Punto's gaffe dooms Twins in Metrodome finale

Punto seemed to be the one player who could hit against the Yankees.
If that one play cost the twins anything it was because the rest of the team wasn't hitting.

On the replay I saw last night, the third base coach didn't put his hands up (to stop) until Punto was already way past the bag.

3rd base coach is all the runner is supposed to watch.he wa shalf way to home plate and did not signal a hold up. after diving into 3rd and being called out, Punto looked over his nshoulder at the coach in amazement. You could almost hear,
WTF, over?"

I have noticed that Ulger is typically two thirds down the line near home plate on a hit. I realize he needs to get an angle, but then is he really in the runner's line of sight?

He has been a thorn for several years . And we pay him 4 million a year. Even if he does get his rare hit they lose. All he is is a bench buddy for Gardy. He is a minor leaguer at best. Who cares if he plays hard. A good crappy player is still crappy. Whats his RBI and HR stats in his last 1,000 at bats ?

Can we please lose those tired old hankies now! They haven't worked now for almost 20 years time!

Anybody who is dumb enough to slide repeatedly into first base (when it actually slows you down) is dumb enough to run through a stop sign at third on a predictably close play. As long as the greedy billionaires who own the Twins refuse to pay a competitive payroll, we're going to have incompetent players like Punto and Gomez blowing our best chances to beat better teams. Punto, of course, is particularly galling, since we pay him $4 million per year to not hit major league pitching. The economics of this sport are still broken - and as long as they are, teams like the Twins will rarely beat teams like the Yankees. In the Twins case, read "never" for "rarely" in the previous sentence, since not only are we worse than the Yankees, we are totally intimidated by them. Truthfully, the end of this season was a great ride, provided by a scrappy club - but it was a ride we took in a second-division league, the small market league, the league of the have-nots. That's the reality of baseball.

Dump the Punto wrote:

He has been a thorn for several years . And we pay him 4 million a year. Even if he does get his rare hit they lose. All he is is a bench buddy for Gardy. He is a minor leaguer at best. Who cares if he plays hard. A good crappy player is still crappy. Whats his RBI and HR stats in his last 1,000 at bats ?

Punto is not paid to hit home runs and drive in runs. He is paid to get on base and play great defense. The Twins won 17 of their final 21 games. In those 21 games, and the three postseason games, Punto had an on-base percentage of .430. He is doing exactly what the Twins pay him to do.

suckmywake wrote:

I have noticed that Ulger is typically two thirds down the line near home plate on a hit. I realize he needs to get an angle, but then is he really in the runner's line of sight?

Ullger was clearly out of position on the play. Considering the ball didn't leave the infield, he had no business being that far down the line. He should have held up Punto immediately when Jeter fielded the ball.

Arrogant American wrote:

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Punto is not paid to hit home runs and drive in runs. He is paid to get on base and play great defense. The Twins won 17 of their final 21 games. In those 21 games, and the three postseason games, Punto had an on-base percentage of .430. He is doing exactly what the Twins pay him to do.

Yep, he got hot at the end - no denying it. We've seen that before. Problem is, we have to put up with him and pay for him the rest of the time - which is most of the time. Sure, he plays good defense - but he's going to hit .220 into oblivion. He doesn't belong on a major league roster at any salary, let alone $4 million. And at the risk of belaboring the point - anybody dumb enough to slide into first base is going to commit other costly base running errors, just like he did Sunday night.

scotwil wrote:

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Yep, he got hot at the end - no denying it. We've seen that before. Problem is, we have to put up with him and pay for him the rest of the time - which is most of the time. Sure, he plays good defense - but he's going to hit .220 into oblivion. He doesn't belong on a major league roster at any salary, let alone $4 million.

Punto hit .284 last year, not .220. In 2006, he hit .290.

is Punto a dirty word???

Arrogant American wrote:

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Punto hit .284 last year, not .220. In 2006, he hit .290.

Okay, fair enough. It only FEELS like he's going to hit .220 into oblivion. Actually, he's a decent slap hitter during even numbered years, and he plays like he belongs in single A ball during odd numbered years. Is that good enough to justify the roster space and the $4 million in scarce payroll from our greedy billionaire owners? Don't we deserve somebody who plays competently every year in exchange for that money? I don't know, maybe major league talent really is that scarce - but it seems like $4 million ought to buy us a guy who can hit major league pitching every year.

Blitzkrieg wrote:

is Punto a dirty word???

Yep. Thus the acronym "LNP." It's designed to keep us from having to say the name.

Dump the Punto wrote:

He has been a thorn for several years . And we pay him 4 million a year. Even if he does get his rare hit they lose. All he is is a bench buddy for Gardy. He is a minor leaguer at best. Who cares if he plays hard. A good crappy player is still crappy. Whats his RBI and HR stats in his last 1,000 at bats ?

Anybody stupid enough to make this statement or blame Punto for that loss has probably never played the game competitively.
Punto hit .444 for the series and walked 3 times with a double and an RBI. He did exactly what he's paid to do... get on base. Notice a telling number in those stats... not a single run scored. That's what the guys in the top of the order are supposed to be doing... driving him in when he gets on base. He went to the plate 12 times in the series and got on base 7 of those times. That's a .583 OBP folks... that's a fantastic average but, doesn't mean much if the guys in front of you aren't driving you in.
Last, in the game Punto made the baserunning error, the Twins got beat 4-1... not 2-1. His run may or may not have meant anything assuming he even got driven in, which, looking at the 3 RBI's the Top-4 hitters in the Twins line-up amassed in the three games, is a very big if.
Use your head... games are not lost by one play or one mistake. That's something sportwriters use to write a stroy. Games are lost over 9 innings. The Twins left 32 runners on base for God Sakes. They left 17 on base in game 1 alone!!! That's an average of over 10 runners left on base every game. You can't do that and expect to beat the best team in baseball. Sorry, blaming Punto is just plain stupid.