High on the fretting list for Twins fans is the contract status of several key players.  Who knows how many passionate followers are losing sleep over whether center fielder Torii Hunter and second baseman Luis Castillo will be back after this season, or whether pitchers Johan Santana and Joe Nathan are gone at the end of 2008?  First baseman Justin Morneau and outfielder Michael Cuddyer, are free agents following the 2009 season. 

I asked team president Dave St. Peter to offer fans advice about the challenge the organization faces in retaining most of its best players as expiring contracts approach. “Be patient,” St. Peter said.  “Things have a way of sorting their way out.  I think this organization has proven that over time we can maintain a competitive team.  …There’s no question we have very difficult decisions to make.  Our players will have difficult decisions to make.  It takes two to certainly make these things go but at the end of the day I think there’s a rush to judgment and people tend to panic. 

“One thing that I think that the Pohlads deserve a lot of credit for is they make sure the leaders of their businesses don’t make decisions until they have to make those decisions.  We’ll address those (decisions) as they come.    

“Certainly we believe that the future of this organization is very bright and that we will find ways to maintain the nucleus.  Does that mean everybody will be here?  I don’t know.  I am not saying that.  But there’s been a lot of good players that have gone on to play for other organizations over the last several years.  Yet the Twins have found ways to continue to be competitive and I expect that will still be the case here as we move into the new ballpark.” 

The Twins begin play in their new warehouse district ballpark in 2010 and club revenues will expand.  St. Peter said the increased revenue, though, won’t have a significant impact on budgeting for the years leading up to 2010 because the Twins will still be playing in the Metrodome.     

“Our payroll has probably increased as much as any team in baseball over the course of the last five or six years,” St. Peter said. …“We’re still playing in the Metrodome, probably the worst revenue facility in major league baseball and yet we’ve got a payroll now that’s north of $70 million.  If you had told me that five years ago I would have told you, you were crazy but we’ve been able to drive the payroll really thanks to ownership.” 

St. Peter expects to have a payroll in 2010 that is average compared with other major league teams.  “Payroll has never really been the driving force here for the Twins,” he said.  “It’s all about making good baseball decisions.  If that means the payroll is going to go up, it’s going to go up.  If it means we can stay competitive where we’re at, we’ll stay where we’re at.  The roster will dictate the payroll, versus the payroll dictating the roster.  We’re trying to put players out there to be in a position to help us win.  We’ve proven we can certainly do that with a payroll well below the league average.”

With so many contracts to be addressed and mega money involved, only the most optimistic observers think the Twins will retain all their star players.  All are capable of strong production in the future, making them attractive to other teams on the open market, and two of them, Santana and Morneau, could negotiate some of the biggest money in baseball’s free agency market.  Talk is commonplace that Santana’s next contract will total over $100 million.

Gopher coach Tim Brewster’s goal is to have a “top 20” college football recruiting class for 2008.  Brewster and his assistant coaches have devoted extraordinary time and energy the last several months to making their first recruiting group one of the best in school history.

“We will be very, very disappointed if we don’t have a top 20 recruiting class in the country,” Brewster told Sports Headliners.  “…Obviously, if we’re in the top 20 in the country, then…we’ll be in the upper end of the Big Ten (Conference) which is where we need to be, which is where we should be.”

Beyond 2008?  Brewster expects to set the goal at top 15 or better in recruiting rankings.  “Each and every year I think we’ll take steps of re-establishing ourselves as one of the elite programs in college football,” he said.  “Without question that’s going to be accomplished. … 

“I couldn’t be any more excited about how the (recruiting) process is evolving to this point.  We’ve made tremendous inroads in the state of Minnesota and in the country in areas in which we targeted. … California, Texas, Florida where we’re going to go get dynamic football players that can help us win a championship.   

“And then obviously it’s got to translate on the field.  We’ve gotta win.  More than anything that’s what’s going to help us in recruiting, when kids see our style of play.  When they see a brand new on-campus football stadium it’s going to be huge in allowing us to return to greatness.” 

Brewster won’t know the complete recruiting results until signing day in February but the bar has been set high and is going higher.  A verbal commitment in the fall from one or more high school superstars will add further evidence of Gopher progress.  No potential commitment looms larger than that of Cretin-Derham Hall wide receiver Michael Floyd, considered one of the elite school boy players in the country.  Another barometer will be Brewster’s son Nolan, a consensus choice as a top safety, who currently is committed to Texas.

The Sporting News ranks the Vikings’ group of wide receivers last among the 16 NFC teams.  The Cardinals’ wide receivers rank No. 1 and Minneapolis native Larry Fitzgerald, Jr. is rated the fifth best receiver in the conference.

Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano, out for the season following surgery last November on his left elbow, was 9-3 with a 1.99 ERA at this date last season, according to stats on espn.com. Those numbers look imposing on a 2007 pitching staff that only has one pitcher, Johan Santana, with more than six wins.

Santana, Torii Hunter, Joe Mauer, Albert Pujolz, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz are players Twins president Dave St. Peter would pay to see play. He said, “I don’t think there‘s been a better pitcher in baseball” than Santana and he praised Ortiz, a former Twin now with the Red Sox.  “He’s proven himself as an incredible clutch hitter…and he’s also just a wonderful guy, a great human being,” St. Peter said. 

The ACC didn’t lessen its reputation as America’s premier college basketball league in last week’s NBA draft.  The ACC led all conferences with six first round picks.  The Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-10 each had four.  Ohio State provided three of the four Big Ten picks, with Alando Tucker of Wisconsin going late in the first round to Phoenix.  There were only two Big Ten players chosen in the second round, Carl Landry of Purdue and Adam Haluska of Iowa.  Former Minneapolis North and Wisconsin guard Kammron Taylor wasn’t drafted.

Approximately 150 Twin Cities-area families will open their homes to over 300 international players during this year’s Schwan’s USA Cup, presented by Puma.  The tournament, July 13-21 at the National Sports Center in Blaine, is the largest gathering of youth soccer teams in the hemisphere.  Last year’s tournament featured 898 teams from 28 states and 17 countries, and it is expected that this year’s tournament will draw similar numbers.  Daily attendance may average 25,000.