Headed to Minnesota

Interesting deal for both sides. In Young, the Twins get a replacement for Torii Hunter, who recently bolted for the greener pastures of Anaheim. Although Young may have been a tad overrated by his former manager in Tampa Bay, the kid has game. Also, he’s young, cheap, and likely to improve.

Young hasn’t always been a model citizen, but there is a ton of upside here. He could outperform Hunter as soon as, well, right now. Given their financial situation, this is a shrewd pickup for the Twins.

Harris had a nice season at shortstop for the Devil Rays, but the sense I get is that he’s a bit stretched defensively at the position and might be better suited to second base or even a utility role. Then again, that’s what folks used to say about Bartlett, and he’s turned out to be a solid big-league shortstop, so who knows.

Pridie is a prototypical Devil Rays prospect — power, speed, no plate discipline. His stock had fallen in recent years, and in an organization as stacked as Tampa Bay’s, he wasn’t likely to get much of a shot.

Headed to Tampa Bay

On the other side, Garza was Minnesota’s #1 prospect headed into 2007 according to Baseball America, which said among other things that “calling him a No. 2 starter behind Johan Santana almost seems conservative.” For a team desperate to add depth to a rotation headed by Scott Kazmir and James Shields, the acquisition of Garza makes perfect sense.

Bartlett provides the Devil Rays with a more proven big-league shortstop, albeit one whose value is heavily tied to his ability to hit for a high batting average. Morlan, the other player coming to Tampa, is a native of Cuba who had been a starter before 2007 and who had been rated Minnesota’s #21 prospect by BA coming into the season. In his first campaign as a full-time reliever, the 21-year-old posted some impressive numbers (most notably 12.61 K/9) in the Florida State League.

Fun trade. It isn’t every day you see two of the top young talents in baseball swapped for each other.

Others Voices

• Twins Geek
• Rays Index
• crashburnalley

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Twins, 5:10 p.m. PT — How in the world can Horacio Ramirez have a 7-4 record despite a 7.38 ERA? If his performance doesn’t convince you that won-loss record is a terrible way to evaluate starting pitchers, then nothing will. Opponents are batting .341/.407/.518 against the southpaw; that’s roughly what Joe Mauer did last year. Right-hander Matt Garza (2-3, 2.05 ERA) starts for Minnesota.
• Yankees at Angels, 7:05 p.m. PT — New York has won 21 of its last 30 and is now just four games back of Boston in the AL East. The Angels are up by two games in the AL West. Two young pitchers, Philip Hughes and Dustin Moseley, face each other in this one. Both have been brilliant at times but, as you might expect, very inconsistent. Both lineups are stacked, too, and the pitchers will have their hands full.

National League

• Brewers at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m. PT — After leading the NL Central for much of the season, Milwaukee has slipped behind the Cubs into second place. Rookie Yovani Gallardo gets the call for the Brewers. He’s allowed 18 runs over 8 1/3 innings covering his previous two starts. Milwaukee features MVP candidate Prince Fielder and ROY favorite Ryan Braun on offense. Veteran lefty Doug Davis gets the start for Arizona against his old team. Davis is 10-10 this year, after going 11-11 each of the past two seasons, and 12-12 the year before that. Weird.

One game: Yankees at Anaheim. It’s the most compelling pitching matchup and has the most playoff implications. Happy watching…

Post from: Knuckle Curve