Let's move on to 3B.

If the past is prologue, welcome to the Twins, Darrin!

And did you know that he's a Dakota boy?

I may have heard once or twice that he's what they call a Real Gamer, too. Scraptacular!

It'll be interesting to see what Cameron gets paid. This year, he's been worth maybe 1 win less than Hunter, and over the last three years combined they've been reasonably equivalent. But Cameron is older and Hunter figures to age a little better.

Erstad's performance during Saturday's game should just about seal his spot as the Twins everyday CF in 2008.

BTW, did you know that he played D1 college football?

I'd feel better about Cameron coming to Minnesota for a few years, except he is in his mid-30's now and probably would cost more than I'd like to see the Twins pay for him at this point.

Francoeur - already league-average offensively with what seems to be above-average defense. They kept him.
McCann - top 5 young catcher in the league. They kept him.
Johnson - 25 year old 2B who has OPS+ of 119. They kept him. (Incidentally, they have Yunel Escobar, Renteria, and Johnson at middle infield for next year. Could the Twins get Johnson to play 2B or 3B even?)
Prado - Nothing special, but can provide slightly below average offense as a backup utility player (80 OPS+) at the age of 23. In the minors this year he had an OPS of almost .800 at AAA. Not a bad player to have as a cheap utility player.

Of the players they got rid of:
Miner - he may turn out to be a decent back end of the rotation player, but they gave him up for RP help (Farnsworth). Decent trade.
Marte - he's lost most of his luster, and the Braves got Renteria for him. Outstanding trade.
Davies - he's still relatively young, but over almost 300 innings, he has a career ERA over 6 and a WHIP over 1.7. They gave him up for more RP help (Dotel). Dotel's been hurt, but Davies sucks so this is probably a wash.
Betemit - He looks like he could be a decent player, especially if he can get a few more singles to fall in (even this year with a .227 average he has an OPS of .795 - could be a .850 OPSer). The Braves gave him up for more RP help again (Baez) but also got Willy Aybar, who has had a lot of personal issues this year and then had surgery. This is probably the only trade the Braves wish they had back.

Overall - the Braves have given up a fair number of prospects to try to help their current ML club, but have managed to hold on to the studs for the most part. Pretty impressive if you ask me, and the type of management I wish the Twins would be more apt to try.

Honestly, out of that entire group, Davies is a disappointment, Marte has been disappointing, but otherwise I'd say that group is doing about what you would expect them to do, and you've got a couple really good players in there.

It's a good reminder that not every bright prospect pans out. But, boy was that farm system loaded.

PECOTA has gotten better at this, but it seems to over-rate aggressively promoted prospects who haven't hit very well at each level. The problem is that most aggressively promoted prospects are promoted because they hit really well, so when you compare Gomez to other prospects who were promoted like that, you're bound to find good players.

Milledge has a .174 ISO in the minors, and Gomez has a .121 ISO in the minors. That's a pretty big difference. Baldelli hit for a .190 ISO the season before he was promoted to Tampa.

PECOTA usually knows more than I do, but I think there's a certain Rivas-potential with Gomez where he's a toolsy guy with potential, but hasn't seen that necessarily turn into results yet. Some of those guys wind up hitting well (Hanley Ramirez, for instance) and some of them don't.

But PECOTA had Lastings Milledge, Rocco Baldelli, Frank Diaz, and Hanley Ramirez as comps for Gomez.

Blake has been a serviceable player, but he's entering his age-34 season and could well be on the down-hill slide, so I can't really argue with you on him either.

My best guess is they go into next year with Beltran flanked by Alou and Milledge as their starters, with Chavez as the 4th OF and Gomez in AAA waiting.

I also would be pleased to acquire Gomez, who I think will be a good player, and can certainly handle center cheaply. It's not clear whether he'll be able to hit, though he's awfully young. His minor league line is roughly .280/.335/.400, which is somewhat marginal. But that's been in tough leagues where he's been very young; most impressive was last year, when he skipped entirely over High-A, and went to AA at age 20 and hit .280/.350/.425.

