Rosterman

No, no, no...not a waste of time and breath. Never give up...hope.

If Morneau stays, Parmelee starts at AAA. I picture Butera being non-tendered. He may not stay with Twins, seeing Lehmann ahead of him. But the Twins will need at least one mlfa catcher for Rochester. Sean Burroughs may stay. Dozier/Florimon/Escobar...one of the three will start at AAA. Picture Holimon and Chang may return...where else can they go. Tosoni will start at AA...he has no choice. Two FA outfielders at least. Pitching should pretty much be prospects...but the Twins may keep Deduno, Perdumo, Walters, Vasquez, Manship, Guerra, Waldrop around and not in the majors (and DeVries, expect him to be waived at some point but stay with Twins). You don't find many AA free agents, these guys are usually like Tosoni, no place to go but stay and try and turn-around. Always lots of 26-28th roster guys, or 41-45 roster guys, every year. It's not worth it to 40-man people like Clete Thomas, Matt Carson, guess you can say Slama, Gray. Make them work for a roster spot. Competition for replacement backups is something fierce.

Gene Glynn add coaches Bobby Cuellar, Tom Brunansky, maybe Jake Mauer. Talk to Coomer and Gladden. Bring in Mike Redmond or Matthew LeCroy. I might keep Jerry White. But then the Twins need to find a whole passel of coaches for the minors. I seem them standing pat for a year...maybe jettisoning Gardy and Anderson late-2013 if things don't change and giving the Rochester guys a look. Or buyout Ozzie's contract from Florida!

Yes, Morneau, Blackbum, Toshi and throw in Benson and you have a $200 million savings. The Twins get four prospects and a 1st base rental for part of a season. The Red Sox pulled off an awesome salary dump. Add in no Ortiz for next season and they will be wisely spending money in 2013......

The Red Sox were able to get out of two long-term contracts, like if the Twins actually had Mauer claimed and had to think about the possibility of having that money free for more game playing. It was a situation they couldn't refuse. They can replace Crawford and Gonzalez easy and much cheaper. No need, though, to deepsix the other guys. And they just were lucky getting rid of the pitcher, too....

He has sown power. Now just needs consistency. If nothing else, he will be a modestly expensive utility guy until he reaches free agency and the Twins may have other choices by then.

Guerra needs to be looked at a little bit this fall, before he's off to the out-of-country winter leagues. Slama needs to appears in a dozen of the Twins final games, be it setup, long relief or even closing. Give the guy a chance. If he is a gem, you got a five-year cheap gem.

If Benson could truly be a 20/20 man and hit .250/.260, he would be an okay rightfielder...sorta speedier Cuddyer. Strikeouts do hurt. You like to see more walks if a guy does K alot. A ball in play, be it a grounder or a fly, has the potential to advance a runner. The Twins have a logjam in center, which makes Span expendable right now. We don't need two Spans and Revere is on a quest to turn each single (and walk) into a stolen base double for the next couple of years, or until we have the Hicks or Buxton play somewhere problem. Mastro is the perfect 4th outfielder right now. He can sill in for guys on the 15-day disabled list. We need Herrmann as the third multi-position catcher, since everyone Butera caught has been traded away. Sadly, the Twins are a team of middle infielders, too many with the same skill set, the only difference is salary. I'n not a longterm Casilla fan, but $2 million for Alexi isn't much different than $2.5+ million for the aging Carroll at this point. My concern for Parmelee is that he can't hit .250 in the majors, even if he hits 15-20 homers. Can we afford to have three players with the same stat set (make Willingham a slighter better 4th) that hit .240-.260 with 15-25 homes at 1st/3rd/RF/LF...the possibility of doing less than that and the rare occurence of doing better? Put Dozier into the mix as a shortstop with more than zero-power, and we have a very average offense headed by the bats of Mauer, Doumit and Revere getting on base at 1-3 clip compared to 1-4/5 of everyone else.

Which is why I would've brought up Vasquez for a longer looksee. Hendriks is still in the mix, but the Twins need to tryout others for 2012.

I think the Twins need to give Wayne Hattaway a room in the clubhouse so he can apply his long-used magic elixir that proved successful over a minor league career (something like IbuprofUN crushed into a brew). Wayne would probably work for nothing, still!

I understand the medical staff were unable to find a heartbeat on the field Wednesday.

if you are ambitious, add them to http://www.twinscards.com

Morneau is tradeable next year if a team loses a 1Bman or in the wild card run. No off-season movement. No place except the bench for Parmelee...so let him finish the Rochester season, then bring him up and see if you really want him resting Doumit or Morneau, or trying his hand in right or left for a few games. Parmelee, if Morneau stays, will be back at AAA full-time next year.....

Manship option...

Happily, it seems, the Twins haven't needed this bench spot. Butera isn't playing. Casilla isn't getting played. Carson seems to be a decent bench guy. Hopefully Span is back in Minneapolis and the Twins save on the West Coast hotel room. But it doesn't really make sense, except when you ask "who should they promote." With Rochester and New Britain in the playoff hunt, you don't want to take their best players to sit on the bench (hopefully Blackburn pitching instead of Hendriks doesn't blow it for the Red Wings). Maybe if there was some grizzled oldtimer in the minors, you would do that. But right now, the Twins are playing with what they have...although it would be interesting to see what fun Arcia would have if he was promoted early.

