I just noticed on Sportscenter that Jeff Saturday is scheduled to have an MRI today.  ESPN said that he (Jeff) didn't think it was that bad of an injury.   Hopefully he's right, that would be a pretty awful injury but then again, it's not like we haven't dealt with them in the past.

I didn't get a chance to watch much of the game last night so I didn't see the injury take place.  Anyone else notice it?

Word is on mlbtraderumors.com that Chad Bradford was claimed on waivers by the Rays for the infamous player to be named later. 

This really pisses me off because the Twins could have easily done this same thing.  Bradford might not be the best guy out there but with the way our bullpen has been replacing Bass or Bonser with a guy like Bradford would really help this team.  He's a guy we could throw out there in the 7th or even the 8th as needed and would probably give us a good result.  All year he's only given up more than one run in an appearance once and that was only 2 runs.  He doesn't strike a lot of guys out but he also doesn't walk many or give up homeruns (2 all year). 

His biggest drawback might be that he's under contract for next year at a little over 3 million but still.  If I remember right he was the Orioles setup guy last year so he has experience late in games and if I remember right he did a pretty good job.  While not the ideal guy it seems like he would have been well worth the PTBNL and a commitment of one more year to him.  If he performs he could just be a great trade piece for the offseason or give us insurance in the case that Neshek isn't able to return to form next year.

Either way, I can't believe this guy made it all the way to the Rays through waivers.  There must be something bad about him I'm not seeing.  Someone please explain.

Seriously, what are the Twins going to do with Span?  A better question might be what are the Twins gonna do with Gomez?  I like Gomez's defensive capabilities and his ability to fly around the bases (although he seems to have lost his nerve/ability to steal lately), but really I think we all know now that Span would be little or no drop off defensively and an incredible improvement offensively.  Do the Twins send Gomez down?  probably not because we won't be hurting his development by having him be more of a bench player and he's a valuable pinch runner/ defensive replacement as needed.  I think with the rationality the Twins have been showing by cutting dead weight they just might make the decision to bench Gomez.  

The big problem as we all know is that Cuddyer will be coming back hopefully by the end of the week and that leaves us with and extra outfielder.  IMO Gomez has to be the odd man out, it is really the only move that makes sense unless Cuddyer comes back and immediately slumps.  Gomez has a line of .406/.424/.438 since being moved to #9 in the batting order so he has been effective there and maybe the move has helped him relax a bit at the plate.  It is a very small sample size and given a choice I'd much rather see Cuddyer behind the plate than Gomez.

So what should the Twins do now?

Bench Gomez, when we're facing a tough lefty start Cuddy at DH, slide Gomez back to right and start Gomez in center.  Gomez will also be used to give Span and Young breaks as needed.,

As far as the batting order that will have to be fluid we have our first 4 fairly set up in Span, Punto, Mauer, Morneau.  Gomez should still bat 9th when playing and Cuddyer will probably bat somewhere from 5th to 7th when he's playing. 

Roster moves?  I say we get rid of Bass.  Bonser can do what Bass has been doing to the same effectiveness and I'd much rather have Bonser coming in when our bullpen is depleted than Bass.  Bonser just plain is a better pitcher statistics be damned.  Plus Bass will probably pass through waivers better than Bonser would so it just seems like the right move at this time.  If our bullpen starts to get burnt out we could bring another reliever up from AAA.  I'd like to keep Ruiz as a right handed option off the bench and see what he might be able to do here and there playing DH.  I know we've talked about some of this stuff lately but it will be a very interesting weekend to see what the Twins do.  If they stop having Span play daily they're foolish especially after the day he had today and I just can't see it happening.

So, agree disagree?   What do you think the Twins should do? Or maybe more importantly what will they do?

Per Baseball Prospectus

* A lot more discussion of Adrian Beltre to the Twins has come up lately, though the Twins have also taken a hard look at Hank Blalock, Garrett Atkins, and even Casey Blake. The Twins have pitching to trade and seem willing to make a move as they chase the White Sox.

