Yeah, Seriously. Punto?!?

2 years, 8+ million dollars on Little Nicky to be our starting SS. Let me just say that I hate this.

In other Twins news, the Winter Meeting rumors had us trying to be the third leg in a deal with SD and the Cubs to get Peavy to Chicago. I would have been in favor of giving up Kubel and some prospect arms, or maybe one of our back end starters and some prospects, to get DeRosa on a one-year rental and Kouzmanoff for 3B. Looks like it's all falling through, though. My guess is the Pads were looking for more than any of the third teams were willing to bear.

The Twins have been mentioned on various other relatively immaterial possibilities, too, including going after SS's from the Phillies and Pirates (that's apparently not happening - witness the title of this post).

I continue to believe we have the ability to get some impact guys loose from teams, if we just dangle Kubel or Cuddy out there packaged with someone like Perkins. But Delmon remains the central focus of all rumors regarding individual trade bait from the club. As noted last week, I think that's both not smart and not surprising.

In other non-surprises, the Yankees paid enough to bail out Circuit City to land Sabathia, so he'll be back to tormenting us in the A.L. They're apparently out looking at every other highpriced free agent on the market, too.

God, I hate being a Twins fan during the offseason. Although we did refrain from giving Casey Blake that dreaded third year and lost him to the Dodgers. I see that as probably a win of a loss. Still and all, we haven't done anything at this point to address our needs, and nothing looks imminent. I'll try to be patient.