Thread: Article: Twins trade Denard Span for Nationals' 2011 first round pick

Originally Posted by Kwak

This is called "rolling the dice", but then so is the draft. I believe that this trade indicates a change in philosophy from PtoC. Likely he will look like an early Garza with FBs that often beget foul balls rather than outs. He will need to improve his off-speed stuff, but that is generally said of most pitchers at his level. Mechanics? Unless you have actually seen him pitch (ex. Liriano) I would take someone else's opinion with a grain of salt. Blaming mechanics for a "gopher ball"?--isn't that the expected reason for said "cookie" anyway? It does appear as if 2013 may have fewer wins than 2013 but many have posted that: a) Willingham had a career year (so sell high!); b) Mauer wasn't injured; c) the bullpen was basically solid and d) Morneau had a much more productive year than 2011. Unless there is a substanial influx of major league talent by April we should expect "a step back".
Let's give this Myers guy a chance before we "Hoey" him.

Mechanics? This guy's release point covers all points of the map in the Lower 48 States. Here you go:

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index...-report-video/

It has become painfully clear that this is a high-risk/high-reward/potential crashing downside trade that desperate clubs have to make if they want to get back in the game. That and it insures the club continues marching towards its inexorable drop to a $65M payroll in 2014, which sadly appears to be the club's prime imperative at this point.

Originally Posted by rico7961

Read Dave Cameron's headline at FANGRAPHS. Nuff said.

Then read Keith Law's thoughts.

There can and will be lots of opinions about the deal. Reality is no one will know if it's a good idea for 5 years.

Deleted.

Originally Posted by jokin

"White"?

Seth mixed up his Alex's when typing fast.

Originally Posted by jokin

That and it insures the club continues marching towards its inexorable drop to a $65M payroll in 2014, which sadly appears to be the club's prime imperative at this point.

Yeah, that simply isn't true nor will you provide one shred of evidence stating such.

So what's new Twins get's ripped off agin!

Originally Posted by kab21

Originally Posted by jokin

"White"?

Seth mixed up his Alex's when typing fast.

Correct... I blame the Big Bang Theory too.

Salary dump, Twins fans understand. Start over on the cheap, roll the dice and wait for Yahtzee, like in '82 and '02.

This pops in my head after watching the video about taming meyer....
Maybe after the Nats had Mike Mcdougal for awhile, and saw this guy, they ran!!!! lol
As a Twins fan, I always loved it when Mcdougal came in to save it for the Royals. He never, ever, ever got
himself really figured out.

Laughing out loud... If anyone has any doubt about how difficult it is to be a GM in the court of public opinion. Read this thread and then read almost any thread on this website.

I'm sure everyone realizes that we have disagreements between multiple posters on just about every topic.

Now imagine trying to be that GM who everyone is going to love. No matter what he decides to do. Someone is guarenteed to piss all over it.

If anyone hates Terry Ryan... That's OK I Guess... But please understand that if you were the GM... Someone is going to hate you to.

You can't please everyone.

wikipedia says Mcdougal could hit 103mph.

Wow, taking things a little too personally, or what?

You are well aware that you are in violation of poster decorum for your perjoratives, right?

I never said "nobody likes it". I merely quoted one talking head second-guessing the trade, without editorial comment, and you jump all over me because we have a slight disagreement ( I actually will remain optimistic about Meyer until proven different).

Regarding Hoey, you didn't read my whole post, a post in which I clearly stated that Ryan made out better than Smith when trading a proven up-the-middle position player for a minor league hard-throwing pitcher.

I also published the comps at the same age and level of development, there was no attempt at correlation on the current state of each player and I clearly pointed out the Meyers numbers were accomplished as a Starting Pitcher.

Time for a cleansing breath.

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

Originally Posted by jokin

That and it insures the club continues marching towards its inexorable drop to a $65M payroll in 2014, which sadly appears to be the club's prime imperative at this point.

Yeah, that simply isn't true nor will you provide one shred of evidence stating such.

There is no need to provide any more shreds of evidence, it's already ubiquitously abundant, from the Twins own mouths and actions.

I love the trade

Meyer is a B+ guy for me.

Gibson and Berrios are only B's

I'd have Meyer right behind Sano and Buxton #3 in our system.

what bugs me a bit, is the fact we only got just 1 prospect for DENARD SPAN one of the better lead-off hitting CF's in BASEBALL. and his team friendly contract.

