Revere

On Wednesday I predicted that IF the Twins traded anybody for more pitching help that it would be Ben Revere leaving Minnesota.

Sadly, I'm getting pretty good at this predicting thing, as yesterday the Twins did send Revere packing. That means we got rid of two really, really good center fielders in less than a week, while acquiring pitching "talent" that has a great deal of question marks.

I'm not very happy right now. Vance Worley BETTER be the pitcher he was as a rookie TWO seasons ago and not the injury-ridden loser he became last year. And Trevor May better be a lot better than his record indicates as well.

It feels like the Twins are already punting the 2013 season so that they have a chance of being better in 2014. And, right now, the price they are paying for that chance seems a bit too high.

It seems weird. Twins fans didn't mind losing an established starter like Span, but now that we lost his up and coming replacement, we are up in arms. I understand the sentiment, but I'm more irritated that we traded BOTH of them. We really should have kept at least ONE of the two. Revere has the greater upside and I was hoping he would be OUR star of the future and not somebody else's, but I'm just ticked that we think our best YOUNG inexpensive players are the guys we need to deal in the first place.

The Twins philosophy is now officially changing. Guys like Span and Revere USED to be the guys we invested in. They were the guys we knew would turn it all around for us given time. NOW we are playing the same stupid game all losing teams play. We are signing established stars like Morneau and Mauer to long-term payroll sucking deals when we should be letting THEM go. The money we save by not giving them $40 million a year is the money we would then spend on one or two established free agent pitchers while signing guys like Revere and Span to long-term REASONABLE deals until we could no longer afford their demands.

By doing it this way, we are wasting our minor league system.

On the plus side, Aaron Hicks is SUPPOSED to be the best all-around center fielder in our entire organization. The Twins appear to be handing him that job for next season, and for all I know he will become the Twins next Kirby Puckett. It just seems like such a stretch that we would move out TWO of our best outfielders to make room for one who is only POTENTIALLY going to be good.

And even though we have a lot of outfielders, it's not like we have a lot of really GOOD outfielders.

IF we don't get any (or lose any) more outfielders by the beginning of next season, our outfield next season will be Willingham, Hicks, and Parmalee. Potentially, that's alot more power than we've had there for awhile.

But who are the back-ups? Joe Benson will probably be on the major league roster out of necessity. His stock dropped like a rock last season, but he's kind of the next in line based on who our "next best" philosophy. Just a year ago he was mentioned in the same breath as Revere and Hicks as a sure-fire future star. He's not looked at that way anymore. Next? Oswaldo Arcia. But he was in single A ball most of last season.

The Twins still do not like Plouffe at third base. They LOVE his offense but hate his defense. There's already a lot of discussion about him spending more time in the outfield this coming season if we could find ANYBODY in our organization to play a good third base. I think the Twins consider Plouffe a long-term outfielder who just is keeping third base warm until someone else emerges and takes his place.

Parmalee and Plouffe are actually in similar boats. Both are outfielders playing infield positions because the Twins need their skills there. They aren't great at those positions, but they are adequate.

I'm still wondering about Willingham as well. IF the Twins wanted to get maximum value for him, NOW would be the time to actually trade him. He had a career-year and is known to be injury-prone.

I don't think the Twins are done looking for someone to trade him for. They still need infield help and would probably consider more starting pitching.

Scary as it seems, I fear the Twins are not done surprising their shrinking fan base.