Tender Deadline Passed, Mitchell Report Due

Just a couple quick notes, as I really need to study for my finals:

-Last night was the deadline to tender contracts to unsigned players. As mentioned before, the Twins non-tendered Jason Tyner, while tendering contracts to their other 5 arbitration-eligible players: Justin Morneau, Juan Rincon, Jason Kubel, Matt Guerrier, and Michael Cuddyer. Some people thought that Rincon might be let go, but I'm not surprised they held onto him.

-Here's a complete list of non-tenders. The three guys I think the Twins should at least consider are 3B Morgan Ensberg, 3B Dallas McPherson, and SP Mark Prior. Prior will probably end up getting a good deal of money somewhere, but if his price isn't too high it would be an interesting signing. He missed all of 2007 and won't be ready to pitch until the middle of the season. McPherson was a former top prospect (40 homers in the minors one year) who has struggled in his small amount of injury-riddled playing time in the bigs. He missed all of 2007 as well, but is still only 27 and has only had 384 plate appearances in the majors. He should come pretty cheaply, and if able to turn his career around, would still be under the Twins' control for a couple of years. Ensberg is the least attractive of the three, as he is 32 years old and struggled mightily last year, but I see potential for a Mike Lowell-like turnaround. Or he could just be another Tony Batista.

-Former Senator George Mitchell is supposed to announce the findings of his investigation on steroids today at 2 PM. I know that the names in this report are just going to be random ones (meaning that it's just going to be a few guys out of the whole of users who are accused, and very possibly even some innocent guys), but I just hope no Twins are named so that I don't have to have second thoughts about rooting for them. The only guy that I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see named is Rincon, as a result of his suspension a couple years ago.