The Inaccuracy of ESPN's Rumor Central

Yesterday, ESPN's Rumor Central speculated that the Twins would spend big in the upcoming offseason. I would not guess this to be the case, unless you count retaining the team's current players. Most of the arbitration-eligible players will be retained and receive significant raises (Capps, Young, Liriano, potentially Pavano and to a lesser extent Hardy, who won't get much of a raise). Some of the Rumor Central names thrown out there were ridiculous. Here is an excerpt (Insider-only link):

....there are talents that could fill a hole or two on the Twins roster, such as third basemen Adrian Beltre and Brandon Inge, outfielder Jayson Werth and starting pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, for example. Cliff Lee is likely to be too pricey for anyone but the New York Yankees, but Javier Vazquez could be on the Smith's radar this offseason.

The Twins also have a decision to make on an option for Jason Kubel, as well as consider re-signing Jon Rauch or Brian Fuentes. If the club lets Cuddyer go, perhaps Magglio Ordonez would become an option.

Beltre or Inge? Pretty sure they're happy with Valencia, and Inge or Beltre would cost ten times (literally) what Valencia will cost next year. Not that I'm against adding Beltre, but there are other places to spend money, and the Twins will not even seriously consider signing him.

I've never heard Werth's name in connection with the Twins, so I was intrigued for all of ten seconds. I finished reading the article and saw the line about letting Cuddyer go, and realized the writer of this "rumor" was simply uninformed. As we all know, Cuddyer's 2011 option has already been picked up. Where would Werth play? The only way he makes sense is if Kubel is non-tendered. Kubel will be cheaper and nearly equally productive, although Werth is right-handed. We don't have room for Werth, Young, Kubel, and Cuddyer. Oh, and Magglio Ordonez? Really? If he still had a mullet I'd be down, if only to have a whole mess o' guys with mustaches and mullets. Cuz that would be awesome.

As far as pitching goes, I don't see us chasing Vazquez, and we probably won't re-sign Rauch. There is a less than 5% chance that we re-sign Fuentes, as well. Nearly everything in the article was bogus, except the part about Cliff Lee being too expensive. There was no rumor here at all, simply a list of names of free agents that aren't catchers or first baseman. I guess the only point of this post was to rant against how uninformed ESPN can be at times, but man...this Rumor Central piece was unfulfilling.