A few thoughts and questions with the Yankees coming to town:

*Ben Revere made two extraordinary catches to rob Delmon Young of extra-base hits on Wednesday night. Young's departure makes it more likely that Revere and Denard Span could be part of the Twins outfield in 2012. My question is who plays left and who plays center. Do you want Revere's hyper-range in center field even though he has a below-average arm and has been error prone? I know that Span has said that he's established himself as a center fielder and feels like that's his position, but -- in terms of his ability to cover ground -- Revere is a freak.

Using the Ultimate Zone Rating statistic as a guide doesn't help. Span's UZR, based on playing 150 games, is 19.2; Revere's is 19.0. Revere's number is booted by the number of plays he makes outside of the standard "center field zone." and hurt by his seven errors in 185 chances .By comparison, Michael Cuddyer's UZR/150 is minus-4.1 and Jason Kubel's is minus-7.9. Assuming Span is 100 percent in 2012, what do you do?

Here's information about UZR for those who are feeling a little bit lost.

*A lot of people disagreed with my thought that the Twins should keep Jim Thome for the rest of the season. Most put it in polite terms, that the Twins should ask Thome what he wants and then attempt to satisfy him -- and I don't have a lot of trouble with that. But here's the deal, in terms of trading him now: If the Twins try to get him through waivers, the White Sox would currently have a chance to claim him before other American League teams with better records.

And with Adam Dunn being such a huge left-handed disappointment for the White Sox, claiming Thome would be a natural thing for the White Sox to do. TwinsCentric blogger John Bonnes goes deeper on the idea of Thome going to the White Sox in this post. Are Twins fans so darn nice that they'd be OK with Thome helping the White Sox get to the postseason?

*If you're really looking to kill time one of these days (and numbers don't make you dizzy), the Fangraphs website is a place you should explore. For example, you can find all kinds of ways to break down Joe Mauer's performance. In the site's monthly catcher rankings, Joe Mauer is currently No. 8. One caveat: The list is geared toward fantasy baseball, so keep things in that context. You can also find an assortment of takes on Mauer's value in other essays -- and a statistic that takes his wins above replacement player (WAR) value and translates it into a "dollar scale" of what a player would make in free agency based on that number.

In 2009, just before he signed his sweet deal, Mauer's "dollar scale" value was $35.4 million. In 2011, it's ... well... you go look it up.

*Does anyone else think that major-league rosters should expand beyond 25 players? Back in the day when starters pitched complete games and closers went more than one inning, teams typically had staffs of ten pitchers. Now, in an era of 12- and 13-man staffs, managers are much more limited in matching players to situations. I think adding a couple of players to the end of the bench would provide for more strategy -- as long as those spots aren't taken by even more pitchers.

*Finally a piece of CC Sabathia trivia to bring to tonight's game. In July, Sabathia gave up four earned runs in five starts. In his last two starts, he's given up 12 earned runs in 14 innings.