Gomez vs Young

With today's question I am going to stick with a question about the Twins. I welcome your comments either on the website or you can always email me at travis_aune@yahoo.com.



1. With the Twins at the end of the season probably having to trade one of their outfielders so everyone gets to play on a daily basis who would you rather see the Twins trade Delmon Young or Carlos Gomez?

• Argument for trading Delmon Young: The idea in trading Delmon Young is not something that the Twins really don't want to consider, but because of the fact that they have 4 outfielders that need to play every day they need to atleast consider trading him. Young was the 1st overall pick in the 2003 draft and put together great numbers in him minor league career. The black eye is when in frustration Delmon threw a bat at an umpire and received a 50 game suspension. He came back from that and made his debut with the Devil Rays in 2006. He spent the entire 2007 season playing right field for the Devil Rays hitting .288 with 13 homeruns and an impressive 93 rbi's. After the 2007 season he was traded to the Twins along with Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie. At 22 years old last year the Twins were expecting a middle of the order bat that would hit 20-25 homeruns and be protection for Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Instead what they got was a singles hitter who hit everything the other way. In 2008 Young hit .290 with 10 homeruns and only 69 rbi's not really the player they thought they were getting. So far this year it has been more of the same he is hitting .245 with a homer and 14 rbi's in 29 games. Of his 25 hits this season only 2 of them are extra base hits. He just is not the type of hitter the Twins are looking for he is a singles hitter in a homerun hitters body and he won't listen to the coaches advice. Another problem is he is an awful outfielder, he has a very good arm, but he takes horrible angles to balls and looks like a deer looking into the headlights sometimes. The tough part is he is only 23 years old, but without much of a choice Young should be the one that gets traded because there is still value for him because he is such a young player and many teams think he will develop into the power hitter everyone needs.

• Argument for trading Carlos Gomez: I really do not like the idea of trading Carlos Gomez, but he just does not get it at the plate. He is a wonderful centerfielder who is blessed with phenomenal speed. Gomez was signed by the Mets at age 16 in 2002. He worked his way up the ladder in the Mets minor league system and was known as a 5 tool prospect. He made his major league debut with the Mets May 13, 2007. Right before spring training of the 2008 season Gomez was traded along with Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra to the Twins. With the trade came in immense opprotunity with the Twins because the Twins needed a center fielder after losing Torii Hunter to the Angels. Gomez was the opening day center fielder for the Twins and there were some good things he did, but there were some bad things also. In 153 games Gomez hit .258 with 7 homeruns and 59 rbi's along with 33 stolen bases in 44 attempts. Gomez showed the ability to steal bases whenever he wanted too, the problem was he did not get on base enough to do that with only a .296 on base percentage. Current leadoff hitter Denard Span's career obp is .394 so you can see the difference. The problem is Gomez has no plate discipline he thinks he is a power hitter when he should be hitting ground balls and bunting to use his speed. He just does not get the hitting approach he should have learned by now. This year he was slated to be the centerfielder and already he has been benched and his playing time is few and far between. So far this year he is hitting .225 with no homeruns and 2 rbi's in 89 at bats. He is not even stealing when he gets in there with only 4 stolen bases. I am not saying he won't be a good player, but he is not ready to be a major league player and the Twins need their outfielders to be ready, able and willing to get the job done. I believe he is atleast 3 years away from being the 5 tool player he can be. However, 3 years is probably too long for a major league team to wait on when they need good players right now.

• My take: If it was up to me I would not trade either one because I believe they both are going to awesome players in a year or 2. They both have there faults, but also have there strengths. This is close, but if I had to choose I would choose to trade Delmon Young and keep Carlos Gomez. I am basing this on 2 factors when making my decision. The first one is coachability something that Delmon does not like to do is to listen to the coaches. Sometimes I think he thinks he knows more than the coaches do and that doesn't work for me. Gomez on the other hand is always in the cage early working on getting better and doing whatever to help the team if it means pinch running or coming in late as a defensive replacement Gomez is willing to do it. Secondly, I believe the Twins can get more in return for Young because of the Power factor. Teams are more apt of give up players for a guy that could eventually hit you 30 homeruns than a guy who is a speed guy who might be a 20 homerun a year guy. All in all I wish they did not have to trade anybody, but it is becoming fairly obvious that the Twins need to move someone because Gomez and Young are not developing because they are not playing enough. It was a gamble to do this going into the season and it is obvious it didn't work so after the season the Twins should move on and get what you can for Delmon Young. I am not saying trade him just to trade him the deal has to make sense. If the Twins can get a starting shortstop like a Yunel Escobar they should take it because he would fit a need for the Twins. I really believe next year we need an outfield of Span if Left, Gomez in Center, and Cuddyer in Right with Dustin Martin as the extra outfielder.