Site Update/Transactions/Notes

I have a lot of little stuff to touch on today, so I thought I'd throw it all into one post. Here goes:

SITE UPDATE
I'm nearly done updating the organizational rankings posts (which you can find linked on the right side of the page,) so they should be relatively accurate. If you check them out, you'll notice that some of them have limited transactions information for the season, and some don't -- I'm not going to be updating that for the 2007 rankings (and it's very incomplete information), but starting with the 2008 version of the rankings I'm going to make every effort to keep what amounts to a full transactions log with every player.

Also, sometime in the next two weeks, I also intend to make a post covering free agents who I think the Twins could end up pursuing. Also in the middle of the month, I'll be posting my thoughts on which players the Twins should add to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. Of course, my college football rankings, posted every Saturday night, will also continue. Finally, as always, I'll periodically (every two days or so) be posting a notes column covering MLB (and other sporting) news.

Transactions
I haven't posted a transactions post in a good long time, and it's a good time for a new one, since the Twins just released a bunch of players. I'll comment on some of these names in a later post if I get a chance to, but for now, here's the list (courtesy of Baseball America):

RHP - Jose Acosta
RHP - Jose Castillo
RHP - Jesse Floyd
RHP - Danny Powers
LHP - Jesus Carnevales
LHP - Michael Rogers
1B - Nick Biagini
3B - Matt Betsill
OF - Wesley Connor

There are no names there that really stun me, but Danny Powers would be the closest thing to a surprise on the list. His 5.28 ERA in 59.2 innings for New Britain goes a long way to explaining his release, I would think. As I said earlier, I may comment in more depth later if I get a chance.

Notes
Just a few things I wanted to cover:

1.) The Tigers didn't wait long to start improving their team, picking up Edgar Renteria from the Braves in exchange for a couple of solid minor league prospects (pitcher Jair Jurrjens is particularly interesting). This move will apparently facilitate Carlos Guillen's move to 1B, where he'll replace Sean Casey full time. Hard to see that exchange being anything but a positive for the Tigers.

2.) Joe Torre and Don Mattingly to the Dodgers? Makes sense to me -- Torre isn't getting any younger, and at 67, the prospect of taking a year off probably doesn't sound particularly appealing to him. I don't know how things will work out, but this seems to be a fairly good fit.

3.) I said before that if the Twins didn't sign Torii Hunter before the end of the exclusive negotiating window on November 12, they'd lose him. Now, Hunter has decided not to negotiate with the Twins during that window. I understand his position, but I stand by my statement -- this move convinces me fully that Hunter will not be a Twin next year. When inspiration strikes, I'll write up some more detailed thoughts on what this means for the organization, but as I've said before, it ain't good.

4.) Can't wait for the NBA season to start tonight -- I usually don't care about the NBA, but for some reason I've been excited for tonight's games for about 2 weeks. Don't really know where that came from, but I'm not going to question it either. My TV will be tuned to TNT this evening, and to ESPN tomorrow. Also, I'm lucky enough (or maybe that's unlucky enough) for the Wolves first opponent of the season to be the Nuggets, so I'll get a chance to see the season opener on local TV (I'm in Boulder, Colorado, in case you weren't aware).