the top 25 Twins prospects according to scout.com

1 Luke Hughes
2 Danny Valencia
3 Tyler Robertson
4 Jeff Manship
5 Ben Revere
6 Steven Singleton
7 Ryan Mullins
8 Brian Buscher
9 Anthony Slama
10 Dustin Martin
11 Robert Delaney
12 Steven Tolleson
13 Chris Parmelee
14 Alex Burnett
15 Anthony Swarzak
16 Brian Dinkelman
17 David Winfree
18 Daniel Berlind
19 Deolis Guerra
20 Darnell McDonald
21 Rene Tosoni
22 Kevin Mulvey
23 Timothy Lahey
24 Jose Morales
25 Ben Julianel

A Baker's dozen

of names that should interest the Twins in the first 3-4 rounds of the upcoming draft, in no particular order:

Ethan Martin
Christian Friedrich
Jeff Decker
Chase Davidson
Brett Devall
Mike Montgomery
Anthony Gose
Dan Hultzen
Bobby Bunty
Jay Austin
Tyler Ladendorf
Brett Wallace
Xavier Avery

Trade thought

The Mets are faltering. They have been great trading partners in the past. How about this trade:

The Twins send to the Mets:

Boof Bonser
Juan Rincon
Mike Cuddyer

The Mets send to the Twins:

Joe Smith
Nick Evans
Salvador Paniagua
Michael Antonini
Daniel Murphy

Kubel and Mornoe split RF and DH, McDonald gets called up from Rochester

and everyone is happy

Average innings per game for the Twins starters:

Blackburn 6.5
Perkins 6.5
Hernandez 6.4
Bonzer 5.6
Baker 5.5
Slowey 5.1
Liriano 3.4

edit for comparison's sake
in 2007:

Santana 6.6
Baker 6.5
Silva 6.1
Slowey 6.1
Bonser 5.8
Ponson 5.4
Garza 5.5

A few observations

1. This year's AL average OPS is .709, in 2007 the average OPS was .777, in 2006 it was .761, in 2005 it was .759 and in 2004 it was .763. This is a significant drop from past years. Steroids? Amphetamines? Different balls? Who knows...


2. The Twins have a chance in the Division title and this should not come as a surprise, since as noted here in March, I expected the Twins to win the division and Detroit to be really bad. However, I did not expected the White Sox' surge or the Indians' drop


3. The Twins are somewhat clicking. Gomez has exceeded expectations and getting better by the minute, Monreau and Mauer are where they should be, Young and Lamb are getting out of their funks, Casilla is getting new life (he is just 23). However, Kubel, Harris and Monroe have been all or none and Cuddyer has been closer to none than all...


4. Nobody would have thought that Perkins and Blackburn would be the most reliable starters by now... Good news about Baker in his rehab. This can be a pretty good rotation. Boof should probably be in the pen or the trading block.