Hall of Fame thoughts: Ex-Twins on the ballot

There are two names on the writers ballot this year who played briefly for the Twins, and both will assuredly be one-and-done.

There's no shame in that; just getting onto the Hall of Fame ballot signals an impressive career. It requires a minimum of 10 seasons in the majors, for one thing, and even that longevity is not enough by itself.

The former Twins on the ballot this year:

Casey Blake. It 's easy to forget (or to have never noticed) that Blake played for the Twins. Indeed, he had two separate tenures with Minnesota.

He debuted with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1999, then the Twins picked him up on waivers. He got 21 plate appearances with the Twins in 2000 and another 25 in 2001 before the Twins waived him in September. The Baltimore Orioles claimed him and played him in six games, then waived him themselves after the season -- and the Twins claimed him back. He got another 22 PAs with the Twins in 2002.

The Twins then released him. He was 29 and had gotten exactly 125 major league plate appearances. He was blocked in Minnesota by Corey Koskie, but two other organizations had found him wanting. This is the description of a Quadruple A player, a guy who probably needs to find something else to do with his life.

Blake signed with Cleveland, and his career turned around. Over the next eight seasons he averaged more than 20 homers a year, splitting time between third base, right field and first base, playing in three postseasons. He never led the league in anything, never made an All-Star team, but he was a solid regular for both the Indians and the Dodgers. (The Indians traded him for Carlos Santana, so he still has an impact on the Tribe.)

Orlando Cabrera. His career is essentially in two segments: The Montreal years, eight seasons with the Expos, and the nomadic years, in which he wandered from playoff team to playoff team, a short-term shortstop.

He was the shortstop for Boston when the Red Sox broke the curse. He stepped in for the 2009 Twins, hitting over .280 down the stretch and bopping a key homer in the famous Game 163. He never made the postseason with the Expos, but he was in the playoffs six of seven years after leaving Canada. I wouldn't say those teams won because of O-Cab; I would say that he didn't keep them from winning.

Like Blake, he never made an All-Star team, but he did win a pair of Gold Gloves. He was never the best shortstop in the league, but he was a good one and stuck at the position well into his 30s.

Dissecting the Bill Smith era: The Cabrera trade

Since playing for the Twins,
Orlando Cabrera has been with
Cincinnati, Cleveland and
San Francisco. He is currently
a free agent.

When: July 31, 2009
What: The Twins acquired SS Orlando Cabrera from Oakland for minor league SS Tyler Ladendorf
Values: Ladendorf has yet to play in the majors. Cabrera had 0.2 WAR in his two months with Minnesota, 14 total win shares for the season (my resource for the win shares doesn't split them between the two teams).
Twins motivation: Stabilizing the infield for the stretch run.

The Twins made no significant trades in the 2008-09 offseason. The 2008 season had ended just shy of a divisional title (they lost a tie-breaking Game 163 1-0 to the White Sox), but it also ended with the organization confident that the young starting rotation of the second half (alphabetically Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Franscisco Liriano, Glen Perkins and Kevin Slowey) was good for years to come and confident that Alexi Casilla had nailed down second base.

So they brought in Joe Crede as a free agent to play third. LaVelle Neal wrote going into spring training that the infield of Justin Morneau (1b), Casilla (2b), Crede (3b) and Nick Punto (ss) might be the best in Twins history.

September's infield was Michael Cuddyer (1b), Punto (2b), Matt Tolbert (3b) and Cabrera (ss). Morneau and Crede were out with back problems, Casilla got bounced for ineffectiveness, and Cabrera was brought in to play short.

The O-Cab didn't do much with the bat  in August (.259/.283/.375), and he committed plenty of physical errors and showed limited range in the field throughout his Twins tenure. But he (like Punto and Tolbert) hit in September (.315/.338/.477), and he didn't make mental errors.

The Twins didn't bring Cabrera back as a free agent in 2010. He was a two-month rental, and he got by on defense in part because he was flanked by two other shortstops in Punto and Tolbert. It worked; the Twins caught the Tigers in the final weekend of the season and won Game 163, with Cabrera contributing a crucial home run.

Ladendorf was a second-round draft pick in 2008 who put up some impressive numbers in junior college ball.  He remains in the Oakland farm system but has not hit, even though the A's affiliates play in pretty strong hitters' environments.

This mid-season rent-a-vet move worked, and it doesn't appear to have cost the Twins much at all.

