With the release of Livan Hernandez and Craig Monroe and the call up of Francisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz the Twins continue their annoying habit of signing overrated free agents who are released when the Twins find they have better players in the minors.
I never understood why the Twins wanted Livan Hernandez. Yet Ron Gardenhire seemed eager to make Hernandez his staff ace. Hernandez had some early success, but his flaws were soon exposed.
The present Twins pitching staff of Baker, Blackburn, Slowey, Liriano, and Perkins are not Hall of Famers in waiting, but I’d argue there are not many teams in baseball who would not have a spot for any one of these guys in their rotations.
I had hoped for more from Craig Monroe. He could have provided power off the bench, and a solid right-handed option at DH. While Monroe did hit a couple of key home runs, it was obvious he was not getting the job done.
I don’t know much about Ruiz except that he is over 30 and this is his first trip to the majors. Usually if you are any good you make it the majors before your 30th birthday, so the odds are good Ruiz will not offer much. Likely he is just holding a spot for Michael Cuddyer who will be returning shortly from the DL. Still Ruiz has got to feel good about finally getting to the majors.
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I created this blog in response to an assignment given to me for one of my graduate school classes. I named my blog the Minnesota Twins, Country Music, and Random Thoughts, because I have a passion for Twins baseball and Country Music. The Random Thoughts part comes in, because I know there will be others things I will want to write about that do not involve Twins baseball or Country Music.
