Brad Swanson

Back in 1989, the Twins ripped my tiny heart out and traded my favorite person from New York for a bunch of crap that I didn't care about. Let's investigate why they would devastate a child in such a manner. The Trade: BREAKDOWN! On July 31, 1989, the Minnesota Twins traded the truly beautiful Frank Viola to the New York Mets for Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, Tim Drummond, David West and Jack Savage. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Viola continued to be a fantastic human being and pitcher for the Mets over the next two-and-a-half seasons. Aguilera started 11 games for the Twins in 1989, but quickly became their closer the following season. Tapani would become a good, reliable starter for the Twins. Drummond, Savage and West didn't deserve to be in a trade with the great Frank Viola. ~~~ Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! ~~~ How did I feel at the time? I think it's quite clear that I was upset. In fact, I cried when I heard. That's right, I actually cried. WHO WANTS TO FIGHT ME??? Well, I was seven and I was a kid and I was kind of emotional about my second favorite player. In addition, I hadn't heard of any of the losers the Twins got for Viola and I didn't really care anyway because I loved Frank Viola and I wanted to pitch like him even though I was right-handed and I sucked at pitching. Grrr, it's angering up my blood right now. Anyway, I did cry and I don't even care. I was seven; it was traumatizing. I'LL CRY RIGHT NOW, I DON'T CARE!!! Why make the trade? OK monster, explain why this trade should have been made: "Minnesota general manager Andy MacPhail says he traded Frank Viola partially because he believes the left-hander's ability is diminishing." This came from this New York Times, AP story on the trade. Of course, this statement reveals MacPhail as a heartless monster who doesn't know how to evaluate his talent or understand when he has a wonderful player with a great mustache under contract for a reasonable rate. Here's more: "Anytime you deal a guy who has done all Frankie has done for us, it's tough," MacPhail told the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch. "But the velocity of his fastball was diminishing. It seemed they were catching up with him." Surely, Viola would see diminished returns in 1990, due to this abhorrent decrease in velocity. Oh wait, 20 wins and almost 250 innings is FANTASTIC! FANTASTIC! Good grief., you called him "Frankie," you clearly love him too. Now this New York Times piece on the trade explains why the Mets would make this Shaq slam dunk of a trade, breaking the proverbial backboard of awesome lefties with great facial hair and accents. Or whatever. ''I know we gave up a lot,'' Johnson said, ''but he's one of the best.'' Twins Wanted More Johnson is Mets' manager Davey Johnson and he's clearly a genius. Yeah, he was one of the best. He was coming off a Cy Young season. I guess the Twins wanting more shows that they weren't complete jerkstores, but they should have asked for even more than they did. It's Frank Viola. Ask for the World. Ok, I feel better now. Clearly, I cannot reconcile the fan part of me with the blog-guy part of me on this issue. Analysis Emotions aside, this was a good trade for the Twins. Viola had been signed to a rich contract, but the Twins were not a great team, so shedding payroll was a logical move. It was still a sucky move, though. On the field, the Twins basically turned Viola into five new pitchers. Tapani did a decent job taking the place of Viola in the rotation and Aguilera became one of the best closers in franchise history. The other three guys didn't really pan out, but Aguilera and Tapani alone made this a good trade for the Twins. However, MacPhail was wrong about Viola. His stuff may have been diminishing, but he certainly pitched well for three-and-a-half more seasons, fulfilling that contract as best he could. In 1990, he won 20 games for the Mets and finished third in Cy Young voting. In 1991, he regressed a bit, but still won 13 games. He bounced back and had two more good seasons with Boston in '92 and '93, but was basically done after those two seasons. He and I lost touch after he left for the Red Sox. The trade worked out well, but he was Sweet Music! How could the Twins do this to the fans? How could they do this to the clubhouse? Most importantly, how could they do this me? I deserved better. I pretty much disliked Aguilera for the next few seasons, just because he was acquired for my beloved Viola. Who won the WAR? Viola for the Mets: 9.7 Aguilera for the Twins: 16.1 Tapani for the Twins: 18.7 West for the Twins: 0.0 Drummond for the Twins: 0.9 Savage for the Twins: -1.1 Total for the Twins: 34.6 WAR won by the Twins! One Sentence Summary Frank Viola transcends WAR, so this trade was terrible. ~~~ I also recapped the Tom Brunansky for Tom Herr trade on Thursday. If you want to, you can read it here.

