In case you missed it, check out my recent appearance on the Fantasy Insiders Podcast. There is lots of good fantasy information discussed that will help you get prepped for draft day, or as you prune your rosters before the season starts.

This article breaks down some American League players that you should be targeting late in drafts or on the free agency wire.

Here is the criteria and context for this article:

• Mixed Leagues – ADP must be 240 or greater
• AL / NL Only – ADP must be 120 or greater

American League Sleeper: Justin Masterson SP, CLE

• ADP AL Only #207; Age 25
• Must Own in: Deep Mixed, AL Only, Dynasty

There is a lot to like about Masterson in 2010.  He is being drafted very late and is a former top 25 prospect.  His K rate and GB rate are very favorable, even though the ERA and the Walks were not in 2009.  Masterson has had a very good spring and does look to be a guy ready to take the next step.  The only drawback is that he is the Indians #2 SP; most guys in his position would be a #3/#4 SP.

I can see him being a guy getting 12 Wins and High K’s, around a 4.00 ERA.  The WHIP might not come down under 1.40 but he is still worth a flier especially in a dynasty league where you can own 25-30 players where you reap the benefit of his development in the next few years.

AL Sleeper: Delmon Young OF, MIN

• ADP Mixed #325, AL Only #157; Age 24
• Must Own in: Deep Mixed, AL Only, Dynasty

People don’t remember that Young was the #1 pick in the country and the top prospect in baseball not that long ago.  His stock dropped quite a bit when the Rays dealt him for Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett.  How could the Rays let this guy go?  Well, the off the field issues really were the factor. Also, the Rays really needed a SS and they saw something in Bartlett.

I was touting Young last year and he made me look really stupid the first half of 2009, but a closer look at his 2^nd half along with his hot Spring Training, add up to a player who could be a breakout performer in 2010.

AL Sleeper: Philip Hughes SP, NYY

• ADP Mixed #310, AL Only #175; Age 23
• Must Own in: Deep Mixed, AL Only, Dynasty

As soon as Hughes was named the 5^th starter, his ADP started to skyrocket.  Any why not?  #5 SP on the Yankees should equal 15 wins right?  Well, I would suspect that Hughes will get 10-12 wins, along with 120 K’s and 4.00 ERA.  Great value for a guy being picked in the 300s.  The real key here is keeper/dynasty leagues where you reap the benefit of a guy who really started to come on last year as a middle reliever.

AL Sleeper: Alberto Callaspo 2B/3B, KC

• ADP AL Only #215 Age:26
• Must Own in: Deep Mixed, AL Only, Dynasty

I must admit; I’ve got a “mancrush” on Callaspo.  After back to back seasons hitting over .330 for AAA Arizona, and never getting a true shot to play everyday until last year, Callaspo came through in a big way, but people are STILL sleeping on the guy.  Even his own team doesn’t think he is good enough to start at 2B because he isn’t a slick fielding speedster KC wants.

Well, the good news is I was pumping Callaspo on Feb 1, and then KC trades for Chris Getz…making me look pretty stupid…but then Alex Gordon gets hurt and Callaspo goes from the outhouse to the fantasy penthouse.  Batting 3^rd and playing 3^rd is just what the doctor ordered.  Even when Gordon comes back I have to think they find a spot for him in the lineup.

AL Sleeper: Sean Rodriguez, 2B/OF, TB

• ADP AL Only #212 Age:24
• Owned in: Deep Mixed, AL Only, Dynasty

Last year the Rays dealt Scott Kazmir to the Angels in a cost cutting move, but also they had Wade Davis in the wings ready to go.  Kaz was ready to move on, and the Rays also were able to pry Sean Rodriguez away from the Angels.  Rodriguez wasn’t getting playing time and Mike Scoscia doesn’t like to play rookies unless forced (see Brandon Wood, and the older vet free agent bats they sign).  This trade has the potential to make the Rays look genius once again.

S-Rod has put up monster numbers in the spring and looks primed to take over at 2B, while Ben Zobrist moves to RF.  Rodriguez put up strong power numbers all throughout the minors leagues and is a great candidate to put up 20-25 hrs easily if he gets the at bats.  I would find a way to get his bat in the lineup everyday and let him mash.  The ceiling on this guy could be very high in fantasy especially with the 2B eligibilty.

