On September 14, 2007, Twin #1 made the inaugural post on this blog. About 12 hours earlier, Terry Ryan had announced his resignation from the general manager position that he held since the early 1990s. The Twins announced that his successor would be his former right-hand man, assistant GM Bill Smith. In his first offseason, Smith guided the Twins through tough situations with Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. The team finished his first season at the helm in a tie for first place, but missed the playoffs when they lost the memorable one-game playoff against the White Sox. The following winter was much quieter than his first, with the biggest move being the signing of Joe Crede in late February. With the trade deadline fast approaching, I thought now would be a good time to take a more detailed look at Smith's (mostly underwhelming) work thus far.
November 13, 2007: Traded PTBNL (Doug Deeds) for Craig Monroe.
The trade in this case was not bad, as the now 28 year old Deeds was at the time and still is a longshot to be a contributor to a major league team. However, the acquisition of Monroe in an effort to increase the Twins' righthanded power was misguided. At the time I thought Monroe could be a good, albeit overpriced, bat off the bench. He certainly turned out to be overpriced, but unfortunately he was not good either. He produced -0.6 WAR in only 179 plate appearances before being designated for assignment on August 1st. This was not a disastrous move, but paying $3.8 million for that kind of production was certainly not a good one.
November 28, 2007: Traded Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie.
This trade has pretty much been a disaster for Smith. At the time, Young was being called by some the next Frank Robinson and Smith was being praised for finally taking a risk and trading some pitching for hitting. Since then, though, everyone has found out that trading for Young does not really count as trading for hitting. Or defense. Or any other measurable baseball skill. Young doesn't walk or hit for power, all while playing atrocious defense in a corner outfield spot. Add it all up, and he's been worth a staggering -$7.4 million to the Twins in his year and a half with the team, and he hasn't shown any signs of improvement either. After a career year between AA and AAA, Pridie has fallen back to earth in his time in the Twins' system. He has gotten a couple of calls to the Twins, but has pretty much been a nonfactor in the trade with 6 plate appearances in 11 games. At this point, it seems that's his future with the Twins: AAA player ready to be called upon when they need a 4th or 5th outfielder. Harris is the one player the Twins acquired in this trade that has actually provided positive value. He hasn't produced the way he did for Tampa in 2007 (.341 wOBA, 2.1 WAR), but he's been a serviceable middle infielder for the past couple seasons. The players the Twins traded haven't been as unsuccessful. Bartlett was already a valuable player because of his defense at short, and this season he has .912 OPS for the Rays (flukey, yes, but he's still done it). Garza has not yet become the ace that he was expected to, but he has still been a productive pitcher for the Rays, throwing over 300 innings with about a 4.2 FIP so far for his new team. Morlan was taken in the Rule V draft, but was eventually returned to the Rays and is in his 2nd season at AA. All 6 of the players involved in this trade will be under team control through at least 2011.
January 29, 2008: Traded Johan Santana for Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Phil Humber, and Kevin Mulvey.
Obviously, there were a lot of factors that went into trading the 2 time Cy Young Award winner, with his pending free agency after the season being the main one. Santana had his worst season as a full time Twins' starter in 2008, but was still a +4.6 win pitcher. In his first season with the Mets, he almost duplicated that season with a +4.8 win season and he's on pace for a similar season again this year. Those are far cries from his three straight +7 win seasons for the Twins from 2004-2006, but it's still enough to make him worth his contract. Gomez, mainly because of his excellent defense, has been a net positive for the Twins, but he hasn't shown as much improvement as hoped for at the plate or on the basepaths. His 2009 statistics are very similar to 2008 thus far, but he has dropped his O-Swing% by about 25%. Humber and Mulvey have both had cups of coffee in the big leagues, with Mulvey being the latest attempt to fix the bullpen. Mulvey has a 3.64 FIP in AAA this year after posting a 4.06 FIP last year, and he still has a shot to be a decent starting pitcher. On the other hand, time is running out for Humber, who is no longer on the 40 man roster and has had a FIP around 4.9 for Rochester the past 2 seasons. The last piece in the deal, Guerra, was supposed to be a potential ace. He was recently promoted to AA, but not really based on his performance. His fastball is still only around 87-88 MPH and his strikeout rate has decreased while his walk rate has increased since his 2007 season with the Mets high A affiliate.
August 25, 2008: Traded Mark Hamburger for Eddie Guardado.
