Every month or so, BG does The Blogger's Minute on CCO's Twins Magazine Show with Rita Maloney. Here is today's version.

Well, Rita, Terry Ryan has made a lot of great trades in his tenure, and for some time it looked like the Pierzynski trade, landing us Joe Nathan, Boof, and your 2006 Cy Young award winner The Francisco Kid, was going to go down as the best trade of the decade. But even that has been recently overshadowed by the trade he made on June 9 of this year—that of powerful but inconsistent first baseman Justin Morneau for slugger and future MVP Justin Morneau.

The first Morneau was expected to be the slugger of the future as he came up through the organization, and when he finally reached the bigs he did not disappoint. He made a general habit of hitting the snot out of the ball, including one home run in Miller Park that traveled all the way back to Minneapolis. But then the scouts figured out how to get to him and he began to flounder. Morneau hit his low the next winter when Yahweh decided to test his faith by giving him appendicitis, pleurisy, pneumonia, boils, leprosy, and Vitamin-A deficiency. The first baseman kept his faith despite the troubles, but couldn't seem to find his swing.

"He's a great kid," said Terry Ryan after the trade was made. "We'll miss him a lot, but we needed to inject some power into the line-up."

"He's got tons of potential," agreed Ron Gardenhire. "I think he could thrive in another organization."

As for the new Morneau, he's been nothing but dazzling as a Twin. He's homered 8 times since joining the team two weeks ago, and is second in the league in RBIs. But it's not just his numbers that have impressed his teammates. His leadership, magnetic personality, and Jacque Jones-like easy smile have earned rave reviews.

"He's such a fun guy," said Torii Hunter. "And he's a kickin' DJ. I've always been pretty west side, but that guy's North Side, if you know what I mean."

We sure do.