Agreed on Atkins, he seems like a good fit and the Rockies seem like compatible trading partners. He is not a free agent until after 2010. If a reasonable trade for him is available, go for it. Give him a season away from Coors and if he fits in, try for a long term deal.

You are right, the Twins are rarely active in the free agent market. And when they are it backfires. I just get this feeling Casey Blake and his tremendous beard will be wearing a Twins uniform next year.

When have the Twins ever been active in free agency? I think the trade route is the only way anything is ever going to happen.

I agree on Beltre though. I don’t know that he’s worth what we’d give up, particularly if his slump isn’t a slump. It must be said though. He has more HRs than anyone on our team right now.

If a trade is to be had using excess pitching for a stud 3B prospect that would be under our control for a number of years, I would be OK with that too.

If Beltre doesn’t work out, it’s just a bloated contract that the Twins would have to unload somehow. He doesn’t give them a big enough upgrade over Buscher/Harris to justify that risk.

I’m not as big on Beltre as others, even though his road splits would seem to indicate that he’d benefit from a change of scenery.

Atkins seems to be the most talented of the group, but wouldn’t he be a rental? Beltre has a deal through 09 or 10. Mora, too.

Should the Twins make a move for the 3rd baseman of a selling team (prime examples: Adrian Beltre and Garret Atkins)

Apparently the Twins have shown interest in Beltre, but I think Atkins, if he’s on the market, should be their top choice.

So, my solution would be that you are allowed to have position players re-enter the game, to pitch.

That way, you figure out which guys have had any experience pitching (Ankiel perennial All Star now?), and you throw them in there if you’ve exhausted all other options. While they may not be the best pitchers out there, it will be entertaining for fans, and will likely result in some runs being scored which really should be the point at that time in the game. Plus, when the ASG is in National League parks, the game could end on a walk-off homerun from the “pitcher”…

Perhaps more practically, they should expand the rosters for the ASG and ensure that there is a full set of pitchers for the game (guys like Webb, Kazmir, etc. who can’t really pitch in the game would be recognized as All Stars, but replaced with rested/able-bodied pitchers).

(inspired by Hamilton’s HR derby pitcher…)
After 15 innings, you pitch to your own team in whatever way they like, and you only get 1 pitch (all are 3rd strikes). Anything in front of the pitcher or foul = automatic out. (ok, so probably not.)

The problem as I see it arises from two things:
1) The fact that most All Star coaches, while trying to win, also know that it’s their duty to get most of the roster into the game. For pitchers, this means maybe giving a long-relief pitcher only one inning, because there’s a line behind him of other pitchers who’ve earned the right to be in the game.
2) Again mostly related to pitchers, All Star coaches just can’t feel right about letting some guy who doesn’t play for their team over-extend himself in late innings. If Garde uses up his relief and has to let Guerrier pitch 4 innings b/c there’s no more bull-pen support in a reg-season game, well that’s a decision he gets to make with his player. But if Francona threw Nathan in in the 12th with no one behind him in the all star game, and then kept him in for 50 pitches, Garde would have every right to come after his head.

Sorry for the ramble, but my unsupported solution would be: In an All-Star game, any player can re-enter the game. Mostly I think this applies to pitchers, but I’m sure, again, Garde wouldn’t have wanted Mauer to catch 15 innings either, what with the way he mollycoddles him. So any player, any position, re-entry into the game is always an option. (Of course you can all ignore this thread-jack, I’m just doing what I can to get off of the Favre train.)