This was Smith's attempt to fix the bullpen last season after failing to address it prior to the non-waiver trading deadline. Guardado turned out not to be the fix the Twins were looking for. His ERA overstated the problems that Everyday Eddie had (4.42 FIP), but he was not the reliable late-inning arm the Twins were expecting, as Ron Gardenhire ceded those duties to Jose Mijares by the end of September. Hamburger is now 22 and pitching in single A for the Rangers. He has posted a respectable 4.01 FIP in 46.2 innings out of the bullpen this season. He could make the majors someday, but is not a top prospect and still has a ways to go.
So, there you have it. Not exactly an impressive resume, huh? Maybe we should hope that Smith doesn't make a trade in the next week.
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Showing posts with label jason pridie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jason pridie. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Notes from the last few days
Well, I've been absent from blogging for a few days in a row for no reason other than laziness. To get back in the swing of things, I wanted to just jot down some thoughts from the last few days.
==>Since I've started actually watching the games, I've noticed something that has nothing to do with the game play itself: how opposing announcers talk about Joe Mauer. When I'm watching road games (and thus listening to the opposing team's announcers), the announcers consistently gush about Mauer, as they should. But beyond that, they seem to always speak with trepidation any time Mauer is coming up. If he's coming up fourth in an inning, they'll start talking about how important it is to go 1-2-3 as soon as the inning starts; if he's due up third, they'll talk about how vital it is to get the first two guys out; if he's leading off, they'll talk about how important it is that he's batting with no one on base. To know that he's putting the opposing so much on edge every time he comes up is pretty cool.
==>I enjoy watching interleague play for two reasons. The first one is obvious: I get to watch teams I don't see. The second, however, may be a reason other people dislike it: I love watching pitchers hit. Now, normally, they look pretty bad, and no Twins pitcher has a hit yet, but that doesn't take away from the excitement. If someone hits a double, it certainly is cause for happiness, but an extra base hit for a pitcher would result in total exuberance. And what if they hit a home run? Of course, those are very unlikely--but that's what makes it so exciting when it does happen.
On a related note, the more I think about, the sillier I think it is that pitchers hit year round in the NL. It's cool to watch a few times a year, but to have guys you're paying millions of dollars (to pitch) to be chancing getting hit by a pitch or pulling a groin or jamming something in a slide just seems to be tempting fate.
==>Two roster moves were made since I last posted: Jesse Crain was sent to AAA following his most recent implosion in order to make room for returning starter Glen Perkins. Jason Pridie was called up from AAA for his second cup of coffee to replace Denard Span, who was placed on the Disabled List. Pridie likely won't be up very long, but hopefully he'll be able to notch his first career hit (he was 0-4 in his brief stint last year).
==>Speaking of Perkins, he had a solid return outing on Tuesday night against the Pirates. He threw six innings of two-run ball and thus picked up a quality start. In addition, he struck out four against just one walk.
==>Why is Jose Morales with the Twins if he is not going to play at all? I can understand it if they want to get him some playing time over Mike Redmond, but obviously don't want to get rid of Redmond; that's not the case though. He seems to literally be nothing more than insurance for days when Joe Mauer is DHing. I know it would have been helpful once (when Redmond was ejected) and almost helpful another time (when Redmond got hit on the hand and looked like he might have to leave), but it is really a very rare situation, and it's not worth taking up a roster spot for that possibility.
==>After Mauer's 4-4 showing to start the series with the Pirates, he had a double in four at bats Wednesday before sitting out today's game. His average is now at .425 (58-160). What that means is that he could go 0 for his next sixty-seven and still be hitting over .300. It also means he could go 0-30 and 0-34 and still be leading the Majors and the AL, respectively, in batting average (assuming of course that the leaders stay where they are). And I recently learned that he also technically leads the batting title race despite the fact that he doesn't qualify yet.
==>The Twins took 2 of 3 from the Pirates, but they are going to have to take more advantage of their opportunities against teams not as bad as Pittsburgh if they expect to keep winning. Consider this: in game 1, they hit into 5 double plays (and had a runner thrown out at home) and still scored 8 runs. In game 2, they had 1 hit in 10 at bats with runners in scoring position, but followed that up by hitting even worse with RISP in game 3 (1-11). And Michael Cuddyer got thrown out again at home plate on an infield grounder.
