Something good finally happens to the Twins

Justin Morneau and Micheal Cuddayer have signed long term deals with the Twins ensuring that we will not have another Hunter/Santana debacle on our hands. Morneau's contract is said to be 6 years long and worth about $80 million while Cuddayer's is 3 years and about $23 million. I think I would have liked them to put another year on Cuddy's contract, but if they move him to center like Gardy (bat-shit crazily) said might happen three years would probably be a better deal for the team to have the 4th year option.

I am really starting to like Bill Smith as the general manager of this team. I don't know about his ability to get the prospects in trades that Terry Ryan always seemed to find but he was willing to trade pitching for batting and now he's signed two very good baseball players to contracts before they got a whiff of free agency. Terry Ryan would be sitting with his thumb up his ass going over the Johan trade offers with a fine toothed comb and too busy to ensure that two of the best players on the club stay here in Minnesota.

Now all Smith has to do to pull off the trifecta of GM brilliance is get the Mets, Red Sox and Yankees back into a bidding war. Get me Lester and Elsbury. Get me Hughs, Kennedy and Cabrerra. Get me a couple players from the Mets that Terry Ryan approves of. Honestly I have no clue about any of the players being offered by the Mets and that scares me, but I didn't know who Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser and Fransisco Liriano were when I was unsure about making Mauer the every day starter (still not sure about how that will play out).

The Star Tribune told me about the contracts.

HUH???

Terry Ryan is done, as GM. This is strange. Why now? Why at all? Is he saying? There are so many questions. More later.

All-Star Un-Weekend is Upon Us.

No matter what the sport there is always a stigma attached to All-star games. The Superstars never want to play, everybody thinks their guy deserved a spot and didn’t get it (*cough * Pat Neshek * cough*) and the games usually aren’t too defensive. Baseball has tried to remedy this problem after the debacle in 2002 at Bud’s own stadium, but all that has resulted from that mess was AL home field advantage in the world series for, oh… say the next quarter century. Of course, that doesn’t bother me with the Twins in the AL, all Pohlad has to do is spend some $ ching $ and keep Torii, Johan, Nathan, Cuddy and Morneau to long-term deals. I know he’ll never pay them all because owners are assholes but I can dream, dammit.

Anyway, tonight Dr. Morneau is gonna be crushing the long ball in the Home Run Derby. If I know my Morneau correctly he’ll be adding to his legend by becoming the first player ever to kill another when he accidentally knocks Eric Byrnes unconscious and he slips off his Kayak into McCovey Cove. I also wouldn't mind if he did the same to Kenny Mayne. The good doctor will have fellow Canuck and baseball smasher Larry Walker lobbing gopher balls in his general direction. Did he slight Scotty Ullger and Joe Vavra with his decision? Possibly, but putting two Canadians together in a lax environment and micing them can only lead to great sound bites. I’m probably going to petition to get a second Canadian into the NBA so we can listen to Nash say “Eh.”

Like I mentioned the other day Johan Santana, Torii Hunter and Justin Morneau will be playing in the big game, and like I didn’t mention Ron Gardenhire is one of the coaches on Jim Leyland’s squad. I hope Torii measured Barry Bonds’ head when the future home run king picked him up back in 2002 so that we can settle this steroid business. Oh yeah, and if you wanted to go the game but couldn’t scrape enough change together out of the ashtray some dentist managed to get permission from MLB to wear a silly-ass hat on his head with a camera so you can feel like you’re at the ball park. Drunken, obnoxious asshole blocking your view included!

Some stuff hapened while I was gone

While I was gone a couple notable things happened regarding the sports teams in Minnesota That I thought were worth mentioning.

The AL All-star team was announced somewhere between Iowa and Wisconsin and I swear to god it took me 2 days to figure out which Twins made the team. The batting Champ was replaced by the MVP Torii got invited this year and Johan made it 3 in a row. Pat Neshek was included on the Internet vote for the final spot. Alas, the wacky, blogging reliever from Brooklyn Park was unable to overcome the terrible twosome that is the Red Sox nation and Japan. Hideki Okajima stole the final spot.

In other Twins news... Holy shit, they scored 32 against the White Suks today. Torii had one in each game, Dr. Morneau had 3 (in one game!), Gimpy Cirillo had one, Kubel displayed that power people keep on trying to tell me he has and Cuddy hit double digits in the HR catagory. In the second game of the double header Mike Redmond took a bat to the face invoking a strange rule that TNABACG explains. I'm calling it the Chris Hientz rule from now on

In Wolves news Kammron Taylor was added to the Summer league roster. I believe that this is a good pickup and though it will not fill the void left by Bracey, its a start. Stupid McHale.

The Wild signed Pierre Mark Bouchard Wes Walz to one-year deals and requested arbitration for Boogaard. They also Signed a dude on 'roids so that we have a chance of beating the Ducks. I will have my day, Earl.

