The best move by far is to make a bid for Adrian Beltre.
He is a proven commodity as a power hitter along with being a solid defensive player. If Cuddyer is involved in the trade along with Perkins the Twins are only gaining about 3 million in salary.

Perkins looked good at times but I am convinced he is expendable, with many good young arms on the farm.

Blake is another short term medicare move. Exactly what the Twins are known for. Maybe they could pool all the money together that they would normally spend on the likes of Mike Lamb, Adam Everitt, Livan Hernandez and Craig Monroe and actually sign a player that could make a substantial impact like an Adrian Beltre.

When is the last time the Twins signed a free Agent that made an impact? What was it in 1988 with John Smiley? The Twins should know better then anyone with there track record that these 3rd rate cheap free agent don’t work. Did any one really think Mike Lamb was going to make an impact? He never did before in his major league career, why did the Twins think he would with them.

I can see at least 2 players whose teams want to dump salary and/or are not in the best of terms and will probably take a lesser prospect or to get. They will both be free agents after 2009 and as such they have a lot of incentive to play. They will both be an upgrade as well:

Miguel Tejada ($13 mil)
Khalil Greene ($6.5 mil)

the Twins can afford this for one year, esp. in a year where the central (other than Cleveland) is getting weaker by the hour…

Nice thought though. But again, I’d rather see a RH bat.

I think Sabathia and Sheets leaving will have the opposite effect on Hardy. I think the Brewers will be inclined to ask for MORE (at least at first) because their need for pitching is so great, and so many teams could use a shortstop of Hardy’s caliber.

If their asking price is too high and there’s no market for him, that may change things, but I think the tremendous need for a starter will up his price early on.

I don’t see the Twins getting Hardy without Slowey, and I don’t think I’d do that deal.

Perkins and Humber plus another prospect, sure, absolutely. I just don’t see them wanting two back-end starters though. Slowey’s ceiling is obviously much higher than that of the other two, and the Brewers know it first-hand (See: Slowey’s shutout against them in 2008).

Anyhow, why do people keep citing Buscher’s numbers from last year? He hit nearly .400 with RISP. Does anyone think he has even a REMOTE chance of repeating those numbers?

Buscher put up a whopping .578 OPS in September last season, and his numbers were clearly coming back down to Earth towards the end.

The Buscher/Harris platoon won’t be better than Blake because Buscher has about as much chance of repeating those numbers as the Twins do of signing Sabathia.

Again, I’m not advocating the Casey Blake acquisition. I’m merely shooting down the myth that Brian Buscher should be allowed near third base at the Metrodome (or any other park for that matter) next year. He played a nice part in our season this year, but the guy is far from a competent Major Leaguer, in my opinion.

I’m all for a trade of Beltre. People keep saying it’s a one-year rental, and acting like giving up Perkins for that would be some kind og tragedy. Perkins looks to be a #5 starter, maybe a #4, and we’ve got some options in Humber, Swarzak, Duensing, and even Boof who could probably fill that hole.

Plus, he’ll be a Type A free agent and net us two draft picks when he and Boras walk following the 2009 season. If by some miracle he decides he loves Minnesota and wants to stay for three more years, that’s not a bad option either.