Juan Rincon Topic Page

Lavelle just posted that the deal has been finalized.

A huge trade with the Tampa Bay Rays appears to be imminent. The reported trade would send Matt Garza, Juan Rincon and Jason Bartlett to Tampa Bay in exchange for 22-year old former first-round pick Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and former Twin prospect Jason Pridie.

The Twins are now exactly at that milestone record of last season, 34-34. It was the day they finally reached .500 and they went on to never drop below that again. This year the Twins could very well fall below .500 on Tuesday night, even with Santana on the mound. They're not playing nearly as well as at this time a year ago, and there's not much indication of them getting better.

The Twins put together a 9-2 lead after five innings of baseball on Sunday, but Kevin Slowey and Juan Rincon allowed them to creep back into things which set up an interesting ninth inning. Slowey struggled with his control early and manged to work out of some jams in the first two innings. He settled in a little bit, but allowed 3 home runs and left after pitching 5 1/3 and giving up 4 runs.

Thursday night's game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays was a low scoring affair that didn't feature many highlights until the ninth inning. Carlos Silva looked like his old self again. He gave up a lot of hits, but they were scattered and he left a lot of runners on base. He nearly gave up a homerun in the third inning, but it was caught by Jason Kubel right against the wall. Other than that he got a good mix of ground balls and managed to go 6 2/3 innings without allowing a run.

The last two nights have been perfect indications that the playoff race is heating up. Two of the most exciting games of the season came back to back, and best of all, the Twins won both. The Twins jumped out to an early lead against Jose Contreras, scoring five runs in the first three innings and knocking Contreras out of the game after 2 2/3 innings. Santana wasn't as dominate as he usually is, but he managed to get through 7 innings allowing just three runs (two earned) and it looked like everything was going well—the Twins were cruising to victory and the bullpen was going to get some rest. Then things got interesting.

The Twins pulled off a Saturday night victory against the Cubs in the game I thought the cubs had the best chance of winning in this series. In front of a crowd of over 42,000, half of which was made up of Cub fans, Boof Bonser was able to pitch shutout ball for 6 1/3 innings. Reyes and Rincon also held the Cubs scoreless in relief and Joe Nathan picked up his 12th save with a scoreless ninth.

The Twins 8-game win streak came to an end with a 5-3 loss on Wednesday night in Houston. Carlos Silva put together another quality start, but the lack of run support and a shaky outing from Kyle Lohse combined for the loss. Silva gave up a solo homerun in the 1st inning but then put together 4 scoreless innings before allowing 1 run in the 6th and walking the only batter he faced in the 7th. Juan Rincon came in and threw a wild pitch and gave up a double which tied the game.

In week 10 the Twins lost a series in Seattle and won a home series against Baltimore for a record of 3-3. After a week of no offense, the Twins bats began to show some life by scoring a total of 36 runs through the 6 games. The offense was led by two grand slams from Michael Cuddyer, 3 homers from Justin Morneau and of course the hitting tear that Joe Mauer has been on the past month.

Last week I whined about how difficult it was to pick a player of the week, since the team as a whole had played so poorly. I hoped that this week's decision would be difficult for a different reason, and my wish has certainly come true.