==>And last, but most definitely not least, I wanted to bring up Nick Blackburn's sparkling outing earlier today. He came within one out of a complete game shutout, but still managed to go the distance, give up one run, and allow only six hits. He's now pitched six straight quality starts, and has gone at least seven innings in all but one of them. In that span he's lowered his ERA from 3.83 to 3.09, despite only having more strikeouts than walks in two of the six outings. Total, he walked 11 with just 16 strikeouts, but, as he's done all year, was very successful. I don't know if he can keep it up with this smoke and mirrors approach, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
==>Since I've started actually watching the games, I've noticed something that has nothing to do with the game play itself: how opposing announcers talk about Joe Mauer. When I'm watching road games (and thus listening to the opposing team's announcers), the announcers consistently gush about Mauer, as they should. But beyond that, they seem to always speak with trepidation any time Mauer is coming up. If he's coming up fourth in an inning, they'll start talking about how important it is to go 1-2-3 as soon as the inning starts; if he's due up third, they'll talk about how vital it is to get the first two guys out; if he's leading off, they'll talk about how important it is that he's batting with no one on base. To know that he's putting the opposing so much on edge every time he comes up is pretty cool.
==>I enjoy watching interleague play for two reasons. The first one is obvious: I get to watch teams I don't see. The second, however, may be a reason other people dislike it: I love watching pitchers hit. Now, normally, they look pretty bad, and no Twins pitcher has a hit yet, but that doesn't take away from the excitement. If someone hits a double, it certainly is cause for happiness, but an extra base hit for a pitcher would result in total exuberance. And what if they hit a home run? Of course, those are very unlikely--but that's what makes it so exciting when it does happen.
On a related note, the more I think about, the sillier I think it is that pitchers hit year round in the NL. It's cool to watch a few times a year, but to have guys you're paying millions of dollars (to pitch) to be chancing getting hit by a pitch or pulling a groin or jamming something in a slide just seems to be tempting fate.
==>Two roster moves were made since I last posted: Jesse Crain was sent to AAA following his most recent implosion in order to make room for returning starter Glen Perkins. Jason Pridie was called up from AAA for his second cup of coffee to replace Denard Span, who was placed on the Disabled List. Pridie likely won't be up very long, but hopefully he'll be able to notch his first career hit (he was 0-4 in his brief stint last year).
==>Speaking of Perkins, he had a solid return outing on Tuesday night against the Pirates. He threw six innings of two-run ball and thus picked up a quality start. In addition, he struck out four against just one walk.
==>Why is Jose Morales with the Twins if he is not going to play at all? I can understand it if they want to get him some playing time over Mike Redmond, but obviously don't want to get rid of Redmond; that's not the case though. He seems to literally be nothing more than insurance for days when Joe Mauer is DHing. I know it would have been helpful once (when Redmond was ejected) and almost helpful another time (when Redmond got hit on the hand and looked like he might have to leave), but it is really a very rare situation, and it's not worth taking up a roster spot for that possibility.
==>After Mauer's 4-4 showing to start the series with the Pirates, he had a double in four at bats Wednesday before sitting out today's game. His average is now at .425 (58-160). What that means is that he could go 0 for his next sixty-seven and still be hitting over .300. It also means he could go 0-30 and 0-34 and still be leading the Majors and the AL, respectively, in batting average (assuming of course that the leaders stay where they are). And I recently learned that he also technically leads the batting title race despite the fact that he doesn't qualify yet.
==>The Twins took 2 of 3 from the Pirates, but they are going to have to take more advantage of their opportunities against teams not as bad as Pittsburgh if they expect to keep winning. Consider this: in game 1, they hit into 5 double plays (and had a runner thrown out at home) and still scored 8 runs. In game 2, they had 1 hit in 10 at bats with runners in scoring position, but followed that up by hitting even worse with RISP in game 3 (1-11). And Michael Cuddyer got thrown out again at home plate on an infield grounder.
