The next two days will be all about the trade deadline for the Twins, with most of the rumors centering on Denard Span and Josh Willingham, with a few about Justin Morneau thrown in. We'll keep updating you, but there's not much point, because a lot of teams want Span and pretty much every team in the majors would like to have Willingham right now. (I even saw a rumor that said the Mariners were interested in Willingham. The Mariners are ten games under .500! Why would they sell the farm for Josh Willingham?) Anyway, if I may insert an editorial comment, I hope Terry Ryan trades neither player. The Twins need to have a team in 2013 and 2014 too, and both guys look like they'd play a big part on those teams.
Minnesota's weekend sweep was just their third of the year; the team also swept Oakland at the end of May, and did the same to Kansas City at the end of June. Watch out, Seattle - that trip to town at the end of August isn't looking so good.
Getting swept didn't help the Indians, either. The Tribe is now two games under .500, and while they're only five games back in the Wild Card, they're actually tenth in the American League right now. Leapfrogging six teams in the standings is not an easy thing.
We saw the Sox this time last week, and coming into that series, the Whities were reeling, a game and a half back in the Central race. Since then, they swept the Twins and won a series against the Rangers, and now they're a game and a half ahead of the Tigers. ESPN says they have a 77% chance to make the playoffs. (I wonder if this takes into account them playing the Twins nine more times this year?)
Here's the especially confusing part about Chicago trading for Liriano: they've already got five guys in their rotation. Baseball Tonight is even wondering if they'll go to a six-man rotation, which sounds remarkably stupid to me, but what do I know. Others are saying that Gavin Floyd is on his way out by Tuesday. We'll have to see.
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