Ty Wigginton's new contract

With no Astros news this morning—which is actually a blessing—let's check in on our old friend Ty Wigginton and see what his brief stint as a free agent has brought.

According to the Star Tribune, the Twins:

The Twins like Wigginton but believe he's looking for a bigger contract than the three-year, $17.5 million deal the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Casey Blake. So the Twins have had little to no dialogue with Wigginton's agent, Dan Lozano.

The Twins view Wigginton as an average defensive third baseman, at best, whose line-drive swing was perfect for Minute Maid Park, with its short porch in left field.

I have to admit, I'm a little shocked at Wigginton's alleged contract demands, but I guess it does make sense, given that Casey Blake is a lot less of a ball player than Wiggy.  The last little bit makes me understand why we couldn't find a decent trade partner, in spite of the fact he posted a 128 OPS+ (a park neutral measurement).  If teams really think that Wiggy is a lucky, lead gloved clod then we were screwed from the outset.  What I don't get, is that he wasn't bad a third base last year at all.  In fact, he was the best 3B in the NL, if you set the cut off at 600 innings at 3B (according to RZR).

My question after all of this, is how did Ed Wade not present these kinds of facts and figures to potential trade candidates.  Sure, Wiggy doesn't look great by most traditional metrics, but you don't have to go to far into the realm of stat-nerdom to realize that he was actually pretty damn good.  I hope Wiggy's agent is better than Ed Wade at pimping his client.