I’m filling in for Paul Allen today from 9 to Noon on KFAN. Tune in if you have time.

Today’s guests include:

Cleveland Plain Dealer baseball writer Paul Hoynes, on the sorry state of the Indians

Phil Mackey will join me from Vikings camp at 10 a.m.

And it looks like we’ll have Denard Span on at 11 a.m.

 There will be plenty of baseball discussion today, so feel free to join in!!!

Ladendorf was a second round pick in 2008 after a prolific junior college run. Struggled with wood bats his first year in pro ball but hit .410 in 17 games with E-Town before a promotion to Beloit this year Hitting just .233 at Beloit.

There’s a good chance he’ll fill out and become a third baseman.

There are indications the Twins were reluctant to let Ladendorf go. I say big deal, sign Miguel Angel Sano.

Cabrera will try to get to Minnesota in time for tonight’s game against the Angels.

Update: Now I’m hearing that he won’t get here until an hour before game time, and that’s not counting travel time from MSP. The Twins might not add him to the roster until Saturday. It will be interesting to see who comes off for him.

 When I crashed last night, the Twins didn’t sound optimistic about a deal. Obviously, that changed either late late last night or early this morning. Wish I could have had more of the blow-by-blow for ya.

Anyway, is this the right deal? Freddy Sanchez was a better fit. Marco Scutaro would be a better fit. And I’m worried that Cabrera is going to bat second in the lineup when he should be seventh. And it’s taken one hot month for him to get his numbers past Brendan Harris.

But he’s been in the playoffs and might be energized to be in a postseason race. We’ll see…

Update: Reports in the last hour have the Twins in on San Diego’s Heath Bell, Oakland’s Michael Wuertz and Arizona’s Jon Rauch.Â

The Twins have recalled righthnder Jesse Crain, who was 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA in 12 games with Class AAA Rochester since being sent down. Righthander Kevin Mulvey, who made two appearances in this series, was sent back to Rochester.

“We needed another pitcher,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. 

But the other development is that Glen Perkins informed the staff after the game that he’s been having problems with his shoulder when he starts warming up. He says he’s fine once he gets warmed up but felt he should let the meidcal staff know about it now.

So Perkins will join Joe Crede on a visit to Dr. Lewis Yocum tomorrow.

I love a good curveball. Always have.

Bob Boone once told a story about Bert Blyleven’s curveball: “He was the only pitcher who could throw his curveball with so much spin you could hear it buzzing as it crossed the plate.”

Anthony Swarzak is no Blyleven when it comes to throwing Mr. Snappy. But his curveball was a big reason why he held Oakland to two runs over seven innings on Tuesday.

“I had to find a pitch I could get over and I found one and just rode it,” he said.

When was the turning point?

“After I gave up on trying to pinpoint a fastball. I couldn’t do it all night and I was like. `Man, I’m burning up pitches.’ It was about the third inning when I decided to go to the curveball.”

That’s right when he retired 11 of 12 batters to get him to the seventh inning. Of Swarzak’s 107 pitches, 28 were curveballs and 20 of those were strikes. His strike percentage with his curve (71 percent) was better than his other pitches (53 percent) if my math is right. That backs up what he said about not spotting his fastball.

Matt Holliday flied out three times.

Jack Cust struck out twice.

There was another key to Swarzak’s seven strong innings.

“You know what else he did?” pitching coach Rick Anderson said. “He pitched inside. We didn’t do any of that last night.”

Suddenly, last night made a little more sense. It’s amazing how pitchers get away from keeping hitters honest in the batter’s box. It’s not just the Twins.

Hopefully, Swarzak set a good example. 

 NOTES

• Joe Nathan has converted 20 straight save opportunities
• The Twins are 4-5 in extra inning games
• They are 11-14 in one-run games

Bobby Keppel has impressed in two outings, during which he’s tossed 6.1 scoreless innings.

He got help in the sixth inning on Tuesday by a great play by Brendan Harris, who dived to his left to grab Jose Guillen’s grounder then flipped to Nick Punto at second for the inning-ending double play. Keppel then threw a scoreless seventh.

“He definitely throws what you call a power sinker,” Twins righthander Scott Baker said.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire likes what he sees.

“He’s throwing his sinker, lefties, righties, it doesn’t matter,” Gardenhire said. “He got in a couple jams but was able to get out of it.

“We’ve been looking for performances like that and, hopefully, we found something with this young man.”

Luis Ayala, whom Keppel replaced, was touted as a sinkerballer but his ground ball-to-fly ball numbers argued against that. He threw a sinker but it was junky and he frequently got under the pitch instead over the top - and it was spin to the plate, then spin out to the outfield.

By the way, the Twins are expected to release Ayala in a couple days. Twins GM Bill Smith tried to make a deal for Ayala but it hasn’t worked out. Pittsburgh was interested until the Pirates  made deals with the Yankees and Nationals.

Joe Crede has a seven game hitting streak.

Joe Mauer snapped a 0-for-9 skid with single in the sixth.