State of Play, Trade Deadline Edition: Nothing Going On But the Rent

Jesse ran down the plethora of trade rumors swirling around the Twins yesterday, with various and sundry alleged tire-kickers circling Francisco Liriano, Denard Span, Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham. Have you read that yet? If not, go there now, then come back. (TAPS FOOT, SIPS COFFEE, CHECKS WATCH) You back now? Great! So, anyway, the same Twins that were Twins when you went to bed are Twins this morning, and there's no fresh intel out there. If anything does happen today, we'll of course let you know. Until then, here's what's what:

• Via Joe C. and his personal Twitter account, it sounds like Trevor Plouffe and his bruised thumb will be ready to go for this weekend's series against Cleveland. To wit: "Positivity goes a long way! Looks like I'll be back on the field tomorrow. Thank you guys for all the love."
• Carl Pavano (Remember him? Mustache jokes, Sweet Drew as his catcher/caddy/fixer? Wasn't that a time?) will throw batting practice on Monday, per John Shipley. If his bum shoulder stands up to it, he said in an email that he'll move onto live games "to get his pitch count up."
• The team with the biggest drop-off in attendance this year? Houston. Second biggest? Your Minnesota Twins. Per Sports Business Journal, Target Field attendance is down 11% this year. The stadium is still a gem and there is no shortage of great places to get a bite and a bump near there (Fulton Tap Room gets the RandBall's Stu endorsement, and I would like a T-shirt and a pony keg for that blurb) but yes, 18 games under .500 will do that. Hat tip to local niche sports enthusiast Jon Marthaler for the info.

And that's it for now. Check back later, friends.