The Vikings plan on raping you if you want to go to the Bears or Packers games. If you want tickets to those games you're gonna need to buy preseason games. Note to self- Hit up the August 10th or 30th preseason game to check out Adrian Peterson... people will be giving away tickets. Also, Kelly Holcomb would like to become the quarterback for the team, but Brad Childress still feels like the team isn't ready for quarterback at this point in time.

What to do?.... What to do??

I think that's what a lot of us Minnesota Twins fans are wondering as the season nears its midway point. With Cleveland showing no signs of slowing down and the Tigers having the most talent in the Central, it doesn't look any brighter for the Twins as they cling to a .500 record that still sees them 6 1/2 games behind the division leader.
Now, I know what you will say. Its the same thing everybody says around Minnesota. "Well, we have a better record this year then at the same time last year and look what happened??" I get that. But that is a very ignorant statement. If you actually believe that the Tigers and Indians are gonna lay down again and let us walk all over them like we did last year, you are just plain crazy. For one, the Tigers are a year more experienced and they had one of the best free agent signings of this past off season in Gary Sheffield. That just wont happen again. That was a once in a decade comeback. Lets move on.
So, instead of waiting for that miracle comeback, why not be proactive for once??
I know, its a pretty aggressive, earth-shattering concept. Definitely something the Twins are not known for, thats for sure. Why not go out for once and get one of the players that could be had for the right price, maybe even less. Why not get the fans excited again and give them hope for this year, not the next or the next after that.
Make a splash like the Yankees do every year. Sure, it hasn't worked for them recently, but I'd take that lineup against any pitching staff in the league and I'd like my chances.
Twins fans need to come to realization that Torii Hunter is not going to be a Twin next year. Sadly, the way free agency has ballooned out of control, we have as much of a chance of re-signing him as we do of trading for A-Rod. Torii has been the heart and soul of this Twins team since I can remember but shit, if you think about it, if Gil Meche can get 55 Million dollars and Barry Zito can get 126 Million for being average pitchers, the best defensive Centerfielder in the league will command somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million or more from the likes of the Red Sox or Rangers.

People will say that since we cant re-sign him, we should try and trade him so we don't let him go without getting compensation back in return. I agree with this whole heartedly, but if the Twins are unwilling to do so because they are still in the race, I sympathize.
What would be the alternative, you say? Well, Ive thought long and hard about what we could do. First, I was thinking of trading for Florida's Miguel Cabrera. A young power-hitting superstar third baseman would fit beautifully on this squad. One problem, Cabrera would be so much harder to re-sign than Torii would be. It would be the same problem we would have had if we would have traded for Alfonso Soriano last year. No matter how much I drool over the possibilities, it's just not feasible.
Secondly, I thought, why not not trade Torii and scrap this year completely. Wait until next year with a healthy Francisco Liriano, and more mature lineup, and a healthy **gulp** Joe Mauer. We could use the money we save from Torii's contract to try and sign Johan to a longer term deal so we don't lose him too. Then I thought, no, we are too good to just give up on this year so soon. Ya know, with a good tweak here and there, we could be good enough to win the whole damn thing....

Then, it came to me. Finally, an idea that fits all around. Carl Crawford.

Tampa Bay isn't going anywhere without pitching. Even a team thats as talented as they are on offense, just isn't going to be competitive if they cant get anyone out, especially in the AL East. They need pitching. We have pitching. We need speed and power. They have speed and power in the form of one guy. Crawford is young and still getting better. And the best thing is.... He's affordable, if not downright cheap for a player of his quality. He already signed a deal with the Devil Rays for the next two years with club options for two more years. Crawford is a bargain at $4 million this season and $5.25 million next season. His contract also includes an $8.25 million club option for 2009 and a $10 million option for '10. If we do indeed lose Torii for nothing in free agency, the blow will be much easier to absorb with our future stud in the outfield. He has the speed to play center if need be, but as of right now is a left fielder. He could immediately take over for a once again vastly underachieving Jason Kubel. We could use him for situational hitting like he should be anyways. Sure, we might have to give up quite a bit to get him, but its worth it. We could package either a combination of one of the three pitchers that will rotate between the majors and AAA this year in Kevin Slowey, Matt Garza, and Scott Baker. Might seem pricey, but this can be one of the cornerstones of our franchise for years to come.
If you disagree, just take a minute to imagine our lineup with Crawford in it...
Castillo and Crawford at the 1 and 2 spots, getting on base and causing havoc on the base paths with their speed and aggressiveness. Mauer, Cuddyer, Morneau, and Torii waiting to drive them in. And the piranhas at the end of the order to start the madness all over again. That is music to my ears.
So, I implore our favorite squad, please don't drop the ball yet again. Don't let another very attainable talent get away and into the hands of one of your rivals.
Stop waiting for these pitchers to hit their stride, and trade them while you still can get something for them. Don't try and develop EVERYBODY from within... Go out and get Crawford and lets Win this damn thing.