Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Nothing Yet

I heard on multiple occasions yesterday that a deal with the Red Sox was in the final stages of completion. It never materialized. I'm not unhappy about this, because I found the rumored deal (which was said to contain Jon Lester, Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie, Justin Masterson and possibly Ryan Kalish) to be quite unsatisfactory. If it comes down to it and that's truly the best offer the Twins receive, I guess they have to take it, because it's almost certainly more value than they'd be able to acquire with the draft picks they'd receive when Santana leaves as a free agent next year. Still... we're talking about the best pitcher in baseball, right? That package doesn't even compare favorably to the one the Rangers got from the Braves for Mark Teixeira last season.

All of this might not even matter anyway. It seems like the Tigers basically have the division locked up for the next several years after pulling off this doozy.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It does seem like the tigers will have it locked for a couple of years, but if we can get ellsbury, lester and Jed in two years time, with our young pitching, m&m&cudyer in their primes, and a superstar in young, we could be in a nice little spot with the new stadium opening.
Also, by then pudge, ordonez and some tiger pitching will be pretty old.
(this is optimistic)

WV said...

I agree, it sure seems like Detroit mortgaged their future to win now and hopefully in 2010 we'll end up looking better. I can't believe their payroll is going to be close to 140 million, I guess the AL Central is no longer a small/mid market refuge.

Anonymous said...

With the Twins in search of middle-infield help, one potential target is free agent David Eckstein. "I've always had a lot of respect for him," said Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire. "He catches the ball. He knows how to play. He's a proven winner."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Gardy you are a f'n idiot!

Nick N. said...

Eckstein? Ugh... I agree with the sentiments above.

Anonymous said...

I freakin' hate Eckstein.

Anonymous said...

I hope Dontrelle's arm falls off, and Verlander suddenly loses 50 mph on that fastball.

SL__72 said...

Every time I hear someone say "he's a proven winner" it makes me cringe and Eckstein certainly is no prize. That said, if it comes down to it I'd rather see him out there then Punto.

As for Santana, if the Yankees are really out of the picture I'm afraid its become a serious buyer's market.

Anonymous said...

just think about how punchless our team could be about every 4 games (since gardy likes to give all of his starters a break at the same time): Eckstein, Punto, Casilla, Tyner, Redmond, Jones, McDonald. i think gardy's real dream lineup would be one with 9 guys that play similar to him. shittily. that is why punto and eckstein are his favorites.

Nick N. said...

Every time I hear someone say "he's a proven winner" it makes me cringe and Eckstein certainly is no prize. That said, if it comes down to it I'd rather see him out there then Punto.

Word is that Eckstein, who is 32, wants a four-year deal in the area of $36M. Still like him better than Punto?

Nick M. said...

I'm glad the fans here are intelligent enough to realize what level Eckstein is on. Its too bad that the Twins brass hasn't learned a thing. Light-hitting outfielders and infielders is a theme and it's killing me slowly. I particularly like what anonymous had to say. I really couldn't put into words better exactly what I was thinking.

Anonymous said...

killing me slowly...

they probably would kill you slowly if you gave them each a bat and they all went jose awfulman on you at the same time. if the twins sign eckstein, i think the 08 theme song should be "killing me softly" with his bat.

Anonymous said...

Gotta test the new gm & see if he's got any backbone, right? See if he'll settle for less.

Karlee said...

i DO NOT WANT CRISP!!!!!
ugh.
ellbury plz.
thanx.

this sucks.

gardy is smoking rocks

Nick N. said...

they probably would kill you slowly if you gave them each a bat and they all went jose awfulman on you at the same time. if the twins sign eckstein, i think the 08 theme song should be "killing me softly" with his bat.

Too good. I'm running with that if they sign Eckstein.

SL__72 said...

I wouldn't be an advocate for getting Eckstein at all if we trade Santana. I also think he is being a little optimistic with the asking price. That contract assumes he will be something like a 2WAR/year player for the next 4 years. I think 2 is a good conservative estimate of what he is worth, but a 2WAR 32 year old small SS can fall off pretty hard and fast.

Anyway, if we keep Santana and don't think that Casilla is a viable option at short this season, I wouldn't mind us offering him something in the 2/15 range.

Anonymous said...

7.5 million a year for eckstein? we would be better off flushing 7.5 million down the toilet and letting punto play there.

SL__72 said...

Eckstein's ZiP's Projection:
.289 .348 .356
Punto's:
.235 .311 .306

I think Eckstein would also be better then Punto defensively at SS.

And who knows? Maybe we could get Eckstein for cheaper then that? I don't really know what the market for undersized league average SSs is exactly.

Also, I'm definitely not saying I look forward to a future where Eckstein is the Twins SS. Its just that there isn't anyone in the organization currently who is an attractive option at short and league average FAs are expensive.

Imo, the ideal situation would be that we get one of these Santana deals done, trade Nathan and make 2008 a rebuilding year (in which case Eckstein isn't really worth anything to them).