Twins GM on verge of baffling trade

by Matt Waters

What else to say?

Wow.

Johan Santana for a pitcher who has the stuff but hasn’t displayed the command to be an elite pitcher [Lester], a shortstop with a solid bat but and promising patience, but very limited fielding ability [Lowrie], and a one dimensional sinker ball specialist with a very shallow ceiling due to lack of secondary pitches [Masterson].

Ellsbury is excellent. He has a swing tailored toward finding holes in the defense, similar to Jeter in that regard. That’s just a fantastic, natural ability. He’ll always have a high BABIP, [batting average on balls hit into play] personifying the old Wee Willie quote “hit ‘em where they ain’t.”

[Interestingly enough, I got into a shouting match with a Red Sox fan at a bar after Jeter beat Papelbon last season with one of his fist floaters into right. He was raging about Jeter being lucky, but when you have a swing like Jeter, or Ellsbury, it’s just a beautiful thing where contact will yield a high number of hits, with some simply bound to be ugly duck snorts. It’s unexplainable, but completely verifiable. Luck is the residue of design, when it comes to these guys]

But Jacoby too, has a limit to his value, because he’ll probably never hit for much power.

So, well done, Bill Smith. If you do indeed take a package that doesn’t include Ellsbury, you have just made one of the worst trades in Baseball history. There’s really nothing the Yankees can do about this. If the Twins truly believe the Red Sox’s inclusion of Lester equals Kennedy [who has way better control and command than Lester] AND Jackson [who could be the Yankees’ CF by 2009] than he is simply being unreasonable, and hurting his franchise severely. Scarring it in fact.

My God… if the Twins don’t get Ellsbury, this is positively nightmarish, a preposterously disastrous trade. So atrocious, it’s almost mind bending.

And Yankee fans: there will be plenty of bashing to deal with, pessimistic expectations set, negativity festered. But just remember: there was nothing, absolutely nothing the Yankees could do. After asking for the Yankees best pitching prospect, their third best pitching prospect, and their best positional prospect, the Twins appear to be accepting a package from the Red Sox that includes neither their best pitching prospect or hitting prospect, never mind a combo of the two PLUS something else valuable. It’s just bizarre decision making by Minnesota, and an epic choke by their rookie General Manager, who somehow got swindled when his chip was JOHAN SANTANA.

What else to say?

Wow.