- The Twins took two of three from a very good Angels squad this weekend, missing a shot at the sweep yesterday afternoon, losing 7-2. However, they gutted out a pair of wins Friday and Saturday, and it was certainly a good series overall.

The better news -- as rare as it is for good news to come in the form of an aging, injury-prone outfielder -- is that Rondell White will reportedly be activated off the DL in time for tonight's game against Toronto after a dizzying amount of setbacks since his initial injury in early April.

White will take the spot of Garrett Jones, who didn't do much with his small amount of irregular playing time in the bigs. Jones hit .176/.263/.353 (AVG/OBP/SLG) in 17 at bats during his second stint with the team this season, the first being May 15-18.

Rondell figures to be an offensive boost almost by default, based on the futility in left field this season. Being manned by the trio of Jason Kubel, Lew Ford and Jason Tyner, here's how the Twins' offensive output from left field compares to center and right field.

LF - .242/.294/.235
CF - .305/.351/.540
RF - .279/.358/.429

To put it into a little bit more into perspective, the average American League left fielder is hitting .266/.327/.412. If Rondell stays relatively healthy (and obviously that's still a huge "if" at this point) and puts up the same numbers he's been putting up the past few years (excluding the first half of last season which was hampered by injury), Rondell will be a huge boost in a major offensive hole.

That is, of course, assuming that he is going to play in left field. For now, he is giving indications that he'd like to start with DH'ing for the Twins before moving back into the field, which is a contradiction to some of his previous wishes but probably not an all-bad idea. After all, Twins DH's are hitting pretty similar to their left field counterparts, at a paltry .249/.326/.348, compared to the league average DH batting line of .261/.351/.433. Whichever position he ends up at, White shouldn't have much trouble improving the situation.

- Even after allowing three earned runs (and one unearned, thanks to Jason Bartlett, more on that in a second) in just 5.1 innings pitched, Matt Garza's ERA still sits at a sparkling 1.33 thanks to 15 scoreless innings pitched coming into the game.

Garza threw 106 pitches in those 5.1 innings (almost 20 pitches per inning), and only 68 strikes, which is clearly a problem. Three walks and seven hits is obviously not a recipe for success, and when you allow 10 base runners and strike just three batters out, you're probably lucky to get away with only three earned runs allowed.

Bartlett's error was his 18tn of the season, and his third in sixth games. Obviously errors don't measure defensive aptitude, but Bartlett's errors have been legitimate boots. He does cover a lot of ground out there, but unfortunately his hands seem like they haven't quite come around.

You may remember that he made a somewhat costly error in Garza's previous start, booting a grounder and allowing another unearned run to score -- which turned out to be the only run of the game giving Garza a loss without giving up an earned run.

Labels: Twins

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23, 2007 at 2:36 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.