Jason Bourgeois went 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI.

Chris Getz hit his ninth homer, fell a triple short of the cycle and drove in two.

http://deadspin.com/5029427/chairman-mao-would-certainly-approve

Alexei Ramirez is hitting .404 in his past 15 games.

turning Casey Blake and Luis Perdomo into Anthony Reyes, Jon Meloan, and Carlos Santana?

A couple of really nice deals by Shapiro.

Joe Cowley wrote:

Williams is said to be willing to part with a package that would include Fields and right-hander Gavin Floyd for a big-name starter.

His reasoning is…

While it would seem any chance of trading Fields would be small now, not so fast: Crede got a cortisone shot Thursday for his back inflammation and seemed convinced his latest problem is largely a bump in the road.

If Crede, whose DL stay is retroactive to July 22, keeps improving over the next five days, Williams could still move Fields for the right price and have Juan Uribe fill in at third base until Crede returns

Trading Floyd would definitely be selling high, although Kenny seems to love him. It’s funny that Cowley suggests Uribe start at 3B until Crede is back if the Sox trade Fields since he hates him so much and wrongly expected him to be released / traded by now.

Where’s the Hope and Faith for Twins’ Fans?

by Gary Huckabay

I’m all in favor of front offices making decisions without excessive deference to the fan base. The truth of the matter is that most fans have other things on their minds than the inner workings of baseball.

But WTF?

As of this writing, the Twins are 3.5 games out of first in the AL Central. This despite the performances of the perpetually disappointing Mike Cuddyer, and the not disappointing but merely awful Livan Hernandez. Hernandez has posted an ERA of 5.31 for the year, and outside of the Metrodome, he’s pitched something like Jose Lima would if he were still in the bigs.

Meanwhile, down at AAA, Francisco Liriano, while the Twins are ostensibly in the thick of a pennant race, has posted an ERA of 0.26 over his last five starts, while demonstrating excellent velocity and command. He’s healthy, clearly ready to come back to the big club, and yet, he’ll be starting for Rochester tomorrow, in all probability, while the Twins hope they’re not trying to break a six game losing streak on the same day.

For the sake of asking your fans for patience and having them buy into some long-term goals, couldn’t you at least pretend to care about winning more than saving literally a few weeks off of Liriano’s service time clock? Letting Hunter go was the right move. Fans get that. Letting a potential postseason appearance slip away on the vagaries of a few bucks and lots of fan loyalty is just outright ludicrous.

Grow a pair.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=960

i hope they don’t.

LaTroy sure got old and sucky fast.

Link.

GM Theo Epstein told FOX broadcaster Tim McCarver before Saturday’s game that the Red Sox will make an effort to deal Manny Ramirez if he waives his no-trade clause.
Does Manny really want out of Boston, where he’s on a very good team with fans that adore him and management that has been willing to go out of its way to accomodate him? Or is he just being a drama queen? The Red Sox are leaving it to him to make the next move. If Manny truly wants a trade, then the Red Sox could try to get something done and maybe pick up Adam Dunn as a replacement. The Mets are the one team that would make real sense as a destination. Even if the Angels wanted him, the Red Sox probably wouldn’t want to send him to a team they could well end up facing in October.

Not.gonna.happen.

“The Jamaican culture demands that our people explore all the possibilities of expanding our consciousness, man,” said Dawson. “With a name like Dubee, I was pretty sure that by just taking a long drag on him, I’d have myself my own personal little transcendental event, don’t ya know? Of course, I was wrong.”

there’s a steve stone reference on the article too