==>And last, but most definitely not least, I wanted to bring up Nick Blackburn's sparkling outing earlier today. He came within one out of a complete game shutout, but still managed to go the distance, give up one run, and allow only six hits. He's now pitched six straight quality starts, and has gone at least seven innings in all but one of them. In that span he's lowered his ERA from 3.83 to 3.09, despite only having more strikeouts than walks in two of the six outings. Total, he walked 11 with just 16 strikeouts, but, as he's done all year, was very successful. I don't know if he can keep it up with this smoke and mirrors approach, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Offseason Trade Review
On November 28th, 2007, LaVelle E. Neal III reported a potential blockbuster trade between the Twins and the newly-renamed Rays. A day earlier, I had posted about some trade chatter involving the same two teams and Boof Bonser, but what actually occured was much different. The original trade was reported to be OF Delmon Young, IF Brendan Harris, and OF Jason Pridie to the Twins in exchange for SP Matt Garza, RP Juan Rincon, and SS Jason Bartlett. At the end of the day, some lingering injury concerns had forced Rincon out of the deal and pitching prospect Eduardo Morlan into the deal before it became official. At the time, many Twins fans were excited to get Young, who was immediately expected to replace Torii Hunter's bat and hit 30-40 home runs. Most people had no problem seeing Garza leave if it was in exchange for such a great offensive talent, especially with the supposed clashes that Garza had with the Twins' coaching staff. At the time, I wrote that "I liked Garza, but getting Young back for him is a great deal." Garza's clashes seemingly have continued, as evidenced by his on-field argument with catcher Dionner Navarro, but his results have made fans willing to overlook his faults. Garza has a 3.47 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 90.7 innings. His strikeouts are down so far this season, but he still has 2:1 K:BB ratio and has been especially excellent recently, throwing 29 innings in his last 4 starts while giving up 16 hits and 5 earned runs, walking 4, and striking out 24 (including a 1-hit, 10 K complete game).
Delmon Young, on the other hand, has a very dissapointing overall line of .284/.332/.385, but there are still some promising things underneath that underwhelming line. To start, Young's walk rate, and consequently his OBP, have significantly improved from last year, going from a .028 IsoD to a .048 IsoD. Also, he has heated up since the calendar turned to June, as his line since June 1 sits at .330/.354/.495 in 96 plate appearances. His walk rate was way down in June, but that could be due to a small sample size, just as his good numbers could be. The numbers show that he has been improving recently, but really all we know is that he was crowned as the next Frank Robinson way too soon, and then written off way too early after his early season slump.
The other four players in the deal have all underperformed for their new teams thus far. Jason Bartlett was placed on the DL today after struggling as the Rays' starting shortstop throughout the first half of the season. With an atrocious .256/.299/.293 batting line, you certainly can't give any of the credit for the Rays' turnaround to this former Twin. He has stolen 18 bases at an 86% success rate and his range as usual has been excellent, but there's really no excuse for hitting like he has unless you're Ozzie Smith. Harris, on the other hand, has been the only Twins' middle infielder to stay on the Major League roster the entire season, with Nick Punto, Matt Tolbert, and Adam Everett all hitting the DL and Casilla spending time in Rochester. Of course, Harris has used that opportunity to hit only a little better than Bartlett while playing much worse defense. For some reason, people have been under the impression that Harris has played better since moving to shortstop, but his OPS there is actually 63 points lower there than at second base. Also, his OPS in June was only .649, though that was 40 points higher than in May.
The final two pieces of the deal were two minor leaguers, Jason Pridie and Eduardo Morlan. After putting up his first decent year in the minors since 2004 last year, Pridie has returned to the ways of a career .742 OPS minor leaguer. He has hit .235/.272/.361 with 5 homers and 16 stolen bases in 84 games at Rochester. His counterpart in a sense, Morlan, has fared no better, though for a different reason. Morlan, who struck out 99 in 69.2 innings in 2007, threw only 14.2 mediocre innings at AA this season before being placed on the DL with an injury.
All in all, it is still too early to give answer the question of who got the better end of the deal. However, it is still clear that the stars of the deal were Garza and Young, as the other four players do their best to show that they are not major league caliber players. Despite the fact that Garza has had the much better results thus far this season, there is still plenty of time for Young to prove that he was worthy of his billing as the top prospect in baseball a couple years back.
Delmon Young, on the other hand, has a very dissapointing overall line of .284/.332/.385, but there are still some promising things underneath that underwhelming line. To start, Young's walk rate, and consequently his OBP, have significantly improved from last year, going from a .028 IsoD to a .048 IsoD. Also, he has heated up since the calendar turned to June, as his line since June 1 sits at .330/.354/.495 in 96 plate appearances. His walk rate was way down in June, but that could be due to a small sample size, just as his good numbers could be. The numbers show that he has been improving recently, but really all we know is that he was crowned as the next Frank Robinson way too soon, and then written off way too early after his early season slump.
The other four players in the deal have all underperformed for their new teams thus far. Jason Bartlett was placed on the DL today after struggling as the Rays' starting shortstop throughout the first half of the season. With an atrocious .256/.299/.293 batting line, you certainly can't give any of the credit for the Rays' turnaround to this former Twin. He has stolen 18 bases at an 86% success rate and his range as usual has been excellent, but there's really no excuse for hitting like he has unless you're Ozzie Smith. Harris, on the other hand, has been the only Twins' middle infielder to stay on the Major League roster the entire season, with Nick Punto, Matt Tolbert, and Adam Everett all hitting the DL and Casilla spending time in Rochester. Of course, Harris has used that opportunity to hit only a little better than Bartlett while playing much worse defense. For some reason, people have been under the impression that Harris has played better since moving to shortstop, but his OPS there is actually 63 points lower there than at second base. Also, his OPS in June was only .649, though that was 40 points higher than in May.
