Official: Twins Receive Duke Welker as PTBNL

[Seth Stohs]

According to the Twins, they have received RHP Duke Welker from the Pirates as the PTBNL in the Justin Morneau/Alex Pressley trade.

 

Might have been the worst-kept PTBNL since Drew Pomeranz.

[Dman]

How much do we know about Duke Welker? Lots of people on this site called him a AAAA pitcher is that a fair assessment? We seem to have a good pen already do you see how he fits in to the Twins future plans?

[glunn]

How much do we know about Duke Welker? Lots of people on this site called him a AAAA pitcher is that a fair assessment? We seem to have a good pen already do you see how he fits in to the Twins future plans?

 

I found this article on him. It sounds like he has lots of velocity, but control issues.

[Seth Stohs]

He's 27. He's only pitched a couple of big league innings. He throws hard (up to 97). Control can be an issue. The Twins bullpen was fine, but he could certainly take the place of Roenicke. Tonkin is another possibility. Welker also has one option year remaining.

[YourHouseIsMyHouse]

Really, really bad control problems. But hey that's what we're good at fixing (if anything).

[Guest USAFChief]

With any luck he can be as good as Jim Hooey some day.

 

//ducks//

[Kwak]

What on earth do people expect from a PTBNL??? I expect that he will be given his "cup-of-coffee" such that we are forced to listen to what an amazing deal the Twins received (let me be blunt just getting a salary dump was adequate)--and when he fails, there will be a cacaphony of silence when he is released.

[iastfan112]

With any luck he can be as good as Jim Hooey some day.

 

//ducks//

 

To be fair after Hoey's injury his best BB/9 for a season is worse than Welker's worst. Still not a "prospect" I'm excited about but Hoey had even worse control issues.

 

Just talking about Hoey again brings up how baffling the Hardy trade was. How do you not get a better return for a guy who was dead average for the position on offense while being good to great defensively, at a premium defensive position no less?

[Thrylos]

I think that he is better than a lot of the reports out there. Saw him pitch in West Virginia a couple years ago. He is an one pitch pony, but his FB can be lethal. That 97 is average. It can go up to 99. The problem is that his secondary stuff is not there. At. All. Got a working slider but it is really a work in progress. Working with the guy who taught Johan and Pedro and Randy J the change up, will only help. Happy with the pickup.

[Seth Stohs]

Read somewhere that he's got a decent mid-80s slider too, so there is certainly hope. And, with Perkins, Fien and Burton, they don't need him to be an 8th inning guy. Hopefully he can replace (and improve upon) Roenicke.

[diehardtwinsfan]

To be fair after Hoey's injury his best BB/9 for a season is worse than Welker's worst. Still not a "prospect" I'm excited about but Hoey had even worse control issues.

 

Just talking about Hoey again brings up how baffling the Hardy trade was. How do you not get a better return for a guy who was dead average for the position on offense while being good to great defensively, at a premium defensive position no less?

 

Because you tell the world you are going to trade him and that he's of little value and then don't understand why GMs all lowball you.

[stringer bell]

JJ Hardy in his one season with the Twins OPSed .714. He only played 101 games and managed 6 homers. I guess the Twins figured he was in decline already. They certainly were wrong--he's been a real good defensive player for the O's and has smacked 77 homers in the last three years.

[ThePuck]

When Hardy came back healthy in the 2nd half, he hit over .300 and OPSd over .800...and he had a UZR of 7.4.

 

Smith traded him because Gardy wanted more speed. Gardy had even said Casilla would compete with Hardy for the shortstop spot (that was before Hardy was traded). Smith was clear he traded Hardy because Gardy requested more speed at shortstop.