walk and land in the middle of the infield to score the winning run if they face the Rays again in the playoffs, but the Twins did play neck and neck throughout this series with a team that is tied for the MLB lead in victories. The Twins received gritty pitching performances in the first two games, losing on both occasions only because their offense was stymied by a very good starter, and more importantly they received dominant performances on the road from Slowey and Baker in the final two games. Those two have struggled immensely when pitching outside of Target Field this season, so for both to step up against a great team in a statement series like this speaks volumes about how far they have come and helps legitimize their recent success against weaker lineups.

In the spirit of assigning credit (and blame) where it is due, here are some other notes on the series in Tampa:

* There was plenty of head-shaking after newly acquired Matt Capps coughed up his first big save situation for his new team on Wednesday, as he came in with a 1-0 ninth-inning lead and allowed the tying run to cross the plate, but anyone who watched the game can hardly hold Capps accountable for the blown save.

Evan Longoria led off the ninth inning by hitting a fly ball to left field. It was a ball that most left fielders around the league would have caught in the air, and at worst it should have been smothered for a single, but Delmon Young awkwardly slid into it and kicked it back toward the infield, allowing Longoria to move into scoring position as the tying run with no outs. He'd eventually score.

The muffed play by Young was just one of many miscues in a game that was easily the ugliest of the season from a defensive standpoint for the Twins outfield, as he and Denard Span failed to track down numerous catchable balls. Miraculously, the Twins still only allowed one run in 13 innings -- all the more reason to praise Baker and the bullpen for their outsanding work in the game -- but Wednesday night's contest spotlighted something that has been a subtle issue for this club all year long: poor outfield defense is costing the Twins' pitchers.

With his minimal range and terrible instincts in the outfield, Young seems destined to become a designated hitter within the next few years. He probably should be one already. Keep that in mind when this premature MVP talk starts bubbling up.

* I have to admit, I have taken quite a liking to Jason Repko. His stellar play in the outfield has been a breath of fresh air in light of the issues mentioned above, and it doesn't hurt that his bat has been red-hot when he's gotten into the lineup, racking up a .319/.385/.617 hitting line with three homers and five doubles in 55 plate appearances.

I've enjoyed Repko's play so much that on Wednesday night I jokingly started using a #Repko4MVP hashtag on Twitter, though the gag seemed a little less silly yesterday when Repko was a crucial contributor in the Twins' victory.

Obviously he won't continue to hit like this, but a solid .274/.336/.433 hitting line in the minors (including .289/.357/.461 in Triple-A) suggests that there's no reason he can't keep his bat afloat, and if he's able to do that while maintaining his rangy defense in the outfield, he figures to be a useful piece for the Twins down the stretch.

Just maybe not an MVP. Yet.

* Speaking of unsustainably hot recent performances, I'd be remiss not to mention the play of Drew Butera, who has now started five consecutive games at catcher with Joe Mauer's shoulder aching. In those five games, Butera has gone 4-for-15 with a homer and a double while performing well defensively.

The "hot streak" has raised Butera's overall hitting line .205/.237/.341, which borders on palatable for a defensive specialist in the majors. However, before anyone starts getting keen on the idea of keeping Butera in the lineup more regularly even after Mauer's shoulder has healed, keep in mind that the kid has a long (LONG) history of not hitting in the minors.

Soon enough, he'll go back to being a massive liability with the bat, and -- as the first two games of this series against the Rays helped illustrate -- that's something the Twins can ill afford against contending clubs with good pitching staffs.

* J.J. Hardy has been on a tear since the All-Star break, and after going 3-for-4 in yesterday's contest he's hitting .270/.310/.398 on the season. The average MLB shortstop has hit .264/.322/.371 this year, so Hardy's production is firmly above average for his position. When accounting for his spectacular defense, Hardy has been a very good contributor for the Twins this season in spite of his wrist issues; meanwhile, while his defense in the outfield is missed, Carlos Gomez has essentially made zero strides offensively in Milwaukee. Looking like a nice trade for Bill Smith.

* Has there been a more enigmatic player than Alexi Casilla over the past few years? An apparent breakout season in 2008, when he hit .281/.333/.374 as a 23-year-old while helping the Twins mount a late charge for the AL Central crown, was followed up by an absolutely abysmal season in '09. Casilla has spent much of this season on the shelf, but he's returned to fill in at second with Orlando Hudson on the shelf and has performed admirably, using a combination of plate discipline in speed produce solid offensive numbers much like he did in '08.

