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Well Rosenthal pretty much believes the opposite of Frisario, so the truth is probably somewhere in between.
Marlins' Uggla, Cantu available? -- 12:53 p.m.
The Marlins have received calls from three teams on second baseman Dan Uggla and two on first baseman Jorge Cantu. Club officials will meet at the general managers' meetings to determine whether trading either or both will be necessary to meet payroll.
The early signs are that the Marlins, after trading outfielder Jeremy Hermida, can afford both Uggla and Cantu. But the team still might want to move Uggla to clear second base for Chris Coghlan or Emilio Bonifacio.
Hermida no longer fit with the Marlins, who are committing to Cody Ross in right field and Cameron Maybin in center. Left-hander Hunter Jones, the more advanced of the two pitchers the Marlins received from the Red Sox, is viewed by some scouts as a fringe major leaguer. The Marlins see him as a potential seventh-inning man.
Even tho everyone knows I BS and lie about Marlins rumors I thought I would expand on the Rosenthal news.
The Marlins DO have enough to afford both Cantu and Uggla but probably will trade Uggla since there is interest and have Coghlan waiting.
The 3 teams that have called are Minnesota,St Louis,and Chicago NL with Atlanta(IF they can lose some salary meaning if they can trade Vazquez)and San Francisco(IF they miss out on a power hitter) also interested.
Even tho everyone knows I BS and lie about Marlins rumors I thought I would expand on the Rosenthal news.
The Marlins DO have enough to afford both Cantu and Uggla but probably will trade Uggla since there is interest and have Coghlan waiting.
The 3 teams that have called are Minnesota,St Louis,and Chicago NL with Atlanta(IF they can lose some salary meaning if they can trade Vazquez)and San Francisco(IF they miss out on a power hitter) also interested.
Damn near impossible to believe Minnesota can afford Uggla in 2010, let alone 2011, unless their payroll is going to be like $90 mil. All indications are it's going to be closer to $80, and they'll use the Casilla/Punto/Tolbert platoon of suck at 2B and let Valencia have the first shot of winning the 3B job, with Harris as the backup plan.
If they spend any more money in the FA/trade market (Hardy's going to cost them much more in arby than Gomez would have), it's going towards re-signing Pavano (or a Pavano-like starter) and MAYBE adding a relief arm or bench bat.
Payroll issues aside, I don't believe for a second they're serious about Uggla. He's like exactly the type of player they don't like - undisciplined free swinger who's pretty shitty defensively.
Payroll issues aside, I don't believe for a second they're serious about Uggla. He's like exactly the type of player they don't like - undisciplined free swinger who's pretty shitty defensively.
The last three seasons, the Twins have swung just a bit more than average outside of the strike zone, according to FanGraphs. They're about average at overall swing rate. So they hack just normally as a team. Also, from 2007-2009, they are measured at 47 runs below average on defense. I think that in fact could be Delmon Young's fault, since they measured a little above average before 2007.
Also, strikeouts do not equal free swinging. Uggla has the best plate discipline on the Marlins aside from Nick Johnson.
Delmon's the exception to the rule, in terms of their acquisitions. Look at the other big(ger) name position players they've acquired recently: Hardy, Orlando Cabrera, Crede. All are a plus with the glove (well, Cabrera wasn't last year, but he kind of fell off a cliff defensively, and when they acquired him they could have reasonably believed his defensive struggles were due to the small sample size) and they're supposed to be "Twins players" because they can do stuff like "move a runner over" and "choke up to get the run in."
Just because that's how the Twins have been playing doesn't mean that's the team they "want to have." Like the Marlins, they stress their organizational philosophy is "pitching and defense." They also like to say they emphasize situational hitting (they're one of the few teams who emphasize just how much they practice situational hitting), and they say they don't like high K guys. Minnesota may be poor at executing that organizational philosophy (like the Marlins are, with regard to defense), but it doesn't mean that isn't their objective.
Also, "undisciplined free swinger" may not have been the best way to describe why Uggla doesn't fit the Twins. Undisciplined, poor situational hacker (who doesn't profile as someone with a good glove) with a strikeout problem works better.
I like Uggla, and I think the Twins would be smart to pick him up, because he'd be a perfect #5-6 hitter for them. But he doesn't fit what they publicly state is their type of player.
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