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.

Thursday, May, 28th

Twins Talk

• Last night at the dome the Twins got back to playing old fashion Twins baseball in that they did not hit a homerun but they did all the little things including stealing 2 bases and capatalizing on 6 Boston wild pitches to win the game 4-2 to move into 2nd place in the AL Central. Kevin Slowey was the story of the game in my opinion struggling through six solid innings against a very good Boston lineup. They foul off everything and get your pitch count up, but Slowey kept battling and made it through 6 innings and only gave up 2 run along with only one walk and five strikeouts. With the win Slowey now has a record of 7-1 which is the 2nd most wins in the league behind Zach Grienke who has 8. With the 2 runs Slowey now has an era of 4.11 and now has 4 quality starts in a row now and becoming the pitcher we all expected out of him this season. Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier combined to get through the 7th and 8th innings. Guerrier came in with a runner on first with 1 out and got out of it on one pitch getting a double play. Joe Nathan pitched the 9th to pick up his 8th save of the season.

• Offensively the Twins went back to the old Twins baseball in stealing bases, taking the extra base and using their speed to their advantage. With that said it should not of been a close game as the Twins left 14 guys on base. Daisuke Matsuzaka was all over the place and the Twins had no problem getting on base they just struggled getting that big hit. Thanks to a 3 run 3rd inning though they got all the runs they would need. After Justin Morneau hit a double Jason Kubel drove him in with a double of his own. Brenden Harris drove in Kubel to end the rally and have the Twins take a 3-1 lead, a lead they would never relinquish. Jason Kubel had a big game going 2-3 to raise his average to an unbelieveable .340 on the season. Denard Span also went 4-4 with a walk to raise his average to .316. In an example of playing Twins ball 2 of Span's hits were infield singles that he used his legs to beat out. Brendan Harris also contributed 2 hits and that rbi in the 3rd inning. Finally, Delmon Young broke out of a 0-19 streak by getting 2 hits to get him back in the game.
• Today, the Twins finish their 4 game series with the Red Sox at the dome with young Anthony Swarzak getting the start for the Twins against Red Sox ace Josh Beckett.

Rochester wrap

• The Red Wings had an awful performance that the team would like to forget about. Everybody who yesterday seemed to get pounded in a 13-2 loss to Durham. Reid Santos got the start for the Wings and was ok compared to the other pitchers. He made it 4 innings and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits along with a walk and 5 strikeouts. Tim Lahey then game in and in a word was awful. In only 1.1 innings Lahey gave up 7 hits and 6 runs along with two walks and a strikeout. With the 6 runs allowed Lahey's era is now a robust 12.60 on the season. I know everyone says that Lahey has a good arm, but there comes a time you need to cut your losses and move on and I think that time is now. Lahey was ok last year not great but not this bad. Last year he went 5-5 with a 5.43 era with 8 saves. This year he is awful and its not like he is a young guy he is 27 years old. It is a move that needs to be done especially with Rob Delaney and Anthony Slama toiling at AA and ready to move up. The best move would be to pull the trigger. Ben Hendrickson then entered and was equally bad giving up 4hits and 4 runs in only 2 innings of work. Not really the relief help the Wings were hoping for when they activated him off the DL. Armando Gabino and Juan Morillo did a nice job the last 1.2 innings to end the nighmare.

• The Wings did a few things offensively, but when your pitching staff gives up 13 runs there is not a lot the hitters can do to stay in the game. Dustin Martin and Trevor Plouffe were the hitting stars of the game today. They each had 2 hits to pace the Wings. With Martin's 2 hits he is now hitting .261 on the season. Plouffe also added his 27th rbi of the year along wtih his 2 hits that brought his average up to .232 on the year. Matt Macri drove in the other run for the Wings his 13th rbi of the year.
• Today, the Red Wings finish their series with Durham up at Frontier Field with Philip Humber getting the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

