Fire Gardy

I missed this last week, but apparently someone once again brought up the question of the Twins signing Barry Bonds to play LF/DH. This time, Baseball Prospectus reports:

“Who do you want me to get rid of, [Delmon] Young, [Michael] Cuddyer, [Carlos] Gomez, [Denard] Span, or [Jason] Kubel? Which one?” —Twins general manager Bill Smith, on saying no to Barry Bonds on the Twins.

Of course, Baseball Prospectus would say “You should get rid of all of them.” And around the nation, they’re not alone. People think Delmon is a failure at best, Cuddyer owns one of the worst contracts in baseball, Denard is a one-year fluke who couldn’t hit in the minors and is “inadequate” in the field, Gomez has an unforgiveably low OBP and a high strikeout rate and an inaccurate arm, and we would have been better served to release Kubel than to offer him a multi-year contract.

For example, here’s Buster Olney’s take, today, on Delmon Young (as one of the ten players to watch this year):

7. Delmon Young, Twins: He was a No. 1 draft pick, and after he made his major-league debut, Ozzie Guillen talked about him as a someone with the potential to be a future Hall of Famer. And yet just a couple of years later, it feels like he’s at a crossroad in his career. Young was traded from the Rays to the Twins and struggled to drive the ball last year amid questions about his ability to adapt. He’s battling other players for at-bats this year, with no job assured, and if he has a tough year, he would be a candidate for another trade — at less cost — or perhaps even a non-tender.

I’m going to go ahead and say it’s safe to say that Delmon Young will not be non-tendered after this season. Regardless of how he does in 2009. Although I still think he’ll do well. But it’s sometimes worthwhile to take a look at what others think of the talent on our team. Verdict: they still think we’re all terrible. And that Barry Bonds isn’t.

“I said that [outfield] is one area of strength and depth on our club, and we’re going to go with the guys we’ve got.” —Smith, on what he told Bonds’ agent.

Apparently Smith was actually in talks with Bonds’ agent, which surprises me to no end. But it sounds like said agent was actively shopping Bonds around. The tone of these quotes doesn’t indicate that Smith called Jeff Boris just to tell him “Hey we’re pretty much set at outfield and DH, so we don’t have any interest in Bonds.” That doesn’t really make any sense.

But it appears interest is still out there in regards to where Barry Bonds will land in 2009, if anywhere. I agree with Smith that outfield has suddenly become a strength of the organization — that wasn’t true a year or two ago, when that was arguably the weakest area of the organization. That, in addition to the questions regarding Bonds’ character, age, physical condition, availability (due to legal concerns), and … was there something else? … oh yeah, the steroids thing, leads me to be against the Twins signing Bonds.

And it’s pretty clear it won’t happen. Why would a rumor like this even get started, or a quote like that occur / be published?

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