JJ Hardy Traded to the Baltimore Orioles

Shortstop JJ Hardy was traded from the Minnesota Twins to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday night. The official trade was J.J. Hardy, Brendan Harris and cash to the Orioles for Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. Hoey and Jacobson are two minor league relief pitchers. The theory behind the trade most likely indicates that the Twins did not value Hardy. That means Tsuyoshi Nishioka will be playing either shortstop or second base and Alexi Casilla at the other position. Hardy did not have a lot of speed, was hurt often, and really did not make that much of an impact to me. Good luck in Baltimore JJ.

Winter Meetings Begin

Over the next four days, the MLB's Winter Meetings will take place. All of the general managers of the MLB meet together in Florida and negotiate with eachother. For the Minnesota Twins there are several hot topics. Will we sign Tsuyoshi Nishioka over the winter meetings? His agent apparently is meeting with Twins GM Billy Smith. If we sign Nishioka, will we deal JJ Hardy? Apparently there are abot 6 teams interested in JJ Hardy's services. Also, will we look for another starting or relief pitcher? Maybe even dare I say, Zach Grienke? Stay tuned.

Who Will Be Back?

Here are the pending free agents for next year:

Nick Punto, JJ Hardy, Orlando Hudson, Jim Thome, Carl Pavano, Matt Guerrier, Brian Fuentes, Jesse Crain, Jon Rauch.

It will be interesting to see who gets brought back and who goes. Stay Tuned. My gut feeling is that Thome and maybe 1 from the bullpen are back.

Minnesota Twins Take Down Chicago White Sox 9-3

The Minnesota Twins defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-3 in the opening game of a 3 game set in Chicago. The win puts Minnesota 7 games up on Chicago with 18 games left. Clearly nothing is over until it's over, but barring a major collapse, Minnesota should expect an AL Central crown. Francisco Liriano went 6 innings to earn his 14th victory of the season. Delmon Young hit his 17th home run of the season on his 25th birthday, JJ Hardy was 2-4, and Denard Span had a bases clearing Alex Rios error (bobble in center field) to end with 4 RBI's.

Jesse Crain also got out of a big jam and struck out MVP candidate Paul Konerko and slugger Manny Ramirez with the bases loaded in the 7th inning. Crain has been unbelievable since June. The Minnesota Twins now stand 86-58 and only trail the New York Yankees (88 wins) and Tampa Bay Rays (87 wins) in wins in the MLB. Keep an eye with those two teams as it will most likely determine who the Twins could face in the first round of the playoffs, as well as home field advantage throughout the playoffs.