Right now our offense is hitting on all Cylindars since Plouffe at 3rd and Revere in RF started hitting. Right now I feel our offense is a little "Piranha" heavy as we have 4 "piranha's" in the lineup any given night if not 5 or 6 (Span, Revere, Dozier, Carrol, Casilla, and Mastoianni) We also have 4 versatile solid power type of hitters Morneau, Willingham, Doumit, and now Plouffe with Parmalee trying to join the crowd. And we have 1 all round high average Mauer. If Parmelee could make his way to the starting line up consistantly then we could have a CF (Span or Revere) available to trade for SP.

The bullpen has been lights out as we can say we have 6 guys who have done an above average to great job so far this year. (Burton, Burnett, Capps, Deunsing, Perkins, and Swarzak after you subtract out his starting stats you will see his era in the pen has been pretty good) 1 below average Gray and 1 with the jury out Manship. We also have several prospect ready to come up just in case Slama, Oliveros, Guerra. And these guys are under team control for the next 2 to 3 seasons, and they are cheep comparitavely speaking. One other great thing about our pen is that they make the game a 5-6 inning game for the starting pitching instead of 6-7.

The rotation is where the main issues on this team lie. Lucky for us Bill Smith traded a relief prospect for Diamond against our better judgement and PJ Walters has filled in well too. Now if Liriano can continue his turn around and Blackburn is healty enough to give the team 5-6 innings a start. Like I said earlier with the bullpen giving the team a chance if the starters can go 5-6 innings makes it easier for Blackburn who got a win after getting lifted after 5 innings vs giving up 3 runs in the 7th against Baltimore in his first start of the season. We can get by with an average rotation. There are several pitchers available to consider. Joe Saunders of Arizona is available and has about 4 million left on his contract this year. Az wants to bring up their top pitching prospect in Bauer. I bet the salary relief would lower the asking price. Milwood should be available from Seattle after the all star break since he just help pitch a no hitter. I am sure there are other Plus Pavano could come back from injury.

There is also a hitter available on the trade market that could hit 20-25 HR drive in 80-85 RBI with a .760-.820 OPS at a cost of 4-5 million per season for the next 2 years and may not cost much in prospect but Soriano of the Cubs is available and he just hit 3 HRs at our ballpark so he can hit here. I think that is cheep for Cuddyer type production.

We are currently 2.5 games out of 3rd and 8.5 out of first place where the White Sox have 2 great starting pitchers and 3 who have era's near or over 5.00. I believe with a little reinforcement and not a major overhaul, we can get back in the race and compete this year.

Thankfully the team doens't have to make that decision for another month! Too early to call which is saying something cuz most of us, myself included, were ready to trade off 6 weeks ago.

Soriano is making a ton of money through 2014, I believe. If they trade him, they are going to have to eat a LOT of the salary.

Soriano is making, a ridiculous $18 million this season, 2013, and 2014! So there is nearly $50 million on that contract. The Cubs are ridiculous like that. They are clearly my second favorite team (and that's a problem!) and they are actually thoroughly worse as an organization than the Twins will ever be. I actually like Soriano for an AL team as the DH and if the Cubs are willing to eat at least half of that salary, someone will want him (Texas, Boston).

If the Twins had to pay about $2-3 Million total for the remaining 2 years of Soriano's contract and all it would take is some non-prospect like Tosoni to get him, I would have zero problem with that. Big IFs though

Again, the Twins are in a pace for 96-97 loss season. Nothing is happening this year. They should be sellers and try to get SP. But Soriano as a DH until 2014 for about $1-1.5 Mil per season would not be a bad thing.

I mentioned Soriano as the Cubs are mentioned as wanting to trade him several times on mlbtraderumors.com. They mentioned being willing to eat most of his remaining salary 45million of the 54 remaining on his contract. The Cubs are looking to blow up their team as they are really far from contending so I think they are looking for prospects and cash relief to get the process fuly underway. And I imagine it would take someone like a 7 to 10 ranked prospect, A reliever prospect, and a throw in of some kind that is useful Manship maybe.

I am actually more interested in someone like Sanders for the rotation. Fixing the rotation would get us back into contention or atleast give us the best chance to get back. Its obvious we do not have enough pieces right now, but another .800 OPS bat and 2 starting pitchers would just about do the trick. And the starting pitchers don't need to be great, just not terrible. I think Hendricks could be one of those 2 pitchers I am talking about too.

Thankfully the team doens't have to make that decision for another month! Too early to call which is saying something cuz most of us, myself included, were ready to trade off 6 weeks ago

 

I was too. But then I noticed that Plouffe, Revere, Diamond and a lesser extend Walters has fixed or lowered our number of issues to resolve to contend down to 2 solid starting pitchers (not necessarily great ones but ones who can keep their era around 4.00 and give the team a chance to win) and a Hitter. I think if we can get that for our team then we can contend now. If we wait. It'll be too late. Cause we do have some pretty big holes.

I agree with what was said on the airwaves after the postgame show today was over; the Twins have until the All-Star Break to show whether we should be buyers or sellers. After seeing the game today, I am thinking sellers, but the Twins could prove me wrong if they keep winning series.

I just hope that this does not turn out like last year. It would be a shame to miss out on good trades due to a false hope for contending. And while making the playoffs would be wonderful, the chances of actually winning a playoff series seem remote

Also, if the Cubs are willing to eat most of Soriano's contract, it seems likely that they will want a major prospect in return. I would bet that the Yankees or someone else would outbid the Twins on this.

Twins, please please PLEASE be sellers. ALWAYS be sellers, but only sell when you will be overpaid.