Nicky On the Bases (Long-Form Epic poetry)

Ok, so, in my opinion Nick Punto Day should have come a long time ago. Back when I started this blog one of my first real posts was focused on the Nick Punto/Matt Tolbert dynamic duo, and I really wish I hadn't written something like that until today. So, my real contribution came back on September 22, 2009. (I like to be way ahead of the game...)

That being said, rather than exhaust my futile knowledge of advanced statistics and in-depth player analysis only to be shown up by people like Parker Hageman and Andrew Bryz-Gornia and etc. etc. etc., I'm going to break out the epic poetry. Yes, that's right, Little Nicky Punto gets an ode...

Punto On the Bases

The ball game was a must-win for the Minneapolis nine that day;

The score stood two to one, with but two innings left to play,

If they were to lose that night, the post season lived no more,

And so the Yankees took the field and Phil Hughes hit the floor.

Minnesota fans know more than most how to lose a game,

If only the New York Yankees could now just do the same;

They sat in the Dome watching the outs slip further ever down

And fans back in New York waited for triumph and a crown.

To liven up the depressed crowd, the organist did sound

A lively tune to announce that Nicky Punto led off this round.

Punto was a legend, and his speed was non-paralleled,

As he stepped up to the plate the crowd's fears were all dispelled.

His bat was none to speak of but he could play good ball,

And shortly after Punto came Mauer (who will one day reach The Hall).

A ball, a strike, a ball, a strike, the count stood two-and-two,

The fans watched this and held their breath, their faces turning blue.

Hughes bent forward at the waist, his mouth curling to a sneer,

Punto simply tapped his bat and on his face he showed no fear.

Winding up upon the mound, Hughes quickly released a pitch

The fans all prayed silently and prepared themselves to bitch.

But lo, behold, the crazy happened which most can scarce conceive:

Punto's bat connected, the hit deeper than any could believe!

It soared over the Dome's infield, and Jeter turned in awe

As Punto doubled to deep left-center and the fans began to caw.

The Metrodome was in an uproar, everyone in the stands

Had suddenly become the largest gathering of Punto's biggest fans.

Punto shook of faux-dirt and wore a broad smile across his face

And whooped and pumped his fist as he stood gloriously on second base.

Hughes, once proud and confident was now so clearly shaken,

Momentum in the game, by the Twins had now been taken!

He tried to settle in, shake off, for Span was his next fate

But none-the-less he quickly delivered a fastball off the plate.

Span was patient, eying the ball, he had the count all in his favor;

Punto on the other hand was overeager for a win to quickly savor.

Hughes wound up again and flung the ball with a loud snort,

Span connected downward, grounding the ball sharply to short.

It looked the perfect sacrifice, enough to move Punto along;

Span was hustling down the line, the crowd was a hollering throng;

But Jeter saw alertly that Little Nicky Punto had set himself to race

He'd set his eyes towards home while panic creased Gardy's face.

Instead of throwing to first, Jeter released it towards the plate

And in that fateful moment, Little Nicky had sealed his fate.

In all of the excitement he'd gone well off past the bag,

And set himself up for A-Rod to apply a gruesome tag.

Somewhere off in the east, the Empire State could cheer,

And steroid-users like A-Rod could grin from ear-to-ear.

But in the cold depressing realm of 'Sota's Metrodome

Twins fans cried and wept as Little Nicky tried 2nd-to-home.

Punto vs. Tolbert, Who is the Scrappiest of Them All?

Everyone who remotely follows the Twins is familiar enough by now with manager Ron Gardenhire's obsession with scrappy, light-hitting, infielders who "hustle their tail off", and two of the biggest examples we've seen over his tenure both happen to be on the team right now: Nick Punto and Matt Tolbert.

Pictured here sandwiching fellow "futility infielder" Alexi Casilla

Both will most likely figure into the team's plans for next year, with one being a likely starter (Punto), and the other hopefully only being a bench option if he makes the roster (Tolbert), but that could all change if the Twins find any other realistic options either in-house or via trade/free-agency, as practically ever position on the infield except for Morneau and Mauer probably figure to be question marks.

The Twins will likely have 13-14 positions on their roster for hitters, and and after subtracting probably 5 spots for the outfield, one for Morneau at 1B, one for Mauer at catcher, and one for Morales as the back-up catcher, that leaves us with 5-6 spots, including the starting 2B, SS and 3B. Barring some crazy occurrence, you can almost guarantee one of those starting spots will be occupied by Nick Punto.

Pictured here flying through the air, as he always appears to do.

The Twins already have Punto under contract for around $4M next year, and Buscher, Tolbert, Harris, and Casilla will all either be under team control or receive minimal arbitration salaries. I doubt anyone who follows this team looks forward to those 5 players rounding out our infield next year, but unless they look into the minors (Hughes, Valencia, Plouffe, Huber, Peterson), that's probably the group we'll be choosing from.

The only thing keeping Buscher on this roster is his friendship with Morneau and the fact that he knows how to hold a bat left-handed (swinging it is another story), and Casilla and Harris are probably so far in Gardy's doghouse that they'll be lucky if they're on the roster next year. In truth, Harris is probably the one of those 5 we should keep around, but he'll also be the easiest for the front office to ship to another team and actually get something back in return.

