The Bleacher Bums: June 26, 2006 Archive

The Torii conundrum

Posted at 9:36 AM on June 26, 2006 by Ben Tesch (9 Comments)

Jayson Stark of ESPN brings up the topic that everyone around here knows has been hanging over our heads: What to do with Torii Hunter.

Keep him and try to catch the Tigers or White Sox (or both)? Or trade him and think about some other year, some other playoff charge in a season to be named later?

But even if they keep him, even if they don't trade him in the next month-and-a-half, their debate won't be over.

Within 10 days of the World Series, they have to make another decision:

Pick up Hunter's $12-million option for next year? Or buy him out for $2 million and let him slide down a free-agent escape hatch? Or there's Option No. 3 -- negotiate a new deal that locks him up until their new ballpark opens in (gulp) 2010?

So what will they do? What should they do? They have to keep him around. Except they can't possibly keep him around. What do they do? What would you do?

My initial reaction would be to keep him, at the very least through the next season. Sure, he's not the greatest in all aspects, but he's the right guy in the clubhouse, and I don't see any better options available for an already shallow outfield corps. It also would be a terrible business/marketing move by a team in need of fans and goodwill. Your thoughts?

Comment on this post

Why can't the Twins play in the NL?

Posted at 10:17 PM on June 26, 2006 by Josh Lee (2 Comments)

Beating up on the Astros and Cubs is nice, but they're hardly the best the National League has to offer. You might think that the NL West-leading Dodgers would provide more of a challenge than Derrick "Just Back From Injury" Lee, Mark "Just Back From Injury" Prior, and Roger "Just Back From the Great Beyond" Clemens. You might be wrong. The Twins piled onto L.A.'s Chad Billingsley to cruise to an 8-2 win and show me what a raw rookie pitcher really looks like.

Along the way, Nomar Garciaparra went 2-for-4. Joe Mauer took one look at the NL's best batting average, made a little "pshaw" noise, and went 4-for-5 with five RBIs. Have you used up all your All-Star votes yet?

Comment on this post