twinstarget.com/2010-archives/july/twins...improve-bullpen.html


Boooo, I hate it.

That's all we got for Wilson Ramos? One of the best catching prospects in MLB? Bah. I'd much rather have any of Lee, Haren, Oswalt, etc etc etc. Don't tell me that couldn't have happened.

Now we have Capps/Rauch/Nathan (probably returns next year.) Sucky.

Plus I had Rauch on my 18 Team, 40 man roster, majors/minors, Dynasty Keeper, Fantasy team. Damnit.

Agreed. Now you have a mess next year with Capp and Nathan. They probably skimp and don't bring Rausch back so the team will barely be better.

pants wrote:


You are probably right about that.

Capps is possibly a little better than Rauch, but I think trading a top catching prospect for a RELIEVER is stupid. Especially when we already had a closer (and have Nathan too!)

Rauch is way better suited as a stetup man than as a closer. Rauch pitches to contact which can be very dangerous when going against playoff teams and pressure is building. The only way this trade works out for us is if it means Joe Nathan will be traded in the offseason otherwise why give away the top catching prospect in the majors for a 2-3 month loan on a legit closer?

I have a problem. I worship the ground the Twins walk on. Very few of their trades in the past have turned out to be dogs. Matt Capps was in the all star game this year. He is only 26 years old. We may look at him a year down the road as the steal of the century. Joe Nathan at his age may or may not return to his prior form. Rausch was a cork plugging a hole. You can never have too many good pitchers.

mmaland wrote:


I can't agree at all (no offense.)

Read this article by one of the best Twins minds on the net, Aaron Gleeman:

aarongleeman.com/2010/07/30/twins-get-ma...-ramos-and-joe-testa

College Wolf wrote:


Ouch

The last two Twins moves have been suspect though. They got nothing for Santana and until the last 1.5 months Garza had out played the @#$# of Delmon Young.

Nathan's getting old and who knows if he returns to anywhere near his old form. We needed help with the bullpen, the move allows Rauch to be our set-up man while we put a real closer on the mound to close out ballgames. No problem here with this trade.

The last month???? How about this whole past year! From this point last year to now D Young is compared a steal for Garza. If Young keeps hot he has a good chance at an MVP season right next to Cabrera from Detroit! I'll take that any day of the week! We always have pitchers it's hard to land quality hitters.

Capps is not a "real closer", and Delmon Young is a stretch as even a Top 10 MVP candidate right now. He'd have to stay this hot the rest of the season... especially to make up for his terrible defense.

Regardless, I get your point and I do agree Nathan is a question mark for next year and the future.

Delmon wasn't hitting .300 a month and a half ago. Garza has been consistently a solid starter he whole career and goes through stretches where he is $$$$. He was $$$$ in the playoffs.

I'll put it this way. Until this month the idea of a Garza/Young trade back would have had the Twins laughed out of the room. Even now there is no way the Rays do it.

pants wrote:


Don't forget, it was Garza AND Bartlet. Wasn't it?

Yea for Harris and Young. Harris sucks, oh well.

I guess I didn't mind trading Garza simply because we always seem to come up with pitchers from our system. We always have 2 to 3 guys we could plug in. At least at the time we did. The hitting aspect of the game has ALWAYS been our weak spot!!! We knew that and took a chance. Young was a former #1 pick with a lot of power potential. Now that he's finally coming around(hope I don't jinx this)and batting 300 with HR's popping off his bat it's a fair trade. Garza's been good, he's no STAR though. I think it's what both TEAMS were hoping, they wanted a starting pitcher and we wanted to add power to our lineup.

mmaland wrote:


Correct, that was the trade.

Bill Smith is not a great GM.

wop612 wrote:


Garza has been a stud ever since we traded him. Like Pants said, there's no way they'd trade back.

Hopefully Delmon can keep it up, we definitely need him hitting like this.