Denard was horrrrrrible in the minors for years, and only put together an idea on hitting when he reached the bigs (and got lasik.) They were hoping his excellent glove would be useful and were pleasantly shocked when a hitter appeared. And Revere has always hit for huge average, but when he reached the bigs he struggled to get his OBP to .300 and he’s *never* has any power, so he isn’t at all as good a hitter as Span has been the past few years.

Kubel is all but gone regardless of what happens with Cuddyer. The negotiations have not gone well nor have they been lengthy. He told a local beat writer this week he thinks it’s all over, and that was before Willingham signed. Oh, and you have to put a real CF between those two lummoxes even if he throws like Snoopy, the gaps are huge at Target Field. Plouffe was told he’s being moved, he didn’t announce anything, and the only way they’d trade Span is if they didn’t think he was recovering from his concussion. He’s good, cheap and well-liked at a time when good and familiar and money are in short supply.

All that said, I agree with your last point mostly because I have little confidence that Span is over his concussion. The initial injury was years ago, he’s been battling this reoccurrence for quite a while, and in recent interviews he hasn’t sounded confident that things are improving. Furthermore, I think Revere will improve and be enough of a leadoff hitter that they can afford to move Span, so I’d send him away before he has a chance to lose value.

Ben Revere career numbers: OBP .305 SLG .301 OPS .606

Denard Span career numbers: OBP .361 SLG .387 OPS .748

Span also had one year of AVG .311 OBP .392 BSLG.415 OPS .807 , and that was a full season, 578 at bats, so his upside is pretty high. Revere’s best year was basically the above.

Revere did have high OBP numbers in the minors, and a high average, with no power, but he hasn’t shown he can hit in the majors, and since he has zero power a pitcher would have to be crazy to think of walking him. THey will throw strikes until he proves he can handle them, which so far he hasn’t.

He’s a good fielder but an OPS of .606 from a corner outfielder is not acceptable on a team with any pretense of contending. He’s a legitimate back up for Span and late inning pinch runner/defensive replacement, but if Revere is starting in left field all year, the Yankees will be laughing at the thought of playing them. Please prove me wrong, Ben.

If Cuddy doesn’t sign with the Twins, it doesn’t seem too far fetched for them to up their bid on Kubel to set their outfield up to be Revere (LF), Willingham (CF), Kubel (RF/DH), and then bring up Benson or Parmalee. Also, Plouffe has announced he is transitioning from a regular IF player to OF. One thing is for certain, if Cuddy or Kubel return, D-Span will be sent in a deal to bring in some pitching before the first pitch of the year.

I’d love to have another RH bat in the fold, but is Cuddy worth that much to us now?

I agree about spending money on pitcher before Cuddyer – hopefully they would get permission to expand payroll to fit Cuddyer so it wouldn’t affect other plans. As it stands now Ryan only has about $4M left to spend on pitching if he’s sticking to the $100M payroll limit.

Also, Willingham makes more sense in RF since Target field has a smaller RF area. Revere and Span can cover a bunch of ground, and if they can cover 3/4 of the outfield, then that will help make up for Willingham’s lack of range… hopefully.

The defense might not be very good, but Willingham-Span/Revere-Cuddy can’t be any worse than Delmon-Span-Cuddyer from last year. From what I hear, Willingham can actually catch balls hit at him… With that defensive alignment, Revere will be able to act as a pinch-runner defensive replacement for Willingham late in games.

As long as they are willing to go up to $115Mish for the payroll, I actually think it makes tons of sense to bring Cuddy back considering all the depth issues and health concerns.