Taking the O-Cab to Cleveland

Orlando Cabrera was the regular
shortstop for Cincinnati in 2010,
and the Reds won a surprising
division title. Coincidence?

Orlando Cabrera, the shortstop whose late-career wandering brought him through Minnesota for a couple of months, has agreed to a contract with the Cleveland Indians.

This will make six teams in five seasons for Cabrera. It is unlikely, however, that he'll make the playoffs at this stop, which is something he's done in six of the last seven years.

Fairly or not, that kind of thing gets a player a reputation as a "winner." I don't know that Cabrera actually adds more to a team than his stats indicate, but a couple of his playoff teams didn't figure to be contenders when he got there.

I take note of his signing for the following reasons:

• Cleveland apparently has it in mind to make him a second baseman, which makes sense given that incumbent shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera is younger and more athletic than the 36-year-old Orlando Cabrera.
• The elder Cabrera isn't going to be in anybody's long term plans, much less those of a rebuilding team such as Cleveland. They'll look to flip him in mid season (which will give him a chance to make is seven of eight).
• Ron Gardenhire liked Cabrera in 2009.
• The Twins are, let us say, fluid in their middle infield entering spring training. 

The overriding theme of the Twins offseason has been the pursuit of long-term options. They're making a deliberate effort to get away from the one-year or two-month patch in the infield, they're rebuilding their bullpen out of a flock of inexperienced arms.

Come August, if the young infielders are wilting in the summer heat and pennant race stress, the long-term will be a lesser consideration. The Twins might be interested in hailing the O-Cab once more.

Let us hope it doesn't come to that.

Ex-Twins watch: Orlando Cabrera (playoff edition)

Orlando Cabrera played 59 regular season games for the Twins in 2009, during which Bert Blyleven probably told his television audience 58 times that the shortstop "wants to be in the lineup every day." As if this makes Cabrera unique.

Orlando Cabrera aggravated
his late-season injury on this
fourth-inning double play Friday.

Cabrera spent this season with Cincinnati. The Reds are his eighth team since Opening Day 2004; in those seven nomadic seasons, he has missed the playoffs just once. He's needed a couple of mid-season trades to get there,  but in each of those cases (Boston in 2004, the Twins in 2009) he was a significant reason his new team won. This kind of thing gets a player a reputation as a winner.

In that respect, 2010 was a success for the O-Cab. Few expected much of the Reds this year, but they won the National League Central title comfortably over the favored Cardinals and Cubs. Statistically, however, this was probably the worst season of the 35-year-old's 14-year career.

Cabrera spent almost a month on the disabled list  and hit .263/.303/.354 in 123 games, a dropoff of almost 50 points of OPS from 2009 — this despite playing in the weaker league and in a better hitters park. His backup, Paul Janish, hit .260/.338/.385, and may well be Cabrera's defensive superior at this point in their careers.

But Dusty Baker, the Cincinnati manager, loves his veterans, and it is true that the Reds were 68-51 with Cabrera in the starting lineup but just 26-25 with Janish starting. So when the NLDS opened, Cabrera was the Reds shortstop.

He went hitless in the opener, as did the rest of the Cincy lineup; Roy Halladay was incredibly good, and almost everybody acknowledged that. Cabrera did not: "He and the umpire pitched a no-hitter. He gave him every pitch. Basically, we had no chance."

In Game Two, he was 1-for-2 before injuring a muscle in his left side and leaving the game. The Reds led 4-0 when Janish took over at short; the Phillies won 7-4 with the aid of five unearned runs on four Cincinnati errors.

The presumption before Game Three was that Cabrera would not play, but after batting practice Baker took Janish out of his lineup and inserted Cabrera. Cabrera's first-inning throwing error allowed the Phillies' first run, and he was 0-for-3 at the plate.

Wanting to be in the lineup and actually helping the team are not necessarily the same thing.

Ex-Twins watch: Orlando Cabrera

This has to be said for Orlando Cabrera in his bounce-around years: He finds his way onto winning teams.

He's missed out on the playoffs just once in the last six seasons — five playoff trips for four different organizations (Boston, Angels, White Sox, Twins). This year's model of the O-Cab is on the Cincinnati Reds, and the Reds have hit August running essentially dead-even with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cabrera's numbers are down this season — .259/.299/.340 — and at age 35 his defense isn't of the highest caliber. Both Win Shares and Wins Above Replacement — both complex attempts to distill everything a player does into one number — ranks him as the weakest regular in the Cincinnati lineup. (Stats found on The Baseball Gauge)

But he's not preventing them from winning. Shortstop is not a gaping wound for the Reds. Very few, if any, teams in major league history have had a star, or even an above average player, at every position. Even good teams have a regular whose function (to extend the "gaping wound" metaphor) is as a suture.

