Jason Bartlett Topic Page

I'm a little late for a full recap of Saturday nights game. It was a good one for the Twins bats and Carlos Silva, with his early run support, was able to settle in for a nice seven innings of pitching. The one thing I wanted to take a closer look at was two guys who fans have had mixed feelings about so far this season: Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett.

Seattle held a narrow 1-run lead against Johan Santana and the Twins for most of this game, but the Twins were able to put together a big inning in the seventh and hold off a ninth inning charge from the Mariners to win the game and sweep the 3 game series. The Mariners scored first when Ichiro reached on a Jason Bartlett throwing error. Ichiro was thrown caught in a run-down later in the inning between third and home, but it allowed Jose Vidro to move to second and be driven in by a Raul Ibanez single.

Where would the Twins be in this series without their abundance of homeruns? 10 of the 11 runs scored in the last two games are from the five homeruns they’ve hit. While Chicago has matched the Twins in the number of homeruns, the Twins’ homers have been more damaging in terms of runs. Jason Bartlett and his 3-run homer were the difference in Tuesday night’s game.

Mauer topped his hit total of Monday night's game with 5 singles on Tuesday night against the Dodgers. I wish I could say I was surprised, but Mauer had proven over the past three month's that he's among baseball's best pure hitters. He may be on a June tear, but he was no slouch in the other months of the season.

The Twins won the first game of the series against Houston and extended their season best win streak to 8 games. The win didn't come easy though as Brad Radke was back to his old antics of allowing homeruns. He gave up a solo homer in the first and Lance Berkman hit a 3-run shot in the 3rd to put the Astros up 4-1. The score would remain at that until the 7th inning when the Twins mounted a 3-run rally to tie the game.

Nobody could've guessed that the Twins would sweep the Red Sox, but they pulled it off Thursday night as they continue to play their best baseball of the season. The sweep was a crushing blow to the Sox who came into the series neck-and-neck with the Yankees. This week has by far been the biggest week of the season for the Twins. They have not only won 4 straight and 6 of their last 7, but they've also ridded themselves of Tony Batista and Juan Castro. Juan Castro was traded Thursday to the Cincinatti Reds for a low-end prospect. Also, young players like Jason Kubel, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have shined and Jason Bartlett is now getting his chance.

The Twins post-game show just reported that Tony Batista has been designated for assignment and Jason Bartlett is being called up. This came much sooner than I had expected, and I'm quite pleased with it. I'm a bit surprised that White wasn't the first to go, but his day is coming soon.

Jason Bartlett has probably attracted more attention and more emotion from the Twins blogosphere than anyone since his late March assignment to AAA Rochester. I have a feeling that Bartlett may get the call pretty soon, so I wanted to write once more about Jason Bartlett before it happens. I believe Bartlett deserves (and has earned) a shot to play on this team. I'll be the first to admit that his addition isn't going to radically turn the team around, but it will make a difference. Bartlett may not be a long-term answer at SS, but he's the answer for the rest of this season and probably next season. Maybe he'll even be suitable for the Twins long-term plans; we'll never know unless he's given the chance.

Jason Bartlett was sent to AAA Rochester today, and it's caused quite a bit of outrage among Twins fans who believe that Ron Gardenhire and the Twins' organization in general have something personal against Bartlett. It's true that the Twins haven't exactly shown much confidence in him since the beginning of last season. He was promptly sent to the minors after struggling the first 6 weeks of last season, and this season he hasn't been given the starting nod, despite not having any viable competition.

Jason Bartlett, who had been the leading candidate for the starting shortsop gig all through spring hurt his hamstring yesterday after hitting a double in the 8th. It sounds like it's not too serious, but on the other hand it's best to be cautious with injuries like this at this time in the season. The last thing anyone wants is hamstring bothering them all season. Bartlett had the following to say: