By Minnesota standard, Bill Smith has an itchy trigger finger. He pulled off two hefty trades early in his Twins tenure, the infamous Johan Santana and Delmon Young trades. He also added Mike Lamb and Adam Everett that same offseason. There was a lull for a while, with a few pieces being pushed around that were really not terribly important. Since the end of the last season, however, Smith stove has started to warm once again. He traded for Jon Rauch, Ron Mahay, Orlando Cabrera and Carl Pavano as the season expired, and then sent Carlos Gomez to Milwaukee for JJ Hardy at the end of the year.
Even so, Kenny Williams makes Smith look like he is napping with all the moves he makes. Bloggin’ buddy Landon Evanson makes that point to in his latest post. But the thing is, the Twins do it our way for a reason, and the White Sox frantically make acquisitions for a reason too.
Kenny Williams went and nabbed Juan Pierre to lead off and play the outfield, while also grabbing the streaky and sometimes moody Andruw Jones. Why haven’t the Twins done anything like this? Because they already have Denard Span to lead off and play the outfield and the streaky and sometimes moody Delmon Young.
They have also signed JJ Putz to set up Bobby Jenks. The Twins worked on patching their bullpen at the end of last season and will keep Jon Rauch through next season. The Sox bolstered their infield by adding Mark Teahen and Omar Vizquel. The Twins picked up Hardy, who could very well be better than Teahen, and already have Nick Punto, who is also overrated in the field and can’t hit.
If anything, the White Sox are building the same team the Twins already have, but since their farm system is depleted, thanks to trades like the one that brought Jake Peavey to town, they have to go out and acquire overpaid veterans. the Twins still have flexibility. If gunslinger Bill Smith wants to make a splash, there shouldn’t be anything holding him back.
Even if Kenny Williams is out making moves and Bill Smith has done nothing
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