FanHouse Brian Buscher

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the...

Absolute best team in baseball that you've never heard of. The Twins don't spend a lot of money nor do they make a lot of headlines. What they are good at, however, is winning. The Twins won the American League Central Division every year from 2002 to 2004 and again in 2006. In 2007 they finished third in the division and in 2008 they lost a one-game playoff to just miss the post season. This team wins with a small-ball, almost National League feel or approach.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Chicago White Sox
The buzz around White Sox camp is position battles. Up for grabs is the third base position, center field and second base. Josh Fields and Dayan Viciedo are fighting for third and Fields has the leg up. Both hitters can mash the ball and both play suspect defense; although Fields is improving. Fields worked extensively this off-season at Camp Cora and Cora mentioned that everyone would be shocked with what they see out of Fields this year. He has three hits in six at-bats with two doubles so far this spring. Jayson Nix and his four hits in six at-bats with two doubles seem to be taking over as front-runner for the second base job thought to belong to Chris Getz. DeWayne Wise is being called the "best player this spring" and may be taking the center field job from injured Jerry Owens.

After what seemed like an entire winter of speculation, Joe Crede has finally agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins today. La Velle Neal is reporting that it's worth about $2.5 million with a ton of incentives that could push the deal as high as $7 million for Crede.

If you're keeping track at home, that means that Crede's base salary is about half of what he made last year and it's even less than what Ty Wigginton, who's a pretty good comp for Crede, is pulling in in Baltimore, though the incentives can push him higher than both numbers. That makes this a pretty solid deal for both Minnesota, who needs a third baseman, and and Crede, who was surely hoping for a bigger base salary but at least has a chance to make it on the field.

The Minnesota Twins are probably pretty sad to see the All-Star break come along, as four days off is the last thing a team wants when they're playing as well as Minnesota is. Since June 17th, the Twins have gone 19-6 and are only 1.5 games behind the White Sox in the AL Central.

Things have been going so well that general manager Bill Smith came out last week and said he didn't really see the Twins looking to make any additions come deadline time, but it turns out a three-game sweep at the hands of the Red Sox last week may have gotten Smith to change his mind. The Twins have been having some conversations with the Seattle Mariners about third baseman Adrian Beltre.

The Twins recently contacted Seattle to inquire about third baseman Adrian Beltre as they look for ways to boost their offense against lefthanded pitching, a club source said.

It's unclear how deep the discussions got, but the Twins decided to act on the internal discussions they had about the Mariners slugger.

Beltre is currently hitting .259/.329/.440 with 16 homers and 46 runs driven in, and he's also scheduled to make $12 million this season and next. He does have a limited no trade clause in his contract though that allows him to block a trade to eight teams. I think it's safe to say the Twins aren't one of them, or else the Mariners wouldn't be discussing the deal.

As for whether or not this would be a good move for the Twins, I'm not entirely sure. Beltre's defense would fit right in in Minnesota, and his 16 bombs are more than anybody else on the Twins, but he's also been battling a wrist injury all season. There's no guarantee it will hold up through the second half. The Twins may want to sit back a little longer to see how Brian Buscher works out, as he's hitting surprisingly well (.316/.341/.418) in 85 at bats, and has played pretty good defense at the hot corner.