Cafardo: Denard Span remains on Nationals' radar.

[Riverbrian]

You guys are missing the point......Span really isn't worth much to any other team. He is an average to above average CF with zero power and only average speed. Most teams have a guy like this and really Roger Bernadina isn't that much worse than Span....definitely not worse enough for the Nats to give up anything more than a PJ Walters type for him.

 

The Twins are in a SAD, SAD state because they have no tradeable talent and no prospects. Wake me up in 2025!

Span is pretty damn good for a leadoff hitter. Everyone is looking for an upgrade. If the Nats are in the race and the Braves and Phillies and Marlins and Mets are nipping at their heels. They upgrade. They Go for it because those kids in the minor league's are crapshoots and won't help them win RIGHT NOW. It gets more intense if the Phillies are also looking for a leadoff guy as well and sniffing around.

 

The desire to win RIGHT NOW when you are in the hunt is actually how we picked up Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos. It's also why Matt Capps can be a decent trading chip for the Twins in July.

 

If the Nats think that Bernadina is just as good. True, they will not be interested. However, They don't because Bernadina would have been slotted into the CF job over Ankiel coming out of spring and they will get really nervous if they have to stand pat and the Phillies upgrade and pick up Span.

 

If Bernadina was the guy(in their opinion)... Ian Desmond wouldn't be hitting leadoff this year.

[Riverbrian]

If you follow what Revere is doing at Rochester this year, you will see that he is working on the little things that will make him a great leadoff hitter. He is bunting and taking more walks with a lot of stolen bases. He hasn't gotten a lot of time in AAA until this year and is working hard to become a solid major league player. Let him stay there for another couple months, then bring him up.

I'm a Revere Fan and I await his re-arrival. If you are rebuilding... You rebuild with young players who bust ass.

[Shane Wahl]

Good god, Roger Bernadina is terrible.

[Shane Wahl]

Ben Revere is walking less this year in the minors than he EVER has. Look again.

 

But speaking of a trade chip . . .

[darin617]

Nobody should think about selling anything until the last 10 days of July. Anybody within 5 games of a playoff spot at that time can reasonably consider themselves a buyer. The addition of the 2nd Wild Card in each league will greatly expand those ranks. Had that extra berth been available on July 21st last summer, there would have been 18 buyers, 8 sellers, and 4 teams on the bubble (the Twins, at 6 GB, were one of the bubble teams, unfortunately). That's a huge seller's market. Whatever the Twins might get for Span now, I bet they'll get more in a couple months when 5 or 6 teams are bidding on him.

You may be correct, but there will also be more players available for contending teams to choose from. You don't want another Santana situation where you passed on a great deal and get stuck holding onto to Span or worse yet taking a lesser deal than you could have accepted now.

[Rosterman]

And, again, you an build thru free-agency unless you have a nucleus to build around. Free-agency can fill a few holes, not ALL the holes. And if you have too many holes, why would a free gent want to play here unless you vastly overpay them.

 

Right now, today, Span has worth because the Twins could make him available, which makes him worth more than 80% of the outfielders out there right now. Plus he is producing. If he fell to 2011 totals and we wait for everyone to com e back, or the divisions to open up and MORE teams make players available, he becomes less of a blue-chip piece.

[Highabove]

If Span is traded, it must be for pitching.

[James Richter]

As long as there are more bidders than sellers, the sellers win. If the Twins aren't blown away by an offer for Span during the season, they should just hang onto him. Players can get traded during the offseason, too. Getting inadequate value in trades is one of the reasons we're in this mess right now.

[Neinstein]

Hows about Denard Span for Ross Detwiler, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Kobernus and Daniel Rosenbaum.

http://cache.blippitt.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Evil-Laugh.png

[snepp]

Inadequate value would be an improvement over what they have been getting.

[gunnarthor]

Hows about Denard Span for Ross Detwiler, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Kobernus and Daniel Rosenbaum.