That's what Cabrera did late last season for the Twins. That's what he's providing for Cincinnati this summer.

Now, the Reds will be in trouble in the long haul this way. Scott Rolen, who has a lot more to do with the Reds' success than Cabrera does, is also 35; catcher Ramon Hernandez —another plugging-a-gap type — is 34. Manager Dusty Baker prefers veterans, but even he (or his general manager) may realize that this is unsustainable.

So Cabrera may be on the move again this winter — a band-aid shortstop looking for another hole to cover.

Orlando Cabrera and other roster issues

Orlando Cabrera has reportedly reached an agreement with the Cincinnati Reds, pending physical and other formalities.

Ron Gardenhire, even after the Twins traded for J.J. Hardy, talked about wanting to keep Cabrera to play second base. From this distance, it's unclear if Cabrera didn't like that idea or if other people in the Twins organization didn't like that idea. At any rate, Cabrera and his diminishing range will be deployed at short again this year, just not in Minnesota.

All this further drives down the possibility of adding another veteran infielder. Reports out of TwinsFest this weekend downplayed the Joe Crede notion, and I had already written off the notion of a third base acquisition anyway because of the pinch-hitting implications.

Orlando Hudson might still be a possibility, but one must remember — he lost his job in L.A. to Ronnie Belliard last summer.

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When the Jim Thome signing is finalized — he was supposed to have a physical while in town for TwinsFest — somebody will have to come off the 40-man roster. That should happen in the next day or so.

While I still expect Glen Perkins to be traded, it now appears that won't happen until he's demonstrated in exhibition games that his shoulder is sound. And for that matter, one never knows that injuries will pop up among the Twins pitchers. They may still need Perkins.

Alexi Casilla had a good playoff series in the Dominican this winter, and unless the Twins do bring in a veteran infielder, he's in the mix for a lineup spot. He and Matt Tolbert are both out of options, and it's difficult to see both of them making the 25-man roster.

LaVelle Neal suggested that the Twins could carry them both over Jason Pridie, but I believe the only way that's happening if if Gardenhire is comfortable with the notion of playing one of the infielders in center for three or four days if and when Denard Span gets one of those day-to-day nagging injuries that don't merit putting him on the disabled list.

Yeah, Michael Cuddyer played some center last season, but that was in Wrigley Field, the smallest center field area in the majors. In normal parks, Cuddyer in center is an invitation to triples.

Avoiding arbitration

Lots of signings Tuesday by the Twins. They had eight arbitration cases pending and wiped the slate clean.

Because all eight were already under team control, the deals are mainly of interest to their employer, who now know exactly how much they're paying these guys, and to their accountants.

Tuesday was the day to exchange arbitration figures, and there were a lot of signings all over baseball. It appears that everybody's got a pretty good handle on where the arbitration ruling was likely to go, and if they have that figured out, it's easy to settle.

Some of the Twins deals are complex enough that they were clearly being work on a while. Francisco Liriano, for example, has incentives both as a starter and as a reliever. Brendan Harris got a two-year contract —which make his the worst contract on the roster, except that it's not a huge amount (for baseball. Me, I'd be able to retire on it).

And J.J. Hardy's contract is essentially what Orlando Cabrera got last season, which was too low for O-Cab's liking. Cabrera's still available; he's overestimated his market again, it appears.

Contemplating Cabrera

The conventional wisdom in the wake of the J.J. Hardy trade was that this precluded the return of Orlando Cabrera.

Not so — at least to the extent that Ron Gardenhire has a say (and one assumes the manager has some significant input).

Gardy, quoted in Sid Hartman's column:

"I would like to have Cabrera back, and I told Billy (Smith, the Twins general manager) that. He's one guy that I would like to still make an effort to sign. You need good players, and Cabrera's one of them.''

Gardenhire said he could put Cabrera at second and Nick Punto at third.

Now, Cabrera hasn't played an inning at any position other than shortstop since 2000, and I have no idea if the idea of a position switch would fly with him.

