TWINS WAR RAYS WAR
Delmon Young +0.6 Matt Garza +7.6
Brendan Harris +0.2 Jason Bartlett +7.0
Jason Pridie -0.3 Eduardo Morlan 0.0
TOTAL +0.5 TOTAL +14.6
To put those numbers into some context, Mauer as been worth 5.8 WAR per 150 games. So in terms of production and value received from the trade, the Rays have an edge of basically 2.5 seasons from Mauer. At the moment the trade looks far less horrible for the Twins than it did in 2008 and 2009, but Young playing well for four months doesn’t wipe away his playing terribly for the previous two years or Garza and Bartlett both being huge contributors for the Rays.

Since the trade Garza has 516 innings with a 3.89 ERA, which is better than any Twins starter in that time, and Bartlett has a .761 OPS that’s close to the .780 OPS from Young even without factoring in the huge defense/position gap. I’m thrilled that Young has figured things out and the deal is starting to lean in the Twins’ favor, but let’s not get crazy with the hyperbole. Can’t we recognize his emergence without re-writing history and going completely over the top?

How is that evidence of the value of steals being overrated? It has zero to do with the value of steals. It probably tells you that MLB record keeping practices can be misleading. It probably tells you that you need to look further than just ’17 of 18 in attempts.’

But it says absolutely nothing about the value of a stolen base.

Keeping Young in the outfield, I would say, has a lot to do with this stat.

Some potential for freezing over.

Delmon Young as of this morning, .330/.363/.539 = .902 OPS

Gotta hand it to the guy – hard work has paid off in a career year. Here is the $250,000 question now. Are you guys in favor of paying him thru arbitration for a couple more years, signing to a multi year deal (if I was his agent the only sentence I would utter in negotiations would be “Cuddyer makes over $10m per”) or trade him now that his value is the highest it probably will be for a while and perhaps ever.

Sure, there are plenty: Sac bunts, game calling + pitcher managing ability of catchers, clubhouse chemistry, basically anything nick punto does. Did I miss anything?