Twins break off talks with Casey Blake

The latest reports about the Twins pursuit of free agent third baseman Casey Blake are that the Twins broke off talks with Blake yesterday after the Twins wouldn't guarantee a third year in their offer. With winter meetings next week there will be lots of players for the Twins to look at and they didn't want to waste all their time with Blake.

I'm a little sad that the Twins didn't sign Blake, but I am glad they didn't sign Blake to the terms he was demanding. During that third year, the Twins would have been paying a 38 year old 8 million a year to play 3B. Besides I'm not too sure he is a huge upgrade over a Buscher/Harris platoon at 3B.

Bats Available

There are 12 free agents this offseason who hit at least 20 home runs during the course of the past season. Namely:
1. Adam Dunn - 40
2. Manny Ramirez - 37
3. Pat Burrell - 33
3. Mark Teixeira - 33
5. Jason Giambi - 32
6. Raul Ibanez - 23
7. Milton Bradley - 22
8. Casey Blake - 21
9. Jim Edmonds - 20
9. Bobby Abreu - 20
9. Kevin Millar - 20
9. Eric Hinske - 20

Joe Crede and Orlando Hudson also had great slugging numbers.

Also there are 12 players with 20 HR power available through the trading block:
Prince Fielder, Aubrey Huff, Mike Jacobs, Dan Uggla, Edwin Encarnacion, Adrian Beltre, Adam LaRoche, Matt Holliday, J.J. Hardy, Melvin Mora, Kevin Kouzmanoff, and Garrett Atkins.
(Thanks to MLBTradeRumors)

This is substantial because the Twins had 0 players with 30+ HR, only 2 players with 20+ HR and only 3 with 10+ HR. The Twins have the prospects or extra players for a good trade, and they have the money for a couple of good free-agent signings.

The names that jump out at me the most:
3B Adrian Beltre
SS Orlando Hudson
SS J.J. Hardy
3B Joe Crede
3B Casey Blake
2B Dan Uggla
3B Garrett Atkins

I will likely go more in depth about some of these guys that I would love to see the Twins go get, like Beltre, Hudson, and Hardy. But basically the Twins are sitting pretty to go make some big trades/moves, and I know they haven't in the past but now would be a good time to change.