Minnesota: Three Stars for Tuesday

Here's Tuesday's roundup, as - hey, I wonder if Montreal wants a team...

Need to Know: MLB: Boston 6, Twins 5 - Ouch. This one hurts, for multiple reasons. To wit: The Twins bullpen is officially off the rails. Matt Guerrier gets the rarely-seen SUPER EPIC FAIL designation for blowing a three-run lead, and especially for giving up a home run to Manny Ramirez with first base open. That's just plain stupidity, or bad pitching. Ron Gardenhire's not exactly blowing Terry Francona's doors off, managerially speaking. That's two days in a row that Manny's beat the Twins with first base open, and two days in a row that there have been serious questions about why the losing pitcher was in the game when the loss happened. Above all: Nick Blackburn pitched great, the Twins touched the Sox for five runs and led 5-2 going into the bottom of the eighth - and lost. The whole thing doesn't exactly smack of championship-caliber baseball, does it?

NBA: Timberwolves make confusing trade involving invisible players - It can't be official until today, but all reports are that the Timberwolves have made another trade. They'll receive Rodney Carney (who?) and Calvin Booth (WHO?) from Philly, along with a first-round draft pick, in exchange for... uh... a $2.8 million trade exception. Now, given that Britt Robson is reporting that Philly will also pick up all but $500,000 of the contract tab for the two players, that means that the Wolves bought a first-round pick for a half-million dollars, as well as the fun of making up injuries for Carney and Booth so that both can stay on injured reserve next year. And in return, all they gave up is not assets, not cash, but the ability to over-spend on some stiff from Palookaville. It's like the Sixers paid Kevin McHale to cut up his credit cards. Why couldn't teams have come along with deals like this before?

Meanwhile... • AA: Shreveport 5, Saints 4

Three Stars: 3. Kevin McHale Suddenly, the Wolves have about eighteen first-round picks stockpiled - and have done nothing but dump horrible players and bad contracts in return. It's like this is some Bizarro NBA where the Wolves signed Joe Smith to a normal contract. 2. Brendan Harris Two-out, two-run doubles on the road? Yeah, those are cool with me. Harris finished the night 2-4 with two runs scored, although he did hit into a double play. 1. Nick Blackburn 6.2 innings pitched, two earned runs on six hits, and two strikeouts - that's a pretty darned good performance. The Twins' starting pitcher has been the first star two days running; the lack of wins during that span shows just how bad that bullpen's been.

What's On Tap: 12:05 - MLB - Twins at Boston - FSN 7:00 - WNBA - Lynx vs. Atlanta 7:05 - AA - Saints at Shreveport 6:05 - MLB - St. Louis at Philadelphia - ESPN