With Leather digs up a video from the Washington Post of a guy talking to Dukes while he hits some balls, talking about various things. Doesn't really come off as the wife-threatening man the Tampa media pointed out.

Well, its finally over.

As a Twins fan I'm completely distraught and I plan on missing my last class of the day to go out and get drunk.

I would have been fine if F-Mart was included, i'm still crossing my fingers that his name is involved... but so far its Santana for outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey.

This is how I responded to commenter that was tired of fans complaining about the Twins under Pohlad, just to give you an idea of how frustrated most of us (Twins fans) are.

"Its been too long for that sort of criticism of a fan that expects more from its team. Its not like poor old Carl couldn't afford to up the payroll for Torii and Johan (granted not paying Torii that ridiculous amount was the right move)... Baseball isn't the same as it was 17 years ago, and Pohlad needs to realize this. Oh and by the way... the team isn't under Carl's "watchful" eye anymore. Sure he did a great job, but now the billionaire is old, and on his way out. I just hope his kids don't re-open talks for contraction. I would go to the dome, but unfortunately I live 1,375 miles away and it takes about $400 to go watch the team I pay $800 in season tickets to go see. So I feel I have the right, as a fan, to criticize the moves my team has (or hasn't) made over the past years. You know why? Division titles are fun and all, but do you know how close we were all those years to making it all the way? Management always neglected to make that one move that would have made us a World Series Contender. Bowing out in the first round year after year gets a little old after suffering through the 90's.

p.s. it's really fun to go watch that really good talent we develop make it big somewhere else. Now we get to go see Santana enter the Hall of Fame in a Met's cap, fun huh?"

"The midnight deadline set by Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner -- whether he meant EST or CST -- passed without a deal. The Twins, however, reportedly felt more amused than threatened by New York's ultimatum and when no agreement was reached early Tuesday, they simply resumed talking to the Red Sox."

Apparently the Twins are asking for Ellsbury, Lester, and Lowrie... and if the Sox fold and accept, i'll be a happy camper. Then hopefully they can deal Nathan for a third baseman and we are actually in line to compete through the new stadium AND BEYOND!

I'm really impressed with the way Bill Smith has handled these trade talks setting a floor for Santana and not bending. No one meets the price, they try to win with Santana. I really didn't expect this first year GM to come out and handle the trades, free agents, and the press with this kind of poise.

Christensen is the national baseball reporter for The Star-Tribune, in his blog he goes over the very public moves by Steinbrenner and breaks down the trade scenarios between the Twins and the Red Sox/Yankees.

"Privately, the Twins keep saying they like the potential match with Boston better. The Twins love Jacoby Ellsbury, and if they can get the Red Sox to add one of their two star pitching prospects -- Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz -- that might be enough. But the Red Sox insist they won't trade more than one of those three young pups, and they might not part with Buchholz in any offer.

Personally, I don't think the Red Sox want to close this deal. I think they are merely trying to keep the price high for the Yankees. If the Twins really were that in love with Ellsbury and settled on a deal with Boston, I don't think the Red Sox would give Santana the six-year extension. Their current deal with Josh Beckett (signed in July 2006) is only a three-year, $30 million deal with a $12 million option for 2010.

So they're going to give up two premier prospects for Santana and then pay him five times as much as Beckett? I don't think so.

At that point, the whole thing would become a giant mess.

I agree with Hank Steinbrenner that the Yankees have the best offer on the table. From what I've gathered, the Angels, Dodgers and Mariners are barely in this thing. We haven't heard much from the Mets, who don't have the pitching prospects to replace Santana (and Matt Garza)."

On Jacoby vs. Melky,

"I spoke with an NL scout yesterday, who compared Melky Cabrera very favorably to Ellsbury. His team grades players on an 80-scale, and he said Cabrera is a 55-60, projecting him as a slightly above average every day center fielder, while Ellsbury is a 60-65.

Ellsbury's stock is way high right now because he thrived for the Red Sox in the World Series. He is a good contact hitter, an on-base specialist, who will line balls into the gaps and race around the bases.

But Cabrera is no slouch. He is a switch-hitter who will generate more power. He doesn't run like Ellsbury, but he has a cannon arm. The scout projected Cabrera to hit .280-.300 with about 15 homers per year, and while Ellsbury might hit better, he'll probably average 5-6 home runs per year."

Personally, I think the Twins need to push hard for a deal including Ellsbury. He fills two gaps in the Twins needs, a center fielder and a lead off hitter. Cabrera only fits one of those holes. I like Hughes, but it still leaves a huge question mark on the Twins' line-up card with Cabrera in the deal.

Curt Schilling talks about the idea of Santana joining the Red Sox or the Yankees and his thoughts on the trade scenarios. Sounds like he wants to pitch behind Beckett and Santana, he also thinks no one can compete with the Red Sox trade wise because of the talent they have, along with Theo's ability to reload via trade or from within the organization.

