Tag: Joe Crede

Kouzmanoff traded to the A’s

January 16, 2010 – It has been reported that the San Diego Padres have traded 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff to the Oakland A’s and now the door is quickly closing on any hopes of the Twins getting a major league caliber 3B. The free agent market at 3B is drying quickly up with Joe Crede, Melvin Mora, and Andy Kennedy as the last men standing and there are rumors out there that the Orioles are hot on the Crede trail. I am not sure that Mora is any improvement over what we currently have at playing third now and we certainly don’t want Adam Kennedy.

So what do the Twins do, they still have holes at 3B and 2B? The 2B free agent market still has Orlando Hudson who would be a great pick-up and Felipe Lopez who would also be a nice fit but after that it drops down to Ronnie Belliard and of course Adam Kennedy again.

It seems that the Joe Mauer salary negotiations are already impacting the team that the Twins can put on Target Field. The Twins need to sign Mauer but they find themselves between a rock and a hard spot because they have a pretty solid team but they have two major holes in their infield. If the team is going to seriously contend, the Twins need to bite the bullet and spend the money to fill at least one of the two holes and probably play Punto in the other position. If they do nothing, they still end up with a high salary team with diminished hopes of making the playoffs and you can already hear the “time to rebuild” chatter starting to gather momentum.

You can bring Danny Valencia up and play him at 3B but he is not ready. The sad part is that neither his hitting not his fielding is ready to play in the big leagues, if either his glove or his bat were ready, it would be easier to throw him in the fire and suffer with the other but that is not the case.

I guess that is why Mr. Smith makes the big bucks, to make these kinds of decisions, but here we are, about a month away from spring training and the Twins have two major holes in the infield and Mauer is still not signed for the long term. Do something Mr. Smith, show us you are breathing and that there is more going on at Target Field then just everyone “patting themselves on the back” for the great ballpark that will open in April. If nothing else, at least bring back Joe Crede, maybe he can play 3B at Target Field five days a week. I think the ball is in your court Mr. Smith, I know you have been working hard and that you have really been getting after it, but now it is time we see the fruits of your labor.

Twins Comings and Goings

February 21, 2009 – So Bill Smith finally landed that 3B in Joe Crede that he said that the Twins did not need since he was happy with Buscher and Harris. Crede is a very nice addition for both his bat and his glove plus the Twins got him on the cheap, just a $2.5 million base with incentives based on at bats that could pay him up to $7 million. Where he will bat is still undetermined but I see projections all over the board from the 5 hole to the 8 hole.

Now the hot rumor is that the Twins have made an offer for relief pitcher Juan Cruz in a sign-and-trade deal with Arizona. Again, if the Twins can add him to their bullpen he will be a plus; it will be very interesting to see what Minnesota has to give up.

That still leaves some unfinished business for Mr. Smith; he still needs to clean up the outfield situation where he has too many players and not enough positions. I have talked to a number of people and most of them feel that the Twins will not move any of them but will mix and match them getting all of them some at bats. The logic behind keeping them all is that Span, Gomez, and Young make very little money and the Twins can afford to keep one of them on the bench. I don’t see it that way at all, you need to play your best players as much as possible and good players need to play regularly, not be taken out of the line-up when they go 0-4 with 3 strike-outs. If the Twins mix and match then Span, Gomez, Cuddyer, Young, and Kubel will all be unhappy. If you bench one of these guys then you have another unhappy scenario, The Twins are not the Yankees, the Twins like a happy clubhouse and happy players. Delmon Young has to be traded and I think the Twins brass realizes that and will make a move before spring training is done. The Twins should be able to get a nice starting pitcher for Delmon, someone that they can put in their rotation because I just don’t see Perkins making it in the rotation for very long before an injury strikes him down. I think Bonser has been their ace in the hole if a rotation spot opened up but now with that sore shoulder, who knows what is in store for the Boof man.