So with that new info who do you think might be the best fit for the Twins.  A lot of factors go into this such as age, service time/contract, what type of prospects we'd have to give up, etc.  Another thing might be a guy who would platoon well with Brian Buscher or if the team was willing to take some of our dead weight (mike lamb) + prospects in the trade.  A lot of this we can't really know but we can make some good educated guesses.  All of these guys bring a little pop to the plate and if prospects weren't an issue I'd say Atkins all the way.  So what do you guys think.  Who should the Twins pursue/why/ and what do you think a realistic package would be?

I'm going to be really curious to see if the Twins make any moves coming up on the deadline.  The Twins don't make a whole lot of big deals most years whether they're buyers or sellers. 

I would like to see them go ahead and move Livan either way.  I think Liriano will be back this year and if they decide to limit his innings and shut him down then one of Boof, Mulvey, Humber, Duensing could step in and I believe do an adequate job as our fifth starter.

The other four starters have been quite solid all season with a few hiccups here and there.  The bullpen looked rough after the Neshek injury but has really turned it around this past month so I don't see any reason to go after anyone there.  I just don't see the Twins making a  play for say a Bedard or Sabathia and if they couldn't get an Ace type there's really no reason in my eyes to get starting pitching help.

Offensively I don't know.  The  Twins are 8th in scoring in the MLB and 4th in the AL so offense wouldn't seem to be too big of a problem when you consider most of us would have been happy for a league average O.  A middle infielder would be on my Christmas in July list if anything was.  We have a nice flexibility with having Casilla in there who I believe would be capable at SS, that would allow us to look at 2B and SS available.  I guess there are no names that jump out at me but the Twins farm system isn't exactly super deep at middle infield positions so I wouldn't have a huge problem if the Twins made a trade for a solid younger guy out there and not just a rental player for this year.

p.s. Delmon Young has over an .800 OPS since he had his day off on May 29th (20 games).

Also, with Gomez seemingly being afraid to walk and his average slowly going down do you think it would be a good idea to maybe slide him down to 9 and move everyone else up a slot?  That way he can still be a sparkplug for the rest of the order when he does get on, just not in the first inning.

Last month I looked at a few players who had turned it around and started hitting a lot better than their overall statistics showed.  I say this because some of it even surprised me.  I'll try not to cut things up to a ridiculous point but I'll just point out a few things here and there.

Delmon Young

Overall, I think many of us feel that Delmon Young has been a disappointment overall.  He strikes out too much, he misplays balls in the field and he doesn't have the much hyped power we were all expecting to get from the former #1 overall pick.  Finally after much pleading from the fans and some bad defensive miscues Delmon Young was given a day off.  Since then he's gotten his first homerun as a Twin and has been hitting much better overall.  I won't even touch the defensive side since that's been hashed and rehashed on this site lately.

Since May 30th

44 PA   .302/.295/.488  0BB 9 K /  5 2B / 0 3B / 1 HR

The only troubling spot is that he hasn't gotten a single walk and has 9 K's in that same period of time.  During the rest of May he actually had 11BB's and 13 K's in 108 PA.  So while he has been hitting for a lot more power since his day off (.488 slg compared to .328 before that point) his discipline has gone to disappeared again.  Overall there's been some progress and I have to hope he can begin to combine the power improvement he's shown lately and the plate discipline he showed in May to get closer to meeting our expectations in the 2nd half of the year.

Jason Kubel

This is another guy who overall has disappointed this season.  He started out strong then faltered.  I've heard a lot of talk about him needing to prove himself in the second half by stepping it up.  Well, believe it or not but he's done a pretty good job of proving himself ever since he got his little break then hit a pinch hit homer against the Blue Jays on May 13th. 

Since May 13th

85 PA   .278/.388/.486/.874  13BB 13K / 4 2B / 1 3B / 3 HR 

So after starting off the year forgetting how to draw a walk he's performed a 180 over the past month in that department.   He had struck out 24 times and walked only 3 times during his first 122 PA.  I also have to note that these #'s do not include last nights game where he had 3 hits with one being his 8th homer of the year. 

Micheal Cuddyer

I look at Cuddy and wasn't sure where a good date to look at how he's done since would be.  I was looking for a possible "turning point" for Cuddyer if you will.  I saw that on May 21st Cuddy capped off what had been a horrible 2 for 31 slump with an 0 for 4 game.  Since then Cuddy has hit a lot better and closer to what we would expect from him.