• The Rockcats had another tough loss to take their 2nd in a row against Trenton as they fell to the Thunder 5-1. The game was much closer than the final score made it appear but Anthony Slama gave up 2 runs in the top of the 9th to put the game away. Cole Devries pitched another solid game and took the loss, Devries went 5 innings and only gave up 3 runs. He walked 3 and also struck out 3 and now his era is at 3.12 on the season. Devries has been New Britain's most consistant pitcher this year and had another good outing just couldnt score any runs for him. Jose Lugo and Rob Delaney put together 3 shutout innings together to keep the Rockcats in the game. Anthony Slama came into the 9th hoping to keep the team in the game and gave up 2 hits and 2 runs in an inning of work. Slama hit 2 batters and gave up a Gopher ball the only thing good about it is he didn't walk a batter so I don't look at it as too bad of an outing. Really it was only 1 bad pitch that hurt him and that will happen.

• The Rockcats did not get the bats going at all yesterday as they were only able to get 5 hits on the day against good pitching by Trenton. Steve Tolleson had the best hitting day of the bunch going 2-5 with the Rockcats only rbi. Tolleson has really been on fire bringing his average up from .140 to now .253. In May he is hitting .315 with 12 extra base hits. It is pretty obvious that Tolleson belongs in AAA and with Alejandro Machado blocking him the most obvious thing to do is release Machado and bring in Tolleson and a super utility player. Brian Dinkelman, Whit Robbins, and Yancarlos Ortiz also contributed hits for the Rockcats but it obviously was not enough in this one.
• Today, the Rockcats take on Trenton in the finale of that series with Matt Fox getting the start for the Rockcats.

Miracle Memos

• The Miracle got back on the right track with a big 8-0 victory over Tampa last night to increase their lead in the FSL to 5.5 games over Port Charlotte. The story of the game though was Miracle starter Mike Mccardell who won his 6th game of the year. He was dominant again going 7 innings without giving up a run on only 4 hits to bring his era down to 3.63 on the season. In what may surprise you Mccardell leads the Fort Myers staff with 45 strikeouts. He has been as advertised and he is one of the anchors of a very good Miracle starting rotation. Blair Erickson came in relief and struck out the side in the 8th inning. That was huge because Erickson had been scuffling a bit and maybe this will get him going. Alex Burnett finished the game by pitching a very effective ninth inning to finish the win.

• The Miracle came out of a mini hitting slump by putting 8 runs on 14 hits on the board. Nick Romero had a huge game for the Miracle going 2-3 with his first Fort Myers homerun and drove in 3 runs. Rene Leveret had another big game going 2-4 with 3 rbi's. Danny Berg also had his best game of the year going 3-5 at the plate. Ben Revere also contributed 2 hits to bring his average up to .338 on the season.
• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Tampa as staff ace Carlos Gutierrez gets the start for Fort Myers.

Beloit Beat

• The Snappers suffered another heartbreaking loss yesterday to South Bend 3-2 in 15 innings. With the loss the Snappers are now 11.5 games out of first and was their 3rd consecutive loss. It was heartbreaking because they tied it in the 9th only to lose it in 15. Dan Osterbrock was the story of the game as he put together his finest start of the season. Osterbrock went 8 innings and only giving up 2 runs on 7 hits. He also did not walk a batter and struck out 8. Osterbrock has been a dissapointment this year with still a 6.30 era after this start. Hopefully this is the start of a rebound for Osterbrock because he has too much talent to be pitching this poorly. Joe Testa came in relief and pitched 3 shutout innings on 3 hits to lower his era to 1.64 on the season. Matt Williams then came in for 2 shutout innings and then Micheal Tarsi ended up giving up a run in 1.1 innings of work.

• Offensively they were led by Micheal Harrington and James Beresford at the plate. Harrington went 3-5 with an rbi his 14th of the year. With the 3 hits Harrington raised his average to .211 on the season. Beresford continues his hot streak going 2-6 to raise his average to .310 on the season. More interesting in May Beresford is hitting .324 with 9 rbi's to be the Snappers best hitter in the month of May. Juan Richardson contributed 2 hits and his first rbi of the year in the year.
• Tonight, the Snappers continue their series with South Bend as Bobby Lanigan gets the start for Beloit.