MLB Bullets Is Thankful For The Twins

Thank God for the Twins. Without them, there wouldn't be any news this week.

• The Twins starting rotation was a disaster last season, so after signing free agent Ricky Nolasco earlier in the week, they signed Phil Hughes to a three year, $24 million contract on Saturday. The Twins are hoping that a move to pitching-friendly Target Field will help him with his gopher ball issues.
• Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak was so excited about Nolasco coming to Minnesota that he decided to write not one but two Twitter poems about it. Luckily for him, he didn't run for re-election so this can't be held against him.
• Phil Rogers thinks that the Twins signing the two pitchers are a big step in the right direction for the team.
• The last time the Twins were the most active team in the free agent market was never. But they aren't done yet as they are working on a deal to bring catcher A.J. Pierzynski back to the Twin Cities.
• Another team that isn't known for being active in the free agent market is the Kansas City Royals. But they are working hard to bring Carlos Beltran back to KC and are willing to give him the three-year deal that he's asking for.
• Working to bring Beltran to the team is Royals GM Dayton Moore, who got a two-year extension from the team.
• The Mets were interested in free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal, but backed off because of concerns about his injury history.
• In any case, free agent hitters are saying that they still don't want to play for the Mets because of Citi Field.
• Pitchers are another story, of course, and the Mets are reportedly "heavily involved" in negotiations with Bronson Arroyo and will meet with him sometime this week.
• Robinson Cano says he never asked for a $300 million contract (of course not, his agents did so for him) but now asking for $250 to $260 million over nine years. That's still $80-90 million more than the Yankees are offering.
• Buster Olney is going out on a limb and saying that even if Alex Rodriguez wins his arbitration hearing and has his suspension reduced or eliminated, he's played his last game for the Yankees. He goes as far to say that the Yankees are prepared to just cut him outright.
• Olney also says the Mariners are likely to land one of the big free agent starting pitchers.
• Phil Rogers looks at five teams that could trade for David Price and says the Rangers have the best package of players to offer the Rays.
• Richard Durrett thinks the Rangers should consider trading for Price even at the price of Jurickson Profar.
• Prince Fielder is looking forward to playing for the Rangers.
• Rockies owner Dick Monfort provides a breakdown of the Rockies' budget for next season. (h/t Hardball Talk)
• The Padres will "listen" on offers for Chase Headley.
• If you live in Southern California and don't have Time-Warner Cable, get ready to not be able to see the Dodgers games next year. Time-Warner reportedly wants $8 per month, per subscriber for the new Dodgers channel. That's $3 a month more than any other package in the country and the other pay television providers are understandably balking at the fee.
• Fully ten percent of major league baseball players have ADHD. Or at least they get a therapeutic exemption to use Adderall, which is otherwise banned by MLB.
• Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball are closing in on a new posting agreement.
• Bill Baer says that precedent says that even if he doesn't get in on his final year on the ballot, Jack Morris will eventually get into the Hall of Fame.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the careers of some more hitters on the ballot who have no chance at induction into Cooperstown, including Moises Alou.
• Finally, Mike Roberts is a scout who has been in the Cardinals organization long enough that he threw batting practice to Stan Musial and he scouted Michael Wacha. After a three-year battle with cancer, shortly after the World Series, he was declared cancer-free. Derrick Goold has his story.

The Iowa Hawkeyes harvested the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 38-17. It was their first win at Nebraska's Memorial Stadium since 1943. (It was only their sixth game there since 1943, it should be noted.)

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.