Anyone closely following baseball is probably aware that the Twins substituted Eduardo Morlan for Juan Rincon in the trade Ryan previously spoke of. This clouds the trade a little bit more for me; I found Morlan more valuable than Rincon, who has declined of late to the extent that Matt Guerrier joined Pat Neshek as the primary set-up men. (I’ve always loved Guerrier, but I was happily surprised how well he took to a set-up role.) On the other hand, the reason the substitution was made was because Rincon is apparently having elbow issues. If that’s truly the case, and if the issue can be fixed, that’s not such a bad thing. But I’d still rather Morlan in New Britain or Rochester (or Fort Myers) than Rincon in Minnesota. But what’s done is done.
Many people hailed this as “Smith is willing to trade young pitchers! Finally!” Granted, some of them are more than a little upset that it was Matt Garza rather than Boof Bonser or Scott Baker or Kevin Slowey (or two of those three), but whatever.
However, I feel it prudent to point out that Terry Ryan did once trade young pitchers. In fact, two of them in the same trade for a non-pitcher. I speak, of course, of the Luis Castillo for Travis Bowyer and Scott Tyler. Most casual Twins fans had never heard of Tyler, and only seen Bowyer briefly in his September call-up in 2005. Both were on the Twins’ 40-man roster, at least briefly.
Neither of them are currently on the Marlins’ 40-man roster, and considering the boys are 25 and 26 years old, that’s saying something; most players with futures are on 40-men rosters by then if they’re not in the majors yet. Bowyer has yet to pitch for the Marlins–he injured his shoulder and had surgery in August 2006 (based on the lack of stats, I presume he was unable to play before surgery was decided upon), and presumably spent 2007 recovering. I do not know his status. In 2007, Tyler pitched mostly at the Marlins AA level, but was hardly worth noting there (his 2007 ERA in AA was 8.80).
In other words: Terry Ryan did give up pitching prospects when he deemed it was proper. And when he did, he knew exactly which ones to trade. I only hope Bill Smith was watching closely.
Also, I’m distraught that Mikko Koivu! still can’t play hockey. I miss him. Stupid Ohlund. :shakes fist:
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