Remember that one guy who looked like a really good prospect in that one organization who ended up being good? Why can't we just assume everyone else will?Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave
Because clearly panicking now and trading for another 3B PROSPECT is the right thing for this organization to do. Cause you know, since he's a PROSPECT in another organization, he's guaranteed to work out better as a 3B. And panic-trading two of our best hitters right now for said PROSPECT because we don't know what kind of 3B defense our own top prospect may be playing 3 years from now is clearly the best use of available resources.
This has nothing to do with whether I think Sano will be a good defensive 3B. If he turns into the hitter he looks like he could, he can play below average defense and still be a huge positive for the team. And it means we don't have to trade away good players to try and fill imagined future holes and can instead try and use those players to fill holes we know we have. We KNOW our pitching is terrible. You're guessing our 3B defense may not be good (and may be heavily offset by the bat he brings) in a few years.
And all of this ignores that we already have a relatively young 3B who hit 24 homeruns last year in less than a full season of at-bats. Yes, Plouffe is unlikely to win gold gloves at 3B. But he somehow stuck as a SS for his entire minor league career. Yes, we don't have a big enough sample to be certain he'll be a consistent above-average hitter. But he certainly has the potential. So essentially we have 2 guys in our organization, one already at the majors, one who will be in a few years, who both have the potential to be standout hitters at 3B. But because their defense looks iffy in the small sample sizes we have available so far, we should completely write off both of our own players and trade our 2nd and 3rd best hitters to go find someone else's prospect who MIGHT be a better defensive player. And who also might not be as good a hitter. Of course there's no chance he could end up being anything less than a star, right?
Look, I understand Mike Olt looks like a great prospect, and someday he may end up having been worth trading Morneau and Willingham for him. But since we're essentially looking at a bunch of guys who haven't yet proven they're a long-term 3B, why trade 2 of our best players for an unproven when we have 2 of our own unproven who might be just as good? So we can say we traded our players when they still had value and got something back in return is the answer, I would imagine. I think that's a little misguided, and if that's the reason, target something that's clearly a bigger need, a SS or SP, not 3B. If Plouffe faceplants and the Twins move Sano to 1B this year, feel free to come throw this back in my face. But it isn't a move that makes sense to me right now.