That leaves Punto and Tolbert, with three people who very well might replace Buscher, Harris and Casilla, yet to be identified and will make themselves known this offseason. So let's familiarize ourselves with Mr. Punto and Mr. Tolbert, as I'm sure we'll grow accustomed to them next year.

Punto pictured here, diving through the air ... again

Tolbert pictured here, apparently knows how to plant his feet.

Nick Punto

The definition of a scrappy switch-hitter, Punto is turning 33 this November (happy early birthday), and in 9 seasons of major league service he's amassed a .249/.321/.326 slash line with 12HR, 174RBI, and 83 stolen bases.

He's quite the enigma, I don't know if we'll ever quite figure out who the real Nick Punto is. Breaking down his individual seasons, he was strictly a bench utility player from '01-'04, never amassing a significant amount of starts or plate appearances to really see his true style.

Though this, apparently, is part of his style...

He's had 5 years where he has essentially been a starter (and I'm including this year), and oddly enough each year he seems to be the exact opposite of the previous. In '05 he was bad. In '06 he had his best year to date (.290/.352/.373). He dropped back down to non-relevance in '07 before rebounding slightly last year by posting .284/.344/.382 slashes. This year? Well, it's an odd numbered year so he's struggling away again at .232/.332/.288 with 1HR and 34RBI (this is even taking into account his recent slew of superb play, so, picture how bad his numbers looked before this...)

In the field, Punto has held his own. He's posted a .976 fielding percentage this year at SS (though that's dropped slightly to .973 this year), and that's been just slightly more than league average.

But does THIS look league average to YOU?

At 2B he's just slightly below league average, displaying a .983 career fielding percentage, two points lower than the league.

At 3B he's actually well above the league average of .958, as he's actually posted a .970 fielding percentage there. My amateur opinion on this would be that 3B is typically more offense-oriented, and so to have a cat-like middle infielder at the hot corner he'd be fielding the position better than some of the more "bat-oriented" players who are filling it on other teams.

Unfortunately, we're paying Punto a salary equivalent to that of Jason Kubel, which pretty much cements the fact that he'd better lock down a starting spot because we don't want to pay $4M for a bench player. The Twins would probably be better off releasing Punto (or trying to trade him), because they essentially have a younger (read: cheaper) version of him in Matt Tolbert.

Matt Tolbert

Pictured here thinking "Who? Me?"

Tolbert is 6 years younger than Punto (math says he's 27), and also a switch hitter (and making 3.5 million less, thankfully). With the void of no-Joe Crede haunting us, Tolbert has inexplicably apparently been handed the starting 3B job over the platoon of Buscher and Harris. Even more amazingly, he's been holding his own, though nothing leads me to believe that this will last.

He saw limited big-league action for the first time in '08 (123 plate appearances), and responded with a respectable .283/.322/.389 slash and 7 stolen bases (though he was walking less than once for every two strikeouts). Those numbers were relatively in line with his 6 seasons of minor-league ball, where he posted a career .280/.341/.404 with limited power, decent speed (47 stolen bases, caught 19 times), and around the same strikeout-walk ratio.

For whatever reason, his numbers have plummeted down to Punto-level this year, and although the season isn't over, he's amassed more plate appearances than last time. He's currently sitting on a .221/.301/.266 slash with 6 stolen bases and his normal strikeout-walk ratio.  

Whereas Punto as a switch hitter only has a modest difference in his splits batting right-handed vs. left-handed batting, Tolbert skews more significantly. As a lefty versus right-handed pitchers, he's hitting .198/.288/.207, but as a righty hitting lefties, he's .279/.333/.419.

I don't want to get too down on Tolbert. He could actually be a decent bench-option and serviceable player if that kind of role wasn't already taken up by Punto. But to have two of them on the 25-man roster next year is a little ridiculous. And if Punto wasn't there, you can sure bet that Gardy would find a way to sneak Tolbert into an every-day spot so he wouldn't really be filling the role he's best suited for anyway.

It's harder finding pictures of Tolbert sprawling all over the place...

As far as fielding goes, Tolbert has a small sample size at each position. At SS, he appears to have about a .978 fielding percentage, which is somewhat better than league average. At 2B, he's almost exactly league average (he's .987, average is .986). And at 3B his fielding percentage skews drastically down to .930, a good 30 points lower than the average at the position. This is in part due to the fact that he was horrible at 3B in 17 games through '08, but after starting there practically every game this September he's been flawless (1.000 fielding percentage...). Those numbers probably won't remain unblemished for the long-haul, but it seems that regardless of where you put him (SS, 2B, or 3B), he'll be just around league average in terms of fielding.

(I'm not qualified to talk about UZR or Range Factors, I'll leave that to more qualified bloggers.)

Suffice to say, that if Punto is not released or traded this offseason, there's no reason that the Twins should renew him again. Tolbert should easily slide into his role and still be much cheaper, and by the time Tolbert deserves a significant raise, there should be someone else in the pipeline as well, so hopefully we don't hand out another albatross of a contract.

But in the meantime, Punto and Tolbert continue to defy numbers and logic...

and apparently gravity...

...as they hold down 2B and 3B daily in our race to the postseason, and I'm all for it for now. As long as they don't start batting lead-off or in the 2-hole if Span has to miss any games because of his concussion.