Monday, October 20, 2008

Garza for Young revisited

Matt Garza pitched a gem last night, putting the Rays in the World Series for the first time ever.
Twins fans will remember that Matt Garza was drafted, developed, and brought to the major leagues by the Minnesota Twins. In the offseason he was part of a trade that sent him to Tampa in exchange for Delmon Young and others. Delmon Young was rated the top prospect in all of baseball in 2006 and he was the #1 overall pick in the draft as well. He disappointed some with his 2008 campaign. I say to his critics: he was only 22, and those are pretty good numbers for a 22 year old. They were better numbers than Kirby Puckett's at his age.

And usually #1 prospects in all of baseball turn out to be star players. A look at some of the past Basball American top prospects:
2007: Dice K Matsuzaka
2006: Delmon Young
2005:Joe Mauer
2004:Joe Mauer
2003:Mark Teixiera
2002:Josh Beckett
2001:Josh Hamilton
and the list goes on. Come on, Dice K is the worst name on that list and lots of teams would love to have him. Garza is a great talent but if Young lives up to his potential, which he still will have lots of time to do, than the Twins will end up getting the better end of the deal. I remember lots of people complained about Mauer and Morneau's early major league careers. Morneau didn't have amazing numbers until mid-2006, even though he had been in the majors since around 2004.

Repeat: Delmon Young is a special talent and the Twins would be stupid to give up on him so early by trading him away.

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