Nick Nelson

I'm really bummed the Twins are done playing the Orioles this year.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?856-Hard-Truths

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1702[/ATTACH]When the news came down this weekend that the Twins had traded Francisco Liriano to the White Sox for a pair of middling 23-year-old prospects, the reaction around here was understandably negative. The same questions echoed in the minds of fans across the state. Why did the Twins deal Liriano in the wake of his worst start of the season? Why did they back away from their stated goal of adding young, high-upside talent? And why – WHY – did they send a potential difference-maker to the one team that almost no Twins fan wants to see hoisting a trophy in October? The answers to these questions aren't especially difficult to figure. Terry Ryan settled on dealing Liriano to the Sox because they had the best offer on the table and he didn't expect better ones to come by Tuesday. Of course he would have preferred to pry away younger prospects with higher ceilings, but even with the increased number of buyers brought on by the new postseason format, clearly teams weren't knocking at the door to hand over those kinds of players. And while that's disappointing, it shouldn't be all that surprising. It's not because of Liriano's clunker last Tuesday (which happened to come against the team that traded for him). General managers aren't stupid enough to view one outing in a vacuum when it comes to evaluating a pitcher. Bad starts happen. The problem is that, with Frankie, they've happened too often over the past five years. Since returning from Tommy John surgery in 2008, Liriano owns a 4.69 ERA and 1.42 WHIP. Utterly mediocre numbers that have been very much in line with the ones he's posted this year. For all his flurries of brilliance, the league is also vividly aware of the fragility – physical, mental or both – that has made him so insanely inconsistent and unreliable. Rental players, in general, don't garner huge returns because no one wants to mortgage the future for two months of production from an impending free agent – particularly when it's a pitcher who is going to make, at most, a dozen starts. Occasionally a savvy GM can take advantage of one club's desperation, but in this case it became clear that nobody fully trusted Liriano. (Admit it, that includes you.) Based on the left-hander's recent run of success, fans were overrating their own asset and setting expectations too high, putting Ryan in an unfortunate position. There was literally no way he was going to be able to acquit himself in this situation; holding on to Liriano made no real sense and the impact offers weren't there. And sadly, I suspect he'll have a hard time making up for it in these final hours before Tuesday afternoon's deadline, because while trade chips like Denard Span and Josh Willingham are more appealing with multi-year contracts, they still don't have the kind of value that many fans want to believe. Jim Crikket had it right when he wrote two weeks ago that we should be prepared for disappointment during the days leading up to the deadline. In a season like this one, I guess we shouldn't have expected anything else.

Looks like a utility guy and a reliever. Meh.

No one's off-limits, but it would really suck to give up Perkins. He's a reliever to build around.

Or because logically no one's going to give up much for a first baseman with a .750 OPS, injury concerns and $20M left on his contract. If he finishes strong and healthy, things change a bit. I certainly don't think he's in danger of decreasing his value between now and the offseason. So really, what's the argument in favor of trading him for a paltry return right now? Save the Pohalds $5 million? Make room for Parmelee? There are certainly ways they can get Parm into the lineup without giving away Morneau for nothing.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?842-Twins-Daily-Trade-Deadline-Primer

Two Sid Hartman sourced threads in one day? Easy now... Other reporters have signaled that there's a nearly 100% chance Liriano gets dealt, which makes sense. Of course Ryan would make no kind of commitment on the record.

Maybe they can trade that pun for Bryce Harper.

Those garbage innings that Gray's been mopping up would be a perfect opportunity to get a look at one of their borderline guys at Triple-A. The Twins are wasting an opportunity to get a kid some low-leverage exposure to the big leagues by handing innings to a lousy pitcher who (we can only hope) will not be with the team past this year. Pretty baffling.

Yeah, that's extremely silly.

Hembree is out with an elbow flexor strain, which is why I didn't include him in the Giants profile yesterday. Definitely would stay away from him. Otherwise, that package doesn't look so bad to me. I think Belt is going to be a beast, and soon. Crick is the kind of high-upside arm the Twins should be targeting and Kickham looks like a capable lefty starter. Thrylos is right, though, in saying this a pretty ridiculous format for a trade. Not realistic -- just meant to stir up conversations like this one.

I hadn't heard much about Perdomo, but he's been awesome this year and has a pretty decent minor-league track record. I'll be interested to check him out. Not exactly a good sign, but Ryan deserves a ton of credit for his approach. There's no downside to grabbing a bunch of intriguing minor-league free agents, especially when your upper levels are barren.

CINGRANI***! Goodness, every single person on this thread has spelled it wrong. The lesson here is to never follow Bonnes' lead when it comes to spelling.

I was thinking about him yesterday. Arcia's pretty exciting – kid can straight mash. Reminds me of Jason Kubel as a prospect. I'd still rank him behind Sano and maybe Rosario, but he's on the rise.

Span has a sub-.700 OPS dating back to 2010. Even now, relatively healthy, he's not looking like a star player. If people are expecting to get back another org's top pitching prospect, I think they're going to be disappointed.

According to Ken Rosenthal. (Link) I said back in the beginning of July that I expected Span to be gone by the deadline and I still feel that way, even though there hasn't been a whole lot of trade buzz surrounding him up until this point. Sounds like the Reds are more interested in a short-term fix but they may eventually decide that Span's multi-year contract offers more appeal. Seth highlighted a few Reds prospects that might interest the Twins in his trade target team profile a few weeks ago.

Eh... the Giants are in the market for an established closer with Wilson out. They've got plenty of good relievers.

Doesn't sound like Upton's going anywhere.

I would say what's silly is acting like one bad start outweighs the 10 good ones before it. Every pitcher has days where they get hit.

What are the chances Gibson could make an appearance for the Twins this year as a September call-up?

And in fairness, the three guys he gave up homers to (Konerko, Dunn, Rios) have all been pretty good power hitters this year. It's not like he was giving up bombs to Alexei Ramirez. Sometimes good hitting beats good pitching.