After 3 months Bill's looking pretty smart.

3 Months ago Bill Smith pulled off the famous Johan Santana trade.  If i remember lots of you were complaining about who we got.   Now lets take a look at the other options that were on the table.  

Yankees: Phil Hughes 0-4 9.00 ERA 13 k's

Melky Cabrera .286 AVG 5 HR's 12 RBI's 3 SB's

Red Sox:  Jacoby Ellsbury .280 ABG 3 HR;s 11 RBI's 8 SB's

OR Jon Lester 1-2 4.31 ERA 22K's

Compared to Carlos Gomez .265 AVG 1 HR 7 RBI's 11 SB's

Not to mention the 3 guys we havent seen yet.  I really think Bill Smith made a great move and its showing already.  Not tomention the best guy in the trade isnt up yet.  Guerra anyone know how he is doing? 

I've read a few things on Deolis Guerra. He's doing ok for the Fort Myers Miracle.

2-1,  3.75 ERA, 24IP, 19K, 10BB, 1.38 WHIP

http://www.saberscouting.com/2008/04/18/deolisguerrareport/

He needs to command better, and the Twins will keep him there until he dominates, then move him up. Hopefully he can keep pushing himself in the right directions for the Twins.

I'm still excited to see Philip Humber and Kevin Mulvey. I think they're both good players as well. For some reason Humber isn't dispaching hitters like he did in Spring, which is a little discouraging. So hopefully he's just trying to find his pitches identities a little more, like throwing more changeups and whatnot.

I've never been a Phil Hughes fan. I have never been a Jon Lester fan. I have never EVER been a Melky Cabrera fan. Jacoby Ellsbury, he's doin well, but started out cold as all get out. The Red Sox and the Yankees can keep their youngin' for all I care!

Carlos Gomez has been an delightful to use a truly awful adjective. Just delightful, haha.

Z

If Go-Go can just raise that average to .260 by seasons end we should be in good shape.

And without question he'll break Knobby's SB record.  Kid has the potential to steal up to 60.  Just needs to get on base.

Well he's hitting at .270 right now, which is fine. It's his OBP that is what needs to improve. He's got to learn to take pitches and get some walks. I'm happy with Bill Smith's trade, but if there's one player that would be helping this club out the most right now it'd be Jacoby Ellsbury. His OBP is insane. He draws tons of walks. If he was our leadoff hitter all year we'd have scored a lot more runs so far and Mauer would have a lot more RBIs. I'm happy with Gomez though because I think he has a higher ceiling than Ellsbury, especially more power potential, he's just got to learn to take walks. Hopefully he can develop into a Curtis Granderson, maybe Alfonso Soriano type hitter.

I think an important thing toremember is that Gomez wasnt the center piece.  If Gomez and Ellsbury are close to equal talent wise thats huge.  The Sox were gunna give us a ok shortstop, and a ok pitching prospect.  With Tolbert play as well as he is the SS prospect would help much, Mulvey is doing well for AAA and is probably an equal pitching prospect.  Now we have Guerra who is suposed to be a high end pitching prospect with a sky high ceiling. 

Gomez has been a plesant suprise and if nothing else he has been very exciting to watch.  When he gets up to bat my eyes are glued to see what he is going to do next. 

I couldn't agree more. I'm so glad we didn't get Hughes. I thought he would have been the most value for Santana. Time will tell but right now I'm wrong. Ian Kennedy hasn't done a whole lot either. I suppose Lester and Elsbury would have been a good trade but I love the upside that Carlos Gomez has. Guerra might be the centerpiece of that trade in years to come. Humber and Mullvey look to be major leaguers in the future.

Great trade by the Twins.

If the Twins are good at one thing it's making the right personnel moves even when it doesn't make sense to everyone at the time. The other thing the Twins do really well is develop talent from within. The Twins aren't always able to pay the money to keep superstars, but always seem to sign the right people and let others go and replace them with comparable talent. That combined with the fact they've had two great managers at the helm for over 20 years (Tom Kelly and Gardenhire), the Twinks have always been able to compete with other big market teams. They've only had three general managers in the last 20 years, have quite a few personnel that have been with the team for a long time and always seem to sign and develop talent that fits their system. Like Ozzie Guillen put it, they're like "little Pirahnas". While other teams are constantly seeking out big home run hitters and big market names, the Twins continue to develop contact hitters and play quality baseball in all aspects. Detroit is a perfect example that big bats, big trades, and a "potent offense" doesn't always equate to wins. I would dare anyone, except true Twins fans, to name more than three players on the twins roster, yet they compete in the division year after year. I just want to list some players that either were traded or released that weren't considered a smart trade or popular decision at the time:

1998 Instead of keeping all star 2nd baseman and fan favorite Chuck Knoblauch they decide to trade him to the Yankees. Although they didn't get any great quality in return they saved a lot of money because all he went on to do is roid up and throw a bunch of balls over the first baseman's head into the crowd.

2003 Minnesota trades fan favorite AJ Pierzynski to the San Franciso Giants for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. This trade opened up the door for phenom Joe Mauer, and allowed Joe Nathan to take the reigns from Eddie Guardado and become one of the best closers in baseball. AJ went on to become a cancer in the Giants clubhouse.

2003 Although "Every Day" Eddie Guardado was a great closer for the Twins for  a long time they decided not to match the Mariners contract offer and he went on to play one solid year as their closer before losing the closer role.   

2007 Yes it sucks that we had to trade Johan Santana. He's arguably the best pitcher in baseball and absloutely the best left hander. However let's look at what the Twins we're able to do with the money:

Extended Joe Nathan's contract, avoided arbitration and signed Joe Mauer, signed Justin Morneau to a six year deal, gave Michael Cuddyer a 3 year deal, signed Jason Kubel, Kevin Slowey, Francisco Liriano, Juan Rincon, Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Scott Baker, Phil Humber and Pay Neshek among many others. When you look at it that way it seems like a pretty smart move. Maybe all those prospects don't pan out, but the smart money says that a lot of them do.

2007 The twins parted ways with long time all star and fan favorite Torri Hunter.  Only time will tell if Carlos Gomez can fill his shoes, but if he lives up to his hype the Twins will have saved a large amount of money and in return recieved a younger future superstar.

I could keep going, but this has ended up being a really long blog. The whole point is that while there are big market teams that can shell out tons of money for players and seemingly attract big name players like moths to light, the Twins continue to quietly and relatively cheaply put together competitive and entertaining teams. They've even managed to win 2 World Series in the last 20 years. That's a lot more than I can say for the Cubs who last won in 1908, Mets who last won in 1986, Indians who last won in 1948, Phillies who last won in 1980, Tigers who last won in 1984, and the Giants who last won in 1954. So I say keep spending your big money, but for my buck I'll take the Twins any day because when all is said and done the Twins exemplify everything that is good, competitive and pure about baseball.