Trade Deadline

The trade deadline is fast approaching. The Twins are hoping to sneak into 1st place and the playoffs in a year that nobody (but myself) thought they would contend. Now normally the Twins don't do anything big at the trade deadline but maybe they should this year. Usually we just lose players in the offseason, so why not get something back in a trade instead? Players have come and gone over the years and the 2002 squad that first made the playoffs are all gone. Those players have signed with other teams, such as David Ortiz, Johan Santana, Casey Blake, Jason Varitek, Torii Hunter, and even Kyle Lohse. I wouldn't mind having those players back on the Twins, minus Varitek perhaps. Luckily for the Twins they have one of the best farm systems over the years producing players such as Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, Slowey, Blackburn, Garza, Span, Cuddyer, etc. As of today there are currently no Mauers or Morneaus in the minors to help the Twins, with exception of Liriano. All their top prospects are in the lower levels of the minors, players such as Ben Revere, hitting .399 this year, but in lower-A ball. Here are some moves the Twins could and should do:

Trade Cuddyer, Buscher, and Bonser to Mariners for Adrian Beltre.
Trade PTBNL for LaTroy Hawkins, who was demoted by Yankees.
Call up Francisco Liriano, cut Brian Bass.
Trade Livan Hernandez for a bucket of baseballs.
Tell Nick Punto that he won't be resigned.
Cut Adam Everett
Trade Mike Lamb to any takers, call up Matt Macri and Bobby Korecky.

The Twins end up like this:

RF Denard Span
2B Alexi Casilla
C Joe Mauer
1B Justin Morneau
3B Adrian Beltre
DH Jason Kubel
LF Delmon Young
SS Brendan Harris
CF Carlos Gomez

Bench
C Mike Redmond
IF Nick Punto
3B Matt Macri
OF Craig Monroe

SP Francisco Liriano
SP Scott Baker
SP Nick Blackburn
SP Kevin Slowey
SP Glen Perkins

CL Joe Nathan
RP Matt Guerrier
RP LaTroy Hawkins
RP Jesse Crain
RP Craig Breslow
RP Dennys Reyes
RP Bobby Korecky


That is a solid team! The Twins are lucky to have 5 great young starting pitchers. The Beltre likely won't happen though.

Spring Training and 2008

The Twins started spring training yesterday. They lost 6-1 to the Reds, but hey it is just spring training. Francisco Liriano finally arrived to camp on Wednesday as well. It makes one wonder how the Twins would have done in 2007 (and for the playoffs in 2006) with a healthy Liriano. Boy am I excited to watch him this year. He is my current favorite athlete, right in front of Deron Williams. The Twins had a very disappointing season last year, especially considering how they had the Cy Young winner, the MVP, the batting champ, the best closer in the game, one of the best center fielders in the game. But other than that they didn’t have a lot. And the stars all had down years except for Hunter. So there is reason to believe that they will be better in 2008 than in 2007, despite the losses of Santana, Hunter, and Silva. Here are five players that will have a better year than last.



Jason Kubel - he will finally have his breakout season. He was once regarded about as high of a prospect as Mauer and Morneau. He should cement himself as the Twins DH for the long term.

Joe Mauer - he wasn’t at full strength last year, look for him to improve power numbers to 15-20 HR and be in the thick of the batting title race.

Boof Bonser - was great towards the end of 2006. He then put on a lot of weight and had a lot of problems in 2007. He dropped 25 pounds in the offseason and he should be better in 2008.

Justin Morneau - the 2006 AL MVP had a great first half of 2007. He slumped big time in the second half, after having a few injuries. Look for him to put up numbers similar to his 2006 season.

Dennys Reyes - The dude was unhittable in 2006 but had a terrible 2007. For some reason he is great one year, terrible the next, great the next, then terrible. 2008 lands on the good year of his crazy cycle of success.