Jeff:

Just read today that Bret Boone could become a Minnesota Twin soon. As a longtime Mariner fan, just wanted to pass along to you Twins fans that this is NOT the move Terry Ryan needs to be making. I've said here in the past that Ryan is a very underrated GM, and definitely one of the best in baseball. Like everybody, he's made a mistake or two, but the good decisions far outweigh the poor ones. What's even more impressive is, thanks to tightwad owner Carl Pohlad, Terry Ryan has had the least amount of room for error of any contending team in baseball. Whereas the Red Sox or Yankees or others can make multiple moves at the trade deadline, the Twins usually can only make one, and it has to involve a cost-effective player. More bang for the buck as they say.

WEll Mr. Boone is now a player getting paid a lot of buck with very little bang. If he's not traded after 10 days (it's beyond me why any team would trade for him when you get him for nothing 10 days later, but this is the braintrust the M's now have, and why they're currently 161/2 games out of first place), Seattle has to pickup the final payments for this season, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 million dollars. I am assuming, being that he's already getting paid, whoeever signs him can give him the vets minimum. If that's the case, Boone would be an ok pickup. Anything more than that, the Twins shouldn't risk it. He's still a pretty solid defensive secondbasemen, but since baseball has mandated steroid testing, Boone's dropped almost 20 pounds and has little power left in that bat. Of course I would never infer he was a juicer. Never. OK maybe. Hey at least it would give he and Juan Rincon something to talk about.