In 2010 the Minnesota Twins may have found their long term answer at third base in Danny Valencia.
Valencia joined the team in June and established himself as the everyday third baseman playing in 85 games and hitting .311—third best on the team.
With Justin Morneau on the opposite corner of the infield the Twins could have a very formidable twosome guarding the lines at Target Field.
I took a look back over the Twins’ history and, surprisingly, found only seven sets of corner infielders that ever played together for more than a single season.
The expectations for the corner infielders, much like that of the corner outfielders, are to be home run threats and to drive in runs.
I combined the offensive and defensive statistics for the seven combinations and ranked them.
Batting average, slugging percentage, the combined RBI average, and longevity were taken into account to arrive at the final ranking.
Hopefully 2011 will be the start of the next great corner infield tandem of Valencia and Morneau.