Since May 21st

85 PA   .295/.353/.423/.776  6BB  16K/ 2 2B / 1 3B / 2 HR

So while not hitting for the power we'd like to see from him he's at least much closer to his career average while actually hitting for average and OBP better than his career #'s show.  In my mind Cuddyer is a roleplayer for the Twins, a better than average role player but still a role player.  I don't expect 2006 from him.  I do expect better than he's been this year so far and if he can keep up a similar hitting line to what he's done the past 85 PA's then I'll be mostly satisfied with his production.

These are the main guys I wanted to mention and point out that while their season lines are far from what we want, they may have turned a corner.  That or they're just on a bit of a hot streak, that's for them to prove and us to find out as the season progresses. 

Loose Cannon 1 and 2

Gomez has been better than most of us would have expected his first year and now is in the middle of a 12 game hitting streak, however only has 2 games where he has more than 1 hit in that streak and those games he got only 2 hits.  His strikeout rate climbed in May from 24% to 26% and has gone down so far in June to 15%.  No significant trending so far in that category.  Same with walks for him he went from 2% in April to 5% in May to 4% so far in June.  Nothing great, hopefully he can improve both of those statistics as the year goes on.

How about Alexi Casilla huh?  He's in middle of his own 12 game hit streak where hes' hit .367/.415/.510/.925.  Overall he's hitting .330/.378/.489/.867 on the year with 8 XBH's and he doesn't strike out as much as the other young guys on the club.  I know it's a small sample size but that's this whole post.  Has Casilla really turned a corner or is he just getting lucky?  I look at how terrible his minor league stats were this year and the only conclusion I can come to is that he was disappointed to not make the team out of ST.  When he got up here he raised his game to the level he's playing at now.  I can't see him sustaining it but at least he's showing us a glimpse of what he's capable of.  If nothing else he's making me feel a lot better about the future of the Twins middle infield. 

Disclaimer:  I do realize these are small sample sizes and that is a valid point on everything written above.  However I also believe in guys we've seen proof before that it could be guys just finally getting in the groove (Kubel, Cuddy).  While the younger unproven guys have to keep it up or even improve more to really make us feel good.  Despite a bad losing streak last week their are good things to talk about still.  If you haven't already I recommend you take a look at Seth's last two article "If I was GM" and his "Slowey/Baker" comparison .  I will unabashedly say that I'm big on Slowey so go read a good article about him for all you haters out there.

Per Joe C. at the Star Trib.  (you're welcom OTC) Bonser has been told he's heading to the bullpen and Scott Baker will be starting on Thursday.  Now the big question remains who will be leaving our Twins?  Obviously if Bonser is heading to the pen then we won't be seeing any of our other starters sent down.  I wouldn't have been surprised if the heads that be would have decided to send Perkins down just so they wouldn't have to cut somebody.

So that really leaves us with Rincon, Bass, or Breslow.  I can't imagine any of the other relievers even being considered. 

I know we'd all like to see Rincon DFA'd but will it happen?  As much as we want it to happen, do we think that's what the Twins will do?   Part of me believes Bass might be the odd man out even if I don't like that decision.  Mostly due to the fact that Bonser ought to be able to come in and fill the long relief role now.   However, I'm still hoping they give Bonser a shot at becoming a setup type pitcher.  If he had good enough stuff to be considered a starter this long I gotta believe he can just kill it for one inning at a time when he doesn't have to worry as much about his pitch count.

I'm guessing the Twins won't make a move until Thursday since the pen is a bit depleted already and we'll wanna get our last few innings out of whoever gets the boot.

I was watching the game and it looks like Liriano had another terrific start to follow up with his mediocre one from earlier in the week. 

6.1 IP  3 Hits, 1 BB, 7 K's, 1 earned run, 96 pitches with 64 of them strikes. 

It's nice to see him dominate AAA pitching like he should be.  Decent strike percentage, and uh well I need to get 75 words in so I'm just gonna keep typing.  It'll be interesting if Liriano puts together a couple more good starts to see if the Twins bring him up as well.

