The Twins most glaring roster deficiency was exposed late in the game on Thursday night. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth and the Rangers leading by a run, Josh Hamilton laced a triple that split Ben Revere and Jason Kubel. Due to the overuse of the other arms (Capps, Nathan, Burnett, etc), the left-handed Phil Dumatrait, a minor league free agent that had spent the bulk of the season in Rochester, would be left to face the Rangers right-handed delegates. Dumatrait quickly fell behind Michael Young – who was two-for-three on the night – and the Twins called a mound conference and made the decision to put Young on first to pitch to the dangerous Nelson Cruz, who was oh-for-the-game. The prevailing logic was that Young was swinging a hot bat while Cruz was ice cold. This would have been the perfect time for Ron Gardenhire to bring in his lights-out, death-to-same-sided-hitters right-hander out of the 'pen. The problem is there is no lights-out right-handed reliever. Alex Burnett has ranged from brutal mess-to-adequate while Anthony Swarzak has been able to chew through multiple innings when need. Neither is ideal during those high leverage innings in the latter third of the game. Matt Capps now serves as the right-handed set-up man but given his heavy usage in the beginning of the season (which may have led to his poor performance) the Twins would be better served curtailing his deployment in the second-half. All three had thrown recently too. This left Dumatrait to battle Cruz. With the non-waiver trade deadline a little over 48 hours away, let's take a look at some of the arms the Twins have been associated with and some arms that they are not currently linked to but, for the sake of fiscal responsibility, should be considering:

As a recent article in ESPN the Magazine pointed out, teams typically trade with other teams that they have familiarity with. In the cases of Washington, Baltimore, Oakland and Colorado, the Twins have had recent interactions with them (although we might want to forget the outcomes of the Washington-Baltimore deals). This may increase the likelihood of a transaction happening between those clubs as opposed to forging ground to get Lopez in Houston or another team. At the end of the day, the Twins are focused on ensuring whatever move they make not only helps this season but also has an impact for next year – which is why the majority of these moves make sense as are all are available in 2012.

For all of the instant analysis that goes along with the trade deadline madness, you can follow the TwinsCentric group on Twitter – including John, Seth, Nick and myself – to stay on top of the latest rumors and maneuvers. Feel free to ask us any questions or bounce your trade ideas off of us.