Twins Blog-8/2

Friday, the Twins finally made their first upgrade at the trade deadline since the Shannon Stewart trade of 2003, when they acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera from Oakland for minor league infielder Tyler Ladendorf. This was a much needed move. They addressed a key problem for this team by getting a middle infielder that can hit as well as play gold glove caliber defense. Obviously I would of liked to see them maybe acquire a relief pitcher to give another decent arm down there, but the asking price for some was just to much so I won't complain. Maybe the Twins can use the waiver wire to address that issue later. But back to Cabrera who is a career .280 hitter and has won a gold glove at shortstop, which fits in with the Twins way of pitching and defense. He wasn't the best upgrade for us, but after Freddy Sanchez was traded to San Francisco, Cabrera became the only option. I didn't really see the Twins getting Sanchez either as the Pirates repordedly wanted either 3B Danny Valencia or OF Aaron Hicks, two of the Twins best prospects. But never the less i am happy to see Cabrera here and he has come in and said his only goals while here are to make the playoffs and play every day, which is fine seeing that anyone besides Brendan Harris that can play short has problems hitting above .200. Meanwhile i'll be happy to see the Twins no longer have to play the Angels anymore as they have just beaten us around good this weekend and last weekend in Anaheim. They play the pirhana baseball that the Twins have done so well. The Twins have the Indians and Tigers on the road this next week. It will not be easy as the Indians have a bunch of young guys looking to make a name for themselves after the tribe dismantled their team at the deadline, and the Tigers continue to lead the central with great pitching. The twins have to win at least three games on this six game trip. It is too late in the season to have another bad road trip, you have to play at least .500 baseball on the road.