Hitting the Foul Pole

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Twins miss out on Danny Haren

Danny Haren was tradedto the Angels last night for a pretty underwhelming package of Joe Saunders, Patrick Corbin, Rafael Rodriguez and Tyler Skaggs (Skaggs was announced this morning, he was originally a PTBNL).   This probably leaves many Twins fans angry that Smith didn’t make a better push (or a push at all) to acquire Haren.  While he hasn’t been very good since the first half of 09, he is still a frontline starter.  John Bonnes at TwinsCentric wrote why he thinks Haren’s contract isn’t as reasonable as everyone seems to think.  I tend to agree with him, but since Haren is under contract until 2013 we could have used him this year and traded him in the offseason for a pretty decent return (especially if he had a strong august and september).  One of the reasons I read for the DBacks trading him for so little, is they were afraid he wasn’t going to rebound to his 07-09 form.  Much like the Rays had to do with Scott Kazmir.  Turns out the rays were right about Kazmir, but I don’t think the DBacks will be write about Haren.  He is 29, and doesn’t have an injury history like Kazmir does. 

Hopefully this doesn’t mean the Twins will just go out and sign Jarrod Washburn, since he sucks and we already have one crappy pitcher whose name ends in -burn.  Why do we need another?  Ted Lilly is still available, and I expect the Twins to pursue him pretty aggressively, only to not get him.  Not that I want him.  I also hope that Smith doesn’t assume the rotation problem is fixed because of one non-terrible trip through it.  Yes, everyone has pitched well in their most recent start, but that doesn’t mean we can expect Baker and Slowey to be consistently good down the stretch. 

Who else is out there that you would like to see the Twins go after?  Are you as deathly afraid of Lilly as I am?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 9:36 am and is filed under Opinion, Rumor Mongering, State of the Team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://seans-sports.com Sean Schulte

    Yes, Lilly sucks. He’s been below average in the NL Central. If we acquire him, he’d slot in nicely as a Blackburn replacement … but I don’t know that contenders should be trying to make the minorest of upgrades to their 5th starter. Kind of defeats the point of upgrading.

  • FunBobby

    What about Brett Myers? He is putting up decent numbers this year, granted in the NL. His K/9 is much lower than I thought it would/should be. It seems like he is one of the few remaining decent starters out there. Not sure what his price is, but if its reasonable I’m OK with adding him to the rotation. He also has experience as a closer, so that could be an option down the stretch.

  • http://thebatshatters.blogspot.com AK47

    I think Lilly becomes a different pitcher in a ballpark that plays as big as Target Field…though our outfield D would need to improve to realize the benefit. That said, I agree with Sean, he’s not that big of an improvement on what we have.

    I’m in favor of going after Fausto Carmona, he’s been solid against the Tigers and White Sox during his career and he looks to have rediscovered some of what’s been missing the last year or so. Anyone with me?

  • FunBobby

    Is he even available? I read somewhere a while ago that he might be, but that talk has seemed to have died down.

  • rghrbek

    Yeah, Lilly is rated as one of the most severe fly ball pitchers in all of baseball.

    Even though TF plays big, our outfield situation makes that extremely problematic.

    Since the expectations of the type of pitcher we are going after has been lowered (to a 4th or 5th starter), I am sure they will trade for someone on the cheap.

    Also it is rumored that they are going after hard, for that Frazor guy from Toronto. I am not sure he is any better than what we have for lefties in the bullpen.

  • rghrbek

    Wow, Repko made two plays tonight Span wouldn’t make. However, I would only throw him breaking balls, he’s got a big hole in his swing.

  • Grover Gopher

    Haren had a partial no trade clause in his contract that included the Twins……Haren was not coming here no matter what we offered the D’Backs.

    Two possibilities: Josh Johnson from Florida would require a ton of talent going Florida’s way, but would be worth it. Yovanni Gallardo from Milwaukee….Brewers need to think of creative ways to keep Prince, tradin Gallardo would be one way of doing it.

  • FunBobby

    I’m fairly certain the Marlins will not trade the best pitcher in the NL to us. Even if we gave them our top 5 prospects. Ricky Nolasco is a much more feasible option.

  • rghrbek

    Plus the Marlins are talking about being buyers now not sellers, now that they are hot and over .500

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