Winter Meetings Recap

The Winter Meetings ended yesterday after the Rule V draft, so I figured today I would recap what the Twins accomplished at the winter meetings, which could accurately be called "next to nothing." First, the Twins outrighted infielder Chris Basak to the minor leagues, and after clearing waivers, he was placed on the Rochester roster. Also, the Twins passed on their pick (#11) in the Rule V draft, but they had 3 players taken from them in the major league phase and 3 in the minor league phase. Catcher-turned-pitcher Tim Lahey was taken 1st overall by the Rays and then sent to the Cubs for $150,000. Lahey pitched well in 78 1/3 innnings in AA, and even managed a late-season call-up to AAA. However, with all the Twins' pitching prospects, he didn't seem to have a great future ahead of him, but he could hide in the back of the Cubs' bullpen in 2008. Next, recently-signed knuckleballer R.A. Dickey was taken at #15 by the Seattle Mariners. Though he may have gotten a spot start here or there for the Twins, Dickey was really a AAA rotation-filler, and probably will not be missed much. He spent 2007 in the minors, and only pitched 3 1/3 (terrible) innings in the majors for the Rangers in 2006. The third Twin taken in the major league phase was Garret Guzman at #30 by the Washington Nationals. I mentioned that the Twins should have protected Guzman, but they did not and he was taken by the Nats. However, I have a feeling that he will be back with the Twins since the Nats already have Austin Kearns, Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, Ryan Langerhans, Nook Logan, Dmitri Young, and Wily Mo Pena competing for spots in the outfield.

In the minor league phase of the draft, outfielder Rashad Eldridge and pitchers Josh Hill and J.P. Martinez were taken from the Twins' organization. None of three were big losses. Eldridge, Hill, and Martinez all put up decent numbers mainly in AA last year, but all three were old for that level. Eldridge and Martinez were 25 and Hill was 24, and none of their numbers were anything special anyways.

So, all in all, the Twins had six relatively unimportant players taken from the organization in the Rule V draft and sent Chris Basak to the minors. So those were the extremely active winter meetings I had looked forward to, huh?