For those of you that rag on the Minnesota Twins for their recent first-round draft pick flops, I guess you just have to give some of these guys more time. Like eight years.
Trevor Plouffe was the team’s first-round pick in 2004. And in the span of one month, he has transformed from Quad-A player with no position to a potential building block in the team’s rebuilding process.
Plouffe has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball, and today is the one-month anniversary of when this all started.
Who are you and what have you done to Trevor Plouffe? Associated Press photo
Entering a May 16 game at Detroit, Plouffe was hitting .133 with one homer. He was seemingly on the brink of losing his roster spot. Remember, a few weeks prior to this game, Luke Hughes was designated for assignment despite being the team’s best hitter in spring training. I heard some wonder whether he deserved a longer look than Plouffe.
On May 16, Plouffe homered. Since the start of that game, he has hit 27-for-86, good for a .314 average with a major league-leading 13 homers to go along with 21 RBIs.
Did anyone see this coming? I made the argument last night in the office that Plouffe may be the only reason to watch the Twins play right now considering how poorly the team has performed (despite a recent hot streak that ended earlier in the week).
So what is Plouffe’s future? Some may disagree, but I still feel he’s a player without a position. He has recently found a home at third base, and as long as he’s red-hot at the plate, you just leave him there. You never mess with a guy that’s hitting the way Plouffe is.
He has three errors in 21 starts at third base, which would put him well over 20 errors if he played a full season there. Small sample size so far this year, but considering his history in the field, it’s probably a pretty accurate one.
If you prefer advanced metrics, FanGraphs has 39 third basemen in the big leagues this year who have logged at least 170 innings at the hot corner. Plouffe’s UZR/150 (Ultimate Zone Rating per 150 games) is -6.7, which would put him tied with Kevin Youkilis for 29th on that list.
The Twins have spent an awful lot of time trying to find a position for Plouffe, and I just don’t think he’ll get much better in the field. The team will ultimately have to decide whether or not it can accept his sub-standard defense at third if he hits, say, 25 or 30 homers per year. Or is the team better off putting him in right field? My guess is that’s where he ends up next season.
But regardless of where he plays, Plouffe’s offense has been a huge breath of fresh air for a Twins team in dire need of players to build its team around. Patience may have really paid off in this case.
if you made the argument that ‘Plouffe may be the “only’ reason to watch the Twins now’, maybe you should do a self analysis of why you are sports writer and if you should continue as you are.
I believe a writer cannot do well if pessimism is a major aspect of his style.
I preached a while back as you and too many others were too eagerly jumping on the ‘bash the Twins bandwagon ‘ etc , I preached patience and faith in the possibilty that good things could and usually do happen . I said writers and fans tend to see the cupboard too often bare and without hope. I asked , every year many players come out of nowhere to surprise us and suddenly the ‘experts who didn’t see that coming are all gaga about those players . I said who saw Frese from the Cardinals lead his team to be Champs. I said hopefully that kind of story will emerge with the Twins.
You didn’t see Plouffe coming ? were you guys even looking???
Will Dozier be the next one to blossom ? Who knows? The table is sure is laid out for that to happen. Diamond came out of nowhere! Parmalee ?
C’mon -Revere is a very good reason to watch the Twins!
Hope ,Faith, loyal support of the hometown team are very good reasons to follow the team ! jumping on the bandwagon of a team when they only ‘win’ is NOT a good reason.
Practice what you preach , check out your last sentence in your post.
there are many reasons to still watch the Twins .
as I said- Revere. He may be the guy we hoped Carlo Gomez was supposed to be! speedy , exciting in center , a Kirby Puckett smile. He is batting what , .340 now.
Diamond . He could be the next Radke , no superstar but definitely a mainstay . That aint bad .
And you gotta love the way Carrol plays the game , 38 years old and a Gamer!
Willingham ! You don’t think that HE is a good reason to watch !!!!
and of course if that ain’t enough , you can go back to the bread and butter of the team , M&M. Will Morneau continue to stay healthy? Will Mauer continue to recover from his awful year of injuries and steady his trip to Coooperstown. ( and yes Joe is STILL a probable candidate for HOF! . 320 lifetime , 3 time batting champ , appreciate him NOW!)
The Twins will win maybe 80 games this year ‘hopefully’. They will be competitive hopefully in most others. Maybe not . I will therefore be ‘ happy ‘ with the Twins at least 100 days this sumer and fall.
can you say that about the “Vikings!
You realize that for the Twins to get to 80 wins in 2012 that they’d have to play the remainder of the season like a 90 win, division winning operation. That is not happening. Getting to 75 wins would require them to finish the rest of the season 2 games over .500. If they can do that, that would be a huge improvement over what we’ve seen the first 10 weeks of the season.
I have never seen any mention of Plouffe being the DH. Since he is a poor defensive player, why not consider DH? Isn’t he the type of player suited for DH?
Not following it super close but perhaps they have no better option at 3B at this point, and Mauer and Morneau are taking up a lot of the DH plate appearance. Maybe we’ll see Plouffe DH in the future but even given what he’s done the last month if you’re trying to decide which bat to keep in the lineup on any given day I think he’d be behind Mauer and Morneau.