On the fringe of the roster

If you are addicted to SportsCenter, you know already that today is the start of the free agent season.

Which means that today the likes of Carl Pavano, Orlando Cabrera and Mike Redmond officially dropped off the Twins' 40-man roster.

The Twins added six players to the 40-man roster, which (at least for now) protects them from the Rule V draft next month. They're at 40 now, so if they want to take somebody in the Rule V draft — and they usually do — somebody's got to be cleared off it. And, for that matter, if they sign a free agent, somebody's got to be cleared off it.

Here's the press release by the Twins announcing the moves. Here's the current 40-man roster.

Few of the additions have much chance of setting foot in Target Field in 2010. Danny Valencia is in the third-base mix as of now. Rob Delaney, like Valencia, opened 2009 in Double A and was moved up to Triple A; in his case, however, there doesn't appear to be a job sitting there to be taken. Other than those two, the additions are just creeping into Double A.

Loek Van Mil, the 7-1 pitcher from the Netherlands, is the guy I'm pulling for. I have no idea if he's going to be a successful pitcher, if if he makes it to the Show, he'll be the tallest player in major league history.