Hardy and Hudson

Today, I saw a picture of the "Twins new double play combination" sitting in the dugout and laughing. The caption implies that the pair will be the primary middle infield for the Twins in 2010. I fear the picture may be sadly prophetic: These two will ride the pine when Gardy decides to bench them in favor of Tolbert and Casilla. By the end of May, the official scorer will charge Hardy with an error for booting a ball in the hole which likely would have been a single anyway. Casilla will go 3-4 with a double and a home run in a 7-2 Twins loss. Hudson will go 0-5 in between 2-4 and 2-3 games. Tolbert with make a diving stop in the hole, but the runner will beat the throw by half a step. Gardy will interpret this as Hardy and Hudson going through a bit of a slump while Tolbert has been playing great defense for us. And Alexi-y has been knocking the ball around pretty well for us lately. (That 3-4 game will bring him to 4-30).

If you ask why Punto is not considered in this scenario, shame on you. You know exactly where he'll be. Unless we could be so lucky that he hurt himself sliding headfirst into first base after popping up a bunt.