Ah, spring is in the air. It is a beautiful 12 degrees outside, so that is a little hard to believe, but the first sign of spring, spring training, starts this week. Sites all around Florida and Arizona will have the joyous rapture of American baseballers for the next month and a half.
Fort Myers, Florida is host to the Minnesota Twins. The Twins, of course, are the defending division champions of the Central Division. After a disappointing series against Oakland in the playoffs the Twins tumbled into the offseason.
It always seems that Terry Ryan's first move of the offseason is the best, and often the most intriguing. A couple years ago it was trading Eric Milton to the Phillies for Carlos Silva and Nick Punto, along with giving the Phillies ALL of Milton's salary. That ended up working out pretty slick. Not as slick as trading A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for the famous trip of Nathan, Bonser and Liriano, but that deal is already in the history books as one of the most lopsided trades ever. Last year Ryan gave the Marlins Travis Bowyer and Scott Tyler (Bowyer was very promising at the time, then had a dreadful, injury plagued year for the Marlins) for Luis Castillo.
In this grand tradition, Ryan signed Jeff Cirillo, formerly of the Brewers. There is certainly nothing ground breaking about any of this, but these sort of moves always end up being my favorite. Cirillo batted .319/.369/.414 last year with the Brewers playing mainly at third base. Cirillo will be backing up Punto at third, Morneau at first and will undoubtedly have some DH duties throughout the year. However, his most value, in my opinion will be in backing up Punto. Punto has consistently been injured throughout his career, mainly due to his "Piranha" approach to the game. Also, last year could be a fluke, as it doesn't line up his career norms, but I am going to stick with the idea that Rod Carew really DID help Punto out at last years Spring training and assume that he will play at lasts years level. Besides Punto, the Twins are extremely limited in third base candidates. Even the ghost of Terry Tifee is gone. Luis Rodriguez should never play every day. There aren't any other 3rd basemen on the Twins 40 man roster. The minors? Nothing yet. Matt Moses had his butt kicked by AA New Britain last year. Not an option yet...or maybe ever at this point.
The Twins started off their offseason in the usual, positive way. The next entry in the Twins Season Preview might not be so positive as we get deeper into the winter.
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4 comments:
I don't know how good an addition Cirillo will be, I do think he is at the end of his career.
It is intersting to note that Cirillo had an offer from the Brewers that was as good or better then the Twins and decided to leave because he felt he would get more playing time in Minnesota.
In case you were wondering; this "Tuba" Mike.
I knew it had to be you Tuba. Very few others I know even know what I am talking about.
He'll be solid. I hope he doesn't have to play everyday...that wouldn't be good.
Yeah...he kinds got pushed out of the Brewers infield.
TEH HykCraft... is COMING SOON!
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