Links for Tuesday…
- I'm excited to be joining an online league in Fanball's National Fantasy Baseball Championship; take a look at all the events they have planned. My NFBC league drafts on March 28th.
- David Weathers hasn't ruled out pitching in 2010, according to Gregg Dewalt of The Times Daily. Weathers would consider pitching for a contender, but said, "If no one calls in June or July, it's been a good ride."
- Tom Krasovic examines Kevin Towers' strengths and weaknesses as a GM, and says he could see Towers with the Cubs down the line. Click here to download Brendan Bianowicz's Excel spreadsheet chronicling Towers' moves.
- Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the Yankees made a series of attempts to acquire Twins center fielder Denard Span in July of last year.
- Rich Harden scoffs at negative reports about his early Spring Training velocity, reports Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He apparently looked better Monday.
Gotta love Sherman and his timely stories. Does that guy know it’s March 2010?
If the Cubs had to replace the old-school, scouting-based Hendry with any old-school, scouting-based executive, Towers might be the guy.
He made for a pretty damn good GM with the Pads, I’d love to see what he could do with Chicago’s payroll. In other words, I’d love to see him not spend over $200M on Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano and Milton Bradley.
Explain to me why the Twins would trade Denard Span for Phil Hughes?
I was thinking the same thing. Hughes in 2007 had a much higher value than Hughes in 2010.
They wouldn’t seeing as how they have no one else to play center field.
Maybe not now, but when they still had Gomez it wouldn’t have been an unfair trade.
It was more realistic when they still had Gomez, but it would still be far from “fair”. Span is a proven asset as a premiere lead-off man – top notch in the AL – and his stock was (and still is) on the rise. Hughes, on the other hand, has gone from promising prospect to a guy who is meandering in the netherworld between bullpen and back-end rotation.
Hughes has gone from centerpiece of any potential deal to a mere sweetener.
Potentional #1 to Carlos Silva-equivalent after a year of dominating out of the bullpen? Of course! How did I not see that sooner?!
He’s obviously got way more upside than Silva. But he doesn’t command the lofty status he did a few years ago when he was seen as ace-potential.
I don’t think he was putting Hughes as low as Silva, but he has lost significant value since 2007. In 2007, Hughes was still a relatively unknown because of not much ML service or none if you’re talking about before the season, but still a highly touted guy. From what I remember, he was dominating in the minors as a starter. That’s why he was thought highly of. He was good. He did great in the bullpen last year, but he hasn’t been a good starter, at least so far. His great SP numbers in the minors haven’t translated over, not even a little bit. They could eventually, but maybe he doesn’t have what it takes. MLB is a different animal. Some dominate in the minors and can’t do as well in the majors. Because Span is mentioned, he’s actually the opposite. People thought highly of him when he was drafted, not too highly (Torii heir at minimum), but highly. He did nothing in the minors to show he was valuable and now he’s one of the best leadoff hitters in the game. Some things translate the opposite way, so far for Hughes, he’s a good reliever but that’s it. Obviously that’s not nothing, or Silva-like, but it’s not the dominating SP that the Yankees thought.
I didn’t think Hughes in a Santana deal was good enough in 2008. I, in fact, didn’t like anything that the Yankees were supposedly offering. This was, at the time, the greatest pitcher in the game, in my opinion. I really didn’t like what any teams were offering, but I would have taken one of the Sox rumored deals over the Yanks and Mets in a heartbeat. The only other piece I remember is Melky Cabrera and I definitely did not want him at all ever. If I had to absolutely choose between the Yanks and Mets I’d choose the Yanks, but that’s not saying much. It’s easy to choose the other offers over the Mets’ one, even if I didn’t know the results. I didn’t like the deal and I wouldn’t have liked the Yankee deal either, but I think the Yankee deal was better because of Hughes, even though I didn’t want him.
At this point, Twinsvet is right. Hughes is no longer a touted prospect. He is a good reliever, maybe eventually a great reliever with the possibility of getting his SP ability back. I don’t know a team that would center a huge trade around a “good reliever” unless the trade was a more minor one.
I’m glad they didn’t trade Span at any point. I was certainly wrong about him. I’ve always thought Hughes was overrated. He was pretty good last year, but I still would never do that deal.
Pretty easy for the Twins to say no to that one! Hughes hasn’t shown that he can close (or be a consistant starter) and the Twins have plenty of set-up guys with that same profile. Sherman speculated that this trade made sense in light of the Nathan injury but there is no chance for a Spann to Yankees deal – the Yankees do not have any major league or major league ready players that the Twins need so badly they would trade their young, valuable CF for.
More importantly, if they were actually going to entertain the notion of moving Span, they could get much more than Hughes; and have bigger needs than a back-end rotation or above-average-bullpen-arm-to-try-out-at-closer.
Here’s what annoys me about Sherman’s article, and goes to some deeper frustrations with Yankee fans/commentators in general: WE’RE NOT YOUR FREAKIN’ FARM SYSTEM.
You constantly look at us in terms of “oh, I guess that guys pretty good, let’s go get him”. Sure, we’ll give you a Knoblauch now and then, but you have completely unrealistic expectations. You think we’re going to give you valuable pieces just because you’re willing to give up more than a bucket of balls? STOP PENCILING OUR ROSTER INTO YOUR LINEUP.
The same goes for all the Joe Mauer 2011 speculation.
And this goes for Boston fans as well, the 2nd most egregious offenders of treating the rest of the league as your personal farm system.
I wish this was possible but is rather trade Jonas hughs looks more likes starter span will be a great player one day it was smart of the twins to say no
Denard Span is the man!
If he ever becomes a Dodger he will be Denard on the Boulevard.