I am Not So Sure....

So the sports page tells me that we (the Minnesota Twins) traded J.J. Hardy to Baltimore for a couple pitchers who throw hard.  Okay.  Interesting.  Here is the backstory.  Frank tells me that Aaron Gleeman ranked Hardy as one of the best defensive shortstops last year.  So we traded a top-flight shortstop who has a little bop, for a couple of flame throwers.  Our plan is to have Alexi Casilla play short stop, and to sign this phenom from Japan to play second base.  For sure, Alexi and the phenom are going to be faster than Hardy and Hudson, but Alexi is not the hitter JJ was.  I don't know what the phenom will bring with the bat, but we seem to have down graded in the middle infield.

Here is part of what Gleeman wrote in advance of this trade:

Hardy is certainly not without flaws and some of them are prominent, but a deeper look at his performance clearly shows an above-average shortstop the Twins could have retained without having to make a multi-year commitment. He hit .268/.320/.394, which may not look like much but is actually better than the MLB average for shortstops of .262/.319/.371. And after coming back from the wrist injury Hardy hit .302/.356/.436 in 64 games.

Among the 28 shortstops to play at least 100 games this season Hardy ranked 11th in batting average, 13th in on-base percentage, 10th in slugging percentage, and 11th in OPS, making him above average for the position offensively no matter how you slice it. Toss in outstanding defense that Ultimate Zone Rating pegged as MLB's best at 12.8 runs above average per 150 games and Hardy was one of the top 12 shortstops in baseball even while missing 60 games.

The bigger question is what to do about our outfield defense, which is below average.  Frank's thought was to give Casilla a shot in center field - hoping to use his speed to track down more baseballs.

I don't get the sense that the Twins leadership pours over secondary numbers before they make moves.  This is disturbing.