Expression451

Any time you have a chance to acquire an ace and you don’t do it as a GM you fail to do your job. I know many here value prospects and Twins prospects above all else. The facts are that most prospects don’t make it, and one of the comments above said it well. None of these prospects are top of the line guys, and as much as I personally love watching Arraez ABs his knees are never going to get better. Duran is likely a BP guy, and Strotman doesn’t project high. The SS might not even be in the organization had he not been a first round pick. My question is why does anyone think that this trade inspires action from the A’s? If the Twins can get 2 years of an ace for that group of players it’s a GM’s duty to do it.

I agree with you. Mauer should be the number two hitter or the leadoff hitter, but you brought up one of the biggest problems in all of Twindom... Gardenhire is the manager.

Breaking it down in a way to make Butera look servicable is impressive writing... believing it however is something that one should never do! Every game he plays the Twins get one less inning against the opponents as he is guaranteed to be 0-3 without a walk most games. Throwing an entire inning away every single game seems counter productive. We can talk about his framing pitches, but he certainly didn't make this pitching staff better as it's been one of the worst in baseball the last two years. The throwing out runners aspect is also vastly overrated when teams don't bother to run because they know the guy behind them is going to drive them in with a double or a homer because our pitching staff was so bad. Chris Hermann or even Brandon Inge are better options if we must carry 3 people on the active 25 man roster with the capability to play catcher. Butera is a back up AA catcher, or a BP catcher. Nothing more. 700K wasted on a team that has slashed 30 million from it's payroll. Solid warning signs that Terry Ryan and the Pohlads may not have a good grasp on the reality of baseball.