Like you say, who they would package with him would send a fairly clear message what they are about. I know several teams are looking for pitching help, but if we hope to get multiple players in return, we should expect to deal multiple players. Trouble is, 2/3 of our players seem to be on the DL, which is bad for business.

I don’t think Liriano will ever turn into the ace the Twins (fans) were hoping for because A. he hasn’t been the same since his surgery B. he doesn’t seem to give a shit C. It’s a crapshoot as to whether we’ll get good Liriano or brutal Liriano. (Same goes for Pavano) Maybe that’s just my feeling on the subject, but I haven’t really gotten a hard working vibe off of him.

Seems to me we could sorely use some more decent prospects whoever we may trade…correct me if I’m wrong, but I get the impression the cupboard is a little bare at the moment.

I don’t think a willingness to trade Slowey or one of the other starting pitchers, with or without another piece, necessarily signals that the Twins are determined to be “sellers” already. Of course, that depends on who the additional “piece” is. If it’s Young or Kubel, for instance, that definitely signals a fire sale and I think it’s too early for that. Doing that would definitely have an immediate negative effect on fan interest.

But making room on the roster for James and, eventually, Gibson and Gutierrez, while bringing in a couple of decent minor leaguers to a pretty shallow system, could conceivably mean improving THIS year’s team.