AaronGleeman.com

Greisinger was painful to watch last season. I realize that's easy to say about a guy who got knocked around to the tune of .319/.366/.563, but he simply didn't have anything in his repertoire that had any chance of getting big-league hitters out. With that said, Greisinger avoided disaster in his first start for the Braves, going five innings while giving up two runs on seven hits Sunday night.

I've said here a few times that I'm not the world's biggest fan of either Jim Souhan or Patrick Reusse, but they certainly each have their moments. And just generally speaking, the level of coverage the paper gives the Twins on an everyday basis is impressive. Not as impressive as the extraordinary level of coverage the team gets from its immense blogosphere, of course, but that's a tough standard.

Placido Polanco is a personal favorite of mine, and I even called him "the best available free agent second baseman this offseason" back in November. That may sound like some major hyperbole considering how well Jeff Kent has done so far in Los Angeles, but at the very least Polanco would be a perfect fit with the Twins. He plays great defense at nearly every position, hits for a high batting average, gets on base, and has very good speed.

With all that said, there is no way I would ever give up a prospect like Jesse Crain, Francisco Liriano or Scott Baker in a package centering on Polanco. Crain has been a stud so far out of the bullpen, and Baker and Liriano represent what will hopefully be 40% of the Twins' rotation in a couple years. Polanco, while a very good player at a position the Twins have a need at, is very expensive and not likely to stick around past this season. Thankfully this is the sort of trade Terry Ryan tends not to make.

The Twins are outdrawing teams with new (or at least relatively new) ballparks in Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Arizona, and Colorado. Plus, they are outdrawing teams in larger markets like Chicago, Toronto, Detroit, and Miami. Take the stupid roof off the ballpark and there is no doubt in my mind that the Twins would rank among the top dozen or so in attendance every year.

             AVG      OBP      SLG     IsoD     IsoP
Tiffee      .301     .344     .516     .043     .215
Williams    .302     .337     .453     .035     .141

Tiffee has a little more power and doesn't strike out as much (which is an interesting combination), but they both struggle to draw walks at an acceptable rate and neither of them has great power. As I've always said with Tiffee, unless you think he's going to be able to keep hitting .300 in the majors, he's just not going to be useful as an everyday player. The same applies to Williams, who like Tiffee is a switch-hitter.

Of course, the Twins aren't really asking Tiffee or Williams to be everyday players. So maybe Williams is better suited for a job off the bench, especially considering he has a little more defensive versatility. I still think Tiffee is pretty close a perfect backup corner infielder if the Twins would show a little more patience with him.

I'm not sure why exactly, but Jones doesn't strike me as the sort of player who would be a good defensive first baseman. Of course, neither do Torii Hunter, Shannon Stewart or Lew Ford. No one can be much worse than Matthew LeCroy has been this month, I suppose.

Personally, I would love to see them go after a college middle infielder who is close to being major-league ready, in the mold of guys like Khalil Greene, Aaron Hill, Dustin Pedroia, Russ Adams, and Omar Quintanilla. I'm just not sure the Twins would ever look for such a thing. (Troy Tulowitzki, Cliff Pennington, Tyler Greene, and Craig Burley's favorite, Jed Lowrie, would all fit the profile.)