Cuddyer Shift Could Effect Santana Trade

 

From the Pioneer Press:

Torii Hunter’s successor in center field for the Twins could be Michael Cuddyer.

“With Delmon Young in right and Jason Kubel in left,” manager Ron Gardenhire said.

That’s a consideration of Gardenhire’s if minor leaguers Denard Span and Jason Pridie can’t convince the manager during spring training that they’re ready to succeed Hunter, who left for the Los Angeles Angels via free agency.

“I’m going to talk to Cuddy about it,” Gardenhire said.

If this truly is the case, then the Santana trade situation (assuming he’s still traded) could be greatly effected by a Cuddyer position change. Cuddyer has played RF, LF (barely), 1B, 3B and 2B over the course of his career, but he has never played CF. He’s been extremely “solid” at each of these positions (career .975 FP), with 3B as the exception (career .941 FP). Last year in RF, he played 140 games with a .986 FP and a .818 ZR (below-average).

Moving Cuddyer to CF, as Gardenhire stated, could be a possibility, although it’s probably not the likely route. From what I can tell, his range would come into play and could effect the team negatively. After years of being juggled around, he finally situated himself in RF in 2006, therefore, I don’t know how he would react to another switch.

However, if this actually does occur, one could easily assume that the Red Sox and Yankees would be effected in their attempts to deal for Johan Santana. The Twins have been looking for a CF and if they decide that their best option would be having Cuddyer transition to that position, then, both the Yankees and the Red Sox would probably have to rebuild their packages around starting pitchers and other minor leaguers.

The Yankees would have to include Phil Hughes in a package and then supplement it with other young pitchers or players (including Melky Cabrera would no longer be necessary). The Red Sox, who have pretty much built their best packages around Jacoby Ellsbury, would then have to rely upon a package spearheaded by Lester or Buchholz (supplemented by more minor leaguers like Masterson, Lowrie, etc.). In this scenario, Coco Crisp would obviously be out of the deal.

Again, this is highly speculative and theoretical, simply because Cuddyer to center doesn’t necessarily seem like a great fit (defensively). The Twins would feel that too, especially after having the defensively great Torii Hunter roaming CF for so many years. But, if the change did happen for whatever reason, the packages for Santana would definitely have to be adjusted in relation to the position switch (remember, this applies to those stubborn Mets as well).

The Red Sox, Good? Really?

From Gerry Fraley (SportingNews):

Epstein’s approach should concern the rest of the American League. The limited tinkering indicates that he has a very good club.

Oh really? The “limited tinkering” did that? Or, was it the WS trophy?

Sunday’s Bits: Brad Wilkerson, Clemens, Tulo, Neshek

Just a couple of items for the day.

• The Yankees are reportedly interested in Brad Wilkerson (MLBTR). I’m sure this is probably nothing more than speculation (or it’s a way for the Yankees to drive up the price on the Red Sox, who are the main bidders, especially since Wilkerson hits pretty well against NY). Now that Jason Lane has been invited to camp, I doubt the club has a serious interest in Wilkerson, although he could have been a better option than Lane was. Wilkerson, a left-handed hitter (with good power), has fairly similar splits (vs pitchers) with better numbers against lefties.
• In other MLB news, Troy Tulowitzki and the Rockies are close to a record-breaking extension (for players with less than 2-years of service time). The record, which was previously held by the Indians and Grady Sizemore, will go to Tulo and the Rox, once they finish up the reported 6-year, 30 million dollar deal. Tulowitzki was great last year and idolizes Derek Jeter. How can you not lock this guy up?
• Also, for those interested in the ongoing Clemens-McNamee/Mitchell Report fiasco, a new party has surfaced as a potentially viable witness for McNamee. Jim Murray who works with Clemens’ representatives, reportedly met with McNamee in 2003 or 2004 to discuss steroid testing in baseball (and supposedly took notes during this meeting). If you remember the audio taped phone convo between Clemens and McNamee, you probably remember McNamee saying that he met with Murray to discuss steroids or something similar to that.
• Finally, we all know about Phil Hughes and his blog. But, there’s another, probably lesser known pitcher out there working the keyboard as well. Pat Neshek of the Minnesota Twins, who is probably the most dominant reliever in the AL that nobody knows about (who will easily take over Joe Nathan’s role as closer), also has a blog. Needless to say, at this point, it’s got some more substance on there than Phil’s blog, but I’m sure he’s still working on his. (Thanks to Pride of the Yankees for the information on Neshek’s blog).

Welcome to High School: Roger and Andy Not Best Friends!

Ken Davidoff has the story (props to RAB):

Andy Pettitte is said by friends to be upset with Roger Clemens because of Clemens’ aggressive defense to the charges leveled against him in the Mitchell Report. Most of all, Pettitte didn’t care for Clemens’ public airing of his taped phone call with accuser Brian McNamee, which accomplished little.

Among its many unexpected consequences, the Mitchell Report has magnified just how different Clemens and Pettitte are. And with the two men set to share a table at Capitol Hill’s Rayburn Hall next month, it’s as good a time as any to point out that this supposed mentor-protege’s relationship has been overblown by the media — with this space as guilty as anyone else.

“They were never as close as they were made out to be,” a friend of both said on the condition of anonymity. “They just sort of went along with it in the media, because it was a good story.”

Honestly, who cares? This is like that Jeter-A-Rod story that will simply never go away. The only person this truly effects is Roger Clemens. He better hope that he and Pettitte are good enough “friends,” so that Pettitte doesn’t level him when he’s being questioned by the congressional committee.