Let me start out by saying that The Twins are a frugal team, a team that in the past has made attempts to spend about as little as possible and still contend, but this mindset has been changing with the team moving into the new stadium in a few years, they've been looking at locking up good young talent for a while. Joe Mauer was given an extension a few years ago, a very good decision as Joe has become one of the (if not the) best young catchers.

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Can we re-do the trade from last winter? We've been thinking about this whole Delmon Young and Brendan Harris for Morlan, Garza, and Bartlett,  and after Matt Garza's one hitter today we realize that we got the short end of the stick here. So, if you guys wouldn't mind doing the right thing and kindly returning the players, we would be most appreciative.

PS. You guys get Harris back who has about a 30 point OPS+ advantage over Bartlett! Think of that, a 55 back up to a 84! Whooo-wee, imagine your lineup with that slugger in there.

PPS. Please?

PPPS. Pretty please?

     As I was perusing the MLB.com trade deadline page today, I was going through each seperate position and looking at who was available, who may be available and whatnot. As I got to the middle infielder's, I came upon David Eckstein, and thought that this would be the exact kind of player the twins would attempt to pick up. Here's what MLB.com had to say about him:

Why he's available: Only signed a one-year deal in the offseason and might not be in Toronto's plans for 2009.

Will he go? The Jays have other options at short -- an area to be addressed again in the offseason -- so they'd likely entertain offers.

Where might he go? Any team with a need for a shortstop or a leadoff hitter with playoff experience.

 

Now I know that the Twins aren't too keen on picking up one year contracts, but we haven't really seen how Bill Smith deals at the deadline, he may show a willingness to pick up a player llike Eckstein at the deadline if he thinks that the Twins will stay in contention. Also, David Eckstein fits into the whole Twins persona of the piranha's, seriously, think about it, if you had to have one missing piece from the 2006 season that would have fit perfectly it would have been David Eckstein.

This is exactly why we shouldn't pick him up.

The king of scrap, the master of heart is hitting .279/.368/.358 with an OPS+ of 97, he's being the epitome of an average player. The thing is though, his production compares (to me atleast) with that of Jason Tyner, a singles and (sometimes) doubles machine. In fact, Eck's Isolated power of  .076 is only .007 higher than Jason Tyner's.

While I understand that there has been absolutely no rumblings of this trade happening, I was instantly fearful of a trade like this that the Twins would try to make. This brings up the question though, if you were the Twins, what would be the best or worst move you could make during the deadline (within reasonable limits)