Suggested TWIN'S moves

[bucketmouth64]

cuddy in the cleanup spot is killing us, right now. Why does gardy always make the obvious moves way too late?

..

completely agree. Tinker with the batting order with starters out. Move Young up to clean up and Cuddy down to 6/7/8. If Gardy is worried about Cuddy's psyche, well he already has messed with it by putting him back at 3B, where he has admitted that he doesn't feel comfortable there. But being the team player he is he won't complain. His numbers will continue to suffer the rest of the season. Thome needs to play on a regular basis at DH.

[SledNeck]

Cuddy was hitting worse when he was in right.

[Mudcutter]

Cuddy is over rated. BIG Time. Horrible in the late innings. PLEASE TRADE HIM FOR some talent. I was one of the first to post this over a year ago and got blasted by people,, the same thing I did with KG after the 2004 season. MN fans' faults are that they get too attached to stars,, and don't want to do anything to make a team better. CUDDY is avg at best, get rid of him when you can get something for him.

[foulpole18]

Did I actually hear last night during the game that Cuddy was part of the 50 greatest Twins? You have got to be kidding me. I hope that I heard that wrong.

[soldoncass]

Cuddy knocked another infielder down with another "ATUM" ball......

[soldoncass]

Thome can't DH every game at this stage of his career, I really expected him to retire about now...leaving Kubel and Young to split DH time, but Thome has had "enough" good days for him to stay til the end of the season.

[TyGuy02]

B Myers

W-7 L-6 ERA-3.35 G-19 GS-19 CG-1 SHO-0 IP-129.0 H-126 R-56 ER-48 HR-11 BB-39 SO-93

R Oswalt

W-6 L-10 ERA-3.08 G-18 GS-18 CG-1 SHO-1 IP-120.0 H-93 R-44 ERA-41 HR-11 BB-33 SO-112

We need ONE of these two pitchers! Myers has set the MLB record with 19 straight games going 6+ innings to start the season!

I know that it's the NL, and for pitchers, the NL is definitely easier than the AL, but still, either one of these guys can be big upgrades to the starting staff

[bisonthunder]

trading KG sure worked wonders for the Tpups.

anyone else think Duensing working 4 innings after Blacky solidified him taking over for Blacky?

[PierBridge]

Truthfully no. I see Slowey as a bigger problem frankly and the one to be replaced first. And to be honest with Bakers sore elbow our starting staff is a big mess I'm not sure we can dig ourselves out of. Hope I'm wrong or we make a big move for a starter.

[CodyDawg]

So do the guys that think Cuddy needs to be traded cuz he is so average think that other teams with professional scouts dont know that? Do you think we could get superior talent for his average abilities? Now dont get me wrong, I am not a Cuddy supporter. But you cant just trade anyone and get a star in return. The way i see it, you either think Cuddy is a stud and can get a stud in return or you think he is average and you will get average in return.

[SledNeck]

No. We Won't get a star in return for Cuddy. But we maybe could get some pitching help. It would be foolish to just let him go next season and get nothing.

[The J-Man!]

He is not going anywhere next season, the Twins picked up his 2011 option. With Morneau out for who knows how long, trading Cuddyer for an average pitcher would be foolish.

[mrklean]

they have some interest in Ben sheets, bu think they should really look at brett meyers as well very cheap guy and is pitching pretty well

[PierBridge]

I have no problem trading just about anybody but like stated above nobody is going to give up a decent pitcher straight up for Cuddyer who is slightly above average at best. It's going to have to be package deal with young talent thrown in. Other than M @ M and possibly Delmon now everybody is trade-able at this point.

[PierBridge]

36 people viewing the Baseball forum...

Lets hear some other idea's... How about cuddy, Punto and Crain for Ozwalt?...

[jwmiller33]

if we could deal cuddy in a trade for a quality SP, i would be all for it. if we could clear him, that would free up a alot of salary room. he is making close to $10 million this year, and is making another $10.5 million next year. his contract is roughly 10% of our entire annual payroll for this year. it's not like we don't have people that could play his position. delmon, denard and kubel could easily be our 3 starting OF.

who saw kubel's gun of an arm while throwing out that white sox player yesterday going for a double??? it reminded me a lot of old cuddyer highlights of his cannon from RF. yes cuddyer is a great player, but his offensive numbers have just fallen off the chart lately. and with kubel playing in the OF, it would give Thome twice as many at bats and he has been doing awesome this year! he is 4th on our team in HRs and 7th in RBIs and he only has 150 At bats when every one of our starters has close to 300, or double the amount of at bats that Thome has. imagine the possibilities if he was at 300 at bats this year instead of 150! he is one of the leaders on our team in run production and only getting half the at bats compared to the starters! Thome is the ideal person you would want DHing in our lineup on an everyday basis, regardless of if the pitcher he is facing is a lefty of righty. yes his average is 220 against lefties but he only has 40 at bats against them as well! were paying him $1.5 million this year just to hit, so let the man hit already!

i'd love to see cuddy in a package deal with some prospects for a SP. maybe cuddy + slowey or blackburn + a prospect of two for dan haren

i'd LOVE to see the twins trade for dan haren. he is only 29 years old and 3.7 career ERA and a 133-24 strikeout to walk ratio this year over 135 innings this year, while getting hardly any attention because he plays for arizone. he can eat up innings and get lots of guys out. he is signed thru 2013 at $13 million a year, so if we could get rid of cuddy's contract in a trade for haren, we would be getting a lot more value for our money IMHO. it would be awesome if the twins could trade for a high quality pitcher that wasn't just a "rent a player" for the next could months

[DonBo]

Getting Thome 300 at bats sounds like a great idea, but he's old and injury prone. No way he can play more than he has been and expect him to still be there at the end of the year when we'll really need him.

