Friday Night, August 3, 2007

Cirillo Claimed

LaVelle is reporting that the Twins lost Jeff Cirillo today. He was put on waivers and claimed by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Twins allowed him to go rather than try to make a trade or pull him back.

I still believe that the signing of Jeff Cirillo in the offseason was a smart, shrewd move by Terry Ryan. Cirillo is a veteran hitter who can play 3B, 1B, DH and PH and hit left-handed pitching well. That was a guy that they needed. However, he injured his knee early in the season and had surgery making it take awhile for him to get going. Even once he was back for awhile, he didn't show the ability to play more than a couple of games in a row. If he did, then he couldn't play for a few games. So again, I can't argue about Terry Ryan signing Cirillo. It was a smart move that just really didn't work out.

All those things that I say that Cirillo could do, he can now provide those things for the Diamondbacks who are surprisingly the leaders in the NL  West. Put it this way, Augie Ojeda is currently a Diamondback, so Cirillo is a nice pick up for them.

Michael Cuddyer comes off the DL tonight, and Luis(!) gets to stick around for another day. It will be very interesting to hear other names of players who were put on waivers, claimed or now eligible to be traded by clearing waivers.

Note - the Diamondbacks claimed a Twins player for the third time this year. Remember they were the team that claimed JD Durbin first. Alex Romero was put on waivers when the Twins signed Ramon Ortiz and the D-Backs claimed him. At Tucson (AAA), Romero is hitting .317/.357/.429 with 25 doubles, 6 triples, three homers and 50 RBI.

Any thoughts?

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