With opening weekend in full swing, Ken Rosenthal has his first Full Count video of the season up over at FOX Sports. Let's check out the highlights….
- The Twins' outfield is worth keeping an eye on, since Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel are facing free agency after 2011 and many of the team's top prospects are outfielders. Rosenthal says it's "even possible" that the Twins could trade Denard Span, who is signed through 2014.
- While Matt Holliday recovers from his appendectomy, the Cardinals are comfortable platooning Allen Craig and Jon Jay. Craig is "highly sought after" in trade talks, particularly by American League teams, according to Rosenthal. However, the Cards aren't inclined to move him.
- Even if Grady Sizemore returns to form in the coming months, he's not likely to be dealt at the trade deadline. His 2012 club option becomes a player option if he's traded, so if they wanted to explore a deal, the Indians would probably do so next winter, after picking up the option.
I’ve been saying for over a year now I wish we could have a spot to get Craig regular at-bats. Well this could be his chance to shine and take away some of Berkmans playing time. I really hope he gets the chance to prove himself, his bat could be huge in the line-up.
He won’t be taking at-bats from Berkman. His best chance is to do really well while Holliday is out or if Freese gets hurt. Even then I’d be weary of his glove over at third.
If Berkman looks as lost at the plate as he did all spring training for the first couple weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Craig in right field a few times a week. If Freese gets hurt Carpenter will be ready to take over at 3rd. He played well enough this spring to earn the job, he is just in AAA to keep getting regular at-bats.
I would LOVE if the Jays traded for Denard Span.
Give us Drabek lol.
Denard Span would look good on a lot of teams. He seems to be a better fit for a NL team. I think he might be a player the Twins keep around a little longer though.
Bill Smith would probably trade him to have Jon Rauch back
I think the Twins have a few players that could be dealt during the season if some guys in the minors step up. Cuddy, Kubel, Baker, Capps are ones that come to mind.
Do you think the Nationals would want Capps for Ramos?
They have to be fools to make that trade.
I guess sarcasm is hard to read….
LOL. No, actually I thought the sarcasm was quite obvious, in both cases. I meant it in a way that the Twins were fools to make the trade in the first place.
I totally disagree on the Sizemore issue, the Cleveland Indians will do everything possible to shed payroll again IMO no one will be safe. Yesterday they set a record for the smallest gate since the new stadium was built, yesterday announced attendance 9,500 plus these are actual ticket sales. But the actual gate I have heard was way below the 6,000 mark I watched the game and can believe it.
Sizemore and Carmona will be key players who will be attractive to any contender needing a spark most fringe contenders is really only going to want a guy as a rental anyways so the Play option in Sizemore’s contract will be meaningless IMO.
Guys like Sizemore, Carmona, Orlando Caberra, Austin Kearns, Adam Everitt, Jack Hannahan, Chad Durbin, Mitch Talbot, could all be gone by the time the trading Deadline is over, it will come down to another transition period for the tribe.
The above roster spots most likely will be filled by Ezequiel Carrera, Alex White, Jason Kipnis, Nick Weglarz, Chord Phelps, Lonnie Chisenhall, Josh Judy, Zack McAllister or Joe Gardner.
I do not believe that they will let Travis Buck get away he is still very young and finally healthy the Indians Front Office feels they have struck Gold with Buck. After next season when Travis Hafner is gone you could see Buck and Duncan platooned at the DH spot.
The FO has a stated goal of competing in 2012. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to trade away a diminished (this year) Sizemore, or Carmona who is on an extremely team friendly contract. It takes awhile for a team to rebuild. Besides, no one wants Adam Everett.
Everitt will retire — it does not matter how team friendly the contract is if your losing money and both can be relaced with ease.
Lets say they deal Sizemore and Kearns at the All Star Break then your outfield is Ezequiel Carrera / Buck in Left ( until Weglarz is healthy ) — Brantley CF — Choo in RF with Duncan the reserve outfielder in the above the highest paid guy is Choo. everybody else at league min and in the deal of Sizemore they save approx 11 mil over 18 months — Kearns about 750 thousand this year.
With Sizemore not part of the future with Brantley here and Weglarz ( but with minor injury ) and Carrera major league ready this is a no brainer move by the front office.
Carmona this guy is a glorified Ace on this team but in reality he is a #3 at best on 85 % of all other major league teams – trust me Pomeranz, White, and Knapp will make everybody say Carmona WHO ?? shortly.
Alex White will be ready he could slide right into the top of the rotation and the Indians would save hugh dollars and not mess a beat IMO.
What I would do is the Nationals are very vocal about the interest in both Sizemore and Carmona I would work a deal with them. In the Deal I woul want the center piece to be catcher Wilson Ramos and others so we can move Santana to 1st base the majority of the time like a 80 / 20 since LaPorta is a bustout, send LaPorta to the minors and hope he works it out and can come back either as a LF in 2012 or a DH when Hafner contract runs out after 2012.
While some of your comments have a small amount, (very small).. most of what you’ve offered makes little sense. Start with:
-Wilson Ramos already isn’t be any better than Chun Chen, who will become the player you think Ramos might be… Alex Laviskey will start the year in Lake County or even Kinston..and he’s the goods…
-Kearns was traded for a fringe AAAA/ML prospect.. he’s not going to bring anything more this time around.. he’s signed to a nice team friendly low priced deal.. no reason to move him..
