2008 Projection: Brendan Harris March 27th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

By Kris Richardson

We’ve covered a couple familiar offensive faces, now onto one of the new offseason acquisitions, Brendan Harris. Harris was acquired in the trade the sent Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett to the Rays for Delmon Young and Harris.

Year	Age	AB	BA	OBP	SLG	HR	BB	K	SB
2008 ZiPS	27	492	.270	.332	.404	11	42	99	3
2007	26	521	.286	.343	.434	12	42	96	4
2006	25	42	.238	.319	.357	1	4	7	0

As you can see by the numbers, Harris isn’t a great offensive threat, but he’s a better option than the guy he beat out for the job at second this spring, Nick Punto. Of course, he’s a downgrade from Luis Castillo, who spent much of 2007 with the Twins at second base. Harris bats right handed and hit particularly well against left-handed pitching in 2006. He can be expected to bat eighth in the lineup, ahead of Adam Everett.

Harris offers a wee bit more power than the Twins are used to from second base, but is considerably worse when it comes to speed and particularly defensive ability. His ability to hold onto his job will rely on him hitting well. Ron Gardenhire seems to have a liking for Nick Punto, so I’m not sure how long of a leash Harris would get this year if he slumps early on. While Punto isn’t spectacular defensively, he is a considerable upgrade over Harris.

Alexi Casilla, who got an audition at second base late last summer, may also be back in the competition before season’s end. In my mind, Casilla is still the best option in the middle infield going forward and if the Twins are going to struggle this year, I wouldn’t mind seeing them do it with Casilla learning at second.