Well, as the hours tick away it seems more and more like Dougie will be staying a Twin, and the morning papers paint a rather dark picture of the first baseman's mental state.

From the :

Doug Mientkiewicz was back in the Twins' lineup Friday night. Yes, the final lineup the manager posted.

But it didn't help ease any of the anxiety the first baseman has expressed since being told a week ago he could be traded. And it didn't diminish the team's fears he would be hard to live with if he's not traded.

"It's hard to perform for someone who doesn't want you. That's the bottom line,'' Mientkiewicz said before going 3 for 3 and driving in both Twins runs in an 8-2 loss to Boston in the Metrodome.

"That's not true,'' Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. "He is wanted. It's just a matter of how things are going to play themselves out.''

And Patrick Reusse writes that Dougie and the whole First Wives Club are nothing but a big mess, not to mention that there's a wee tension with Mr. M. and Mr. Gardy:

Long before Friday's first pitch, a Twins veteran was sitting in civilian clothes in the home dugout, talking on a cell phone. When the conversation ended, he looked down the bench at a loitering reporter and said:

"Is Dougie stuck here now?"...

...On Monday morning, the Star Tribune published a story by baseball writer La Velle E. Neal III revealing that Mientkiewicz had been told he would be traded. Then, on Tuesday night, he was scratched from the lineup after initiating a brief pregame meeting with Gardenhire.

It was official: The manager had made a bad read of his high-strung first baseman. He was having a tough time handling the truth about where he stood now that slugger Justin Morneau had come to stay.

On Thursday night, Mientkiewicz further fueled the controversy during the radio interview. He took a variety of shots at Gardenhire, the nastiest of which came at the end of the interview when asked if he could "mend fences" with his manager.

"It's going to take a lot of conversations," Mientkiewicz said. "It's not going to be easy. If I can be a man, I hope someone else can be a man, too, and fess up."

And here, before last night's game, Dougie and Scotty Ullger exchange a nice snuggle. (Thanks to Batgirl's esteemed readership for the link.)