J-Dog Dungan

When it comes to the Twins this year, not much is an understatement

Now ya jinxed it! C'mon!

Mornie's 2-2. Woot woot!

1) The Marlins themselves have said that it would take a large load of prospects to get them to move Johnson 2) According to MLBTR, Garza has been told by the Cubs that he isn't going anywhere 3) If Dempster is going anywhere, I have to believe that it will be to the Dodgers That more or less leaves the Rangers to either go after James Shields, who I have to imagine is also very pricey, or Liriano, who should be less pricey than Shields, and that's if they even want a new SP.

And this has shrunk; According to MLBTR, the Angels have traded for Greinke. This really seems to leave Shields, Dempster (because it seems like his deal with the Dodgers ain't goin to get done), Josh Johnson, and Frankie as the top pitchers on the market. Also, it takes away a team that was supposedly really interested in acquiring Liriano.

We just signed this guy to a 3-year extension. Let's give it until AT LEAST NEXT YEAR before we even think about trading Perkins. He is a very solid (and 97% reliable) presence out in the bullpen, and it is a guy who has been with the Twins his entire career.

I don't think anyone in history could accumulate trade value that fast (assuming that Danny V. isn't playing tonight, that leaves about 2 games for him to get his trade value up.) The only way that would happen would be if he hit home runs in every at bat in the next two games, which not even Josh Hamilton can do.

Could someone remind me what happened to Plouffe's thumb? I can't remember how he got the injury.

Well, it doesn't surprise me, but according to Jon Morosi's Twitter feed/MLBTR, there is a lot of interest from other teams around Glen Perkins (I was kind of wondering when we would start getting calls about him). The Twins' asking price, just like for most of the other pieces that they don't have to trade this year (Willingham, Morneau, and Span), is apparently "very high".

I knew I forgot one. If Billy Beane is still anything like what he was in Moneyball, it would be an interesting conversation with him and Terry Ryan.

With all the turmoil currently surrounding whether or not pieces that have been on the Twins for many years will be moved, the one piece everybody seems to say has an almost 100% chance of being moved is Francisco Liriano. While Frankie has been a head case for a large part of the season, his raw stuff is enough to make any scout drool over him. However, this has not been the Frankie that has shown up to pitch with the Twins over the last year+. So the question is: "Who will be traded that has a higher value than Frankie?" Several big names, including Anibal Sanchez and Wandy R. have already been moved to new teams. Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, who the Phillies had apparently open for calls on, are staying with the Phillies, at least for now. King Felix is staying with the Mariners, and Ryan Dempster is insistent that if he is traded, he will be traded only to the LA Dodgers. So I believe that leaves us with three "high-tier" (relative term) left on the market: Frankie, Josh J. and Greinke (of course, if I am missing anyone, feel free to let me know). So the market for these guys is fairly wide open. Greinke has been connected to many teams including the Orioles and Indians (but neither team is really looking for a rent-a-pitcher), White Sox, Rangers, Angels, and Braves. The Marlins have said that they would trade only one of Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson, so it is believed that it would take a huge offer to pry him away from the Marlins. However, Johnson has been connected to the Blue Jays, Rangers, Angels, Orioles, and Dodgers are the ones most interested in him. And then there is Frankie. He has been a head case for so long, and people have been crying out for the Twins to trade him ever since 2009, I think. The teams that have checked in on him (or more than that, maybe (hopefully)) includes the Angels, Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, and Braves. The Blue Jays, Mets, and Red Sox are fairly far out in their divisions, but I suppose are close enough in the Wild Card that they could try and swing a trade for a pitcher like Liriano. The Angels and Orioles are the ones that appear to have the best shot at landing Liriano, and former Twin Torii Hunter said almost as much and that he would be happy to be on the same team as him again. The Twins, unfortunately, might have to lower their asking price for Liriano if they really want to deal him, especially with the inconsistency he has showed this year. But according to my calculations, he is one of the three best starters (gauged in pure, raw talent, not in number production) left on the market, and the Twins will most certainly use that to their advantage. P.S. While researching for this blog, found that if the season ended today, the Oakland A's would take the second of two Wild Card spots in the A.L. This has got to be the closest they have been to the playoffs since they took out the Twins in 2006.