Probably depends on how the Twins view Detwiler. Clippard is a good piece but Kobernus and Rosenbaum aren't that highly regarded and are a bit old, from what I can tell. Sickels rated them the # 11 and 19 prospects in the Nats system. Detwiler doesn't have the best peripherals, I'm not sure the Twins should do that sort of trade.

[glunn]

As long as there are more bidders than sellers, the sellers win. If the Twins aren't blown away by an offer for Span during the season, they should just hang onto him. Players can get traded during the offseason, too. Getting inadequate value in trades is one of the reasons we're in this mess right now.

I agree with this. The best trade partner is a team that wants Span so much that they are willing to pay a premium, preferably with at least two high level pitching prospects.

[TKGuy]

Gotta get the rangers involved

[twinsnorth49]

There are 73 good reasons in this thread for why none of us are big league managers. I'm a little league manager, all I need to worry about is having enough sunflower seeds and bubblegum to make the kids happy.

[gunnarthor]

Gotta get the rangers involved

I'd love it if the DBacks got in on it. They have an insane number of high quality arms in their system.

[twinstalker]

OH MY GOD, finally someone agrees with me about this.

No, a lot of people agree with you, it's just that some of us who agree with you don't come here that often...not when supposed Twins fans/intellects advocate dumping Span for, say, a reliever. It's bad enough we have a GM without much of a clue...who might actually do something like that.

[gunnarthor]

No, a lot of people agree with you, it's just that some of us who agree with you don't come here that often...not when supposed Twins fans/intellects advocate dumping Span for, say, a reliever. It's bad enough we have a GM without much of a clue...who might actually do something like that.

Quick, find a post where anyone advocated trading Span for a reliever. Or, for that matter, where our GM ever made a trade like that.

[Seth Stohs]

Gotta get the rangers involved

This... the Rangers are the team that 1.) need Span (CF and leadoff hitter), and 2.) have a lot of pitching to trade!

[glunn]

This... the Rangers are the team that 1.) need Span (CF and leadoff hitter), and 2.) have a lot of pitching to trade!

I would like to get a lefty with a high ceiling. It looks like the Mariners have at least two of these -- Danny Hultzen and James Paxton. -- and the Mariners might highly value Span.

[Montecore]

Unless it's Span for a good frontline starter - forget it.

[twinswon1991]

I would like to get a lefty with a high ceiling. It looks like the Mariners have at least two of these -- Danny Hultzen and James Paxton. -- and the Mariners might highly value Span.

The Mariners have Guttierez coming off the DL soon. He is a far better defender than Span and has a better power/speed combo. Both players have checkered injury history and Span's concussion history is a major red flag. I would guess the Mariners think they have a better in house option thus no need to trade. If you want Hultzen or Paxton, Sano will need to be part of the deal plus another prospect.

[Dilligaf69]

Sano AIN'T happening!

[Dilligaf69]

this... The rangers are the team that 1.) need span (cf and leadoff hitter), and 2.) have a lot of pitching to trade!

 

 

agree!!!!!

[nicksaviking]

The Nationals reportedly are scouting Red Sox catchers to replace former Twin Wilson Ramos who looks to be out for the season. Should the Twins be trying to engage a team like the Nationals who have plans on contending in the hopes of them overpaying for Ryan Doumit? The Nationals have quite a few organizational prospects in the 10-20 range that I'd be interested. I'd be interested in a guy named Robbie Ray, he's in the lower ranks but he has a strong arm. They have a couple 1B with quite a bit of power and high K rates who are in the upper levels of the system Chris Marrero and Tyler Moore. They also have some middle infielders that hit for average. Of course the "We are family" Twins would probalby insist on Stever Lomardozzi Jr who hits better than his dad. Good speed, SLG will probably be low at the MLB level, OBP probably respectable.