The Twins have spent $29 millio on starters that went 11-29, and now have a bunch of guys they need to see. 1) Put Duensing back in the bullpen. We know what he can do. 2) Look at Hernandez and Valesquez, for sure. 3) If you stay with a five-man rotation, piggy-back and have other potential starters throw the next four innings (Manship, Hernandez, Walters, DeVries, Swarzak et al) on the same four-days of rest. 4) You can never have enough pitching. The bullpen is worn down. Bring up Geurra and have a look. Perdumo should be recalled, too. Add Slama to the roster and have him pitch back-to-back, two innings at a time, whatever...take a great great look at the guy and work with him. 5) Watch the waiver wire closely this week and grab anyone that breathes that is cut when a contending team adds a last minute free agent. Claim them. You can always cut them...especially if they are that teams 10th-12th pitching prospect. 6) Figure out what happened this year! Don't let it ever happen again. Has any other team in the history of baseball totally re-did their rotation before season's end?

I think it's up to Bruno and how hard he wants to work. Big League coaching is tough...travelling all around the country and such. Minor League coaching has its advantages. WIll be interesting to see what does happen with the Twins and their coaching roster.

I picture that Swarzak could be on-the-line depending on arbitration. His likely successors are Manship or DeVries. We know what Duensing can do. Keep him in the bullpen. Rotation: Diamond, Deduno, DeVries, Manship, Hernandez, Walters, Hendriks -- get them all work at the beginning of a game. Let us see Guerra. Keep Slama around, please. Perdoma come back up. If you need to see Caleb, do so. On the bullpen bubble: Guitererz, Oliveros. Let Pavano and Capps walk.

The Dodgers are rumored to be interested in Santana and taking on his salary. No team will trade for Blackburn...now. They will wait to see if he is designated for assignment and then just pick him up for a song. They can try him for a few starts and keep or drop him, the Twins still paying most of the bill. Same with Toshi. If the Twins are lucky, they may find a buyer in Japan, but still out two years salary and the initial purchase fee. The bigger question is how much do you feel paying any of these guys and stopping the advancement of someone else -- is worth.

Ah, yes...the joy of outdoor baseball. Wasn't that the theme of the Twins when Target Field opened. Come and see major league baseball outdoors, enjoy the sun, the variety of food, the great looking stadium and scoreboard. When the last and current season rolled around, they didn't have a team to sell, or if they did...it was probably come see major league ball played b everyone but Kansas and they whup the Twins. There is something to be said about the baseball experience. I liked reading about the minor league trip of one of the posters and their take on the Gulf Coast Twins...no scoreboard or scorecard. No players names on uniforms, just good old baseball.

It's exciting to see if the Twins can pull together a rotation of spunk and grit from people we never heard of, and have a bullpen that doesn't wear down. If Pedro Florimon will make the most of his opportunity so we say "Brian Who?" In September we start saying -- "don't we still have Capps, Pavano, Casilla and Gray?" We watch Revere and Mauer hold string and everyone else wilts and they end one-two. Mastro ends up stealing more bases than Revere. We are sad not to see more Parmelee, but that means Doumit, Morneau and someone is playing all his positions. Rochester wins the International League and the city no longer complains about the wilting roster. And I can buy a seat for $5 to any game on a weeknight when school starts!

Ah...Carlos Silva revisited.

Will Pavano be back? Two starts before 9/1 to see if he can help a contender? At this point, might as well just given him his release. Worry about finding a spot for Walters. And what about Gray. Hasn't he worn out his welcome?

No one wants them. If a team claimed Blackburn, they would be on the hook for his remaining salary and all his salary next year. The call will be if he and the Twins stay buddies next year. I think he either walks away from his salary or stays under Twins control next year, too. The Twins need to see if they can sell Toshi to Japan.

Again, you have to keep a few spare parts (Carson, Waldrop, Butera) to drop once you seek out real free agents. Anyone added in November to the 40-man can't be dropped until spring training. The Twins have to make decisions of Swarzak and Casilla for arbitration (as well as Burton and Duensing). I see Gutierrez being dropped at some point. I'm wondering who goes when Pavano and Walters are re-added, shortly..... Sadly, though i would love to see Hicks up here in September, if Carson hits we won't. I would like to see Arcia get the call just to get his feet wet. The Twins also will have to make a 40-man decision on Oliveros. I imagine, truth be told, that Salma will just linger out there and he can make the choice to resign or move on. Same with Tosoni, who has very few options. The joy is they can just remove Toshi and still keep him if no one claims him. I don't know if they can do that with Blackie, who would become a free agent, per say, but the Twins on hook for total 2013 salary. At this point, THEYT will find a way to keep him and see if he becomes better or not. Be interesting to see how many minor league castoffs the Twins go after (last year, whew) and they seem to always be early birds in this department.