The Delightful Departure of Delmon Young

By The Common Man

Around 2:00 yesterday afternoon, The Common Man suddenly felt about 200 lbs. lighter, like a gigantic weight had been lifted off his shoulders. That weight, Delmon Young, was traded by the Twins to the division rival Detroit Tigers for a minor league pitcher and a player to be named later. Who are these mysterious young men? Literally, it doesn’t matter.  As TCM wrote in July, he'd have welcomed a bucket of balls in return for jettisoning Delmon.

Ok, maybe it does a little bit. The one player we know the Twins got, Cole Nelson, is a Minnesota native and, according to Kevin Goldstein, should only be viewed as a reliever going forward, due to his lack of a second plus pitch. He’s probably not anyone to keep a close eye on going forward. (Update: the Twins are reporting that the second player they've acquired is 23 year old reliever Lester Oliveros, who Kevin Goldstein describes as a "Smallish right-hander...[who] has two plus pitches...and some think he could get to Detroit as early as this year if he throws more strikes."  TCM's reaction? Mmm...strikeouts.  This trade keeps looking better.)

But that’s fine. The trade of Delmon Young is the quintissential “Great trade! Who’d we get?” deal, given that Delmon is a bad player who costs his team runs on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Unloading him is addition by subtraction, allowing the Twins to give Ben Revere the playing time he needs, at a position where he can succeed, to develop into a valuable regular for 2012, 2013, and beyond. It also removes the temptation to keep Delmon around this offseason (though he was obviously a non-tender candidate), removing one obstacle to potentially keeping either Michael Cuddyer or Jason Kubel around. The Twins simply had too many playable outfielders, and moving Young allows them to jettison the worst of them and to not have to pay the remainder of his contract.

Quick Hits and Links

By The Common Man

The Common Man is tired after he stayed up late last night, putting together a Trade Tree that you should really check out.  It starts with the first amateur draft in 1965, runs through two division titles 20 years later, and three Hall of Famers.  TCM is also working on a big project with Bill today that should start rolling out later this week (we hope), so here are a bunch of links that are heartily endorsed by The Common Man:

Good news for Twins fans, as ESPN prospect and draft guru Keith Law really likes the team's first three picks (sorry, Insider only) after the first day.  The Twins got the best-looking college middle infielder, Levi Michael, with their first pick.  A big bat in Travis Harrison, a 3B who may need to move to 1B.  And Hudson Boyd, a big high-school kid who already looks like a right-handed Bobo Newsom, who throws hard.

Dayn Perry reminds us that there are other ways to take out the catcher than Scott Cousins body-block.  For instance, Ty Cobb preferred the flying kung-fu jumpkick to the groin.  Which might be effective.  We should see more of this.