Hartman: Twins look for healing, not trades to help them

Bill Smith says he isn't planning to make any trades right now. The Twins general manager would rather wait for the return of injured players such as Jason Kubel, Justin Morneau, Kevin Slowey, Delmon Young and Denard Span from the disabled list.

"Of the group, all of them except Morneau and maybe Kubel are expected to back in the near future," Smith said. "Those are the best additions we could make."

An indication of how the Twins are hurting was evident in a 12-5 loss against Tampa Bay on Wednesday, when the outfield was made up of rookie Ben Revere (hitting .269), Rene Tosoni (.177) and Jason Repko (.235).

All three would be on the bench if the regular outfielders were healthy, with Young in left field, Span in center and Michael Cuddyer in right. Cuddyer played first base on Wednesday.

The positive side is that despite all of the injured players, the Twins have won their past three series at home.

They are now eight games behind Cleveland in the American League Central, and they have a good chance to move up because their next 16 games are against Central Division opponents -- at the White Sox for four games, then at Target Field for four games each with Kansas City, Cleveland and Detroit following the All-Star break. Those games will make or break the Twins as far as any hope of repeating as division champions.

One thing for sure, Smith said, is the team can't afford any more injuries. "We don't have anybody right now at Rochester that are tearing it up," he said. "Part of the reason for that is we've had to bring a lot of them up here."

If closer Matt Capps continues to falter like he has in his past two appearances, and Alex Burnett and Phil Dumatrait continue to get hammered like they did Wednesday, giving up four and three runs respectively, the Twins will need some bullpen help.

Everything seems great when the starters pitch deep into the game. But except for Glen Perkins and Joe Nathan of late, the bullpen has been a disaster.

Cuddyer a winner The Twins' record when Cuddyer gets a hit, over the 11 years he has been with the club, has been 425-303. In games in which he gets an RBI, their record is 245-105.

The Twins' record when Cuddyer just plays in a game is 579-497, a winning percentage of .538.

Cuddyer has driven in 10 runs in his past five games, accounting for 34 percent of the Twins' runs in that span (10 of 29).

Twins President Dave St. Peter said the team continues to rank fourth in average home attendance, at 39,156. Only the Phillies (45,473), Yankees (44,139) and Giants (41,736) rank ahead of the Twins, who have sold out 31 of 39 games and have played to 99 percent of capacity.

Jottings The Pohlad family, which is now spending $40 million remodeling the historic Ford Center across the street from Target Field, is now in the process of trying to buy the Shapco Printing building in the same area. The Pohlad real estate branch apparently has plans to do something around Target Field.

There isn't any doubt the Vikings will sign placekicker Ryan Longwell because they want him and he definitely wants to stay here.

Twins vice president of operations Matt Hoy reports the club has its own full-time meteorologist in Craig Edwards, the former chief of the Twins Cities office of the National Weather Service.

Former Twins outfielder Torii Hunter, now with the Angels, is a four-time All-Star but finished 22nd this year among outfielders with 927,270 votes.

Persephone "Sammy" Lydia Taylor, mother of Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, died this past weekend. She was 92, but until the past couple of years, she attended a lot of Wolves games and you could get into a good NBA conversation with her. She knew her basketball.

Former Twins Matt Garza and Philip Humber staged a pitchers' duel in Chicago on Saturday. Humber got the victory for the White Sox, throwing seven shutout innings and giving up five hits and three walks and striking out four to lower his ERA to 2.69. Garza took the loss for the Cubs, but he pitched a complete game, giving up one run on four hits and two walks while striking out seven. Humber is now 8-4 and has pitched 103 2/3 innings. Coming into this season, Humber had a 2-1 career record and had pitched only 51 1/3 innings in parts of five major league seasons. Garza is now 4-7 with a 3.77 ERA.

Eric Klein, the outstanding weight coach who new Gophers football coach Jerry Kill brought with him to Minnesota, reports the standouts in the weight room, where the players lift almost every day even in the summer, are running back Duane Bennett with 405 pounds in the bench press, defensive lineman Curran Delaney with 635 pounds in the squat and defensive ends Anthony Jacobs and Ra'Shede Hageman with 550 pounds in the hang clean.