The Twins are trying to make up at the end of August for what they couldn’t do at the end of July — Jon Rauch, Mike Mahay, maybe Brad Penny — and the new pick-ups could end up helping them as much as some of the players they didn’t get are helping their new teams.

*Consider that Freddy Sanchez has a .322 OBP/ 5 RBI with the Giants and is currently on the DL after arriving with less than 100 percent health. (Alexi Casilla, of all people, has .365 OBP, seven RBI and has been playing knockout defense in that same span — as in knocking Nick Punto off second base.) It is fair to point out that Felipe Lopez, the original player-the-Twins-didn’t-get, has a .405 OBP since joining the Brewers in mid-July.

*Jarrod Washburn is 1-1, 5-74 in his five starts with the Tigers. (Carl Pavano is 2-1, 4.32) George Sherill, the lefty reliever who went from Baltimore to the Dodgers, hasn’t given up a run in 13 1/3 innings of set-up relief.

Sometimes you get help, sometimes you get Bret Booooooooned.

I’m interested to see how the Rich Harden thing works out, if indeed the Twins have been awarded the waiver claim and are working on a deal with the Cubs. Harden signed a deal in 2005 that will pay him a total of $16 million through the end of this season — including a $7 million option that was picked up for 2009 — and has an injury history that is positively Crede-esque.

Harden has been on the disbled list seven times since 2005. After pitching only 72 innings combined in 2006-07, he was 10-2, 2.07 for the A’s and Cubs in 2008 (148 IP/25 starts) and is 8-7, 3.99 this season (124 IP/22 starts). He has averaged more than a strikeout per inning through his career If he’d been able to put together a complete season or two after signing that contract, it would be reasonable to think that he’d be negotiating for big money for 2010 and beyond.

But there will be valid skepticism about what he can provide for a team, and the Twins need to decide if it’s worth giving up what the Cubs will want in a waiver-claim trade, and then whether they should commit to an incentive-leaning deal for the first few years of Target Field. It’s a smaller-scale version of what the Yankees had to decide before they signed A.J. Burnett.

Is it worth the risks involved, not only for the final five weeks of this season but for the future? Harden was out for a month earlier this season but has taken his regular start since returning to the rotation June 13 against the Twins. He allowed two runs and five hits in six innings that afternoon, with nine strikeouts.

The Twins have been kind of risk-averse in their dealings through this millennium (Yes, that’s understatement)  and, in Harden, they must at least be considering a chance to step up to the table and gamble. I like the risk.

***

One more quick note: Some of you thought I was being a bit rough on Armando Gabino after his Tuesday debut, which has also turned out to be his finale. I just want to repeat that it wasn’t a case of numbers, as much as the way he handled himself, looking absolutely fearful on the mound. Debut or not, you can’t look as overmatched as Gabino looked the other night and expect to get a second chance with a team that’s playing meaningful games. Based on what the Twins had seen in Rochester, it was a risk they needed to take. And pulling the plug quickly was also the right thing to do.

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