Monday Tidbits

Good morning. There's not a whole lot to talk about right now, so I'm just going to give some thoughts on a couple items and re-direct you to other things that I find a bit interesting.

• Mark Healey feels the Dodgers may creep into the picture for Johan Santana. We can only hope. Also got word that the Angels have been having "ongoing discussions" with the Twins revolved around Santana, but what the Twins want would "gut out our team" which is what I was told Angels Manager Mike Scoiscia said. But since I haven't seen anything else that supports this claim, I'm not going to put a whole lot into it. I was told that it's what Scoiscia said on the radio last night in LA (KLAA 830 AM), but I'm sure somebody would've picked up on it by now if that's exactly what he said. We'll have to wait and see though, nothing would please Twins fans more than to see another team jump in and sweep the Twins off their feet with an offer they can't refuse. Well, I guess re-signing him would make them happy as well.

• Matthew Cerrone of Metsblog.com gives us his thoughts on the Santana trade front that now seems to be just between the Mets & Red Sox. He tells us what the Twins should get in the result of a potential Erik Bedard trade. Make sure to check that out.

• Aaron Gleeman continues with his top 40 prospect list. My list should be coming out in the next couple weeks (hopefully), so just sit tight. Baseball America has also released the Twins top 30 prospect list. It's a little bit of older news (sorry), but make sure to check that out as well.

• Twin Cities Dugout has a nice interview with Twins pitching prospect Matthew Fox. They also recently did one with Liam Hendricks as well.

• Speaking of interviews, check out SethSpeaks latest Q&A with John Manuel of Baseball America. He defends his Twins top 30 prospect list as well give us some insight on some of the players. Also make sure to check out his experience at TwinsFest.

• Joshua Taylor continues with his "Pre-Pre-Season Predictions". This time, he's in the N.L. Central.

• Boof Bonser lost over 20 lbs., and he seems ready to get this season going. (Aren't we all)

• Some good news coming from a few of out injured pitchers of 2007. Both Francisco Liriano and Jesse Crain feel "better than ever" and both are ready to help this team out in '08. I have to be honest, even with both of them feeling confident that they'll be able to help this team out, I'm less optimistic. I don't expect much from either this season, and Liriano needs to let the team take it slow with his recovery. I think that starting him in either the bullpen or Ft. Myers would be the best options. Starting him in Rochester would seem ideal, however I'd prefer to keep him in a warmer climate or play indoors for at least the first month or so of the season. After the snow melts and the temperatures get about 70, then I'd let him start in Rochester. Lets just hope that his "illness" over the weekend at TwinsFest (with an early exit Saturday, and a no-show on Sunday) was in fact just an illness and not a sore elbow from signing autographs. But it seems as if a few players were ill. Crain is recovering from a "slightly" torn labrum and rotator cuff. Still, any pitcher that has surgery to repair labrum problems is very unlikely to come back effective at all, let alone in his first year back. But I'll hope that he proves me wrong.

• Brendan Harris discusses the possibility of leading off in the order.