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Crap, the White Sox just added Ken Griffey Jr.

When I first heard this, I was like, "dang our chances of winning the division are over", but then after thinking about it for a little bit, I realized Griffey has hardly anything left in the tank, and he's injury prone. I just hope he doesn't come out of his shell now that he's on a contender.

I hope we can acquire a guy like Brian Roberts. We need some help at second 'specially with Casilla going down.

I don't know why everyone wants Adrian Beltre. I feel he's overpaid and overrated. I don't even take into account his monster year when I think about how good he is a player because over time he's proven to me that that was a fluke year. He's a .260 hitter with a little bit of pop in his bat. We don't know how he will perform in the playoffs against really good pitching.

I like our four young starters (Baker, Slowey, Blackburn, Perkins), but I would be willing to give one of them up to improve our hitting. I would definitely not trade Baker, I think he's the best of the four and the ace of our staff.

What are your thoughts on Aurilia?

Not really going to drastically improve us, but if all it costs to acquire him is Bonser then I say pull the trigger.

I forget our former GM, MacPhail, is the GM of the Orioles. I don't know if that helps get a Roberts deal done or not.

I think we might make a small deal, but I don't see us making a huge deal, ala getting Beltre, Roberts, or Bay.

You have to remember this year and next year are supposed to be rebuilding years. We lost some key veterans (Santana, Hunter, Silva) and were giving young players PT in order for them to gain experience. Our goal was to be a competitive team by the time the stadium opens. Fortunately, or unfortunately however you look at it, we're competitive now.

I firmly believe the plan is still to not mortgage our future now and prepare for 2010 when the stadium opens.

The fan blogger for the Strib mentioned:

Span
One of: Baker, Slowey, Perkins, Blackburn
One of: Young, Cuddyer, Kubel

for

Jason Bay

That is a ridiculous amount for a guy who probably won't be in a Twins uniform when the stadium opens. His contract runs through 2009 and I struggle to see us re-signing him if we acquired him.

Agreed.

Our biggest move will be calling up Liriano.

1:09 update: The San Francisco Chronicle suggests that Jose Castillo is the player the Twins are interested in.

http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/neal/2 ... ne-update/

STATS: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/p ... atsId=7302

Yuck, I'm glad we didn't acquire him.