The final two pieces of the deal were two minor leaguers, Jason Pridie and Eduardo Morlan. After putting up his first decent year in the minors since 2004 last year, Pridie has returned to the ways of a career .742 OPS minor leaguer. He has hit .235/.272/.361 with 5 homers and 16 stolen bases in 84 games at Rochester. His counterpart in a sense, Morlan, has fared no better, though for a different reason. Morlan, who struck out 99 in 69.2 innings in 2007, threw only 14.2 mediocre innings at AA this season before being placed on the DL with an injury.
All in all, it is still too early to give answer the question of who got the better end of the deal. However, it is still clear that the stars of the deal were Garza and Young, as the other four players do their best to show that they are not major league caliber players. Despite the fact that Garza has had the much better results thus far this season, there is still plenty of time for Young to prove that he was worthy of his billing as the top prospect in baseball a couple years back.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Minor League Update
I don't know if I'll do this regularly, but I just felt like doing a minor league post today. I check the minor league box scores every night, so it just depends on if I decide to post about them.
Note: I'm not including runs and RBIs as stats, because for me this is a look at who might help the Twins in the future, and I don't think those stats are very indicative of a hitter's talents.
Who's Hot:
Denard Span (AAA): Last 5 games- .450/.500/.545, 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 K, 6-6 SB
Span has continued his solid season at Rochester since being sent back down. He's never going to hit for power, but improved plate discipline (10:8 BB:K for the season) and baserunning (11-13 SB compared to 25-39 in 2007) could go a long way toward making him a serviceable major leaguer if he keeps it up this season.
Luke Hughes (AA): Last 10 games- .417/.462/.667, 2 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 4 BB, 9 K, 1-1 SB
The best part about these numbers is that they're basically equal to Hughes' ridiculous .386/.448/.685 line on the season. He turns 24 in August and has played all over the field so far this season. If he continues to hit anywhere near this level, it doesn't matter where he plays; he'll find a spot in the lineup.
Ben Revere (A): Last 9 games- .432/.475/.568, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 BB, 3 K, 4-8 SB
Since getting promoted from EST on April 28th, the Twins' 2007 first round draft pick has done everything to prove that his play in the GCL league last year was no fluke. The Twins obviously thought highly of him when they took him in the first round, so now we just have to sit back and see if he can continue this hot hitting.
Who's Not
Jason Pridie (AAA): Last 5 games- .050/.136/.050, 2 BB, 5 K
When he started the season well, it looked like he would prove his 2007 season was no fluke. However, he has struggled lately and his line on the season has fallen to .270/.324/.381 while he has not had an extra base hit in his last 10 games.
Deolis Guerra (A+): Last 2 starts- 8.1 IP, 15 H, 11 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Guerra just turned 19 and is already in High-A, so these couple of bad starts mean nothing in terms of his long-term potential. Obviously it would be more encouraging if he was lights out for Fort Myers, but his numbers on the season are still decent even with these starts.
Drew Butera (AA): Last 10 games- .067/.263/.067, 8 BB, 11 K
Butera has managed 8 BB in his last 10 games, but when you have 2 singles in your last 30 at bats, it's hard to stay off of this list. His play isn't that concerning to me, though, as I've never expected him to have any role with the big league team since his acquisition in the Castillo trade.
Note: I'm not including runs and RBIs as stats, because for me this is a look at who might help the Twins in the future, and I don't think those stats are very indicative of a hitter's talents.
Who's Hot:
Denard Span (AAA): Last 5 games- .450/.500/.545, 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 K, 6-6 SB
Span has continued his solid season at Rochester since being sent back down. He's never going to hit for power, but improved plate discipline (10:8 BB:K for the season) and baserunning (11-13 SB compared to 25-39 in 2007) could go a long way toward making him a serviceable major leaguer if he keeps it up this season.
Luke Hughes (AA): Last 10 games- .417/.462/.667, 2 2B, 2 3B, 2 HR, 4 BB, 9 K, 1-1 SB
The best part about these numbers is that they're basically equal to Hughes' ridiculous .386/.448/.685 line on the season. He turns 24 in August and has played all over the field so far this season. If he continues to hit anywhere near this level, it doesn't matter where he plays; he'll find a spot in the lineup.
