The Strib is filled with talk of trading Torii Hunter, the Twins de facto captain, today:

Is Torii on the Way Out?

Jim Souhan:Don't Even Think About It

A few months ago, Batgirl thought the idea of trading Torii was ludicrous; he's the team's marquee player. During the clubhouse celebration after the Twins clinched last year, Terry Ryan spent most of it clenching Torii to him and whispering to him lovingly--it wasn't hard to figure out his message: You're my guy. They use him to market the team and he puts butts in seats and gets the Twins on Baseball Tonight. It doesn't seem so ludicrous now; he's been gone for two months and the team is grimly plodding along without him, there's clearly been conflict between Torii and some of the new players, and it seems he might be miserable next year if they do lose JJ.

Nonethless, BG says trading Torii would be asinine. Yes, she's biased--Torii touched Batgirl in a way she'd never been touched before. But after a dismal and discouraging year, losing the grinning, shiny-domed face of the team would be a kick in the stomach, a move entirely based on payroll, another sign that Pohlad cares nothing for the team itself and only for his pocketbook--and Batgirl, for one, would be livid and would lose some of her enthusiasm for the team. Unless we can trade Torii for David Ortiz, there's no way we could make up for what we've lost--are there really two hitters at 5 million a piece that are going to both fill Torii's vacuum and help make the team better on top of that? We need to add RBIs, and a lot of them. We don't need to lose another 75-RBI guy (and on the Twins, that's a lot). We need a few veterans on this team--losing Koskie, Batgirl thinks, was the card that caused our delicate house to collapse. We need guys that leap over walls to make catches. As Souhan says--there are some things more important than math, whether it be .OPS or that all-consuming all-important payroll. Baseball isn't just numbers, it's an emotional game--the Tigers, for instance, have plenty of hitters but no team, and they will languish under .500 again.

We need hitters, that is clear, and we're going to have to make some sacrifices. But this one doesn't make sense, either practically or, more important, symbolically.

Trade Hunter and you'll have one discouraged, disheartened Batgirl.

Please discuss, but remember this is an emotional issue and please stay respectful.