[gunnarthor]

The Nationals reportedly are scouting Red Sox catchers to replace former Twin Wilson Ramos who looks to be out for the season. Should the Twins be trying to engage a team like the Nationals who have plans on contending in the hopes of them overpaying for Ryan Doumit? The Nationals have quite a few organizational prospects in the 10-20 range that I'd be interested. I'd be interested in a guy named Robbie Ray, he's in the lower ranks but he has a strong arm. They have a couple 1B with quite a bit of power and high K rates who are in the upper levels of the system Chris Marrero and Tyler Moore. They also have some middle infielders that hit for average. Of course the "We are family" Twins would probalby insist on Stever Lomardozzi Jr who hits better than his dad. Good speed, SLG will probably be low at the MLB level, OBP probably respectable.

It's not a bad idea to trade Doumit but at the same time I suspect ownership doesn't want another 99 loss team for financial reasons.

[nicksaviking]

Keeping Butera as the backup catcher obviously would be the hangup, but if the club thinks that loosing 96 games instead of 99 games will apease the fans, they are sadly overestimating everyone's tolarence for losing.

[Neinstein]

Probably depends on how the Twins view Detwiler. Clippard is a good piece but Kobernus and Rosenbaum aren't that highly regarded and are a bit old, from what I can tell. Sickels rated them the # 11 and 19 prospects in the Nats system. Detwiler doesn't have the best peripherals, I'm not sure the Twins should do that sort of trade.

Take another peak at Rosenbaum's profile. Tell me you wouldn't be happy with a guy like that pitching in New Britain or Rochester. Kobernus and Rosenbaum are 24 years old. 24 is not old, not even close. Detwiler is a Lefty that has displayed some success already. Tyler Clippard is the obvious prize in the deal with a couple other players knocking on the door, and if Ross Detwiler is figuring out his delivery problems, he could be better than any of the Twins' other starting pitchers.

[gunnarthor]

Take another peak at Rosenbaum's profile. Tell me you wouldn't be happy with a guy like that pitching in New Britain or Rochester. Kobernus and Rosenbaum are 24 years old. 24 is not old, not even close. Detwiler is a Lefty that has displayed some success already. Tyler Clippard is the obvious prize in the deal with a couple other players knocking on the door, and if Ross Detwiler is figuring out his delivery problems, he could be better than any of the Twins' other starting pitchers.

I wouldn't be happy trading Span for two guys outside of their own team's top 10 prospects. I don't know enough about MiLB stats to say Rosenbaum is a good player but I note that he hasn't been better in the EL than Liam Hendriks, despite being a year older when he was in it. (I don't know why the Giants Surkamp isn't a top 100 prospect based on his numbers, either). But people that know more than me rate Rosenbaum outside his teams top 10, which means, at best, he probably profiles as a #5 starter or long reliever, which I don't trade Span for. And I don't want the centerpiece of a Span trade to be a relief pitcher. So I'd pass on that deal unless the Twins thought Detwiler has a huge ceiling that I don't know about.

[Mike Sixel]

Fangraphs has a nice listing of the top prospects for each team, easy to find on their website. I like to read up on players there. If I already typed that, sorry....

[StormJH1]

The Mariners have Guttierez coming off the DL soon. He is a far better defender than Span and has a better power/speed combo. Both players have checkered injury history and Span's concussion history is a major red flag. I would guess the Mariners think they have a better in house option thus no need to trade. If you want Hultzen or Paxton, Sano will need to be part of the deal plus another prospect.

Agree. My face lit up a bit when you mentioned the Mariners because they have such a wealth of good pitching. But keep in mind the following:

 

(1) They just did a major "pitching for offense" swap in the Pineda/Montero trade, how many more times will they do that?

(2) Based on the configuration of that ballpark, they may be purposefully aiming for a pitching/defense oriented team, rather than a bunch of mashers. They do play Chone Figgins at 3B, after all.

(3) Span is 28, and already on the tail end of his "prime". The Mariners aren't ready to contend for anything now, and Franklin Guttierez is a better defensive CF anyway. A team like the Nationals is at least logical because they seem to be closer to contending than the Mariners are.