His defense has also looked spectacular at times, most notably on the play that ended today's game, when Casilla ran about 20 feet to his left to track down a grounder and threw to first while twirling in mid-air to retire the speedy Carl Crawford.

During his career in Minnesota, I have seen Casilla track down some seemingly unreachable ground balls, yet UZR pegs him as a very poor second baseman, with a -9.7 rating in close to 2,000 MLB innings at the position. It strikes me that, like with his offense, Casilla's inconsistency on defense is mostly mental. The kid clearly has enough talent to be playing in the big leagues, but seemingly has a tough time staying focused. Whatever he's doing right now, hopefully he is able to keep it up until Hudson returns and beyond.

Butera Overload

Last week, I expressed concern that Joe Mauer was more hurt than he or the team was letting on, and that various bumps and bruises were largely responsible for his disappointing numbers over the first few months of the season.

His recent playing time patterns have only helped confirm those fears. Since I posted my column about Mauer last Thursday, he has caught only three of the Twins' seven games. Twice he has sat out, and twice he has served as designated hitter. That's not the type of usage we're accustomed to seeing for the former MVP, who -- when healthy -- is typically behind the plate for the vast majority of the Twins' games.

To be clear, giving Mauer a break from time to time is necessary. And I don't mind using him in the DH spot on occasion. But there seems to be a perception that the Twins aren't hurting themselves too much by feeding more and more starts to Drew Butera. That's just not the case.

Butera is arguably (maybe not even arguably) the worst hitter in all of the major leagues. After posting a miserable .560 OPS as a 25-year-old in Triple-A last year, he has gone on to hit .192/.211/.301 for the Twins this year, with five extra-base hits and one walk in 83 plate appearances. An out-making machine with minimal power, Butera is an enormous liability whose offensive production roughly mirrors what one would expect from a pitcher in the National League. When he's starting and Mauer's at DH, as was the case last night, it means that the Twins are replacing Jim Thome or Jason Kubel with Butera in the lineup. There are no words to fully describe the size of this drop-off.

The Twins' stated position for the increased playing time for Butera is that the team's starters like pitching to him, especially Carl Pavano. There are indications that Butera could even serve as Pavano's personal catcher for the remainder of the season. I don't think I buy the notion.

While it's true that Pavano has performed well over his last few starts with Butera behind the plate, and also true that Pavano was roughed up the last time he pitched to Mauer, it's important to point out that the ugly start came in Toronto against the power-laden Blue Jays lineup. That's about as unfavorable of a match-up as you can find for Carl Pavano, and I'm thinking it's more largely responsible for the mustachioed hurler's struggles than who was receiving the pitches. Especially when you consider that Pavano's two strong starts before the Toronto shellacking -- an outing against the Rays in which he allowed two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings and a complete game shutout against the Mets in New York -- both came with Mauer behind the plate.

Meanwhile, Francisco Liriano didn't seem to have any issues throwing to Mauer on Monday night or during his stellar outing against the White Sox just after the All-Star break. Nor did Kevin Slowey seem to be limited by Mauer's presence when he hurled six innings of one-run ball on Monday night.

Indeed, differences between Butera's and Mauer's game-calling ability seem mostly anecdotal and reactionary, especially considering that Mauer has won Gold Gloves in both of the past two seasons and has often been lauded for his work behind the plate in the past. If a difference between the two exists, it doesn't come close to making up for the gargantuan offensive drop-off that the Twins experience when Butera is in the lineup.

Of course, the Twins have still been playing pretty well lately, owing largely to some fairly pitiful competition. Indeed, it could be that Ron Gardenhire is taking advantage of this soft spot in the Twins' schedule to get the banged-up Mauer some much needed rest in preparation for the stretch run. Perhaps the catcher's offensive outburst on Tuesday night reflects that the rest is paying off. If that's the case, I take my hat off to Gardy, who may be employing a brilliant managerial strategy.

However, if he truly believes that the Twins are ever a better team with Butera in the lineup and Mauer at DH, he's loony. Mauer loses a great deal of his value when he's playing at DH, particularly when his back-up hits like a pitcher. If this trend of more frequently using Mauer in the designated hitter spot continues through the rest of the season, the Twins could be in some trouble.