Leave Cuddy alone, he's going to be our first baseman for a good part of the remained of the year. Even if Justin comes back next week 100% (doubtfull) he'll get lots of the rest the remainder of the year. Cuddy is very serviceable at first and can also play third AND his bat is coming around nicely the last few games. He is very capable of carrying this team as he did last year.

[SledNeck]

He is not going anywhere next season, the Twins picked up his 2011 option. With Morneau out for who knows how long, trading Cuddyer for an average pitcher would be foolish.

wow, what an epically dumb move by the twins to pick up his option when they did.

[Born2Fish]

Getting Thome 300 at bats sounds like a great idea, but he's old and injury prone. No way he can play more than he has been and expect him to still be there at the end of the year when we'll really need him.

Leave Cuddy alone, he's going to be our first baseman for a good part of the remained of the year. Even if Justin comes back next week 100% (doubtfull) he'll get lots of the rest the remainder of the year. Cuddy is very serviceable at first and can also play third AND his bat is coming around nicely the last few games. He is very capable of carrying this team as he did last year.

He does not need to carry this team this year. Delmon is doing just fine. I find it hard to believe that the Twins would rest Morneau when he comes back. They need his bat in the lineup. Plus he is MUCH better at 1st than Cud. While I do not have any problems with Cuddy, I do not feel that we need him playing first OR third(Valencia has shown he should be in there playing).

[jwmiller33]

Getting Thome 300 at bats sounds like a great idea, but he's old and injury prone. No way he can play more than he has been and expect him to still be there at the end of the year when we'll really need him.

Leave Cuddy alone, he's going to be our first baseman for a good part of the remained of the year. Even if Justin comes back next week 100% (doubtfull) he'll get lots of the rest the remainder of the year. Cuddy is very serviceable at first and can also play third AND his bat is coming around nicely the last few games. He is very capable of carrying this team as he did last year.

do you have any better suggestions for moves the twins should do? because the team they have right now isnt going to make the playoffs unless there are some serious cold streaks that miraculously turn into hot streaks.

thome is on pace for a little less than 300 at bats. the last time he got 300 or less at bats was 1993. he has averaged 450 at bats over the 5 seasons. not to mention he has been playing in this division for 16 years, and is familiar with a lot of the pitchers, both starters and relievers which is a big advantage. he averages a HR every 13 at bats over the course of his career.

and what do you mean thome is injury prone? the last time he was on the DL was 4/28/2007, and besides that, his only other time on the DL has been in 2005 when he was on the 60 day DL for elbow surgery, and that injury also caused him to be initially put on the 15 day DL. he has been on the DL 2 times in his entire 20 year career. i would hardly call that injury prone. cuddyer on the other hand, has been on the DL 4 times in his career, which i would call "twice" as injury prone as Thome in that respect. If I had a choice as to who I could have at the plate, right now, I would choose THome over Cuddyer everyday of the week (at least until Cuddy gets out of this slump)

[jwmiller33]

Since June 1st, Thome has been crushing the ball, batting .286/.385/.679, all the while, averaging an extra-base hit every 5 at-bats for a team leading 1.064 OPS. However, during this same stretch he has started just 13 of 37 games.

Cuddy started 13 of the last 22 games at 3B, while batting .245/.302/.306 at third base and .254/.321/.393 overall since June 1. Cuddy has done well against left handed pitchers which is huge because our lineup is full of left handed batters. However, with runners in scoring position, he has been absolutely awful. And when you have two of the ALs best sluggers hitting in front of you, Mauer and Morneau, your going to get a ton of at bats with runners on base and you need a cleanup hitter who can capitalize and either advance those runners or bring them home. He has hit .257/.290/.394 off righties and the ugly at-bats are magnified by Gardenhire's refusal to move him lower in the batting lineup (possibly switching his with our hottest hitter Delmon Young). If nothing else his performance certainly hasn't justified hurting the defense by starting Cuddyer at third base. That's just bad on bad.

"Cuddyer hasn't hit righties all year and hasn't been good enough against them throughout his career to make up for a bad glove at third base. Similarly, both Thome and Kubel aren't good enough versus lefties to warrant starting against them if it means sacrificing defense. In other words, shifting Cuddyer to third base merely gets him starts versus righties and Kubel/Thome starts versus lefties, neither of which is really needed. It's like killing no birds with two stones." (from Aaron Gleemans HSOforum)

I'm not saying start Thome against EVERY lefty, but his pure numbers and production while minimal at bats should warrant him more at bats in general.

[DonBo]

[quote=jwmiller33

and what do you mean thome is injury prone?

[jwmiller33]

maybe the Plantar fasciitis is from stepping on all of those bases

in all seriousness, baseball players play injured all season long and are never at 100% throughout the whole course of the season. that is part of the game. i guarantee you thome is not the only one out there playing hurt. no one can argue that he is one of the hottest hitters on our team right now and to deprive him of at bats is just silly

[soldoncass]

NO DEAL...Oswalt would give up 5 runs per game in the AL, that is what we have now.

I think Haren would do better, but he's paid too much, for what he is. Need to look for a young fireballer 96-99 mph, that is on a "going nowhere" team. Fernandez in Seattle, or several in the NL all-star pitchers., for Casilla/ Tolbert, and Kubel, and maybe Hicks. More "room for error" with a fireballer vs the 88-90 guys we have now.

[Scott K]

Lets get Prince Fielder since Justin is always injured.