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Orlando Cabrera, it is… The A’s SS was acquired by the Twins in exchange for SS Tyler Ladendorf. The good news… they didn’t have to trade Danny Valencia. The bad news… Ladendorf has a chance to be special too. The Twins 2nd round pick in 2008 started on fire at E-town this year before being promoted to Beloit where he was hitting a little over .200 in a dozen games or so. Don’t fool yourselves, the cost for Cabrera was high. It is likely that Ladendorf would have ranked in the top 15 Twins prospects, maybe top 10. That said, Ladendorf likely would not see time with the Twins for about three or four years, so it is a fair deal.
It will be interesting to see who is demoted? Alexi Casilla, probably?
But also, don’t fool yourselves, this trade was made to keep the players happy. Cabrera is not much of an improvement over Brendan Harris offensively at SS, and his Defense this year has not been good either. At 34, don’t expect his range to improve. He isn’t a good hitter, but likely Gardy will put him in the lineup in the 2nd spot right away tonight.
Comments I have heard from other Twins bloggers is that the deal is not going to make the Twins better, but simply to appease the players. With the Mauer situation, that is not a minor thing.
Now, if the Twins want to actually make themselves better, they need to get a starting pitcher. Doug Davis is the guy I would probably target.
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Definitely could have been worse. Maybe he’ll provide a spark that the Twins kind of need. At the very least, we won’t have to see a Punto/Casilla combination anymore. Cabrera/Punto at least has a chance to be decent.
Won’t they just demote/release Buscher?
Bill Smith, man of ACTION!
This probably means more ABs for Punto. If they send down casilla that means the only real second baseman on the team is Nick. In the long run that probably the team worse.
Ugh.
This is not a bad deal. Ladendorf has potential, but he isn’t one of our top 10 prospects and he hasn’t even been able to hit in the Midwest League yet.
Cabrera isn’t much of an upgrade, but he IS an upgrade. If he slumps, the Twins may be faced with a difficult choice at the end of the year. He can be offered arbitration if he ends up being a Type B free agent, but you run the risk of him accepting it.
Ladendorf is a great athlete. Powerful build. Strong. I have seen him play in Beloit. But he is a very long way from being a top ten prospect.
What is good about Ladendorf? Well, when seen in Elizabethton the ball was jumping off his bat. He has some potential to hit for power. He has a decent glove, with decent range but with his body type he will likely be a 3b prospect (not shortstop). As a 3b prospect he is not all that appealing at this point.
Good trade in the short term in that, let’s face it, comparing Cabrera to Harris is pointless. Gardy wasn’t going to play Harris. The real comparison is Cabrera to Casilla. And that is where the upgrade comes into play. The combination of Cabrera as SS and Punto at 2b is a fairly significant upgrade to the Punto/Casilla infield we have seen lately. This is not a close call.
down on the farm..you explain the trade perfectly. Cabrera/Punto is an upgrade and that is what matters. I also agree that Billy made the deal to please the players which is fine with me if you keep the big 3 happy. I’m glad they made a move, would like to see a pitcher as well but I won’t complain if this is it. At least they did something.
so the way i see this is they got cabrera to replace harris at SS, which wasn’t really the problem. 2b, RP, SP…those were the problems. don’t you think they could have put together a better package than the Tigers for Washburn? it just frustrates me because this didn’t make us any better, in fact you could argue that by trading a good prospect in Ladendorf that we got worse as a franchise. just making a move for the sake of making a move is not what’s going to help. don’t see why people are calling this a good trade. to me it’s just as good as doing nothing.
The Tigers added Washburn, the Sox added Peavey. I don’t think the Twins made any progress on the competition. I hope Ladendorf does not come back to bite them. Part of the outcome of this deal will depend on whether they get any compensation for Cabrera. Of course, we can all hope he is a Type A free agent since that will mean he has played well the next two months. Apparently that may also mean they can’t offer Cabrera arbitration and won’t get any compensation if he signs elsewhere.
It looks like the White Sox are picking up all of Peavy’s contract of $56 million. Boy, that could be risky and a deal that could blow up in their face.
It seems that everyone is “rationalizing.” Minor upgrade to keep M&M happy? Why is that suddenly paramount for the Twins FO? Admittedly, I don’t live in MN, so you may know more than me but this whole “Joe has said he needs to see moves made” argument doesn’t appear to have much substance behind it. And, even if it did, I would leave player moves to people who are paid to construct an overall ballclub. I don’t see this trade having a significant impact relative to winning a playoff series. I don’t like the concept of giving away Ladendorf.
I’m not too happy with this trade…
I guess it pleases the players though
pfff
Too bad we lost Ladendorf, Though I think it’s a good trade. The Twins have the middle infield pretty well covered with Casilla, Harris, Plouffe, Singleton and De Los Santos. All of them solid defenders with good hitting potential, so nothing to worry about in that section.
Van Mil hit 99 last wednesday, how about that??!! Why isn’t this guy in New Britain yet? I know he’s been moved up pretty slowly to this point, but the way he’s pitching right now, why not move him up and see what he does in AA? He has shown much better control, despite the horrible FSL umpires. Is he a candidate for the AFL? Considering he missed the first two months of the season, and with the Rule V coming up?
A thoughtful opinion and ideas I’ll use on my blog. Youve obviously spent a while on this. Thank you!
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