Monday, February 27, 2006

Tony Batista, International Man of Mystery

The Star Tribune is in the middle of a series about some of the key offseason acquisitions for the Twins. Of these, the most interesting offseason pickup is likely Tony Batista, who returns to the big leagues after a year in Japan. The Strib's writeup is here:

http://www.startribune.com/509/story/269599.html

Batista is an interesting bird, to say the least. He is a bit itinerant; hasn't been in one place for more than two years in his career. He also is highly religious. In other words, he's probably a good replacement for some of the more corrosive fellows who were in the Dome last year. The question is, what does he have left? And will he perform better than Corey Koskie, who was available but who ended up in Milwaukee. I'm guessing Batista will bat about .275, with 25-30 homers and 80-90 RBI out of the 7 hole. That's better production than the Twins have seen out of that spot since, I don't know, forever.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"That's better production than the Twins have seen out of that spot since, I don't know, forever." Hey now - I think Earl Battey may have batted 7th.