Meet Joe Crede

• The newest Twin was introduced early Sunday morning

Joe Crede was introduced to Twins fans at a press conference yesterday.  You can see video of it and his first workout with the team here. I think Crede will fit in nicely here in Minny, and even his old boss Ozzie Guillen agrees with me on that.  He seems to like it here so far, although he's still getting used to the idea of playing for the enemy.  Let's hope his back stays healthy, then maybe he'll help win us one of these:

Or even better yet, one of these:


I know, I know, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I just can't help it.  The thought of having an everyday third baseman of Crede's caliber is making me delirious with joy.  Even if it is only for one season.
 
There's no denying that Crede is a significant upgrade over the Twins' current options at third.  He's a career .257/.306/.447 hitter who averages around 20 homers a season, which is a marked improvement over the 32 homers that 11 different players have combined to produce at the position since 2004.  More importantly, Crede is no slouch on defense either.  Although he did commit 20 errors in 97 games with the Sox last season, this is most likely because if his ailing back.  When he's healthy, he's one of the best defensive third basemen in the league, with a lifetime ultimate zone rating of 48.5.  And even though last season was one of the worst of his career, Crede still had a healthy 6.4 rating.  The Twins had some of the worst infield defense in the league last year (just ask poor Nick Blackburn, who was charged with a league-worst 15 unearned runs) and even a less-than-100%-healthy Crede would likely provide better defense than Brendan Harris or Brian Buscher.

Even better, he's not going to have to carry the offense all by himself.  After all, that's what Justin Morneau gets paid to do.  Crede's bat mostly provides insurance in case Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young fail to produce this season.  I have to admit, though, it makes me giddy to think what the Twins' offense will do if everybody starts hitting like they're supposed to. They might even crack the 200-homer mark for once!     
 
If nothing else, the Twins have probably done themselves a favor simply by keeping Crede off the market.  He has teed off on Twins' pitching during his time with the Sox, posting a career .330/.365/.656 and 7 home runs against the Twinkies.  The worst of course, was that ugly series at the Cell in June last year, when it seemed like everything he hit was a three-run homer.  Needless to say, I'm really glad he's on our side for now.

• My hockey team is trying to give me a heart attack
  

Apparently the Wild have begun to realize that they have to win games if they want to make the playoffs.  After laying the beat down on the Red Wings 5-2 on Saturday, they squeaked out a win against Chicago at United Center last night.  It's not as though they were particularly sharp, either.  It's more that Josh Harding was absolutely on fire, recording an incredible 44 saves. Some of which were the most amazing I've ever seen, including this beauty against Troy Brouwer:




Peter Olvecky had his first career goal, and it ended up being the game-winner, too:



This game was an absolute nail-biter.  The Wild tried really hard to screw it up, but Josh Harding just kept bailing them out.  I lost count of all the times they turned the puck over in the high slot, or even worse, right in front of the crease. If Harding hadn't been at the top of his game they would have lost 7-2 and fallen completely out of the playoff picture.  As of last night, they've moved into the eighth seed (there are six teams within a point of each other so standings are subject to change on a moment's notice).

Now I suppose they'll go on and lose 5-1 to the Kings at the X.

• The Wolves almost beat the Lakers, too

The Wolves were really feisty last night, and even had the lead for a little while.  Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair were solid, putting up 20 points each.  Still, it wasn't enough as they lost 111-108, but it's good to see them play well against elite teams for a change.  At least it gives me hope that our Wolfies might be a good basketball team again someday.