Delmon Young

While many are upset with Delmon Young, he's actually been improving until this past week when he's had a 4 game hitless streak.  If you look at his May numbers before this little slump he had a .293 .348 .402 .750 hitting line with 6 BB's and 10 K's.  Which still doesn't show as much power as we'd like to see but shows a good improvement in patience at the plate.  Even in his recent  0 for 19 streak it hasn't been mentioned that he drew 5 walks while striking out only 3 times.  That gives him and 11BB/13K ratio for May compared to his 6BB/19K ratio in April with 108 PA's both months.  I agree with everyone that a day off could do him well and with any luck he'll experience a similar resurgence to what Carlos Gomez has done since he took a day off back in April (.910 OPS since April 24th).

Livan Hernandez to Trade or not to Trade?

I know Corey already touched on this topic but mainly in relation to one player.  I follow the Twins minor league system and here about some top prospects from other teams around the league but definitely lack in my overall knowledge of other teams farm systems.  So who is out there that would be a good/realistic prospect the Twins could get for Livan?  As good as Livan has been I truly believe we're going to experience an implosion sooner than later and am all for trading him while his value is high.  We have enough quality AAA pitchers that can give us a few starts here and there that we should be just fine without him.  I think we've probably gotten the best out of Livan for the year and if you put the law of averages in effect he's bound to drop off in a bad way come the second half.  Where as a player like Boof ought to rebound given that his peripheral #'s suggest he's been better than his ERA would tell us.  That and the fact that we have Humber, Mulvey, Duensing, and some guy named Liriano sitting down in AAA gives me confidence that one of them could step up and deliver enough at the big league level to make the loss of Livan hurt very little.  So who's available?  Keep in mind we could probably package someone else with him to up the value of the incoming prospect?

Kevin Slowey/ Glen Perkins/ Nick Blackburn

For 3 guys with just over 100 innings and only 11 starts (all Slowey) coming into the season they have been terrific thus far.  It's easy to say this after last night but I really like Slowey's potential to become a solid #2 guy for the Twins if not more than that.  I just look at his minor league numbers and salivate and after his performance last September I got even more excited.  I'm hoping he can keep it going after having a rough start mostly due to injury and prove his skeptics wrong.  Blackburn is quietly putting up a strong bid for rookie of the year honors and Perkins has the best ERA of the three so far as well as a history of being able to get out Major League hitters last year as a reliever.  The true test will be when some of the better teams start seeing these guys for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th times.  Can they keep it up after a team has a better scouting report on them and the hitters know what they're up against coming into the game?  Only time will tell but so far these guys are looking great. 

This Offense Can Only Get Better.

I truly believe that statement above.  My main reasoning is the piss poor production we've gotten out of our corner OF spots, 3B, and SS.  When you look at career #'s you have to believe Cuddy, Lamb, and Harris will all improve quite a bit and soon.  In fact for the month of May Lamb actually has a .303 .345 .382 .727 line that while not amazing is a marked improvement over his April line of .205 .226 .282 .508. 

I have to believe Cuddyer will get better as he's proven over the past two seasons that while not an amazing hitter he can at least get the job done and be much better than he has been so far this year.  A couple of days on the bench might not be the worst thing for him either after Delmon finishes what figures to be a be short break. 

Harris is along those same lines, he's been mediocre to downright bad at times but he's probably the best #9 hitter we've had in awhile and is another guy who should level out to be a better hitter hopefully resembling more the guy we saw the first few weeks of April than the one we've seen in the month of May. 

On the other end of the spectrum there are guys who may be hitting over their heads with Casilla and Gomez leading that list.  As much as I'd like to believe that these guys are completely legitimate big leaguers I'm going to need them to continue their production a little longer (Who wants to bet on how long it'll be before Casilla hits 2 HR's in the same week again?)  While Gomez has been showing us for most of the season he belongs I still don't see him keeping up his current production throughout the season.  Casilla especially seems to be in line for a dropoff given his previous numbers.  While I'm generally an optimist I just have trouble believing Casilla is going to be THIS good.  He can contribute at some level but I doubt we'll be praising him as much come next month.

Then there's the case of Morneau who has shown us stretches like this in the past needs to prove he was worth the money and produce as he has been for a whole season.  I believe he's capable but we'll see what he's looking like overall come September. 

I already touched on Delmon Young but he is another guy that really ought to improve.  If we are to believe even part of the hype he should be better than he has been so far.  While he may not jack enough homers for us to be happy with he hopefully will improve in other areas.