-Grady Sizemore is the face of the franchise.. His injury history (sports hernia & elbow in 2009; microfracture surgery 2010) have decimated his progress.. he is now healthy and will be with the Indians through the life of his contract.. PERIOD. (He is not being traded)
-Fausto may be a # 3 elsewhere, but WHO FRIGGAN CARES?.. he’s the Indians # 1 for now, on a team friendly contract and is going nowhere..
Regarding “cost cutting”.. Cut what?. .the Indians enter the 2011 season with the three lowest payroll in MLB and the youngest teams. There is no reason to cut any more. The young wahoos just need to play the games.. get the reps… learn, grow and mature.. This is what 2011 is all about..
It does not make sense to trade Sizemore or Carmona. Indians are looking to compete in 2012.
Mitch Talbot? What makes anyone think Talbot will be dealt?
With payroll of under $50, Indians are not going to cut much more payroll until they have to.
I don’t see the Twins trading Denard Span because there are so few quality leadoff hitters around. He had a down year in 2010, but he should bounce back. That coupled with the team friendly contract that he is sign to (12:$3M, 13:$4.75M, 14:$6.5M, 15:$9M club option) it doesn’t make sense for a team that will continue to be competitive while they have Mauer and Morneau on the team to trade him. Also, the Twins focused on upgrading their “speed” this offseason, so I don’t see them abandoning that and trading Span.
Cuddyer and Kubel are more likely to be traded since their contracts end after this season. With multiple long term internal options (Ben Revere, Aaron Hicks, Joe Benson) as well as short term options (Jason Repko, Rene Tosoni) it could easily happen this year. It would also make sense to move some guys around next year (Delmon Young to DH, Denard Span to RF).
I think they will make it known to other Gms who they will listen to offers for. If someone offers them something that fills other holes at an acceptable level then they might go that route. You can almost certainly expect that to be the case if they struggle by the deadline.
Agreed, Bill Smith will let the other GMs know who is available.
It is very early, but I don’t see them “struggling by the deadline”. Over the last 10 years, with the exception of 2007, they have remained competitive until well beyond the deadline. They may have holes, but this team is too talented to go into rebuilding mode and start trading for the future.
It really may not have anything to do with rebuilding. They might dangle some of their OF’ers to fill a need for the stretch run. Gms should always be open for business and should always dangle what might be supurflus position players just to guage interest and see what teams are willing to offer.
Agreed… I could see trading Jason Kubel to fill a need (SS, RP?), but not Denard Span. Kubel is replaceable, Span isn’t as easy to replace.
Span doesn’t have the arm for right and I don’t think the Twins will trade any of these players. They’re supposed to contend so they probably will add and not subtract at the deadline. I think they’ll let Kubel go but not Cuddyer. Even though I like Kubel better the Twins have too many lefties and they need to improve their outfield defense. Getting rid of Kubel will open a DH spot and allow a better fielder to get more playing time.
Span doesn’t have the best arm for RF, but he fits there. Most likely the person joining the outfield would dictate where Span would play. The most likely addition is Ben Revere who also has a weak arm (weaker than Span). If you have a Corner OF spot and CF to fill with Span and Revere it should be Span on the corner and Revere in CF.
Don’t forget the daily ESPN highlights when Gomez was playing center and Span was out in right, seemed like he had a top ten play every night.
Exactly! It is nice to have a guy with a canon at the corners, but that isn’t required. Cuddyer has a canon, but he still grades out as a well-below average defender at RF. The only thing that changes with weak armed outfielders is the cut-off men (SS and 2B) need to go out further.
It just so happens that we have a very speedy second baseman and shortstop.
lol.. if Sizemore returned to his old form a lot of teams would want him regardless of a 1 yr option. This guy was phenomenal…..
Thats what I’ve been saying all along this is why indians fans get their hearts broken, they listen to everything these guys put into print without just opening their eyes and seeing what the truth of the facts actually are.
The only thing that option does is maybe effect the return and if you have 3 teams bidding for Sizemore’s service and they are fringe contending teams that option may not even effect the trade at all.
Heck look what was given up for Matt Capps I couldn’t believe it.
I respect the heart of Indians fans but let’s not ignore history. There’s a long list offan favorites that have been traded mid-season because they were in the last year of their deal and weren’t going to be brought back or simply were too expensive to keep around.
The Dolan’s have tons of money but they are notorius for linking gate attendance with payroll expenditures for the following seasons. Would not shock anyone if either Sizemore or Carmona are traded this season or this offseason.
Different Dolans.. not the Cablevision ones..
I don’t want us (Twins) to trade Span. I know we have a ton of future replacements getting ready to be in the bigs (Revere, Benson, Hicks) but Span shouldn’t be the outfielder we try to move. I think we should look to move either Kubel or Cuddy at the All-Star break. Most likely though, none of the starting 9 players will get dealt at all.
I think trading an outfielder should be looked into, but don’t forget Cuddy’s versatility. He filled in for Morneau nicely last season, who can play first if Cuddyear is gone? Kubel is the better choice to trade imo.
Very true, not to mention the fact that Cuddyer is the biggest “clubhouse guy” for the Twins. I think trading Cuddyer would have a negative effect on the team.