My suspicion, though, is that all this rhetoric from the Twins' coaches about Butera's great chemistry with the pitchers is mostly a front, and that the team doesn't want to admit that their newly re-signed star player is badly in need of some additional time away from catching duties. If that's the case, I have no problem with Mauer getting a little extra rest so that he'll be more effective when the Twins get back to playing legitimate clubs.

I just wish that the answer wasn't playing the league's worst-hitting position player nearly half the time. How about some starts behind the plate for Jose Morales?

Catching Up

Well, it was an interesting weekend as far as the Twins' catcher position is concerned.

On Friday night, Joe Mauer started but bruised his heel while running into first base.

The following night, Drew Butera got the nod at catcher while Mauer was thought to be too sore to catch but available in an emergency. We later learned that Mauer was probably not actually available at all since Butera was allowed to hit in several key situations late in a highly-contested game, going 0-for-5 on the night and helping cripple the Twins' chances when he grounded into a double-play with the bases loaded and the game tied in the 11th inning.

On Sunday, we learned that Mauer's injury was without question more serious than the team initially let on, as Wilson Ramos was called up to serve as interim catcher while Butera returned to his rightful spot on the bench. The well-built Ramos wasted no time making an impression, collecting four hits in his major-league debut and flashing his outstanding power by driving liners hard all over the field.

It was fun to see one of the very best prospects in the Twins system make such an immediate impact, but of course Ramos is no Mauer and we'll start to see that as he gets more exposure to big-league pitching. While he has about as much raw power as anyone in the organization, Ramos has very poor plate discipline, which helps explain why he was hitting .179 with a .214 OBP in Rochester prior to his call-up. He is undoubtedly a significant upgrade over Butera while Mauer is out, particularly because he appears to be a better defender, but the 22-year-old Ramos will go through his own growing pains. Count on it.

For the time being, though, enjoy this early glimpse of one of the very best catching prospects in all of baseball. Ramos is quickly showing the baseball world just why he carries that distinction.

Predictably Punchless

In past years, Twins fans have grown used to seeing a lineup trotted out on "getaway days" (usually Thursday or Sunday afternoon games) that featured several marginal backup players and inspired little confidence. On days like this, one could take a quick glance at the starting lineup and guess that a loss was in store.

This season, the Twins offense has featured enough depth that the team has been able to put forth a relatively imposing lineup even with a few regulars on the bench. That wasn't the case today, as soreness kept Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and J.J. Hardy all out of the lineup. As a result, the starting nine for the Twins' series finale in Detroit featured Drew Butera at catcher, Luke Hughes at third and Brendan Harris at short, with Delmon Young and Jason Kubel manning the corner outfield spots. Even the big left-handed boppers that remained in the middle of the lineup -- Jason Kubel and Jim Thome -- had tough match-ups with a lefty on the mound. From both an offensive and defensive standpoint, it was the worst group that Ron Gardenhire has trotted out all year, making it tough to see how the Twins would be able to come away with a win.

As expected, the Twins came out with little firepower in a 3-0 loss. Despite drawing a favorable pitching match-up with the erratic Dontrelle Willis on the mound, the Twins couldn't come close to mounting a rally, managing just four singles in the game and accumulating only one at-bat with a runner in scoring position. The characteristically patient Twins' lineup drew just one walk against Willis while fanning six times. In the few occasions where they managed to get runners aboard, they killed themselves with double plays. It was a brutal offensive effort that wasted a strong performance from Carl Pavano, who hurled an eight-inning complete game and allowed only two earned runs but took the hard-luck loss.

After losing two of three to the Tigers, the Twins have finally lost a series, making them the last team in the majors to do so. That's certainly nothing to be ashamed of, nor is being shut out for the first time on April 29 (last year, the Twins' first shutout game in their fourth game).

Butera, who went 0-for-2 and set up the Tigers' first run with an errant throw on Austin Jackson's first-inning stolen base attempt, has indeed looked brutal at the plate, but those who raised a huff about his presence on the Opening Day roster have been made to look silly as he's started only three of the Twins' first 22 games while drawing a total of just nine plate appearances. One could make a valid argument that Butera might be the worst hitter in all the majors, but -- as any rational thinker could have expected -- he's had minimal impact on the team's fortunes thus far. With Wilson Ramos looking overmatched against Triple-A pitching so far, it's certainly looking like the Twins made the right choice in bringing Butera north as Mauer's back-up. That being said, Jose Morales' return from injury couldn't come soon enough.