That is pretty good right there but Span would be hitting leadoff he couldnt be on the bench too. Also there’s no way that Casilla will hit 7th. They will put him at 2, mauer, at 3, and Delmon Young at 6 or 7. Also if we did trade fur Street he’s a closer so I dont know if Oakland would want to trade him. So my idea of the linuep would look like this. (This is with the Beltre trade. If we dont make the Beltre trade I think we should go with a 6th man rotation.)

1-Span
2-Casilla
3-Mauer
4-Morneau
5-Beltre
6-Kubel/Young
7-Kubel/Young
8-Punto
9-Gomez

Rotation- Liriano, Livan, Baker, Blackburn, Perkins (in any order)

Bullpen-

(without Street trade if there was one)
Long Relievers- Bonsor and Bass

Middle Relievers- Craig Breslow, Matt Guerrier, and Jessie Crain

Closer- Joe Nathan

If only we had Neshek…………….

Bench- Harris, Monroe, Buscher,Redmond, Lamb

What is good about this linuep is our first 3 guys are all very patient hitters and will get walks and get on for Morneau, Beltre, and Kubel or Young. Also if Punto and Gomez can get on base on a consistent basis, pitchers will throw fits. 2 speed guys on with 2 more speed hitters up. They will have to worry about the speed on the bases and still consentrate on speedy hitters makes for a great bottom/top of the lineup.

Obie

My thoughts exactly. The twins have too many young quality SP’s. I do not care what the FO says, you always have room for an ACE especially if you currently dont have one and if he is making less than what 2 million? Sure the Twins have lots of good 3/4 type starters, (except Baker who I say is a strong #2) so the Twins need to take the M’s up on their offer and trade one of their four young pitchers whose name is not Baker, add a couple prospects and get Beltre.

Possible Trade idea??

M’s-Beltre

Twins- Slowly,Morales,another prospect

I know this is beating a dead horse, but I do not think this is too steep of a price for the Twins not to do it both financially, and in how much they have to give. Just think of how much fun Gardy could have with a lineup with another right handed bat.

1.Span R
2.Mauer L
3.Young R
4.Morneau L
5.Beltre R
6.Kubel L
7.Casilla S
8.Punto S
9.Gomez L

Beltre is essential to making the Twins go far into the post season. Liriano is essential to making the Twins go far into the post season. Lets kill two birds with one stone here.

SP Rotation

1.Liriano
2.Baker
3.Blackburn
4.Perkins
5.Livan

If the Twins are smart enough to pull the trigger on that trade there is just one more trade the Twins need to make. The Twins need that 8th inning set up guy. I say try to after Hudson Street. Billy Beane is always willing to make a trade, and Street and Nathan would arguably make the best 8/9 duo in baseball.

Possible Trade?

A’s- Street

Twins- Boof, Duensing, another top/mid prospect

Boof is not total garbage, given another chance as a SP with a new team could possibly be all that he needs. I see him as similar to Gallager, the pitcher the A’s recently pickedup. Currently in the bullpen with a high ERA, but defiantly underachieving. Sound like Boof? Add 2 good prospects and Billy would defiantly consider it.

New Bullpen

Closer-Nathan
Setup-Guerrier
7th-Guerier,Crain (this would put those two good pitchers in their more relaxed natural role.

If those to trades were made that would make the Twins the favorites to win the central, and a possible WS contender.

Then all the Twins would need to do is cut Lamb and keep Span. Busher and Lamb play the same role,3B/1B bench player, who do you think is the better player?

Bench:

Redmond-great backup catcher
Monroe-quality power pinch hitter
Span-great backup OF capable of playing all positions.
Harris- goood IF backup
Busher- good 3B/1B backup.

Now that is a great bench. And all these moves would make this team so much better and help him go far into the post season.

Jason Pridie. From Jim Mandelaro’s Red Wings blog:

“The night started out as a tale of resurgence, with once-slumping, now-hot Jason Pridie jacking two balls out of the park. The guy had 1 homer on June 1, and now he has 11. Amazing.”

-Slama is a draft-and-follow signee who was picked in the 39th round of the 2006 draft out of San Diego and has emerged as a dominant closer at high Class A.

As a 24-year-old he should be dominating at this level, but it’s the extent of his dominance that is intriguing. Slama leads the minor leagues in strikeout rate as well as ERA.

The 6-3 righty has not allowed a homer as a professional while producing a ridiculous strikeout rate with his heavy low-90s sinker from a three-quarters arm slot. His delivery is clean and compact without a lot of wasted effort, allowing him to repeat it well and command to all four quadrants of the strike zone. He adds an average slider to go with his sinker, and his changeup is just a “show me” pitch for lefties that occasionally has a slower delivery and arm speed. The one negative besides his age relative to his level, is that sometimes he tips his pitches and upper-level hitters can exploit that. However, even when he does so, he commands well enough that they still may not be able to do much with it. There are some good skills here to back up the numbers, but again it would be a shock if a polished college pitcher was not dominating the Florida State League to some extent.

The stats speak for themselves. Minor league closers become major league ones far less often than people think, but he’s a name to monitor. He’s clearly ready for a different level of competition, and we’ll have to see how he handles the upper levels of the minors.”

“• Tulane right-hander Shooter Hunt was taken No. 31 overall in this year’s draft by the Twins, and didn’t last long in rookie league play. He made all of four starts in the Appalachian League, which was enough to strike out 34 and allow just four hits in 19 innings. He has now been promoted to low Class A.

Hunt works from 91 to 94 mph with his four-seamer, and can get his two-seamer inside on righties. His curve is a plus pitch, and though it is still in development, he has shown some feel for a changeup. He got away with just two pitches in college and at the rookie level, but he’s going to have to find a usable changeup for lefties and continue to throw consistent strikes — a problem at times in the past — to succeed at the upper levels. Still, it appears the Twins may have struck gold yet again with a pitching prospect.”

you do need an Insider account to see it though, so I’ll post their tidbits…

http://insider.espn.go.com/fantasy/baseball/flb/story?page=minors080723