Twins Trade GO GO, for JJ. Not sure I like this 0
Damn, just when you think the Twins get an excitable player with TONS of potential, and fun to watch, they go and trade him to Milwaukee.
Today about an hour ago the Twins traded Carlos Gomez to the Brewers for SS JJ Hardy. The trade seems to be fair, but I really don’t the Twins waited long enough to see Go Go’s potential. I was hoping that we would re-sign Orlando Cabrera, and hang on to the speedy little outfielder was honestly one of favorite Twins. It will be hard to see his career evolve in Cheeseheadville.
My opinion on Hardy? Well he has some power, but it is not reliable power. He is closer to Greg Gagne with the glove, but has nothing on O-Cabs all around game. I am not sure I like the trade, but I hope it pans out of course. My first reaction when I heard this was “NOOOOOOOOOOO.”
FROM MLB.COM
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
11/06/09 11:58 AM EST
MILWAUKEE — It didn’t take long for the Brewers to make the trade everybody saw coming.
The ticker tape was still falling in Manhattan on Friday when the Brewers dealt shortstop J.J. Hardy, a staple of trade rumors this year, to the Twins for speedy center fielder Carlos Gomez. The move has multiple ramifications:
- It eased the shortstop logjam between Hardy, a former All-Star, and Alcides Escobar, the organization’s top prospect, essentially handing the baton to Escobar for 2010.
- It gave the Brewers their center fielder and perhaps their leadoff hitter, making Milwaukee even more unlikely to pursue two of its outgoing free agents. Mike Cameron, who manned center field at Miller Park in each of the past two seasons, and Felipe Lopez, who was excellent in the leadoff hole after a July 2009 trade from Arizona, will probably move on.
- It could allow the Brewers to use second baseman Rickie Weeks in a spot other than leadoff. Weeks has always been viewed as a future run-producer but was forced to the top of the order out of necessity.
Gomez does not turn 24 until next month but has already played parts of three seasons in the Major Leagues. In 348 games, he’s a .246 hitter with a .292 on-base percentage, 12 home runs, 99 RBIs and 59 stolen bases in 70 tries.
The Twins acquired Gomez as part of the mega-trade that sent pitcher Johan Santana to the Mets in February 2008, and Gomez made 90 starts as Minnesota’s leadoff hitter that year. He hit .258 with 59 RBIs, 79 runs scored and 33 steals, enough to enter 2009 as the Twins’ center field incumbent.
He lost the starting job after hitting .195 through the 2009 season’s first month and spent the year in a timeshare with Denard Span. For his career, Gomez has made 101 of his 263 starts in the leadoff spot and is just a .240 hitter with a .279 on-base percentage.
Twins manager Rob Gardenhire loved Gomez’s speed and his range in center field but conceded before Game 2 of this year’s American League Division Series against the Yankees, when Gomez made a start, that his offensive game was a work in progress.
“He irritates people,” Gardenhire said. “Sometimes me.”
The skipper was asked to expound.
“We’ve been trying to get him to calm down and get him to control the situations, and sometimes the situation controls him,” Gardenhire said. “There are times when, yes, you’re like, ‘Go-Go, you have to see what we’re trying to do here.’ We just had a 25-pitch inning from our pitcher, and he goes up and falls down swinging on the first pitch.
“Those things get you irritated as a manager, because we want him to recognize what we’re doing in a game. But he can play, and he’s fun to watch. He’s very, very talented and has a lot to learn, yes, but like I said, when you see him out there in center field covering all that ground and then some of the offensive things that he can do that other people can’t do, that’s why the guy is in the big leagues.”
Hardy, 27, was Milwaukee’s second-round Draft pick in 2001 and one of the most popular players at Miller Park. He has been a big league regular since 2005 but is coming off his most trying season, when he batted a career-low .229 with 11 homers and 47 RBIs and drew a surprise demotion to the Minor Leagues on Aug. 12. Hardy was back in the big leagues on Sept. 1, but the Brewers timed the move perfectly, leaving Hardy one day short of the service time he needed to qualify for a full season in the Majors.
As a result, Hardy has an extra year of arbitration and his free agent eligibility was pushed back one year. Minnesota will own his rights through the end of the 2011 season.
Hardy could see a trade coming. With heir apparent Escobar getting a taste of the big leagues in August and September, hitting .304, Hardy said it would “make sense” for the Brewers to trade him. The team tried to trade Hardy in July but pulled back when nobody offered anything better than a bullpen arm.
“They’ve been waiting on Escobar a couple of years now and there have been all the trade rumors,” Hardy said on Sept. 1. “I guess if both of us are going to be in the big leagues, it will have to be on separate teams.”
The Brewers and Twins are so-called super-rivals in Interleague Play and will see each other twice once again in 2010, from May 21-23 in Minnesota and June 22-24 at Miller Park.
