Why Can't The D-Rays and Twins...

[deerayfan072]

and when the team is ready to contend, anyone we could get for cantu or gomes will still be a mop up guy at best.

Maybe SF will give up another Nathan or the new flavor of the month Accardo? All are better than mopup guys, right? Yeah. Stranger things have happened. Gomes & Cantu will eventually leave for nothing anyways if TB doesn't play them/trade them while Al Reyes will be at home watching games on TV.

this is true. They will not be re-signed after this year

[BlueBandit24]

Trading hitting for pitching is a risky proposition these days, especially when dealing with the Twins. They value their pitching prospects and feel that organizational depth on the mound is vital to any franchises success. It would take a lot in return for them to give up either Garza or Slowey, both who are figured to be cogs in the rotation the next few years. If Hunter leaves after this year, they already have his likely replacement in Denard Span in AAA. 3B and LF are still major concerns, but the Twins aren't going to reach for prospects or players at those positions. As has been said before, I'm not sure why the Rays would want more pitching prospects when they have very good ones in their farm system.

Also, at 3B the Twins have 3 prospects (Matt Moses, David Winfree, and Whitney Robbins) who they feel have a shot to be regular players at 3rd base, and in LF they still like Jason Kubel who was a machine in the minors but has been slowed by knee injuries. Overall, if either team is going to help themselves out I don't think it's going to be through each other.

[raiders_umpire]

Yeah. Stranger things have happened. Gomes & Cantu will eventually leave for nothing anyways if TB doesn't play them/trade them while Al Reyes will be at home watching games on TV.

I will not miss Cantu at all. He is horrible defensively and has not done anything offensively since his 05 explosion. I would miss Gomes as he is a good guy and a great clubhouse presence but offensively he is challenged unless the fastball is waist high down the middle. I think you see Reyes moved in July just due to him having a good year so far and most playoff teams will be looking another decent arm for their playoff push. Hopefully we get pitching in this deal and not another offensive player.

As far as our bullpen, if it is not fixed by outside sources, it should be fixed in another year or two with what we have in the minors. If our 2009 rotation is Kazmir, Niemann, Shields, Price, and Davis, then that means Sonnanstine, Hammel, Tiffany, McGee, Townsend and a few others should be in our bullpen helping it as well. That is alot of young pitchers, but also alot of young pitchers with some big time talent as well. If just 1/2 of them are as good as advertised and can continue to improve, then the Drays definitely should have a staff that can help them contend. One solid offseason veteran presence could go along ways in helping these young kids grow even more.


Now of course all of this means nothing if Friedman decides to just pocket the money he is making and not put it back in the franchise. I hear he has saved the money he gets from the MLB the last year and promises to use it resign the big boys(Kazmir, Young, and others) once their contracts are up. I will give him the benefit of the doubt for another year or so since he just took the team over last year, but if he pulls a #%@%^# (heck I can't even say his name) and pockets the money, then he needs to move onto another hobby.