AL Sleeper: Jason Frasor, RP, TOR

• ADP Mixed #315, AL Only #197
• Owned in: Deep Mixed, AL Only

Frasor was just named the Blue Jays closer, and for those who suffered in Florida/Chicago I think we all knew that would happen.  Sorry, Kevin Gregg, but you AREN’T a Major League Closer. I’m a huge advocate of buying saves on the cheap and late, and Frasor is a perfect fit.  Be careful though, I don’t think he will get more than 20 saves in 2010.

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* – Delmon Young photo credit: Reuters via NY Post

I doubt Carl Pohlad would approve. Washburn’s $10.35MM dollar contract is roughly 5x the payroll of our current starting staff, and he’d be no more than our 4th or 5th starter. The other part of the story that seems fishy is that we would be getting Jeff Clement in return. Clement was the 3rd overall pick in the 2005 draft and certainly has a lot of upside, but are we seriously going to acquire another young catcher? It smells like a Boston fan played a hand in this rumor as the assumption in acquiring Clement would be that Mauer is out the door after his contract expires in two years (most notably to Boston).

Would it be nice to have Jarrod Washburn in the rotation? Yes.

Would it be nice to have a top prospect in the wings? Yes.

Should we really be giving up Delmon Young in a deal that doesn’t fill either of our primary needs? No.

If we are dead-set on dealing Delmon Young, we should focus on the left side of the infield while grabbing a worthwhile setup man. Liriano, Slowey, Blackburn, and Baker will be excellent for years to come and with Humber, Mulvey, Swarzak, and Perkins among others for us to pick from, the Twins will definitely be able to fill out that 5th spot in the rotation by season start. By the way, Joe Mauer will be a life-long Twin. This may be the only time I ever say this, but the Twins will pay the big bucks to keep him around. Jeff Clement would be great, but the only time we’d ever use him would be to deal him down the road.

I’m not crazy about this deal. I don’t see the Twins picking up Washburn’s salary and I don’t see the Twins taking a high prospect in Jeff Clement when we have Joe Mauer. It just doesn’t make sense even though both would be nice to have around. I’m also not ready to give up on Delmon Young. Anybody else somewhat surprised that Beltre’s name wasn’t thrown into the mix when that story broke?

In other news, the Twins can officially cross Ty Wigginton’s name off their wishlist as the Baltimore Orioles signed him to a 2 year $6MM dollar deal today. Apparently, other offers were on the table (possibly the Twins?), but that second guaranteed year by Baltimore was enough to ink the deal.

The Chicago White Sox are reportedly going after Bobby Abreu. This comes as a shock to some as the White Sox claimed to be finished making moves this offseason, but the rumor is that they’ve already put a one year, $8MM deal on the table. Could they possibly fill their outfield with Dye, Quentin, and Abreu? It would be a defensive nightmare for Chicago, but their lineup would have as much pop as anybody’s. However, it’s practically a foregone conclusion that Jermaine Dye will be dealt if Abreu is a member of the White Sox next season. Regardless, it has to be exciting to have Ken Williams calling the shots, but I have to say, Twins fans have to like seeing Bobby Abreu’s name in that lineup rather than Jermaine Dye’s.

Scott Baker is thinking long term with the Twins. This is great news as Baker has many good years of baseball left. Here’s to hoping we can lock him up long term.

Former Twins pitcher Eddie Guardado just signed with the Texas Rangers today. Guardado was a key component of the Twins’ AL Central titles in the early part of the decade and its good seeing him get more work.

Let’s take a look at the action these last few months…

Nov 13th – Looking to deal Delmon Young
Nov 15th – Twins in on Blake
Dec 3rd – Twins front runner for Blake
Dec 6th – Twins out on Blake
Dec 11th – Beltre adds Twins to No-Trade Clause
Dec 14th – Twins interested in Wigginton
Dec 17th – Twins out on Wigginton
Dec 22nd – Twins in on Lyon (Delmon Young rumors fade)
Jan 9th – Twins in on Crede
Jan 9th – Twins out on Crede
Jan 15th – Twins in on Gagne
Jan 16th – Twins in heavy pursuit of Gagne, Lyon
Jan 19th – Twins closing in on Gagne
Jan 22nd – Twins in on Crede (again)
Jan 23rd – Crede, Gagne talks held up
Jan 24th – Twins out on Lyon (signs with Tigers)
Jan 28th – Twins out on Gagne
Jan 29th – Twins don’t offer Crede contract, other teams do, ‘remain interested’
Jan 29th – Twins looking to ‘trade’ for RP
Jan 29th – Twins in on Luis Ayala
Jan 31st – Twins looking to trade Delmon Young

The Twins appear to be as fickle as a 4-year old girl, but from the sequence of events it looks like there’s been a recent shift in focus from free agency towards filling our needs via trade. Whether we couldn’t find the right fit for the right price in free agency, or we’re just being typical Twins ‘cheap’, it seems like everything under the sun has fallen through via free agency (with the exception of Joe Crede, and that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast). This of course has lead to new rumors about Delmon Young’s status as a Twin…

Again, I really think we’d be selling Delmon very low.