For those who are unfamiliar with this feature, I scour the most reliable internet sites trying to determine whether or not a former Minnesota Twin is forgotten or not. I use all the best sites – Wikipedia, Google, Bing, eBay, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Baseball Reference. If the player isn't featured to my liking, he is officially forgotten. The entire first paragraph will come from my own memory though. No guarantees of accuracy or insight. At the very end, I will ask one random person if he remembers the player. Let’s start with someone I barely remember. My memories of Bernardo Brito Can I say pass? I certainly remember his name because it's hilarious. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]But who is Bernardo Brito? I'm going to say he was an outfielder and that he was only with the Twins for two seasons. I want to say that he was on a Hall of Fame path as well. I'll guess he played for the Twins from 1993 to 1994 and that he hit about 7 home runs. As you can clearly see, I have basically no recollection of Bernardo Brito. Let's do some research! ~~~ Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! ~~~ Wikipedia Oh goodness what a gold mine! Apparently he is known as "El Pupo." Fantastic. I love Bernardo Brito. I can't find a translation, but Google Image seems to think it means bellybutton. Is Bernardo Brito "The Bellybutton?" I am so glad I chose him. Brito was born on December 4, 1963 in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. He made his MLB debut on September 15, 1992. He was known for his power and hit five career home runs. He was an outfielder! He played in Japan after leaving the Twins in 1995 and also played for the Sioux Falls Canaries. His nickname was "The Bellybutton." Baseball Reference Brito was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 1980 and made his debut in 1992. That is wild! Brito is the most fascinating player ever. Brito played 40 games for the Twins spread out over 1992, 1993 and 1995. He hit .219/.237/.466 in those games. His Minor League stats are amazing. He hit 295 career Minor League home runs. He played over 700 AAA games. He had just under 1500 hits in the minors. His 1994 season at AAA: .309/.353/.572, 24 doubles, 29 home runs, 122 RBI. The Bellybutton! Google Well, the third result down is a bit discouraging. Apparently I completely ripped this idea off from RandBall. Great. We've come too far to not proceed; I'll just have to make sure to not completely rip him off. Stu's Hunt Down No! That would be ripping him off. Idiot Back to Google Bernardo Brito E Cunha appears to be a Portuguese writer. Down South America way, I guess. Anyway, he does not seem to be related to our Brito. Here's a great Google Image result of Brito when he was apparently 13 years old: Young Pupo. The card looks to be a million years old, and I really wish I had it. Bing Bing is stupid. Regardless, I'll use it. The Stu's Hunt Down feature is at the bottom of the second page of results, so that's something different. On the fourth page of results, I did find this baseball card on Amazon, which you can buy for just over 7 bucks. It's a great way to commemorate that awesome 1994 season I mentioned earlier. The paid search results seem to be imploring me to "find Bernardo Brito" and "uncover Bernardo Brito", which makes me worried that we have a missing person case on our hands. Probably not the case. eBay Oh man. Did you ever want a really fake looking baseball card AND a signed note card of Bernardo Brito? Here you go! You know this is an authentic autograph because no one would forge a note card. I had a friend write the third verse from Onyx's "Slam" on a note card in 3rd grade and that is the only note card I would take over this Brito autograph. No word on whether or not the note card is GEM MINT 10!!! Facebook Bernardo Brito doesn't have a facebook page that I can find. He doesn't have a fan page yet either. That's garbage. El Pupo needs a fan page. If anyone wants to go ahead and start one, I'll add a link at a later date. Garbage. Twitter Ok, there is definitely a guy named Bernardo Brito on Twitter and he tweets a lot. I don't think it's our man though. I can't read any of it, because I don't speak any languages, but the picture doesn't match and I can see faces. I decided to look for "el pupo brito" and that led me to this man who is arguing that Brito is a better hitter than Albert Pujols and Jose Bautista. Do you want to argue that? El Pupo Brito. RT @Josearmandoacta: Quién es mejor