In conclusion to that topic I have to believe the offense which has been middle of the pack so far this year has a good chance of improving as we head into the last 2/3's of the season.  I feel there are more players who should improve based on scouting and previous career #'s than those who are in line for a decline based on the same reasoning.

Well as always I got bored and started to ramble, let me know what you guys think about these topics.  I probably should have broken it down into multiple posts but, I didn't, deal with it.

Made you look.

I'll let Tim Dierkes do the work for me.  I wrote last week about our lack of infield options to replace what has been a pretty lackluster crew thus far.  Over at MLB trade Rumors Dierkes is doing specials on players who might be available for trades this summer.  So without further ado here's the 2B and SS lists he made.

Is your team weak at second base?  Perhaps you've been suffering through Asdrubal Cabrera and his .506 OPS?  Take a gander at MLBTR's list of available second basemen, and make a deal.  Are we missing anyone?

• Brian Roberts, Orioles.  There have been rumblings that Roberts may be off the market.  He should be available come July, though.  The asking price will be high.
• Ray Durham, Giants.  Sure, you can have him. The power's gone, but he does have a .366 OBP.  Since Durham makes $7.5MM, this will just be a salary dump.
• Ronny Cedeno, Cubs.  Cedeno can handle short, too.  He seems to be progressing and could be a nice trade chip for the Cubs.  Mike Fontenot might be more expendable, though, since he can't play short.
• Mark Grudzielanek, Royals. Same old Grudzielanek, hitting his standard .300.  He's earning $4MM this year.
• Tadahito Iguchi, Padres.  Seemed rejuvenated by last year's trade, maybe it'll happen again.
• Mark Ellis, Athletics. Impending free agent, fine defense. He's a borderline Type A free agent, so it'd take something decent to acquire him.
• Felipe Lopez and Ron Belliard, Nationals.  Neither is doing much with the bat.
• Mark Loretta, Astros.  He's more expendable now that Kaz Matsui is back.  They might want to keep him around until Ty Wigginton settles in.
• Juan Uribe, White Sox.  He was placed on waivers in March, and was a rumored possible cut earlier this month.

Many shortstops are having disappointing seasons, at least offensively.  What does the trade market offer at this position?

• Jack Wilson, Pirates.  He's set to come off the DL tomorrow following a calf strain. Given the performance of his replacements, the Bucs may hang on to Wilson for the sake of respectability. Plus, they're not out of contention.  Wilson is signed through '09 and has a limited no-trade clause.
• Alex Gonzalez, Reds.  If Jeff Keppinger can return in late June and Gonzalez is ready in July, he could be dealt.  It'd be tough - he's signed through '09.
• Cristian Guzman, Nationals.  Impending free agent, hitting decently...good candidate for a trade.
• Bobby Crosby, Athletics.  The A's always seem willing to listen, but they'd need to determine Crosby's replacement.
• Edgar Renteria, Tigers.  At 6.5 games out, the Tigers aren't ready to throw in the towel.  Renteria's $11MM option for '09 is not a lock, by the way.
• Julio Lugo, Red Sox.  He's not exactly a hot commodity. 
• Omar Vizquel, Giants.  They may play the "let's stay somewhat respectable at short" card and choose to keep him.
• David Eckstein, Blue Jays.  Perhaps if they fall out of contention and Eckstein returns successfully from a strained right hip flexor.
• Brent Lillibridge, Braves.  Could be one of the team's best trade chips, though he's not hitting in Triple A.
• Khalil Greene, Padres.  Off to a slow start offensively, and the Padres would need to acquire a replacement.  Signed through '09.
• Ronny Cedeno, Cubs.  Could be a very valuable trade piece, but also may be the team's shortstop of the future.

So what do you guys think?  Anyone who catches your eye?  Some of these are obviously dependent on a team falling out of contention by trade deadline time but some teams are more likely to do that.  I'm not even saying the Twins should make a trade but let's say we're still within a few games of the division come July and our Middle infield is still lacking.  Would they give up some mid level prospects for a rent a player.  Heck, with the Twins lack of great middle infield depth in the system it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to go after a younger guy like Cedeno who seems to be on the rise or Lillibridge who showed promise last year.