But if we’re dead set on trading Delmon Young and we packaged him with a few pitching prospects, we should be able to acquire some pretty good talent. Could a J.J. Hardy be thrown back into the mix? Could Adrian Beltre talks be resurfacing here in a few weeks? What else could the Twins have up there sleeves?

Honestly, who knows. But the constant in and out of players, coupled with Young’s name resurfacing again, and that we are looking to ‘trade’ for talent, makes me think that we actually may be looking to move Delmon Young for 3B and RP help. Maybe his no-show at TwinsFest on Friday and Saturday was the last straw for Gardy and Co.

If we had to trade him, let’s really hope we get some value.

It’s also interesting to see how quickly Gagne’s name fell off after we were in hot pursuit of him for weeks…maybe the Twins just wanted to practice their negotiation skills with Scott Boras in preparation for Joe Crede…

Luis Ayala’s name has surfaced after Gagne, Lyon, and Springer’s names were cut from the Twins’ wishlist. Ayala actually put up really solid numbers throughout his career until last season.

A big red flag is that he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2006. He came back to finish strong in 2007 with a 3.19 ERA in 40+ appearances; however, last season he tallied a 5.71 ERA. Maybe last year was a combination of age, a heavier workload, and his Tommy John surgery, but whatever it was, we would probably be able to get him at a pretty cheap price. This would be another classic Twins signing: a risky player with upside potential that we could sign fairly cheaply.

In other news:

The White Sox are reportedly done with free agency.

The Tigers signed Brandon Lyon to be their closer. Lyon was in the mix to be a Twin for some time but decided that he wanted to fill the role as a team’s closer, something Minnesota would not have him do. This could be good news for the rest of the AL Central as Lyon’s numbers as a closer were horrific.

The Tigers also could be looking to deal some of their starting pitching, which makes sense. With Verlander, Bonderman, Galarraga, Jackson, Robertson, Willis, and Miner, they are certainly overstaffed. It’ll be interesting to see what they can get, because most of these guys would be sold low after last season.

The Indians were one of nine teams in attendance for Kris Benson’s work out.

The Royals gave Zack Greinke a four year extension.

C – Joe Mauer – $10.5MM

1B – Justin Morneau – $10.6MM

2B – Alexi Casilla – $450K

3B – Brendan Harris/Brian Buscher – $450K

SS – Nick Punto – 4.25M

LF – Delmon Young – $700K

CF – Denard Span – $400K

RF – Michael Cuddyer – $6.75MM

DH – Jason Kubel – $1.3MM+

SP – Scott Baker – $423K

SP – Francisco Liriano – $400K

SP – Kevin Slowey – $400K

SP – Nick Blackburn – $400K

SP – Glen Perkins – $400K

RP – Joe Nathan – $11.25MM

RP – Jesse Crain – $1.7MM

RP – Matt Guerrier – $950K+

RP – Pat Neshek – $435K

RP – Boof Bonser – $433K

RP – Craig Breslow – $400K

RP – Jose Mijares – $400K

Bench – C – Mike Redmond – 950K

Bench – 3B – Brendan Harris/Brian Buscher – $450K

Bench – IF – Matt Tolbert – $400K

Bench – OF – Carlos Gomez – $400K

Others on Payroll: Mike Lamb – $3MM

That’s a full 25 man roster tallying to a cool $58.2 million dollars.

In 2007 before we let go of Hunter, Santana and Silva’s contracts, our team salary was at $71.4 million dollars, quite a bit higher than the 58.2 million we stand at now. It would appear as if we should have room to spend and that our team payroll could be anywhere from $70–80 million if management decided to spend at previous years’ numbers plus increase, leaving $12-22 million dollars of unspent payroll.

So what would our options be?

1. Trade for Adrian Beltre at 3B – Should be at a price $12 million next year and players (possibly a mix of Cuddyer/Perkins/Prospect)? Beltre added the Twins to his no-trade clause list most likely by recommendation of his agent Scott Boras in order to have bargaining chips down the road (i.e. compensation for waiving his no trade clause).

