Twins announced they will sign Marquis to a one year $3million contract. Commence gnashing of teeth.

Thome put on waivers. I assume he won't make it to the Phillies, but someone on the comments at MLBTR suggests he could still get there if he refuses his assignment? In any event, I hope he lands someplace that will give him a shot to win!

The Platoon Advantage: Nicknames For All!

Nothing we haven't seen before, but something to take up five minutes of your afternoon nonetheless. My personal favorite:

Setup: Matt Capps = State Farm
He’s the expensive insurance policy in case Joe Nathan isn’t healthy to start the year.

Dodgers To Sign Matt Guerrier: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

And the White Sox continue to spend...

Hilarious. And sad.

And I'm really broken up about it. Ha!

'Twins Way' is upright, but it's no fun compared to Sox :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Rick Morrissey

Not a lot of new information there (and a horribly unflattering photograph [edit] of Justin), but another nice write up about the danger of rushing back from head injuries. Whenever I read one of these, though, my heart breaks for Koskie. What a horrible ending to a great baseball career.

I had no idea! I do hope he can come back, but he's getting up there to be making a post-surgery career resurgence.

This headline caught my attention - good stuff. I'll always have a soft spot for Dickey time. What a character.

Is it weird that I take it personally that someone would put us on their no trade list? The nerve! Anyway, if the Tigers are also in, as the article purports, I hope this doesn't turn into an AL central bidding war (don't worry, they are ALSO on his no trade list, so it's nothing personal. He clearly doesn't like cold weather). They need him more than we do, I suspect, but I really don't like the idea of the Tiggers shoring up their suspect starting pitching staff.

Help At The Hot Corner: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

I still don't know what this team needs to fix most, but I'm certainly more impressed with the starters that are potentially available than I am with the third basemen. Nonetheless, there are a couple names on this list that might be worth sniffing around to see if their teams would cover some of the payroll owed them. Does anyone have thoughts on Callaspo? Is he an improvement on Punto or just more of the same? I'm not sure that the Royals would deal in their division anyway, but he might be a nice buy low option.

In Olney's blog this morning, he tracks the second half strength of schedule for the playoff contenders. As you can probably guess by looking at the schedules, the Twins have a much easier path than the Bitchsox (pardon my French) and the Tiggers.

Olney ranks the Tigers as having the 4th most difficult schedule of the contenders, the Sox as having the the 7th most difficult and the Twins as having the 15th toughest (out of 17 "contenders"). Olney notes that "[a]t one point,[the Twins] play 13 straight games against teams with records under .500."

I'll take it.

For those still paying attention, Sherman/MLBTR reporting Lee and Lowe to Texas for Smoak and three others. At least it's not the Yankees, I guess. Sigh.

Hmm...probably nothing, but if it is impacting his performance, I'd rather see him sit a few consecutive days to get back to peak performance. I guess he knows his body best, but I thought the constant references to "banged up" were a little disconcerting - company line, perhaps? Hopefully he gets healthy soon!

Anyone watching this game that can report? Sounds strange... and also awesome.

Shockingly, he's a fan.

Really fun read though. Goose Gossage is a trip.
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Unwritten rules violations - Three former pitching greats share their thoughts on how best to mete out justice

Neyer examines the case to promote Slama ahead of Delaney, despite the issues with the 40 man roster. I just like the idea of two Nesheks. I don't care how much Slama profiles like Neshek, there is only ever going to be one Neshek. Or does Slama have a blog, too? ....

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Room for two Pat Nesheks in Minnesota? - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN

Rotation Spending By Team: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

For those of you have language skills, here is the original article in Spanish: http://www.hoy.com.do/deportes/2010/3/19/318379/No-quiero-ser-cerrador

For the rest of us, sorry about the translation, but it is still an interesting read (even if you have to guess at certain things)

Dukes still had an option left. So random...

Good for him. Not sure that this gives us any indication one way or another on his intentions to pitch this season. It sounded like he was interested in coming back later in the season anyway.
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John Smoltz Lands TBS Job: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

I love Joe's love of Gardy. Because it's an endlessly entertaining debate that always comes back to: PUNTO!

Span has been, in the imitable vernacular of Batgirl, my Twins boyfriend for the last couple of years. He's fun to watch and, it turns out, even more fun to follow on twitter. Rob Neyer briefly tackles the question of why he is so gosh darn good (or in his words "one of the game's best leadoff men")l after languishing in the minors for six years.

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How Denard Span became Denard Span - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN

Tim Kurkjian: Minnesota Twins' Joe Mauer as great a person as he is a ballplayer - ESPN
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I know, I know. The media is starting to sound like a broken record with their love affair with Mauer. I don't mind though; I can't hear enough good things about Joe.
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From Jon: If Joe's such a nice young man, WHY WON'T HE SIGN?

Belatedly, Voter Explains Why He Chose Cabrera Over Mauer for M.V.P. - Bats Blog - NYTimes.com
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I guess I don't think winning the award unanimously is THAT much better than winning it almost unanimously, but it is interesting to read Konishi's reasoning. I love how he makes it a cultural thing to include the WBC as a criteria for MLB MVP (as opposed to merely being utterly irrelevant). Ah well, for what it's worth, maybe Joe can get it unanimously this year!

Personal struggles helped Young grow | twinsbaseball.com: News

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This kid just breaks my heart sometimes. Really encouraging stuff in the article, though, and Kelly got some good quotes from Morneau, too. Here's hoping Delmon has his breakthrough year this year!

Insider Access required, but Jorge Arangure lists the Franchise as one of his five potential break out stars in the MLB this year, based on performance in the winter league. He quotes Liriano as saying he has his confidence back and that his arm "feels great." Arangure's take:

"More important than the statistics, Liriano was throwing harder than he has since 2006 and was relying again on his slider, a pitch he had been afraid to use after his surgery."

Sounds encouraging to me...

Perkins sees the game's 'business' side | StarTribune.com

Joe C has the update on Perk's grievance settlement. It's actually a pretty depressing article. Perkins declined an invitation to come to the Twins farewell ceremony because he felt he should have been on the major league team at that point. I don't see Perkins sticking around long - the Twins seem to have a way of cutting players they don't think fit in.