jugador en la actualidad: José Bautista o Albert Pujols? — Carlos Maxwell (@carlosmaxwell) June 29, 2012 There are all kinds of tweets including Brito and other fun baseball players but I can't read any of them because I only took 8 years of Spanish and I'm a fantastic student. YouTube I decided to roll the dice using "el pupo brito" as my search terms on YouTube, but the first result was about Julia Stiles, so I think I failed. I tried everything, you guys. I looked for Brito, Brito plus Twins, Brito plus baseball and there's just nothing. The internet is devoid of Bernardo Brito videos. This video of the will have to suffice. Random Person I sent a text to a friend regarding Brito: Me: Do you remember Bernardo Brito? Friend: Nope Me: Did you know he was nicknamed "El Pupo?" Friend: How would I? Good point. Verdict I say he's forgotten. You can't have an HOF nickname like El Pupo or The Bellybutton, have such a lack of quality internet information and still be remembered. When you throw in his minor league career, Japanese career and huge power, it just feels like there should be more to uncover. Thus, Bernardo Brito goes into the "forgotten" category, joining Pedro Munoz and Freddie Toliver. I also wrote about Brian Harper and Gary Wayne this week. If you click on their names, you can learn a whole lot more about each of them. What is your favorite El Pupo memory? Do you even have one?

There has been a lot of talk about trading the Twins established MLB players for prospects in recent weeks. This concept has become a bit more complicated due to the Twins' relative success this season. A terrible team is an easy seller while a great team is an eager buyer. The Twins are neither great nor terrible. The difficulty for the Twins' front office will be determining who is a part of the future and who is expendable. I don't intend to try to make that determination. I'll leave that to everyone else. However, I remember an episode of Gleeman and the Geek from last season, when our heroic hosts were discussing this very topic. John wanted to use current Twins prospects to determine a fair value for current Twins players. I loved it. It seems like such an intuitive way to explain what type of return they would be willing to accept. I figure I can do the same just in case for some strange reason the Twins decided to give me all the power involved in making their trades. ~~~ Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! Check out this cool Kevin Slowey time line I made! ~~~ For the record this would be a terrible decision, as I would make wild determinations based on factors like name hilarity, hair length, eye black wearing and stirrups. However, if I decided to use the good part of my brain instead of my heart/ bad part of my brain, here is what I would anticipate if the Twins got offers for current Twins, using current Twins prospects as a hypothetical return. If this is too plagiarism-y (from that Gleeman and the Geek), just go ahead and ignore/delete/savage. We'll go from smallest return to largest, just for fun. Drew Butera for Tom Brunansky right now This is just mean. Why? Trade Approved. But seriously, be nice. Mike Pelfrey for Tim Atherton If Pelfrey can be traded for any young pitcher, I'll take it. Atherton has had a unique path to where he is right now, but as a 23-year-old at low A, he is the type of pitcher who could be reasonably acquired for Pelfrey. Pelfrey is only signed until the end of the season. While Atherton is no great prospect, he is young and has pitched reasonably well. For Pelfrey, I'd take just that. Trade Approved. You have to take anything you can get for Pelfrey. Jared Burton for Nelvin Fuentes I'd want a bit more for Burton. Fuentes is a pitcher with a bit more upside and he misses bats. He also has barely pitched above A ball and is 24-years-old. I'd want more upside in a Burton trade, simply because he is under contract for another two seasons and the Twins don't really have anyone who can step into his role. However, they have plenty of guys they could try in that role, and a good offer would be hard to pass up. Trade Approved. It's not a perfect return, but there are always random guys who can become setup men, as Burton proved last season. Kevin Correia for Nelvin Fuentes I'm not sure the return for Correia should be much different than the return for Burton. Correia is still relatively young and can be reasonably relied upon as a fifth starter, but he is nothing special. At 5 million in 2014, I might just keep him, rather than trade him for an