One of the questions raised by Terry Ryan's suggestion that maybe Trevor Plouffe would end up an outfielder is whether his bat plays at an outfield corner. There are a lot of people who have been complaining about Plouffe's development for several years now. As a first round choice, they expected Plouffe to be a major league star by now. Instead he got to AAA at age 22 and spent three years there, never hitting over .260. Then in 2011, he broke out hitting .323 with 15 home runs in about half a season at Rochester. He hit another 8 home runs in the major leagues for a total of 23 on the season.
A lot of people seem to think this is a fluke. But his major league numbers don't look that far off from Michael Cuddyer or Jason Kubel at the same age. I suspect Terry Ryan was more saying that Plouffe is NOT a shortstop, than that he thought he was going to be a huge asset somewhere else. But its not really impossible for Plouffe to develop into a serviceable right handed bat with enough pop to play in one of the corners. He could turn out a little like Cuddyer.
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I agree with your comments, mostly. I have no particular confidence that Plouffe will be major asset in the outfield. He doesn't look like a major league shortstop, which is too bad. His bat would appear to play much better there.
I am not very excited about Carroll, either. I think you are right and that Carroll will likely start the year as the shortstop with Casilla at 2nd. I doubt if that will be the combination all year though. Carroll is probably more valuable as the utility infielder, playing 4 or 5 days a week if his bat justifies it.
I think Nishioka or Dozier will likely become the starting shortstop at some point. It sort of appears that the best position of every Twin middle infielder is
2nd base.
"It sort of appears that the best position of every Twin middle infielder is 2nd base."
In Luke Hughes case, maybe first base :)
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