belker

They used to say the average MLB fastball was 88 or 89 MPH, I forget which... Now there are guys that throw 92-93 and they are classed as control/finesse guys. I wonder what the average fastball is. Do you have to throw 95+ to be considered a hard-thrower now?

Mauer is '10 and 5' player (10 years of service time, at least last 5 with same team), meaning he automatically has a no-trade clause. So any suggestion of trading him assumes that he would be willing to waive that and move away from his hometown team. Usually, players that agree to this are compensated by one of the trading teams. So the Twins would need to throw in more money or receive less of a return. Sooooo, not very likely he will ever be traded, unless he wants to go to a team heading for the playoffs IMO.

And Balazovich has 23 for age in the title, but just turned 18 in the descriptive paragraph....

One fairly big trade during AA's time in Toronto that hasn't been discussed is the trade with the Cardinals in 2011 for Colby Rasmus. Along with Rasmus, the Cards sent Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters to the Toronto Blue Jays for Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson, Corey Patterson and Marc Rzepczynski. I don't have salary figures, but at the time this was a trade of a young talent for veterans. It was widely critiqued as LaRussa giving up on young talent due to a personality conflict. AA was praised for getting a young talent for vets he didn't need. And Rasmus draws a lot of walks, so AA was praised by the "Bill James" crowd. This trade ended up helping the Cards win the Series that year. Rasmus never quite took that step to stardom he was expected to. But I think it also shows that AA was willing to dump vets for young talent, which is something many Twins fans would be on board with.