He isn’t going to hit for a ton of power, but you van play him almost anywhere other than catcher and he’ll be above average. He also should hit for a solid average with a good eye at the plate. Sounds like a guy who could be our shortstop for the next 5 or 6 years to me. Nothing special, but its a great fit for both teams.

Meh, I tend to be of the belief that with Baker, Slowey, Perkins, and Blackburn all pitching well, we have enough solid arms. Bonser has been better than his ERA suggests, and the Twins still have guys such as Mulvey, Humber, Duensing, and Swarzak they could turn to if they needed another option. None of those guys ar premier arms, but they could deliever enough solid outings.

To me everything in baseball is a cost-benefit analysis:

Coming into the season, I would not have expected the Twins to compete, and really, they’ve played pretty much as I expected, but the Indians and Tigers have seriously under-performed. So while the Twins are certainly in the hunt, I think they’re more pretender than real contender.

So the options are this:

1) Keep Livan for an extra 11 starts down the stretch and watch him walk for nothing. In keeping Livan, the Twins take a chance at the playoffs which will, even if achieved, likely result in an early departure.

2) The Twins trade Livan for a young player or two who can help them in the near future. In the process, they end up losing 3 more games because they go with a less talented pitcher than Livan. They may or may not make the playoffs because of that. But what they have done, is improve the strength of the organization, helping to ensure that the team will be better for the next 5-6 years, and ideally, they’ll have done so by trading from strength, to bolster weaknesses.

To me, one of those options makes a lot more sense. I’d rather risk losing 2-3 more games than I might have otherwise, in order to strengthen the organization as a whole. People obviously fall on either side of this, and usually I find people feel very strongly one way or another. I happen to think that if we could get someone like Lillibridge in return for Livan, it’d be foolish not to do it. He’s a guy who could be an everyday player with us for a long time and help us win a lot more games than Livan could alone.

Just my two cents.

I agree that Hernandez wouldn’t bring a five- or even four-star prospect in a trade scenario, but I’m not sure Lillilbridge is the right guy for the job. Is he a strong guy defensively? He’s a career .277/.359/.426 hitter in the minors—not horrible, but not promising either.

Additionally, he hasn’t been taking as many walks and has been striking out more since coming to AA in ‘07. His K:BB ration has been right around 1:3, and this season he’s striking out in more than one quarter of his plate appearances. That’s a lot.

We know he doesn’t hit for power, which isn’t a big deal for the kind of player we’re looking for. But at the same time, he isn’t a guy who really makes a lot of solid contact anyway. His LD% at every stop since A-ball in 2006: 15% (A), 15% (A+), 19% (AA), 15% (AAA ‘07), 22% (AAA ‘08). Granted he’s hitting the ball harder this year (meaning that in some ways, he might be hitting better than his .197/.261/.254 line suggests), but since it’s quite a bit higher than what we’ve seen the last few years I’m more likely to think it’s an exception to his rule. Optimistically we could say he’s turned a corner and has adapted to AAA pitching, but it’s a little early to bank on it.

For comparison’s sake, minor league lines of our current in-house options:

Brendan Harris (age 27 in ‘08 campaign): .294/.365/.458
Matt Tolbert, age 26: .280/.345/.404
Matt Macri, age 26: .280/.349/.463
Brian Buscher, age 27: .285/.358/.412
Brent Lillibridge, age 24: .277/.359/.426

Lillibridge is a couple of years younger, but it’s not as though his development is pointing to a stronger offensive future than any of these other guys. I’m afraid he’d just be another replacement-level middle infielder to throw on the pile.

On his defense, I found these links (I tried to keep these reports recent, from 2008):

From MVN, a prospect profile on Lillibridge
This scouting report from TSN says his defense needs work, but that he’s a quality utility infielder.
Dugout Central calls him a solid player, and gives credence to the idea that the Braves would trade him, since his two primary positions see him blocked.

Unless there’s something I’m missing, and I certainly could be, because I’ve never even heard of Lillibridge before you brought him up, I just see him as another Brian Buscher. If we do trade Livan, and it’s for an infielder, I’d like for one of his skills to at least stand out from who we already have in-house.

I’m with Jesse. I don’t know what this guy has that Buscher or Marci don’t have. Plouffe, Hughes and Valencia have at least as much upside as this guy.

I like the Rays as a trade partner. If the Rays get to the All-Star break and find they’re one veteran starter from making the wild card, maybe they’d be willing to part with Brignac, who suddenly finds himself stuck behind Bartlett. He’s the right age (22), he can hit and field his position (SS), and he might be available.

I knew he had OK numbers for his career, but I hadn’t checked his AAA numbers this year. So you would trade a valuable commodity for a corner infielder who has a 541 OPS in AAA?

Yeah, right.