Why is Nick Punto playing?

While I must disclose that I am personally am a fan of Twins SS/2B Nick Punto because of his fielding, hustle & tenacity, I can’t quite understand why he’s seen so much playing time when he’s batting a paltry .209. Being a fan of someone does not mean I’m blind to numbers like that, so I did about 8 minutes of research. I was somewhat surprised what I found.

Punto’s on base percentage is .326. Who is above him? Mauer (.432), Morneau (.399), Kubel (.385), Span (.370), Cuddyer (.354), & another .209 hitter, Brian Buscher (.347; no wonder he pinch hits so often). If the top two spots in the batting order should go to guys with some speed, who get on base, then considering Kubel, Morneau & Cuddy are middle of the line-up guys (and have no speed anyway), it actually makes numerical sense for Punto to be at the spot, as much as he is struggling with hitting this year, unless the Twins wanted to move everyone up again to have Mauer batting 2nd. The goal is to get on base for the guys that come next. He didn’t have a good showing there in game 1 in Oakland (his 0 for night is what led me to look into why Gardy plays him so much), but even with those numbers from tonight, in terms of getting on base, he may actually be a better option than the other choices currently on the roster.

Since these numbers are for the whole season, and I think more recent play is always important when looking at stats, I also looked at his June & July numbers. Turns out in the past month & a half, he is batting .250 with a .369 on base percentage (which is just below Span’s .370 OBP for the season). Walks (logically) seem to be the key. While he’s only had 17 hits in that span (no pun intended), he has 16 walks as well.

Then I thought I’d see how the Twins do when he plays in the games, as winning would be the top goal. Since he has often been a late inning replacement in games where the Twins are leading, I only looked at games in which he had 3 or more plate appearances. This season, the Twins are one game above .500 overall, barely sneaking in with a .505 winning percentage. However, when Punto plays the majority of the, the Twins are 4 games above .500, with a .534 winning percentage. Huh. That doesn’t seem like a big difference, but game 163 last year showed the importance of each and every win. Maybe this Ron Gardenhire guy actually does know what he is doing.

Even as a Punto fan though, I would like to see him start getting some extra base hits again, as he only has 6 of those, and 0 triples. But if he can keep increasing his batting average and on base percentage throughout the year, and is batting in front of Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, Cuddyer, and/or Crede, he should start scoring a lot more runs, which would make everybody in Twins Territory happy!

As for the pitching debacle & less than shining defense in Oakland, topped off with a pathetic call on the game tying run for the Twins by an out of position umpire, well, I just don’t want to think about that game anymore.

Nick Punto Photo taken by me, Liz Strand, 05/03/07 at Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, FL

What is Wrong with the Women's Tennis Ranking System?

Serena Williams just took her sister Venus out in straight sets, to win the Wimbledon Championship. She now holds 3 of the last 4 majors (US Open, Australian & Wimbledon), yet come Monday morning, Russia's Dinara Safina will still be in the #1 spot. This is the same Dinara Safina that Venus Williams demolished in the semis in straight sets, only letting Safina win 1 game! World #1 player only wins 1 game in a match, and she stays #1? On top of that, she has yet to win a Grand Slam championship. Is anyone else as confused as I am?

Tennis rankings for both men & women are a rolling system for the last 12 months. If you do better in a tournament than you did the year before, you'll gain extra points. If you do the same, you simply "defend" your points. If you do worse, you lose points. I'm not even going to get into how many points are awarded at each stage of each tournament, but if during those 12 months, one woman wins 3 of the 4 Grand Slams (and makes it to the QF of the other slam, losing to the eventual champion 6-7, 7-5, 5-7), something is very wrong with that system!

This is not to say that Safina has not had a good year; she has done well. She's made it further in slams, and won a few titles, including Rome & Madrid, but no one following tennis could look at that right now and say that she deserves to be #1. Just check out the transcript from Serena's post-match press conference for her thoughts about this: http://bit.ly/Zkmxh (scroll toward the end). She had the room laughing at the absurdity of it all.

The problem is that Serena and Venus don't play some of the other smaller tournaments throughout the year, as they have other interests & hobbies, which may be why they are still playing after so many women's players have burned out before hitting 25 years of age, but that is a subject for another time. However, there is no way you can convince me that the point system is weighted correctly when Serena Williams will not be #1 after winning 3 of the last 4 majors and getting to the quarterfinals of the 4th...there is no rationale or explanation that will satisfy me! The system is broken, just like Safina's serve was against Venus on Thursday, and it needs to be repaired.