That said, a switch makes a certain amount of sense. Cabrera, even by Gardenhire's assessment, struggled at shortstop last season. His range has diminished, and Gardenhire said he was surprised at how weak Cabrera's arm was.

Yet Gardy remains eager to have Cabrera in his middle infield.

And it occurs to me, in contemplating managerial enthusiasm for a shortstop in decline, that there are four skills involved in playing defense: Hands — the ability to catch the ball; Arm — the ability to throw it with speed and accuracy; Mobility — the ability to go get the ball; and Intelligence/Instinct — knowing where to go and what to do.

Different positions have different requirements for each of these skills. A second baseman has less need for arm than a shortstop — the throws are shorter — and can get away with more bobbles as well.

Cabrera, right now, has limited mobility and arm — and his hands, at least as a shortstop, may suffer because he's trying too hard to get rid of the ball quickly to make up for the arm.

What he's got that Gardenhire wants in his middle infield, then, is that intelligence/instinct.

Which is probably the defensive attribute that has won Derek Jeter four Gold Gloves. Managers, as a rule, can more readily excuse the occasional physical error (although Cabrera had too many of them) than the occasional mental error — and Gardenhire has seen too many of those from his middle infielders the past three years.

Quotes, notes and comments

The tragic number remains frozen at 14 after Tuesday's games. It's been a while since it stayed steady.

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"What have I seen from (Alex) Rios? A lot of outs. The only batting ninth guy making $5 million was me. This (blank-blank) is making $10, $12, $14 million, he ain't going to be batting ninth (in 2010). I'm going to make sure he earns his money. But right now I have to put him there because he's struggling. Next year, if we have Rios batting ninth we're in deep (bleep) once again.''

—Ozzie Guillen on outfielder Alex Rios, due some $60 million from the White Sox over the next five years.

Since the Blue Jays surprised the White Sox by handing over Rios and his lousy contract for the waiver price, Rios has hit .140 with a .153 on-base percentage and .215 slugging percentage. My previous entry pointed out how badly the Twins middle infielders have hit this year; Rios, as a White Sox, is making them look good.

Another take on Rios, this one from an unidentified scout for a National League team via the Chicago Tribune: "He's a teaser. He can get you fired."

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Joe Mauer went 2-for-3 Tuesday, so over his last three games he's a mere 8-for-10. At this writing he leads the AL in batting average by 21 points over Ichiro Suzuki, in on-base percentage by 17 points over Kevin Youkilis, in slugging percentage by 40 points over Kendry Morales and in OPS by 61 points over Youkilis.

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Following up on this afternoon's post about the Twins middle infield hitting: Nick Punto's 3-for-4 raised his batting average for the season over .230 for the first time since May 2.

And Orlando Cabrera had two hits, one a homer. On this day, the middle infield wasn't a drag.

Incidentally, when I wrote this afternoon's post, Punto had zero votes in my poll about which of the incumbents should be in the 2010 middle infield. Since then, there have been two added votes, both for Punto.

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Cabrera, in Cleveland's big fourth inning — when the Tribe scored three runs — provided a good example of the difficulty of telling what's pitching and what's defense. With one out and a man on second, Jhonny Peralta hit a ground ball to the left on second base. Watching on TV, I thought: A perfect DP grounder. And then the ball rolled on into center field, Cabrera being nowhere near making a play on it.

I don't know what the deal was. Maybe Cabrera was playing Peralta to pull the ball. Maybe Cabrera, at age 34, doesn't have the range he once did. What I do know is that I've watched several hundred games, on the tube or in person, and I expected a ground ball hit in that location at that velocity to be fielded by a major league shortstop.

Bert Blyleven blamed Scott Baker for making a bad pitch; I blamed Cabrera for not making the play. I don't know that either of us can convince the other.

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Rany Jazayerli's blog on the Kansas City Royals has a place on my blogroll, but he's shutting it down out of disgust with the K.C. organization. I'll leave it on the roll for now in case the winter eases Dr. Jazayerli's pain, but I suspect that eventually it will have to come down.

Middle infield numbers

Here's something you didn't know:

Nick Punto (left) has outhit Orlando Cabrera since the O-Cab arrived in Minnesota. Yes he has.

Cabrera's slash stats with the Twins (numbers entering Tuesday): .242/.271/.357. OPS: .628
Punto's slash stats, same period: .271/.344/.346. OPS: .690

Cabrera's .271 on-base percentage is particularly repulsive. It is the lowest of any Minnesota position player. Yet he's been anchored in the No. 2 slot in the lineup since he joined the lineup Aug. 1.

