Like most Twins fans emotionally I was sad to see Justin leave the team. During his time here he made a lot of memories for us and was easily one of the most loved Twins during our run in the 2000s and into the Target field years. Like many Twins fans I wonder how his career would look if injuries hadn't slowed him down.

However from a need perspective the trade needed to happen. With Justin being a free agent at the end of the year it wouldn't make much sense to make the qualifying offer to him in the offseason for a first basemen of his age and given recent performance. (August numbers notwithstanding) Unfortunately Justin's decline in performance over the last few seasons have diminished what we could have gotten in a return.

Alex Presley, just who is he? Well whenever the Twins trade for a prospect or call someone up the first thing I look at is age. When I saw the age of 28 for Presley I knew we were getting not a prospect but a depth guy. At the major league level Presley has cracked an OBP of over .300 once, a partial season 2 years ago. Then at age 26 you could figure maybe he's a late bloomer. Since then his offensive numbers leave much to be desired. He is definitely not a lead off hitter, especially with an atrocious BB/K ratio. his main redeeming features with the bat are he has a little bit of pop (.159 ISO career, measure of hitters power, average is about .145) but with such a bad contact rate that power doesn't have much of a chance to manifest itself. He also has some base running ability, but again with a low on base percentage he doesn't get to use that much. Oddly he has had some good minor league numbers but if the skills haven't shown up at the big league level by now they are not going to. As for his defense its a bit hard to get a read. He has an alright ultimate zone rating but negative defensive runs saved, his arm rating is also a bit on the low side. Ill have to watch him in person but I'm guessing he has good range but maybe doesn't get the best of jumps. Terry Ryan said he had arm for all 3 OF positions so its possible he is inaccurate, or of course on TV a GM always try's to push the positives.

Now I know What Terry Ryan said yesterday but I'm not really buying it. Not because I don't like Ryan. The opposite is true and I think he has done a great job trying to put this team back together (regular season record notwithstanding, look at the farm system though, the future is coming soon.) When ever you hear a GM talk about a bit player just remember that in front of the camera they are never going to say the negative. They are going to try to paint the best picture possible. Saying "We traded Morneau for a bench guy who is just keeping the spot warm till Hicks is ready." doesn't make good press.

Overall Alex Presley is a slight upgrade over the replacement level guys we have been bringing up so far. Maybe we can catch lightning in a bottle with the player to be named later. For now until Mauer gets in the lineup its time to watch a mix of AAA, platoon, and over the hill lineup. I hope you all will join me in hoping Sano is a September call up