Caple nails it in this article, a really good article for all of you who don't really know too much about the Twins owner Carl Pohlad.

OPEN THE WALLET CARL!

After hearing whispers in the baseball world that in order for the Mets to land Santana they would need to include Reyes. Minaya has come out saying, "He (Reyes) is one of our core players." He went on to say that he wouldn't be involved, it "wouldn't make sense" for the organization.

I can see where he is coming from, but when push comes to shove and the Red Sox and Yankees are close to landing the Twins ace, will he be willing to put him on the table? After the epic collapse from last year, he is under enormous pressure to put together a winning team, judging by his options of marquee starters I would say Santana needs to be his number one option. Haren is still very young, but does have fantastic stuff. Would he be able to perform down the stretch in a race involving the big guns of the NL East? I don't know if Minaya can afford to gamble on that sort of player after last season.

This really upsets me as a Twins fan because I was looking forward to seeing Reyes lead off and Mauer bring him in on a single or double in every first inning for 162 games... I just hope the Twins and Bill Smith don't go off and do something stupid like "settling" for a mediocre trade* for Santana's extremely high value.

From the way the trade offers have fallen into place, with Boston and New York being the number one and two contenders, but holding their stud players (Buchholz, Ellsbury, Cano, Chamberlain), and the Dodgers falling out of the sweepstakes, I wouldn't be surprised if Smith held onto Santana till the 31st of July at the latest. At least I hope that's what he does if the offers don't look any better.

Wait, weren't the Angels trying to get involved? Where is their projected offer?

*See Boston trade involving Coco Crisp, Lester, and two prospects. See any Yankee trade involving Melky Cabrera.

Apparently the Sox are prepared to send 4 players to Minnesota for Santana. One of them is Coco Crisp and I want to shoot myself in the foot, especially when you look at all the other possible offers, mainly the one sending Jose Reyes to Minnesota.

Going into this off season I had the idea that the Twins were either keeping Torii or Johan, but not both. Bill Smith, who took over for long time GM Terry Ryan, started off his career by choosing not to re-sign Torii Hunter. Soon after he stated that it was the team's priority to sign Santana long term, but as soon as I heard the Yankees and Twins were beginning talks for him I wondered what he was doing. Was he really prepared to get mentioned in the same sentence as Kevin McHale, as in hated Minnesota sports GMs...

Then he comes out and pulls the trigger on this trade, both sides swapping players with very large upsides. I really like this trade and I think that Minnesota got the better end of this deal. Both have maturity issues, but I think Twins coaching settled Garza down which lead to his performance at the Major League level. Young had some issues at the end of last season when Madden chose to bench him, Young responded that, "He was out of here" (he apologized the next day). When I think of Young's maturity problems I also think of who he was on the roster with, fellow trouble makers in BJ Upton and model citizen Elijah Dukes. I think that the Minnesota Clubhouse is very nurturing towards young players and Young should thrive in the clubhouse and on the field in Minnesota (too bad he doesn't have Torii there to mentor him). The rest of the trade is pretty even, Harris for Bartlett and Pridie (OF, AAA) for Morlan (RP, AA). Harris put up some pretty impressive numbers with little protection in the Rays lineup. Bartlett has also shown some improvement offensively and had a good defensive season last year. Batting in front of Mauer helps out, too. Pridie raked in AAA last year hitting .318 with 10 HRs and 39 RBIs, while Morlan has a 3.10 ERA in 69.2 IP.

New on the trading block is Joe Nathan which really shows me that Bill Smith may have had a plan all along. He's showing that he is willing to deal the young pitching, something that Terry Ryan hoarded from the rest of the league as trade deadlines approached with holes the Twins offense. Smith ended up making the right call on Hunter as well, no way he is worth that kind of money.

As far as the Santana trade goes, the Dodger deal interests me the most. The combination of Kemp, LaRoche, and Kershaw is definitely worth Santana, but do the Dodgers want another Ace? Second on the list is the Angels who have said they'd be willing to offer one of their young studs (Weaver, Santana, Saunders, or Adenhart) along with Brandon Wood and Reggie Willits. The Yankee trade doesn't interest me at all unless Cano and Chamberlain are involved, and I think (hope) the Twins have idea.

The trade that would makes me drool would be Ellsbury and Buchholz from Boston for Santana, but I doubt Boston even thinks about trading them. How scary is a Santana Beckett, 1-2 punch sound. I saw another article posted (larryb33) on here where a Twins beat writer suggested a trade that involved the following:

Twins:

Johan Santana

Joe Nathan

Carlos Silva

Red Sox:

Pedroia

Papelbon

Lester

Ellsbury

Can you say delusional?