Notes, quotes and comment

It's a typical week for the White Sox coming to Minnesota. You spend a nice day here and get your [rear] kicked. I don't see anything different ever since I started managing this club.

— Pale Hose skipper Ozzie Guillen after the Twins completed a three-game sweep on Wednesday.

Comment: Guillen took over the Sox for the 2004 season. Under his guideance, the White Sox have a record of 484-429, .530 (and, of course, a World Series title). Against the Twins, the Sox are 52-53, .495. That breaks down as 29-23 for Chicago in their park, 23-30 in the Metrodome.

Which leads us to another Ozzie quote from Wednesday:

I want to see these piranhas in a different lake next year. I want to see these piranhas hit in 20-below.

* The New York Times says Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were among the positive tests in the 2003 "confidential" tests.

Comment: Anybody surprised by this hasn't been paying attention.

* Rany Jazayerli opines that his favorite club, the Kansas City Royals, should deal Alberto Callaspo to the Twins. (You have to get almost to the end of a lengthy post to get to this part.)

Before I delve into this: Jazayerli may nor may not understand the Twins approach; if he understands it, he certainly doesn't buy into it. And I don't believe that he offers any real insight to the thinking of the Royals front office; indeed, if Rany's got a strong viewpoint on something, the odds are that the Royals think almost exactly the opposite. So this is no reason to believe there's anything cooking here.

That caveat given: There's no way the Twins are dealing Ben Revere for Callaspo. The only way they'd consider doing Carlos Gomez for Callaspo is if the Twins believe Callaspo is a better defensive player than Jazayerli does. Delmon Young? The Twins might not have been willing to make such a swap last winter; I think they would now.

But ... when the Twins traded for Alexi Casilla (they sent J.C. Romero to the Angels for him), Callaspo was still in the LAA organization. I remember at the time wishing the Twins had landed Callaspo or Erick Aybar in that trade (I saw them play for Cedar Rapids one summer night in 2003 and was very impressed with both).

I don't know if the Twins asked for Callaspo at the time and were turned down; I don't know if they preferred Casilla. If they liked Casilla more in 2005, they might be reluctant now to decide they were wrong then.