Ben Revere (A): Last 9 games- .432/.475/.568, 3 2B, 1 3B, 3 BB, 3 K, 4-8 SB
Since getting promoted from EST on April 28th, the Twins' 2007 first round draft pick has done everything to prove that his play in the GCL league last year was no fluke. The Twins obviously thought highly of him when they took him in the first round, so now we just have to sit back and see if he can continue this hot hitting.
Who's Not
Jason Pridie (AAA): Last 5 games- .050/.136/.050, 2 BB, 5 K
When he started the season well, it looked like he would prove his 2007 season was no fluke. However, he has struggled lately and his line on the season has fallen to .270/.324/.381 while he has not had an extra base hit in his last 10 games.
Deolis Guerra (A+): Last 2 starts- 8.1 IP, 15 H, 11 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
Guerra just turned 19 and is already in High-A, so these couple of bad starts mean nothing in terms of his long-term potential. Obviously it would be more encouraging if he was lights out for Fort Myers, but his numbers on the season are still decent even with these starts.
Drew Butera (AA): Last 10 games- .067/.263/.067, 8 BB, 11 K
Butera has managed 8 BB in his last 10 games, but when you have 2 singles in your last 30 at bats, it's hard to stay off of this list. His play isn't that concerning to me, though, as I've never expected him to have any role with the big league team since his acquisition in the Castillo trade.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Delmon Young a Twin?
LaVelle E. Neal III is reporting that the Twins and Rays are close to a deal which would send RHP Matt Garza, SS Jason Bartlett, and RHP Juan Rincon to the Rays for OF Delmon Young, INF Brendan Harris, and OF Jason Pridie. I'll have more on the deal when/if it becomes official, but at first glance I like this deal. Delmon Young is the young hitter the Twins need, a 22 year old with tons of upside. He's played a little centerfield in the majors, but I'm not sure how well it suits him as he's been mainly a corner outfielder. I liked Garza, but getting Young back for him is a great deal. I also like Bartlett, but a swap of him for Harris (who has played short but I have read is better suited at 2nd) is at least a wash. Harris slugged .434 last year in the majors and is a year younger than Bartlett. Rincon lost his role with the Twins in 2007 and they have better relievers for late-inning situations. Pridie is 23 and was taken by the Twins in the Rule V draft at one point (I'm not sure why he didn't play with the Twins), and looks a solid centerfield prospect who could step in next year. All in all, this is what we as Twins fans have been asking for: trade some of the young pitching for young hitters.
As for the Santana deal, all this does is cement the fact that the Twins need an MLB-ready pitcher in return. Yesterday, I advocated a trade of young pitchers for young hitters if the Twins got someone like Phil Hughes for Santana, and now it is (possibly) just being done in the reverse order. One thing is clear though: this team is not going to be silent like it has in the past couple offseasons, and whether that is because of the new GM or the situation the Twins are in, it is a great thing!
UPDATE 10:34 PM 11/28: Apparently, the Rays either decided they didn't want Rincon or some sort of medical concerns with his elbow prevented his being traded. The deal is now officially, but unfortunately the Twins had to give up RP Eduardo Morlan instead of Rincon. That significantly lessens my excitement for this trade. I don't necessarily feel that it was a bad deal now, but Morlan is a good prospect while Rincon is going to be a relatively expensive option out of the bullpen next year. Hopefully the Twins can still trade Rincon and get some spare parts for him, though this medical concern may render that impossible.
As for the Santana deal, all this does is cement the fact that the Twins need an MLB-ready pitcher in return. Yesterday, I advocated a trade of young pitchers for young hitters if the Twins got someone like Phil Hughes for Santana, and now it is (possibly) just being done in the reverse order. One thing is clear though: this team is not going to be silent like it has in the past couple offseasons, and whether that is because of the new GM or the situation the Twins are in, it is a great thing!
UPDATE 10:34 PM 11/28: Apparently, the Rays either decided they didn't want Rincon or some sort of medical concerns with his elbow prevented his being traded. The deal is now officially, but unfortunately the Twins had to give up RP Eduardo Morlan instead of Rincon. That significantly lessens my excitement for this trade. I don't necessarily feel that it was a bad deal now, but Morlan is a good prospect while Rincon is going to be a relatively expensive option out of the bullpen next year. Hopefully the Twins can still trade Rincon and get some spare parts for him, though this medical concern may render that impossible.
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