Over the past couple days, the Minnesota Twins have let the baseball world know that LF Delmon Young is no longer considered a starting OF for their team. This leads to specualtion about a trade like 2 + 2 leads to 4.
With the Twins rumored to be prusing 3B Casey Blake at the cost of $20MM over three seasons to fill the gaping offensive hole on the left side of their infield, I wonder why their isn't more talk about 3B Garrett Atkins of the Colorado Rockies going to Minnesota in exchange for the talented 23-year-old. Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune answers forcefully:
...heard this week that the Rockies asking price for third baseman Garrett Atkins was Kevin Slowey, Denard Span and another prospect...."
Holy Reincarnation of Chuck LaMar Batman! Doesn't Atkins' service time relative to Slowey and Span (2nd year arbitration versus 1st year arb in 2011) make the Twins more valuable and thus requiring a "plus(es)" on Colorado's side? If the Rox think asking for a good starting pitcher and the OF the Twins prefer over Young is reasonable, how much more would the Rox want if Young were the OF in the deal?
Originally, I thought Atkins-for-Young was a perfect match with considerationas around the edges - a reliever here, a low level prospect there, but the rumored asking price from Colorado says Atkins is not available at all.