With all the turmoil currently surrounding whether or not pieces that have been on the Twins for many years will be moved, the one piece everybody seems to say has an almost 100% chance of being moved is Francisco Liriano. While Frankie has been a head case for a large part of the season, his raw stuff is enough to make any scout drool over him. However, this has not been the Frankie that has shown up to pitch with the Twins over the last year+. So the question is: "Who will be traded that has a higher value than Frankie?" Several big names, including Anibal Sanchez and Wandy R. have already been moved to new teams. Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee, who the Phillies had apparently open for calls on, are staying with the Phillies, at least for now. King Felix is staying with the Mariners, and Ryan Dempster is insistent that if he is traded, he will be traded only to the LA Dodgers. So I believe that leaves us with three "high-tier" (relative term) left on the market: Frankie, Josh J. and Greinke (of course, if I am missing anyone, feel free to let me know). So the market for these guys is fairly wide open. Greinke has been connected to many teams including the Orioles and Indians (but neither team is really looking for a rent-a-pitcher), White Sox, Rangers, Angels, and Braves. The Marlins have said that they would trade only one of Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson, so it is believed that it would take a huge offer to pry him away from the Marlins. However, Johnson has been connected to the Blue Jays, Rangers, Angels, Orioles, and Dodgers are the ones most interested in him. And then there is Frankie. He has been a head case for so long, and people have been crying out for the Twins to trade him ever since 2009, I think. The teams that have checked in on him (or more than that, maybe (hopefully)) includes the Angels, Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays, and Braves. The Blue Jays, Mets, and Red Sox are fairly far out in their divisions, but I suppose are close enough in the Wild Card that they could try and swing a trade for a pitcher like Liriano. The Angels and Orioles are the ones that appear to have the best shot at landing Liriano, and former Twin Torii Hunter said almost as much and that he would be happy to be on the same team as him again. The Twins, unfortunately, might have to lower their asking price for Liriano if they really want to deal him, especially with the inconsistency he has showed this year. But according to my calculations, he is one of the three best starters (gauged in pure, raw talent, not in number production) left on the market, and the Twins will most certainly use that to their advantage. P.S. While researching for this blog, found that if the season ended today, the Oakland A's would take the second of two Wild Card spots in the A.L. This has got to be the closest they have been to the playoffs since they took out the Twins in 2006.

Not only Greinke is causing this holdup, Dempster is/was causing it too.

I really hope we aren't the only ones that are seeing these posts about how players could improve themselves. Any way we could send this to Joe Vavra?

Their system hasn't been garbage for too long, they have just had too many injuries to too many pitching prospects to have a good supply line up to the Bigs

Was New Britain postponed because of rain?

Especially since we have seen very little of Gibson since his return to pitching.

Just recently on MLBTR, an article from David Kaplan of CSNChicago.com says that the Dodgers and Cubs are working towards a deal for Dempster that might include another team.

According to MLBTR, the Angels and the Orioles appear to be the ones going after Liriano the most.

This made me giggle and LOL

I saw once on MLBTR that one GM said, "They asked for established pitching, established hitting, and a few good prospects to top it off (or something along those lines)." That, I would imagine, would be the kind of offer the Twins might be expecting to have in hand if they trade Willingham, who was labeled "so pricey, it made me laugh.

While the Twins have had to adjust who they sign in FA because of the way TF plays (one reason why we signed Willingham not Cuddy), I don't think the Twins have lost any kind of edge since leaving the Metrodome, they've just lost it overall.

Any chance that if the Twins trade Span, they get two of the guys on the list from Seth's article?

How close is Arcia to qualifying?

While I may like Gardy, I do think that it might be time for a new voice, not that I know who that would be.