So I think you're right that that makes Milledge a corner OF, and if Beltran goes down, they'd bring up Gomez to play CF, but Gomez' presence probably makes it less likely that they would target a CF if they were to make an OF free agent signing.

As far as acquiring Gomez, I don't know. I don't think he'd hit a whole lot more than Tyner in 2008, and long-term I'm not really sure, but I probably wouldn't want to give up a whole lot for him.

Given his injury, I don't think that his track record is really all that strong. I wouldn't totally give up on the kid, but he's no lock for playing time. (And Casey Blake is a below-average corner OF. He could move back to a corner OF spot, but I don't know if that's especially desirable.)

He plays in a tough park, yes, but the guy will be 35 by the time next season begins.

I'd shy away from anything more than a two year deal...I am a Cameron fan, but I wouldn't advocate anything that would be paying him significant money when he's 38 years old.

One guy you forgot to mention, and it's understandable, is Carlos Gomez, outfield prospect from the Mets. Defensively, they say this kid is much better than Lastings Milledge which leads me to believe that the Mets are probably going to stick Milledge at a corner spot and keep him there.

You bring up the fact that Beltran is going to be a Met for quite some time, so that really doesn't open up that spot for Gomez...or anyone else for that matter. Gomez has great speed, a terrific arm, and pretty good instincts out in center field along with having a bit of pop in his stick...so it's going to be interesting to see what they do with him in the future.

He recently faced the ol' hamate bone injury (See Sanchez, Henry), but he's back and playing with the Mets...and a lot of that PT is in RF. I assume that since the Mets have Beltran, that Gomez will get stuck at a corner spot where he should be just fine. He probably will not hit for a large amount of power, but he'll still be a huge asset none the less.

If the Twins aren't going to sign a CF via FA, assuming Hunter leaves, Gomez, IMO, would be a tremendous player to look at in terms of acquiring via trade.

the Dan Johnson era appears over with the promotion of Daric Barton. This was a weird move by Billy. The River Cats had just won the PCL championship and were about to leave for Oklahoma City for the playoff game against the IL champs when Barton got the call. He was basically the only prospect to spend the whole season season with Sacramento, and he gets called up then???

anyway, he's been on fire since the call up. 333/413/593 with 11:7 K:BB in 63 PA. He plays a solid 1b, so I gotta figure that Swisher goes back to the OF.

Johnson (232/347/418 and 74:71 K:BB in 2007, 248/343/420 and 171:161 career in 1252 PA) might get a chance to win the DH job in the spring, but I wouldn't be shocked if Billy tries to trade him. Which is too bad. He's the epitome of the "Moneyball" player type. Even with his struggles at the plate this year, he's had a 105 OPS+ thanks to good plate discipline. But he doesn't run very well for a guy who has shown M11-type power at the Major League Level. EqAs the last three years: 292, 258, 285 (2007).

I just assumed that Casey Blake would go back to RF next year. Marte is out of options.

He really has struggled in limited time in the majors (a puntonian front end, but with some pop: 199/259/353 and 59:21 K:BB in 272 AB), but somebody once said that guys with good minor league track records typically develop into successful major leaguers. His line in the minors: 271/347/476 and 603:307 in 2576 AB, around a thousand of which have been in AAA.

The Padres' outfield situation just got even murkier. Milton Bradley
looks to be headed for surgery for his torn ACL, which puts him in rehab for 6-8 months. Cameron's out for the rest of the regular season.

Kevin Towers just acquired Jason Lane from the Ed Wade's Astros for a PTBNL or cash. As Tim Dierkes points out, Lane's career line (in about 1200 AB) is .241/.315/.458, while the NL CF average is .273/.336/.427. Lane's not eligible for the post-season if the Padres make it, so that seems like they want him for next year.

Even after adding Lane things are looking mighty poor for the Friars.

Even after adding Lane things are looking mighty poor for the Friars.

I do hope the Twins are big players in the market this year, at least to the extent that they actually go after some decent names...