Breaking News: Orlando Cabrera Acquired by Twins

For the first time since the Bobby Kielty-Shannon Stewart swap in 2003, the Twins have made a deadline deal in order to improve the team for this year. They added Orlando Cabrera in exchange for Low-A shortstop Tyler Ladendorf. Ladendorf was the highest-ranked SS in the system, but that speaks to the shallowness of the system as it stands right now rather than to an extreme amount of skill on Ladendorf's part. My thoughts on O-Cab remain much the same, but you have to give Bill Smith some credit here; Billy Beane wanted Danny Valencia (the third-ranked prospect in the Twins system), and Smith held fast. Ladendorf was tearing up the Appalachian League this season, hitting .410/.500/.721 in 17 games, but in 15 games after getting promoted to Low-A Beloit, he hit just .233/.292/.267. He's definitely not a .400 hitter, but he's also probably better than a .233 hitter. Posting his Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) would not be beneficial, since he's playe...