[ATTACH=CONFIG]4713[/ATTACH]Here's today's top three trade deadline stories of the last couple days and how it might impact the Minnesota Twins:

#3 - The Reliever Market

Ken Rosenthal breaks down the "supply" side of MLB relievers for the trade deadline - and the Twins are completely omitted. That's a little surprising considering the Twins' seller status and the presence of Glen Perkins on the roster, but maybe Terry Ryan's protests about the subject are actually being heard. But there could be some other candidates too.

Lost in the recent slumps of Jared Burton and Brian Duensing is that they were both probably the most tradeable commodities in the Twins bullpen. Burton, prior to his groin injury, had been fantastic - a true closer candidate for a contending team looking to solidify it's late-inning strategy. And Duensing would work well with any of number of teams that are short on left-handed relief help, such as the Nationals, who we profiled this week.

#2 - Yankees Could Use Catching

It was revealed that Yankees starting backstop to start the year, Francisco Cervelli, is being shutdown for two weeks before beginning his rehab again. The bulk of New York's playing time at catcher this year has gone to Chris Davis, who is sporting a 614 OPS. His backup has been Austin Romine, who has an OPS of 331 in his 31 games. Yikes. Even Drew Butera would be an upgrade on that.

And now I notice that Ryan Doumit, after playing catcher just once the week before, started at catcher two times in the four games of the Yankees series. I don't know if that was planned - you'll recall Joe Mauer was out of the lineup completely on Monday - but let's see how much time Doumit gets behind the plate in Yankee stadium. There is a real fit there. I wonder how Yankees manager (and former catcher) Joe Girardi will feel about Doumit's defense.

I suppose one could also speculate about moving a $23 million contract off the books, if one so desired.

#1 - The Price Of Garza (and Perkins?)

By far, the most talked about and valuable player on the trade market right now is Cubs starting pitcher Matt Garza, and there is quite a bit of speculation that he might be moved soon, with several teams pursuing him. But one of those teams will not the Orioles, because they traded for Scott Feldman earlier this week.

Yesterday we learned why. The Cubs were asking for Jonathan Schoop, a 21-year-old shortstop in AAA who ranked #50 nationally in Keith Law's preseason prospect list and Eduardo Rodriguez, a 20-year-old starter who was just moved up to AA and was #100 on Law's preseason list. From their stats this year, it doesn't look like either one is due for any major moves on the prospect lists.

By comparison, here are how the Twins ranked on Law's list last offseason:

• Miguel Sano - 11 (moved up to 6 in an midseason Top 25 update)
  
• Byron Buxton - 22 (moved up to 2 in a midseason Top 25 update)
  
• Kyle Gibson - 41
  
• Aaron Hicks - 49
  
• Oswlado Arcia - 59
  
• Alex Meyer - 61
  
• Eddie Rosario - 65
  

The best equivalant trade I can come up with in the Twins system would be Aaron Hicks and JO Berrios.

So now we know what the ceiling is for acquiring top prospects in this trade market. This was the premier guy on the market, a month before the deadline, and it was turned down by the other team. And it still wasn't anywhere near a Top 20 prospect.

If you're looking to speculate on what it would require to pry Glen Perkins away, keep this in mind.