It's Official...

To the surprise of no one, Kyle Lohse has been traded. In a move that also perhaps shouldn't have been that surprising, Reds GM Wayne Krivsky, formerly of the Twins, continued his quest to have a roster filled with former Twins by trading single A prospect Zach Ward to the Twins for Lohse. More on that momentarily.

First, as has been mentioned by virtually anyone who writes on the Twins, it's been a foregone conclusion since April that Lohse would be traded if a taker could be found for him. His continued ability to win arbitration against the Twins, despite having lackluster seasons; the complete inconsistancy in his pitching; the fact that Scott Boras is his agent. All of these things made him undesirable from a Twins standpoint. As a fan, this move pleases me to no end. I wish him well, but am not in the least sad to see him go.

As for Zach Ward, he seems like a steal for the Twins. A third round pick in last year's draft, Ward has the kind of stats that instantly put Twins fans on notice that his is a name we should be hearing more of. His stat line is amazing; 7-0, 2.29 ERA, 95-37 K-BB ratio. If you've read much of my blog, you know that I believe K-BB ratio is one of the most important stats for minor league pitchers, certainly more valuable than wins and losses. He looks like an outstanding prospect, and Terry Ryan did a great job with this deal.

Now, on to Wayne Krivsky. I'm sure he did a great job with the Twins. I'm sure he had a great interview with the Reds to get hired as their GM. But what is he doing!?! Since joining the Reds, he has brought in Joe Mays, Juan Castro, Eddie Guardado, and now Kyle Lohse to join Eric Milton as former Twins on the Reds squad. The Mays addition, not surprisingly, ended with Mays being designated for assignment last week. Guradado has been injured. My question is, what makes these players attractive to Krivsky? Not that I mind...his interest in Lohse allowed the Twins to get a solid prospect in return for somebody who simply was not contributing to the team anymore, and cost a ton to boot. I hope Krivsky does well in his new job, but I think he needs to get away from picking up Twins who haven't been good in...well...a very very long time.

With the Lohse deal done, Torii Hunter can be activated from the DL without making another move. It also will allow Matt Guerrier to be activated on Tuesday or Wednesday with Willie Eyre being the likely casualty, since the Twins would like to cut back to 11 pitchers. We'll see if this deal was just a precurser to further trades, or if this marks the only move the Twins will make at the deadline this season. My prediction is that the Twins are done for the day.