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As the Twins enter their second straight offseason following 90-plus-loss seasons, I find it really hard to write a "blueprint". There are many directions the club could go to improve their team. Without any real idea which (if any) of those "directions" are feasible, I'm going to break it down into a series that previews upcoming roster moves.

So far this offseason - besides the news that a few coaches wouldn't be returning - the only news has been the re-signings of a handful of ...

The Twins lost to the Mariners this afternoon and Denard Span was placed on the disabled list. Placing Span on the DL was a curious move, since rosters expand in a couple of days, and there are rumblings that he may be shut down for the rest of the year.

If you've noticed that the "Rosters & Payroll" page hasn't been updated in a couple of days, I apologize. Hopefully by Monday it will be back up-to-date.

Let’s take a look around today’s action:

ELIZABETHTON ...

Scott Diamond had a rough first inning (33 pitches) before getting through a scoreless second. After Joe Mauer was plunked by Roy Oswalt, Diamond threw over Josh Hamilton’s head and was immediately ejected. Ron Gardenhire was also ejected.

This put the Twins in a bad place. Anthony Swarzak got through the fifth and also gave up a few runs. Jeff Gray struck out two in two scoreless innings.

Jared Burton came into a tie game in the 8^th and promptly gave up the lead… ...

Tags: levi michael, randy rosario

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The biggest question coming into today's off day for the Twins was, "Who will fill the 25th spot on the roster?" I didn't believe we'd have an answer until tomorrow, but John broke the news this afternoon.

Matt Carson is definitely deserving of another shot in the majors. The case could be made for Chris Parmelee, but part of me believes that leaving him in Rochester had more to do with helping the Red Wings fight for a playoff spot and keeping those in Rochester happy than it had ...

It was a quiet day in Twins World. No roster moves. Minimal injury (recover) news. But, as it is, no news is better than bad news.

The Red Wings activated Anthony Slama before their game and intentionally didn’t pitch him, just to irritate the #FreeAnthonySlama crowd.

If you're interested in checking out the organizational rosters and contracts, Brock and I have been working on a place where you can view it all. He calls it a "monster", for me it's more of an obsession... ...

Sunday was an interesting day in the world of Twins baseball.

The Twins had a chance to complete a 4-game sweep in Fenway Park. Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit both homered in the ninth to make it interesting, but the rally fell short.

At one point early in the game I overheard Dick Bremer announce that Danny Valencia had been traded to the Red Sox. I can't say I was surprised that he was traded, though the timing - with Plouffe being hurt - did catch me off guard. Read ...

Samuel Deduno and his effective wildness (101 pitches, 50 strikes) held the Red Sox scoreless over six innings. The bullpen finished it out and the Twins offense provided 5 runs to complete their first shutout of the Red Sox in Fenway in almost 16 years.

In what had been speculated for months and basically confirmed by Terry Ryan on Sunday, 2010 1^st round pick, Alex Wimmers, had surgery today to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, better known as “Tommy John Surgery”. ...

One of my favorite days of the year is the day I open my mailbox and see a cardboard box just big enough to hold the Baseball America Prospect Handbook. The first thing I do is read each of the 30 capsules about the Twins prospects. Then I proceed to read each of the other 870 reports in the book, usually a few times.

This year they added a new feature: the BA Grade along with the Risk Factor. Essentially, it makes it possible to compare all 900 prospects. If you want a general ...

Tags: aaron hicks, byron buxton, miguel sano, oswaldo arcia, prospects

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The Twins finished their sweep against the Indians this afternoon (in dominant fashion too, outscoring the Indians 28-6), but that’s not nearly the biggest news to transpire since Saturday evening’s convincing win.

At exactly 10pm last night – exactly the time I decided to go to bed a little early – the White Sox announced on their Twitter account that they had acquired Francisco Liriano for Eduardo Escobar and Pedro Hernandez.

It didn’t take long for everybody to hate ...

You can go read various threads and articles on this site if you want opinions on how the Twins did by trading Francisco Liriano to the division-leading Chicago White Sox.

I'm going to break down what this trade does from an organization standpoint.

SALARY:

It appears that the White Sox will pick up the rest of Liriano's tab for the season. This saved the Twins $2,073,800. (Their payroll is now $97,775,800 before factoring in the 25th player they need to ...

Tags: eduardo escobar, franciso liriano, pedro hernandez, trade deadline

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The Twins were off today, but there was still plenty of action.

Trevor Plouffe announced on Twitter this morning that he would be back tomorrow.

And before their afternoon (or was it morning?) game, the Red Wings activated Deolis Guerra from the DL and placed Dan Sattler on the DL.

Later this evening, the Twins announced they were placing Anthony Swarzak on the DL with a rotator cuff strain. To take his place, the Twins will purchase the contract of RP ...

Tags: adam walker, chris parmelee, eric hurley, tom stuifbergen

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The Twins were beaten up pretty soundly by the juggernaut that is the Oakland Athletics. We should have known we were going to be in for a rough weekend when the Twins couldn’t squeeze a win out of their best pitching performance in almost five years. (It was nice to know you, Frankie.)

Personally, I’m still holding onto Liriano, trying to sign him to an extension or offering him arbitration and taking the draft picks if he leaves, but that’s for another place on the website. ...

Another slow day around baseball.

The Twins activated RP Matt Capps and optioned Kyle Waldrop back to Rochester. The Wings currently have six pitchers on the disabled list, so getting another arm is probably pretty welcome.

The Twins reached agreements with 23^rd round pick P Travis Huber from Nebraska and 28^th round pick P Carson Goldsmith.

It was also announced that 6^th rounder Andre Martinez (P) will not actually sign after it was reported he agreed ...

Tags: hein robb, joe benson

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I used to subscribe to BA's Top Performers email, but after looking at it - seeing batting and pitching lines for hundreds of prospects - and not getting much out of it, I unsubscribed.

While browsing their website today, I found a link to "Yesterday's Top Performers". I clicked on it and expected to see the same format I saw with the emails. I was wrong.

Instead what I saw where the top 10 daily performers based on Runs Created (for batters) and Game Score (for pitchers). ...