Twins/Giants Trade

[Ksyrup]

Interesting. Wonder if Mauer is going to skip AAA?


MINNEAPOLIS -- All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski was traded Friday by the tightly-budgeted Minnesota Twins to the San Francisco Giants for right-handed pitcher Joe Nathan and two minor leaguers.

The minor-league pitchers are right-hander Boof Bonser and left-hander Francisco Liriano. The Twins will give up either a player to be named later or cash to complete the deal.


Pierzynski, 26, batted .312 with 35 doubles, 11 homers and 74 RBI in 137 games for the Twins this season. An All-Star in 2002, Pierzynski will earn a significant raise through salary arbitration from the $365,000 he made in 2003.


"It's one of those things that was eventually going to happen," Pierzynski said, reached on a golf course in Hawaii. "I was one of the first guys people had talked about. And they've got the guy coming behind me."


Minnesota has the first overall pick in the 2001 draft, Joe Mauer, waiting to take over as its catcher. Mauer was the Twins' minor league player of the year, batting .335 with Class A Fort Myers and .341 for Double-A New Britain.


Owner Carl Pohlad wants to keep Minnesota's $56 million payroll static, so general manager Terry Ryan might have to make more moves this offseason to keep the core of his roster intact.


First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and left-handed pitcher Johan Santana are among four other players eligible for arbitration, and relievers Eddie Guardado and LaTroy Hawkins and outfielder Shannon Stewart are free agents.


Nathan, 26, went 12-4 with a 2.96 ERA in 78 appearances for San Francisco last season. He led NL relievers in victories.


Ryan was traveling Friday afternoon and not immediately available for comment.

[daedalus]

Wow. One hell of a pickup for the Gi'nts.

If Mauer isn't ready, LeCroy was a catcher in the minors.

[Ksyrup]

I think the twins made out pretty well, though. Nathan is solid, and Bonser is on most scouts' short list of top minor league prospects across the board.

[The Afoci]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
I think the twins made out pretty well, though. Nathan is solid, and Bonser is on most scouts' short list of top minor league prospects across the board.

The only problem I see with this, it is a down the road trade. I would prefer a next season one, but it is what I have to expect as a Twins fan now I guess.

[Swaggs]

I think that is a pretty good baseball trade, regardless of the salaries involved.

If you are the Twins, you have to consider that A.J. had a career year and odds are relatively solid that he will not be that productive next season. They are buying low and selling high, which is smart for a small market team to do. They have a built in replacement in Mauer, so why not grab some more arms to work with.

If you are the Giants, you upgrade yourself at catcher at the cost of one big league reliever, and probably improve your team from last seasons.

[Noop]

Joe should have went to Florida State atleast he would be the starting QB by now... :(

[Neuqua]

I was hearing AJ's name being thrown around for the Cubs but looks like the Giants got him already. Darn.

I'll just sit here and try to fool myself into believing we'll use our resources to trade for ARod.

[mrskippy]

Benito's replacement.

[clintl]

That looks like a good trade for the Giants, although I thought Yorvit Torrealba was looking like he had the ability to be a solid starting catcher.

As far as the Twins are concerned, it could work out very well, but I would be a little worried if I were a Twins fan. Brian Sabean has an astonishingly consistent record of trading away hot pitching prospects that end up being disappointments.

[oykib]

I like this trade much more from the Twins side than the Giants side. That is, unless the Giants can shake loose one of the Twins good young outfielders as the player to be named later.

[astralhaze]

Originally posted by oykib
I like this trade much more from the Twins side than the Giants side. That is, unless the Giants can shake loose one of the Twins good young outfielders as the player to be named later.

Ditto. In fact, this looks like a terrible move for the Giants. As mentioned before, Torrealba would have been a decent catcher while Pierzynski is coming off of his career year. Nathan was a very valuable reliever and Bonser is an excellent prospect. I just don't understand the Giants logic here at all.

For the Twins, this is a great move all around. If it does indeed mean Mauer is coming up, that's obviously a positive. Even if it doesn't, they get a top pitching prospect, a good reliever (which they need badly especially considering Hawkins is a FA), and perhaps most importantly they save some money.

[Vince]

Originally posted by Swaggs
I think that is a pretty good baseball trade, regardless of the salaries involved.

If you are the Twins, you have to consider that A.J. had a career year and odds are relatively solid that he will not be that productive next season. They are buying low and selling high, which is smart for a small market team to do. They have a built in replacement in Mauer, so why not grab some more arms to work with.

