I'm not sure what an ideal situation would be for a team that we knew would be bad is, but we may not be far from it. The Twins are competitive and playing like a club worth watching from time to time. I think the one thing that has rather soured, weirdly considering the W/L situation, is off-season changes to the big club. Hicks has been bad. Worley and Pelfrey have been terrible. Correia's been better than expected without doing anything particularly well, which I refuse to be comfortable with.

Then there's the matter of mid-season trade chips, which leave us in a worse position than I wanted. I think it's clear the Twins aren't in a position to deal for a shot at the 2013 AL Central, even if we're closer than we should be. The Tigers are outplaying the division badly and are still considerably better than they look.

Our three main trade chips should have been Morneau, Willingham, and Perkins. Morneau's power loss has been big trouble, and teams aren't going to cough up much for a pricey half-season of a Doug Mientkiewicz impersonation. I'm fine with Willingham drawing walks instead of hitting singles, but .217 batting average is near disaster point for teams that will want somebody who can provide middle of the order *hits*.

And the closer market always confounds me, if only because the last team I remember badly overpaying for one is the Twins and we can't trade Perkins to ourselves. The Red Sox and Tigers are contenders who need a closer, though more could shake out before the deadline. The Red Sox have some internal candidates that they should be stubborn enough to keep pushing. It's a great system there right now, but I don't see them coughing up a major part for a lefthanded closer to pitch in that park without thoroughly exhausting the guys already on the roster. Detroit's system is pretty terrible right now, but they have a history of not being afraid to pay for proven talent. The in-division thing is a pain, but if they have the best offer then... whatever.

I guess we'll see. Arizona may be a spot to keep an eye on.