I would of liked to have Sammy Solis or Rick Hague or Jeff Kobernus in this deal as well. But its more of a quibble.

Originally Posted by shs_59

I love the trade

Meyer is a B+ guy for me.

Gibson and Berrios are only B's

I'd have Meyer right behind Sano and Buxton #3 in our system.

what bugs me a bit, is the fact we only got just 1 prospect for DENARD SPAN one of the better lead-off hitting CF's in BASEBALL. and his team friendly contract.

I would of liked to have Sammy Solis or Rick Hague or Jeff Kobernus in this deal as well. But its more of a quibble.

THIS. You nailed it. I will quibble though, Span's team-friendly contract alone should have been valuable enough to throw in a secondary ML arm or Middle Infield prospect to the deal.

Originally Posted by jokin

Terry Ryan and PPMPPPP

In the category of "Payroll Paring Moves of Proven Players at Premium Positions", Ryan definitely has Smith beaten and deserves some credit. Hardy for Hoey ranks near an all-time low in Twins trading annals. Span for Meyer looks somewhat better, on paper anyways.

Let's look at some comparable numbers:

Jim Hoey 6'6"/205#s
Hoey combined numbers at age 23 playing at 3 levels (A/A+/AA):

IP 51/ERA 2.28/WHIP 1.11/K^9 12.9/BB^9 3.2

Alex Meyer 6'9"/220#s
Meyer combined numbers at age 22 at 2 levels (A/A+):

IP 129/ERA 2.86/WHIP 1.10/K^9 9.7/BB^9 3.1

Obviously, Meyer achieved the bulk of his numbers as a starter, so the comp is less than exact, but still... both pitchers come advertised with major mechanics issues.

Totally disingenuous comparison, and yet another reason not to take you seriously.

Keith Law is more respected than Dave Cameron? I think that is probably true among people who don't understand sabermetrics as well. In the same way Souhan is probably more respected than Gleeman.

Originally Posted by puckett1992

Based on comments from Ryan on 1500espn on Monday and earlier in the offseason, he doesn't want to enter a prolonged rebuilding operation, so I would assume other moves are coming. Other than just possibly re-signing Liriano.

Ryan's definition of "prolonged" may be a tad different than others. If you shave his last rebuild in half it's still 3-4 years. In the midst of these ridiculous offseason predictions floating around here I've always felt it's better to build around your best nucleus of talent. Mauer is an elite hitter, but he, by himself, is not a nucleus. The group that was around him has fallen apart for a variety of reasons. Clutching to some faint hope of that isn't in the organization's best long-term interests. Ryan is sharp and I think the moves so far this year indicate his conclusion about the direction to take this team. Three years isn't a terribly long rebuild, especially since many of the Twins future nucleus could be seen for extended looks as soon as a year and a half into his tenure.

Originally Posted by PseudoSABR

Originally Posted by jokin

Terry Ryan and PPMPPPP

In the category of "Payroll Paring Moves of Proven Players at Premium Positions", Ryan definitely has Smith beaten and deserves some credit. Hardy for Hoey ranks near an all-time low in Twins trading annals. Span for Meyer looks somewhat better, on paper anyways.

Let's look at some comparable numbers:

Jim Hoey 6'6"/205#s
Hoey combined numbers at age 23 playing at 3 levels (A/A+/AA):

IP 51/ERA 2.28/WHIP 1.11/K^9 12.9/BB^9 3.2

Alex Meyer 6'9"/220#s
Meyer combined numbers at age 22 at 2 levels (A/A+):

IP 129/ERA 2.86/WHIP 1.10/K^9 9.7/BB^9 3.1

Obviously, Meyer achieved the bulk of his numbers as a starter, so the comp is less than exact, but still... both pitchers come advertised with major mechanics issues.

Totally disingenuous comparison, and yet another reason not to take you seriously.

Elaborate please on what is disingenuous about the comparisons, specifically.

Originally Posted by twinstalker

Keith Law is more respected than Dave Cameron? I think that is probably true among people who don't understand sabermetrics as well. In the same way Souhan is probably more respected than Gleeman.

I think sabermetrics would say that Dave Cameron is significantly overrated. And this is coming from someone that understands and uses sabermetrics a lot.