With Denard Span taking over the centerfield job for the Minnesota Twins, he needs to adjust to covering more ground and how to play centerfield in a new ballpark. It will be a learning process that he will successfully navigate I'm sure. Some people are worried about his defense in centerfield, not I. What I'm concerned about is that he will have to play outfield for Delmon Young as well because as anyone who's watched Twins baseball the past two seasons knows when Delmon Young is in leftfield odd misplays are lurking around every corner. When Carlos Gomez played centerfield he went after flyballs without regard for his fellow outfielders. Delmon Young knew his limitations and usually backed away letting the speedy/reckless Gomez go after the ball. Span is going to have to continue the tradition of carrying Young in the outfield. He will have to cover the left center power alley, catch those short flyballs between them and be the first to get to balls that go the wall. This doesn't even factor in the work Span will have to do because of Michael Cuddyer's average to below average defense. I could site defensive metrics that put the Twins defense into numbers that could be analyzed and processed, but the plain truth is Denard Span better be ready to run...a lot and quickly adapt to the new surroundings of Target Field because the Twins and especially Delmon Young are counting on him.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Denard Span's Additional Responsiblity
With Denard Span taking over the centerfield job for the Minnesota Twins, he needs to adjust to covering more ground and how to play centerfield in a new ballpark. It will be a learning process that he will successfully navigate I'm sure. Some people are worried about his defense in centerfield, not I. What I'm concerned about is that he will have to play outfield for Delmon Young as well because as anyone who's watched Twins baseball the past two seasons knows when Delmon Young is in leftfield odd misplays are lurking around every corner. When Carlos Gomez played centerfield he went after flyballs without regard for his fellow outfielders. Delmon Young knew his limitations and usually backed away letting the speedy/reckless Gomez go after the ball. Span is going to have to continue the tradition of carrying Young in the outfield. He will have to cover the left center power alley, catch those short flyballs between them and be the first to get to balls that go the wall. This doesn't even factor in the work Span will have to do because of Michael Cuddyer's average to below average defense. I could site defensive metrics that put the Twins defense into numbers that could be analyzed and processed, but the plain truth is Denard Span better be ready to run...a lot and quickly adapt to the new surroundings of Target Field because the Twins and especially Delmon Young are counting on him.
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Denard is a natural center fielder so I have no concern that his performance will be nothing less than outstanding.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Delmon young will be on the team for another year and play left field again is really disapointing. He is the most consistently bad fielding player that I have seen in the majors. He makes every catch look like a struggle and he is the most impatient player at the plate to boot.
Agreed. Everyone keeps waiting for the breakout from him, but what we see is what we will get from him. He may hit for more power won't be a consistant 20+ HR guy.
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