Winner, Twins.

Prediction - Hughes/Cabrera/Jackson for Santana

But I know Shapiro is a more patient man than I.  

Now if they can flip Santana for Hughes/IPK/(Tabata Holmes or Jackson) they have really made themselves scary for a the next 5 years.

Not to mention all the moves they could make with Nathan and Morneau. Heck if they trade away everyone else for young guys, they might have the cash to keep Santana. That would be some impressive GM'ing.

Healthy or not, Rincon wasn't a great bet to be worth what he was due in arbitration. Morlan, on the other hand, is one of the top five or 10 relief prospects in baseball. The 21-year-old had a 3.10 ERA and a 99/20 K/BB ratio in 69 2/3 innings at Single-A Fort Myers and Double-A New Britain last season.

From the Tribe's perspective, nothing unexpected (Barton and Whitney).

Holding onto him til the summer also leaves open the possibility that they can be very competitive this year and let him walk, not the worst decision in the world.

More than anything, I hope Bill Smith appreciates that the leverage he has over Hank Steinbrenner will only increase in force as time passes.  Make the jackass sweat!

Gleeman doesn't really like it. If nothing else, I appreciate Gleeman because he formulates his own opinions, completely unswayed by perception.

He doesn't love Young, and he's about the only solid evaluator I can find who doesn't, and, perhaps more interestingly, he doesn't think Harris can play SS. So, his feeling is the Twins traded a potential number 1, a great relief prospect, and a SS, for a young hitter with not a ton of power or discipline, a 2B who hits like a SS, and a 4th OF.

He kind of has me convinced. Garza is way better than he gets credit for, I think.

I can't help but think there was some issue other than strict performance involved for the Rays to trade him. But the Twins new GM said they've been working on this for a month, getting feedback from people who know and play with him, so I guess they're satisfied in that regard. They certainly did a good job keeping this out of the rumor mill.

In fact, we'd probably be short pitching after the hypothetical aforementioned trade.

I think Sonnanstine is valued pretty highly in Tampa, but this may have just been because at the time they didn't have a lot of options.  I don't know.  Just those trade wheels turning in my head.

I like where Nick is going with this - they now have an excess of good young starting pitching (we're talking about the Rays, believe it or not), and we might be able to dip into it.    

That's pretty potent, even if there rest of the lineup is made up of guys like Jason Tyner.