There are several things to consider when discussing the value of Kubel. One that this is only his 6th year of MLB he missed all of 2005 with a severe knee injury. It took a couple years for him to really get back fullfilling the huge potential he had before the injury. Really feel like last year was his first year at full strength. He could play the outfield everyday if we needed him.
Lets look at his stat compared to Cuddyer and Morneau last year. You love Cuddyer and Morneau - Cuddyer kept us in it last year and Morneau is a league MVP.
2009 Kubel Morneau Cuddyer
HR 28 30 32
RBI 103 100 94
Slugging % .539 .516 .520
AVG .300 .274 .270
He looks good compared to those big dogs. You must also keep in mind that Gardy loves him. Kubel came into the league as a hot prospect, people expected him to hit the snot out of the ball. He blew his knee out and almost was out of baseball for good. I think Gardy admires how hard he has worked to get back to the form people expected of him. Who knows how much we would have to be paying him or where he would be if he hadn't hurt his knee. We should feel fortunate to have him as a DH just the price we are paying. He will play more this year including the outfield and I think it will make his game all around better. Look for him to contribute lots of RBIs even though he's in the middle of the lineup following Mauer, Morneau and Cuddyer.
So I say cut the "beast" some slack be a good fan that cheers for all the players and realize nobody is going to play a perfect game every time out. Sure he'll leave some runs on the bases but so do our two MVPs. The hope is that if the MVPs don't get the hit then Cuddy or Kubel will, the way its been so far this season the 7-8-9 hitter will do it.
GO TWINS!
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