Just when you want to believe, the Twins get hammered by a bad offensive team and the Indians go out and get Ubaldo Jimenez. Of course, then the Indians go out and trade Orlando Cabrera for a minor leaguer, so I'm kinda confused, although I guess Cabrera had been relegated to a bench role of late. Also, Jimenez gave up four runs on four walks and two doubles in the first inning before being pulled, presumably when the trade went down, so he may be somewhat of an enigma, something in the lines of a Francisco Liriano.
As for the Twins, it still boggles the mind that Blackburn was handed a starting job over Kevin Slowey, especially after Blackburn's struggles last season. His ERA now stands at 4.49 with a 1.51 WHIP, which is even worse than last year when he could at least blame a sore arm for his struggles. He's now allowed at least four runs in six of his last seven starts and it was the fourth time in that stretch he's allowed double-digit hits. The one slightly encouraging sign was he still was able to get 10 groundball outs, which he must do to have any success.
How bad is it, though, that Blackburn got beat when matched up against a poor man's Slowey. Mancuso is an extreme flyball pitcher without an out pitch. His groundball rate, K rate and walk rate are all worse than Slowey's.
Oh well, at least Span wasn't traded. At least not yet. I did see one encouraging sign that the Twins will be insisting on getting a good deal:
The Twins are insisting on acquiring Storen with Bernadina and minor league infielder Stephen Lombardozzi for Span, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com.
That deal I can get on board, although I still would be upset that Span was traded, since he's one of my favorite players. However, Lombo's son is exactly the type of player the Twins need to focus on. He's a second baseman that can actually hit. He's a switch hitter with a career .370 on-base average in over 1,800 PAs. He's batting .318/.360/.429 as a 22 yr old in AAA. His numbers remind me a lot of a second baseman on a Twins championship team, but thankfully not his dad. If he does get traded to the Twins, we should start a pool on how long it will take for Dazzle to take a swing at him.
Bernadina doesn't really impress me (he's got a little size, maybe he could add some power, which might make him valuable if he's got decent range in the outfield), but Lombo Jr. is intriguing. I'm not thinking that Revere, Hicks, Benson, et al. are sure things in CF in the future, but there's at least reasonable hope they can fill in at CF in the future. We can't say the same thing about our middle infield. If we worked out an even value trade for Span, then I'd think we have to get a middle infielder out of the deal or there's no sense moving Span.
The Indians still can't really hit, but I can't especially blame them for adding Jimenez, though I admit to knowing nothing about what they gave up in return.
I follow a few Rockies blogs. Going off what I've read so far, it sounds like the Indians gave up (best case scenario) a potential #1 (Pomeranz), a potential #2 (White), a potential #4 with a high GB% (Gardner, a sinkerballer), and a 26 year old AA first baseman (McBride) who can play a little outfield (though that might not be the case at Coors Field).
O'Dowd said he wouldn't trade Ubaldo unless he was offered a Herschel Walker-esque return, and it sounds like this will be short of that. If the Rockies really wanted to push it they should have demanded including a third baseman or second baseman who can hit.
One other interesting wrinkle, which I learned from Rob Neyer, is that the 2014 option on Ubaldo's contract has been voided, meaning he's only under Cleveland's control through 2013. So, theoretically they could flip him in the future if they realize they're further from true contention than they think they are now.
Mancuso? It's
MoscosoLossGOSO.