If you are the Giants, you upgrade yourself at catcher at the cost of one big league reliever, and probably improve your team from last seasons.

The only thing you forget to mention is that the Giants also gave up someone who was supposed to be a pretty highly touted prospect in Bonser. Even so...

I just did a fairly in-depth statistical analysis of A.J. Pierzynski, and based upon my results, I do not think that he had just a career year. He has improved in each of his three (full) seasons, both offensively and defensively. The only mar on his record, it would seem, is that in 2001 he had a very weak second half of the season. He was an All-Star in 2002, and ended up leading the Twins in RBIs from the 8 slot in the lineup this season.

Not to mention he throws out runners at greater than a 30% clip, when 70% seems to be the 'threshold' lower than which stealing bases becomes unproductive. To make this even sweeter, people have mentioned that the Twins' pitching staff is horrible at keeping runners on base (I believe it was Mientkiewicz that made the comment). On top of that, he has less errors and passed balls than most other catchers while playing more innings and getting more chances than most (by most, I'm saying catcher averages for the league), and managed the Twins' staff really well, posting a much better CERA than his replacements.

All in all, I think A.J. Pierzynski is a better than average catcher, and batting in the Giants' lineup will do nothing but improve his numbers.

[Vince]

Originally posted by astralhaze
Ditto. In fact, this looks like a terrible move for the Giants. As mentioned before, Torrealba would have been a decent catcher while Pierzynski is coming off of his career year. Nathan was a very valuable reliever and Bonser is an excellent prospect. I just don't understand the Giants logic here at all.

For the Twins, this is a great move all around. If it does indeed mean Mauer is coming up, that's obviously a positive. Even if it doesn't, they get a top pitching prospect, a good reliever (which they need badly especially considering Hawkins is a FA), and perhaps most importantly they save some money.

Ok, not including my last post...

Torrealba is hardly an offensive force. An OBP barely over .300 and OPS in the low .700s is nothing compared to the .360 OBP and high .700 low .800 OPS numbers AJ posts year to year.

Nathan might have been a valuable reliever, however the Giants have Nen, Worrell, and Herges already. Regardless of that, Bonds is getting older, and the Giants' window of opportunity is slowly drawing closed. To give up prospects for someone who is not only a year removed from an All-Star game, but is also only 27 seems like a great move, especially at a position where they could use help.

[astralhaze]

Playing in Pac Bell as a left-handed hitter will do nothing but hurt Pierzynski's numbers. Sure, he is better than Torrealba by a fair margin, but not enough to justify the price they paid to get him. Even if you are correct and last season was not his career year but an indication of his future performance I still don't think the price was worth it. If Bonser is as good as advertised, this could look like Anderson for Bagwell in a few years.

[Vince]

I'd love to get into this more, but I have to go.

I think the effect of being in the same lineup as Bonds will have a greater effect on him than the park effects. Either way, I think the Giants are a better team THIS YEAR at least.

EDIT: If you are fairly certain that the team will be a far cry worse in the next 3-5 years, and you know you have a shot at winning it all this next year, why not mortage the future for this season?

[Ryche]

Giants fans should love Pierzynski, he has probably been my favorite Twin. Nice hitter, nice defense and Pac Bell shouldn't hurt his numbers as he scatters the ball pretty well to all fields.

That said, the move was inevitable for the Twins. Either this year or next Mauer would be ready for the majors and once he is called up, he won't be sitting on the bench. The level of players received in return seems to be about right for a borderline allstar catcher.

[QuikSand]

I think the Twins did well with this... I like Bonser a pretty good deal, and Nathan is a solid addition.

[Bad-example]

Nathan is a very good pitcher that may turn out to be a top closer. I will miss seeing him in a Giants uniform.

I wonder what quality the player to be named will be. It seems the Twins still owe a solid player to make this trade even.

[tucker342]

I think it a was a good trade by both sides.

[daedalus]

Didn't Nathan used to be a starter? Any chance of the Twins moving him back into the rotation?

[Bad-example]

Yes, Nathan was a starter before he had some arm trouble. After returning from surgury, he struggled to regain his velocity but learned to get hitters out without topping 90 on the gun. After his velocity did return, he returned to the big club where he was very effective as a set up man.

The article I read stated the Twins plan to use him in a set up role, but he could probably do well as a starter, swing man set up man or closer...