Catching up

Not many news are expected this weekend (a travel weekend for many officials and reporters to the Winter Meetings in Vegas). A couple of interesting notes (and I am not going to harp on the the Gardy foot in the mouth situation and potential Delmon Young trade rumors or why the Twins should not give 3 years to Blake):

• The Twins made the first blunder this off-season, releasing Randy Ruiz to reportedly open another spot on the 40 man roster. Readers of this space know who I feel about Randy Ruiz. It is bothersome that this comes from a team that has 5 catchers on the 40 man roster, re-singed the AARP-eligible Redmond as the back-up catcher for next season, and having several older career minor league non-prospects in that roster. Good luck Randy, you deserve a 25 man roster spot and you'll get it, but unfortunately not with the Twins. There are strong rumors about Ruiz going to Japan; we'll have to wait and see.


• Apparently the shortstop market has become a buyer's market after the singing of Rentaria by the Giants and the trade for Greene by the Cardinals: The A's pulled off the table their offer to Furcal ($35-40M for 4 years). The Tigers are looking at Jack Wilson and Adam Everett, Orlando Cabrera is still out there as they are the lesser free agent shortstops (Alex Cora, Juan Uribe, Cesar Izturis et. al.). The Twins do have 2 internal options (3 if you add Plouffe), Steven Tolleson, who supplemented a great season in AA last year with a phenomenal AFL performance and Alejandro Machado who in his first year with the Twins' organization, after sitting all 2007 out with injuries, hit .338/.376/.472 in Rochester, primarily as a second baseman. Depending how the market goes, I would not be surprised if the Twins wait until late and if Furcal is available come January/February make him a 1-2 year contract offer. The Furcal situation also affects the Blake situation, because if the Dodgers sign Furcal, they will probably be out of the running for Blake, making the Twins the only team with an offer on the table.


• I have been updating with signings my Minor League free agent potential target list. A couple of players have already singed with other clubs.


• Meanwhile, it looks like, finally, the names "Wigginton" and "Twins" are being placed in the same sentence. Earlier (time flies, it has been almost 2 months), I suggested that Wiggington should be one of the 4 real targets for third base help this offseason. Speculation is that Wigginton might cost just prospects of the caliber the Padres received for Greene.

Finally...

The Twins' front office made up for the lack of activity in July, by bringing up Fransisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz as the first order of business in August.

The Liriano call up was expected. What was not expected was that Randy Ruiz is finally given a chance to show what he can do in the majors, after he crushed the competition at every year in the minors.

Randy Ruiz is free!

Update: Ruiz is slated to start against Cleveland tonight at DH

Thoughts...

• Did not want to mention Sunday's 10-0 loss to Texas, hoping it would go away. It didn't. Bad performance from the batters and starting pitching. Twins MVP for the game was Harris. It was hopefully an one-off and the Twins will regroup hosting the White Sox tonight. Bonser vs Floyd. Livan Hernandez is 3 for 3 against Floyd with 2 doubles and a home run.


• In addition to cheating on baseball, Roger Clemens reportedly cheated on his wife with a 15 year old when he was 28, a relationship that lasted more than 10 years... Methinks that statutory rape is more serious than steroid use...



• Randy Ruiz watch:
  
  

  
  G   AB  H   R  2B  3B  HR   RBI  BB  K    BA   OBP   SLG  OPS
  23  82  23  8  7   2   1    14   5   24  .280 .318  .431 .769
  

  
  

Randy Ruiz watch

G  AB  H  R  2B  HR   RBI  BB K   BA   OBP   SLG  OPS
4  16  5  2  1   0    4    2  5  .313 .389  .375 .764

Randy Ruiz watch

After 1 game (AAA, Rochester):

G AB  H  R  2B  HR   BB  K   BA   OBP   SLG  OPS
1  4  2  0  1   0   1  1  .500   .600   .750  1.350

Interesting article

About Ruiz in the St. Paul paper

spring leaderboard, hitting, 19AB minimum:

AVG
1. R Ruiz .455
2. C Monroe .381
3. D Young .375
4. M Lamb .368
J Mauer .368

OBP
1. R Ruiz .500
2. J Mauer .480
3. A Casilla .423
4. C Monroe .417
5. D Young .412

SLG
1. R Ruiz .818
2. C Monroe .714
3. J Mauer.684
4. J Knott .571
5. M Cuddyer .536

OPS
1. R Ruiz 1.318
2. J Mauer 1.164
3. C Monroe 1.131
4. D Young .943
5. M Lamb .926

HR
1. R Ruiz 2
J Knott 2
J Kubel 2
C Monroe 2

R
1. R Ruiz 9
2. C Gomez 8
3. A Casilla 6
J Mauer 6
J Pridie 6

RBI
1. R Ruiz 7
J Morneau 7
3. C Gomez 6
D Young 6
5. M Cuddyer 6
J Kubel 6
C Monroe 6

SB
1. Gomez 5
2. Casilla 4
3. Span 3
4. Pridie 2
Punto 2