Cabin Twelve

It turned into a relatively big news day for the Twins today – not to mention the big doubleheader against the Tigers, the Twins have reportedly made a rather impressive splash on the International Free Agent scene and announced a big Target Field deal. Oh, and Chuck Knoblauch.

I can’t be alone in being shocked that the Twins have agreed to terms with 16 year old Dominican shortstop Miguel Angel Sano on a contract with a cool $3.15 million bonus. When its made official, it will become the biggest bonus given to an International free agent this year and the 2nd largest ever. Wow. Bill Smith has had a rocky start, given the Santana & Bartlett/Garza trades, but he sure ain’t as gun shy as Terry Ryan.

No real surprise here, but Best Buy will have a presence at Target Field, as the Twins announced a marketing deal with them today.

And here’s the story about Chuck Knoblauch’s umm, “dispute” with his common-law wife. Also, the Wall Street Journal checks in with some commentary and some of the legalities behind common-law marriage in Texas. Hey, weren’t you wondering too?

And yeah, the paper in Ft. Myers did publish instructions for would be mascots written by Miss A-Miracle, the Ft. Myers Miracle mascot. Oookay. Its got nothing on the Miracle’s previously planned What Would Tim Tebow Do? Night earlier this summer.

A few random Twins related tidbits.

A lot of Twins fans get on Gardy, but you can count Sparky Anderson among his fans. Anderson pulled Gardenhire aside for a little chat in Detroit and Gardy had this to say: “”I was in awe, he really likes what we do here. That was pretty cool. It was honestly one of those times when you just melt.”

And Jeff Passan checks in with a nice column about Gardy this week too.

USA Today has two articles about the Twins stadiums today. One about “fancy” new Target Field and one about the Metrodome. I’ll be the first to agree with Ozzie Guillen’s opinion of the Dome, but a lot of cool things took place there.

And speaking of Target Field, the Star Tribune has an interesting article about the impact the current lending environment is having on development around the new park. If you’re into that kind of thing.

mlb.com brings us a good little profile of Max Kepler-Rozycki, the 16 year old from Germany that the Twins gave the biggest bonus for a European free agent to this summer. It’ll be interesting to watch his development, and I’m sure we’ll have a few years to watch.

In minor league news, this is about a week old now, but the Twins have let go of Rochester Red Wings manager Stan Cliburn.

To back up a little on my post the other day about the Twins having home field advantage at the Metrodome, I suppose I should attempt to establish that the Twins do have some kind of demonstrable home field advantage (or at least a greater history of success at home than on the road) before I try to figure out what causes it. So here it is, home/road win differentials in the American League since 2002:

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