A good game all-in-all, even if Mauer did zip. Me and my son at the game (I'm the one who looks like a deer caught in the headlights).

holy **** buehrle. that was one hell of a run.

also, is it still a ground rule double if a fielder touches the ball in play? i mean, can you pick up a ball on the fence and throw it over the fence for a GRD?

No, if the guy touches it, its not a GRD. Umpires discretion at that point what bases are awarded, I think.

well posednik touched it. not sure what the umpires discretion should be there.

not that it matters, but the all-metrodome team had a couple bad choices. bert blyleven over jack morris? dan gladden over...anyone? how about shane mack or hell even matt lawton or jacque jones or randy bush.

Gladden is the Twins all-time leader in games started in LF and was a key in both WS years.

he was the worst player in the starting lineup both years. a poor hitter, decent outfielder, but played LF. good baserunner but hardly otis nixon. it's no exaggeration to say that jason tyner during his time as a twin was a more effective players than gladden was in 87 and 91.

that said, i love dan gladden. i think he was a fun guy to watch and a good player to have on the team (though borderline to have in the starting lineup). but to put him on the metrodome all-star team is a huge stretch.

ummmm....he is the Dazzle Man so I dont quite know what you wanted them to do.

I like Gladden too, but if Gladden makes it, Morris def. should. Gladden was not good but obv. played a big part in some great Metrodome memories. I'd have voted for Blyleven. I would have def. voted for Randy Bush.

Why did Duensing start tonight?

i'm mostly just annoyed that my favorite player ever (mack) got slighted when he was clearly twice the player that gladden was

Liriano has swelling. Not that I'm all that upset so far...

Yeah they were just talking about it this past half inning. Swelling in his forearm (specifically not his elbow or wrist).

/edit yeah Mack was robbed. An offensive force in '91.

Man did I love me some Shane Mack when I was a kid.

Casilla with 2 RBIs (almost three, stupid turf bounce over the fence) is clutch. If only he could be a consistent .250 hitter.

Twins trade SS prospect (2008 2nd round pick) Tyler Ladendorf to the Athletics for SS Orlando Cabrera (1 year remaining on contract).

I don't follow baseball that much, just the Twins. Is this a good trade? Seems like a pretty high/recent draft pick to trade for a guy who will probably only play 60 games for you.

What do you guys think?

http://www.seattlepi.com/scorecard/m...ticleID=262091

Do the Twins ever trade/sign players who draw walks?

Cabrera is probably an upgrade, but then again so is like any replacement level middle infielder. His defense looks like its regressed this year (small sample size?) and he's never been much at the plate. Ladendorf was pretty highly regarded coming out of college but ran bad his first year in rookie ball, then raked at rookie ball this year before getting promoted.

I'm not a fan at first glance, just because I think we could have gotten someone like Scutaro who actually gets on base instead of another hacky Twins hitter. I have a hard time believing the Jays were asking for that much for him. It's just frustrating because it feels like the Twins are still in the stone age when it comes to evaluating hitters.

isn't cabrera basically the same player as brendan harris? harris is prob a slightly better hitter and cabrera is (hopefully) a little better on defense, but they are pretty close.

my main problem is: what position is cabrera going to play? if ss, then is harris going to play 2B? because gardy insists that harris is a decent ss but sucks at 2b, and the stats actually kind of support that. i'm sure cabrera can play 2B just fine, but is that going to happen?

what i would hate to see is cabrera play SS and punto/casilla/tolbert play 2B and harris become a backup.

edit: after looking at the stats i could be convinced that cabrera is as good a hitter as harris or better. but the problem remains that harris is a better player than any of the twins 2B, so where are you going to put him?

there's a decent article on fangraphs that suggests that cabrera might have lost a step speed-wise, which has hurt his game on both sides of the ball. not sure if it's accurate, but wouldn't be surprising for a 34 year old.

is there any team that loves players who used to be decent more than the twins?

QFMFT.

Great....the White Sox got Peavy today....thank god we just swept their asses

Craig Monroe and Tony Batista agree

Gardy has starter going one too many innings syndrome. Hurt us again tonight.

It is painful watching the Twins play a tight ballgame in the final inning and beyond. I don't remember the last time they won an extra innings game.

DA TWINKSSSS