Of the 73 AL players who qualify for the batting title, Cabrera is last in OPS, last in slugging percentage, and third from the bottom in on-base percentage. He hit better for Oakland than with Minnesota, but it's been stinky regardless.

Then there's Alexi Casilla: .196/.275./.249 (.524). Of the 150 American League players with at least 225 plate appearances, Casilla is dead last in OPS — by 58 points. He's last in slugging percentage — by 32 points. He does manage to crawl out of the cellar in OBP — he's 146th in that category. Just a dismal season.

A few weeks ago, Casilla has a five-game binge in which he got 11 hits. Dick Bremer was ecstatic. Casilla followed that with five straight hitless games and is three for 14 this month, and Punto has taken the bulk of the second base time.

Not that Punto is having a great season either. He's 147th in that 225-PA group in OPS, and he's the guy Casilla trails in slugging percentage. It's been a lousy season for Punto, but he's got a pretty good September going — and it might keep him prominent in the Twins' 2010 plans.

Why the trade deadline is overrated

Each of the three teams that thought a month ago it had a legit shot at the AL Central title made deals just before the July 31 trading deadline. Two made waiver deals for significant veterans shortly after the trading deadline.

Here's how the players involved have fared thus far:

Detroit: Added LHS Jarrod Washburn (right) from Seattle. With the Tigers, he's 1-2 in six starts, ERA of 6.81. The Tigers have managed to win four of the six starts. Run support is wonderful.

Minnesota: SS Orlando Cabrera came from Oakland before the deadline; RSH Carl Pavano came in a waiver deal form Cleveland shortly after.

Cabrera is hitting .259 with a .289 on-base percentage since joining the Twins; he ended Monday game with one hit in his last 14 at-bats. As was said here when the Twins traded for him, he really doesn't belong at the top of the order.

Pavano has made five starts for the Twins, going 2-2 with a 4.06 ERA. The Twins won three of those five starts, scoring an average of 10 runs in the three.

Chicago: RHS Jake Peavy OKd leaving San Diego literally seconds before the deadline. The Sox then landed OF Alex Rios from Toronto on waivers in August.

Peavy was injured at the time of the trade and has yet to throw a major league pitch for the White Sox; his rehab assignment was extended when he took a liner off his pitching elbow. The Chicago Tribune reported late Monday that the Sox didn't yet know when he would try to pitch again.

Rios has played in 15 games with the Sox, going 10 for 56, a dismal .179 batting average.

What's more, picking him up probably put Chciago in a bit of a financial bind. According to USA Today last week, White Sox GM Kenny Williams cleared the Peavy deal and its financial implications with ownership first, but didn't with Rios, because he figured there was no way Toronto would just let the outfielder go. But the Blue Jays were delighted to dump the $59.7 million guaranteed Rios on the White Sox.

Conclusions: None of them are stellar.

The Twins fared better with their pickups, at least in August, but Pavano's wins came with lots of run support; the Twins probably would have won those games without him. Cabrera isn't helping the lineup in the No. 2 slot.

Detroit's not getting much out of Washburn other than innings; again, the wins came because the bats came alive.

The White Sox would have been better off sitting on their hands — certainly so far, but perhaps over the long run, considering how much money they now have tied up in Peavy and Rios.

Hailing the O-Cab

The Twins on Friday traded for shortstop Orlando Cabrera (above) from Oakland for a minor league shortstop, Tyler Ladendorf.

This is a true going-for-it-now deal. Cabrera is 34 and on a one-year contract. If he qualifies as a Type A free agent — and he currently projects to — his contract prohibits his team from offering arbitation, so the Twins would not get any draft pick compensation.

He can hit a bit, and he's got a pair of Gold Gloves on his resume, but at 34 he's lost a step or two, and even in his youth he was rather miscast as a top-of-the-order hitter. Still, he should improve the middle infield, pushing either Nick Punto or Alexi Casilla out of the lineup.

Ladendorf is an interesting prospect, a shortstop with offensive potential, but odds are that he'll wind up moving to a different position before he reaches the majors (if he does).

This doesn't do anything to help the Twins in the long run or even the medium run — I don't expect them to re-sign Cabrera — and may hrut them over time if Ladendorf turns into a top-flight second baseman. Come 2010, the Twins will still have a hole in the middle infield.

But for 2009, it should work.