A ball prospect. If Correia somehow became the Twins' fourth or fifth starter next season, he'd look a lot more attractive. Trade Denied. I think Correia will be worth keeping for the second year of his contract. Ryan Doumit for Logan Darnell Doumit is perfect for the Twins. He can spell Joe Mauer behind the plate and is one of the Twins' best hitters, despite being just about league-average (101 OPS+ in 2013). On other teams, with a more traditional backup catcher situation, Doumit would be a DH/corner outfielder who can't play outfield all that well. He fits best with the Twins, but if another team offered a AA or AAA pitcher with a good chance to reach the majors, I would find it to be a fair return and let that team figure the rest out. Trade Approved. Chris Herrmann could reasonably replace him in the lineup right now and an extra arm in the system is a worthy return. Glen Perkins for Matthew Summers I'm not sure it's fair to use terms like "proven closer" and "established closer" with Perkins, but "dominant left-handed reliever" is apt. The fact that he has been closing for the Twins is a nice boost, as closers do tend to bring greater returns than non-closers. However, teams seem to be learning that trading for closers is a exercise in futility (save for the Red Sox). Summers is a low-level prospect with big upside, so there is something intriguing here. Trade Denied. Are you kidding? Perkins is fantastic, the Twins should keep him. Justin Morneau for Hudson Boyd and Jason Wheeler Seeing Morneau hit one home run on Wednesday night and give air high fives almost made me completely flip on my feeling that the Twins should trade him for anything. Emotionally, I like Morneau as a player and enjoyed watching him become an MVP. In order to trade him, I'd want two pitching prospects, but I know that realistically, they wouldn't be top 25 prospects. Boyd sits right on the edge and Wheeler looks like he could be a solid reliever, if nothing else. This is the type of trade that is both reasonable and fair, however for emotional reasons... Trade Denied. I'd have to be blown away to trade one of the most popular players in recent history. Josh Willingham for Mason Melotakis Melotakis seems like he will either be a great reliever or a decent starter with upside. That kind of uncertainty is scary to many and as a result, many would be unwilling to part with a very popular player like Willingham. However, Willingham is 34 and while his OBP is still good, his power and batting average have dropped significantly. I was not a fan of trading Willingham last season, and I don't think the return would have been much better. Melotakis is the type of risk-reward player the Twins could target, should they decide to move Willingham. Trade Approved. An Oswaldo Arcia-Aaron Hicks-Chris Parmelee outfield can work for a season or two, until Byron Buxton is available. Adding another high-upside arm is tough to pass up. Trevor Plouffe for Taylor Rogers and Hudson Boyd I'd aim very high for Plouffe. He's cheap, relatively young and has big power potential. He might sail the occasional throw at third and his OBP is not ideal. However, he has enough going for him to make me look for two lower level prospects with high upside, one of whom I am certain can start. Rogers seems to have the stuff to start and Boyd still has big upside. Trade Approved. Good luck getting another team to offer it though. Joe Mauer for Miguel Sano, Alex Meyer and Niko Goodrum Yep, that much. He's a franchise player and I am irrational about him. Mauer probably isn't worth that much right now, but I don't think the Twins would take anything but a "Godfather" offer, as Bill Simmons would say. Even so... Trade Denied. I just love him too much. If you know the Twins system well, you'll see that I did not offer any top 10-15 prospects for Twins current players, save for Mauer. That doesn't mean the Twins can't net top 10 prospects from other teams. The Twins system is loaded, and others are not. If the Twins decide to sell at the deadline, I would not be expecting huge returns. However, every little bit helps. Alexi Casilla was acquired for J.C. Romero. Jason Bartlett was acquired for Brian Buchanan. Nick Punto and Carlos Silva were acquired for Eric Milton. These aren't sexy names, but they were useful players who helped the Twins win divisions. If the Twins can make smart trades at the deadline, it shouldn't matter who they trade and who they keep. What does everyone think? Where am I waaaaaaay off? What trades do you feel are fair?