Saturday Morning Baseball & Breakfast: Twins Trade Rumors (aka Cliff Lee Rumors), the AL Central, Brendan Harris

Update, 9:05 am:  Over at FoxSports, Rosenthal says:

...two executives from clubs that have called the Mariners about Lee say that the team is indeed willing to trade the pitcher immediately for the right offer.

So that's interesting.  Rosenthal re-states that the "industry" believes the Twins will be the front-runner, but "sources" list the Rangers, Mets and Dodgers as the teams who have called the Mariners on their ace.

I'd imagine the Twins have probably called on him as well, but as we know this front office plays everything extremely close to the vest.

A few tidbits as we wait for Pavstache to strike down Santana...

• There's been a lot of stuff thrown around regarding the Twins and Cliff Lee over the past week.  There's speculation, like the U.S.S. Mariner believing Minnesota is the perfect fit (although the package suggested is a bit Seattle friendly, check out Seth's informed rebuttal at TwinsCentric).  Then there's inside information from Ken Rosenthal:  unnamed General Manager thinks the Twins will be very active before the deadline, but Twins say they have more pressing needs than an ace pitcher...third base.
• Recent rumors involved the Mets pushing for Cliff Lee, but Bleacher Report has an unverified rumors that the Twins and Mariners had a deal in place that fell through when Wilson Ramos strained his oblique.  Minnesota was allegedly sending Ramos, Brian Duensing and a lower-level outfielder to Seattle for Lee...which sounds a lot more like a TwinsCentric package than a U.S.S. Mariner package.  But, again, the rumor is unverified and is nothing more than speculation
• On Thursday, Michael Cuddyer said this:  "Cliff Lee would look good in any uniform...especially a Minnesota Twins uniform."  Let's hope it's foreshadowing.
• There haven't been any new developments in the Mike Lowell rumors, but he's now on the disabled list.  This drops his value lower than it already was, but it also illustrates one of the many, many reasons why the Twins should stay away:  he's not healthy.
• While the Twins and Tigers lost last night, meaning the Twins hang by a thread to first place, the White Sox won their tenth straight to move within 1.5 games.  I'm ready for interleague play to be over, because for the first time in recent memory it's doing us harm.  And by some awful coincidence, it's giving Chicago everything they could have prayed for.
• Cleveland and Kansas City are still terrible.  So that's something.
  
• We all know about Brendan Harris being outrighted to Rochester after the game Thursday afternoon, and the arrival of Jason Repko.  But in case you were still confused at all by what being "outrighted" means, here's the short version.  Step 1, player becomes less useful than he should be.  Step 2, organization places players on outright waivers, which last 72 hours (during which time the player remains on the active roster).  Step 3, player gets claimed.  If player does not get claimed, go to step 4.  Step 4, Player clears waivers and is outrighted.  Because Harris was out of options but had less than five years of service time, he has to accept the assignment.

See you for the game, it's a noon start!