This was the lineup put out by Gardenhire on Sunday against the Braves. Before we begin, I feel it’s only fair to point out that with injuries to Orlando Hudson and JJ Hardy and his hands are tied with WHO was in his lineup. Add that to the fact that guys like Denard Span and Joe Mauer needed a break, Span hadn’t had an off day all season and Mauer just needed to get out from behind the plate before his knees turned to putty, so I will operate under the premise that this is the set of players he HAD to go with for the game.

Well, let’s start with problem number one. Nick Punto in the lead off spot. The only reason I can think that he led off is because he is short and was playing an infield position. Punto is terrible. Sure, he is well liked in the clubhouse and whatever, but he can’t hit. Never mind the fact that he is wildly overrated as a middle infielder, he is a moron at the plate. Don’t even get me started about his diving at first. The idea with the lead off hitter is that it’s someone who should get on base in front of the other good hitters behind him.

Oh. Right. Trevor Plouffe. Ever since Hudson has gone down, it’s like Gardenhire has had it in his mind that a middle infielder has to bat second. After Hudson went down, it’s been a rotation of the youngster Plouffe who has been demonstrably awful, with an OBP that is somehow lower than his batting average, and Matt Tolbert, who used to have “Zombie” by the Cranberries as his at bat music, and no that is not a joke. Matt Tolbert loves the Cranberries so much, they were his at bat music. Unfortunately, Dolores O’Riorden can hit better than he can.

This is Gardenhire’s worst trait as a manager. He is completely incapable of assembling a batting order that maximizes his offense. It’s gone unnoticed so far this season due to the surplus of talent and good health until this point, but now with some adversity, Gardy has fallen back to his old bad habits and is putting 2 players with combined OBPs 40 points lower than the clean up hitter. No wonder they were almost completely shut down by Kris f’ing Medlen.

I get a lot of criticism for being critical of Gardenhire without bringing anything substantive to the table. This is an easy fix, which makes it all the more frustrating. First, don’t put terrible hitters in front of your best hitters. It’s a good way not to score any runs, because there isn’t anyone on, and you start the game with 2 outs by the time you get to Mauer. So, how about this (and I know it’s a bit of a change from the way he’s done it every single game up until now)… Move Delmon Young, who has been the best right handed hitter in the lineup this season up to the lead off spot instead of burying him in the 7 hole (!), because, believe it or not, he is actually somewhat fleet of foot and so much better than Nick Punto at the plate, its amazing they are even employed in the same profession. Next, move everyone else up a spot to mitigate the risk early in the game. This way, you get Delmon Young and Joe Mauer more at bats in this game. Just imagine how good Young could be if he had Mauer backing him up instead of Brendan Harris. And if you are worried about lumping for crappy hitters in a row, A) you already did that, 8-2, and B) You have Jim Thome, Span and the rookie Danny Valencia to work with from the bench.

Keep in mind this is just a one game solution. Going forward though, Gardy has to figure out that he should put someone who can hit between Span and Mauer. Of course, he hasn’t been able to figure out stuff like this for the past 10 seasons.

All right fine, here is another picture of There’s Something About Mary era Matt Dillon…. or Carl Pavano.