Lineup Tweaks

[stringer bell]

I watched the entire game last night and Felix was great.  Hughes was pretty good, a little lucky early, but he finished strong.  Because of so many day games and other things going on in my life, I haven't watched all that much of the games so far.  I probably shouldn't make judgments based on watching so little and checking early (SSS) stats, but here goes:

 

Get Dozier out of the cleanup spot.  He looks like he's pressing with RISP and he is much better as a table setter.  I think the team should move him to leadoff and move Santana down until Danny finds his form.  If not that, flip flop Dozier for Plouffe.  Trevor has been far and away the best hitter on the team since his walk off homer vs. Cleveland.

 

I thought Schafer had a nice game last night.  He made one pretty difficult catch and caught everything hit his way.  He got a hit and made contact in all three of his at-bats.  Actually the outfield had a good game defensively all around, that was refreshing to see.  I would give Schafer another week as a platoon guy to see if his slump was a blip or if he just can't sustain good offensive performance. 

 

Vargas isn't hitting and I think the clock is ticking for him as well.  If there isn't a real improvement in the next couple of weeks, I think a trip to Rochester is in order.  Perhaps a game with Arcia at DH and Escobar in left will give him the proper message. 

 

The Twins pitching has been better than their hitting.  They are last in almost every major stat in team hitting.  Their pitching is in the bottom half all the way around and they still are far behind in strike outs.  Considering the struggles of Duensing, Thielbar, Boyer and Stauffer, that is actually not too bad. 

[stringer bell]

Thanks, Molitor for listening to my advice on Plouffe and Dozier.  Even though Plouffe is o-fer so far, the team is scoring some runs tonight.

[TheLeviathan]

You have to commend Molitor for his willingness to be flexible with lineups.  I feel pretty safe in saying the days of "play second, bat second" and Mike Redmond hitting third are gone.