2. Sign Ty Wigginton at 3B – Expect $6-8 million/yr and 3 years plus based on Ty wanting a bigger contract than Casey Blake’s 3 year $17.5 million dollar deal to the Dodgers. Talks seem to have come to a halt in December and the Indians have shown interest.

3. Sign Joe Crede at 3B – Could go anywhere from $2-6 million based on his health and where the market for him is at in a month. The Giants seem to think he’s healthy enough to start pursuing. Should only be a one year deal.

4. Trade for Garrett Atkins at 3B – Salary in the $5 million dollar per year range. Rockies are asking quite a bit for him though (Slowey + Prospects).

So it looks like after the Blake and DeRosa talks fell through we’ve run a little thin on options. Unless we take a good stab at Ty Wigginton and give him a 3^rd year, I believe we’ll be looking at another year of the Harris/Buscher platoon. Joe Crede’s another option that I think is viable, we just haven’t heard much about it from the Twins camp and depending on his health he probably wouldn’t be much of an impact. The Garrett Atkins deal just asks way too much from the Twins (no way the Twins give up Slowey for just about anyone at this point).

The Adrian Beltre option, if it went down as described, is preferred but would be a one year rental (plus this means having Scott Boras around which is certainly not something the Twins want to have on their plate). Grabbing Adrian Beltre though, even in a rental situation, makes this team incredibly dangerous and may be this team’s hope for a World Series run. Unfortunately, Seattle probably wants more than described above and are rumored to be unreasonable in the negotiations around a Beltre deal.

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Guys I would be looking to deal:

Cuddyer – Big contract and we’re overstocked in the outfield.

Punto – Poor production and unfortunately a new big contract.

Perkins – The weakest of our young starting pitching staff. We have a lot of talent in the minors.

Kubel – If the price was right.

Harris/Buscher – If anybody wanted them in a package and we got a 3B in return.

Guys I would NOT be looking to deal:

Liriano/Slowey/Baker/Blackburn – All young cheap studs. Very underrated pitching staff. Many would argue Blackburn is in the “deal” mix if the price was right, but his performance in the play-in game was stellar. When October rolls around this guy will come to play.

Gomez/Young/Span – This is the future of our outfield. Young and loaded with talent.

Mauer/Morneau – For obvious reasons.

Casilla – Young, talented, fast, and versatile with a decent bat. Can’t look for much more out of a guy playing 2^nd base these days.

Speaking of Nick Punto’s new contract: Since when have the Twins overspent on somebody this much? A guy that hit .284 with 2 dingers last year (not to mention a .210 batting average the year before with nearly 500 AB’s!) can not be worth over 4 million a year. Now that the Cubs have signed a similar player in Aaron Miles to a deal half that of Punto’s (Miles has slightly more attractive stats including a .317 average last season) some Twins fans, including myself, have found themselves a little perplexed. Why would we give Punto such a big contract? Maybe he’s just that much of a “gamer” and has too much defensive ability to deny. Maybe he’s just simply that integral to our team chemistry. Maybe it’s just that inspiring to the clubhouse that when he actually hits a home run, it rallies our team for months. Maybe the Twins just have that much of an infatuation with him, knowing that we should trade him away, we signed him to a big contract in hopes some other team takes it on after we deal him away (for say J.J. Hardy, fair?) giving Nick some extra cash. Whatever the case, the contract was too big for a guy who it can be debated whether or not should have a starting job in the major leagues. I love the guy as a competitor, but his numbers are killing us. Fun fact: Nick Punto will be making roughly twice that of our entire starting rotation next year.

Another guy that we should hold onto and that’s been in dozens of rumors is Delmon Young. Ron Gardenhire was quoted in December as saying our starting lineup next year would consist of Span, Gomez, and Cuddyer obviously leaving out the former 1^st overall pick Delmon Young. This seemingly opened the door for Young to be dealt and the rumors flew in.

Wait a minute…

Yes he only hit 10 homers and yes he only hit .290 last year. But, the guy did that as a 22 year old in the majors. At 22! It seems like sometimes we drool over prospects that do that in the minors at the same age. I would hope we give him plenty time to develop being that there aren’t many guys in the game with as high of a ceiling as Delmon. He’s the definition of a low risk, high potential type of player that I would think the Twins would love to have. Worst case scenario, he doesn’t pan out and we pull one of our talented guys playing well in the minors up to fill in, but I really think this guy could do us wonders in a few years as long as his attitude problems are kept in check.

I’m certainly hoping that the Gardenhire quote was a ploy to increase Cuddyer’s trade value.

In other AL Central news today:

Former White Sox Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. could be heading back to the Mariners.

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