Sid Hartman: Hunter will stay if Twins' offer is right

The Twins have a good chance to sign Torii Hunter if they are willing to meet his demand of a five-year contract calling for $15 million a year or $75 million in guaranteed money.

Earlier this year, Hunter turned down the Twins' offer of a three-year contract for $45 million, but people close to the center fielder say he wants to stay here and would accept the five-year offer.

The Twins have said they want their total payroll to be about 50-52 percent of their revenue. With that model, what it comes down to is that the Twins could be facing a choice of keeping either pitcher Johan Santana or Hunter. Keeping both would have a serious impact on the payroll in the years to come, perhaps hurting their ability to sign other players such as Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau.

By keeping Hunter and trading Santana, who has one more year on his contract before he can become a free agent, the Twins might be able to acquire the third baseman and designated hitter they need.

Without Hunter, the Twins are going to have a harder time marketing a team that struggled at the end of the season. Losing their longtime popular center fielder will make it harder for the Twins to sell tickets.

Hunter wants to play in the new Twins stadium, which is set to open in 2010, for more than one season. The Twins should do all they can to make this happen.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in baseball, there is a lot of speculation over what is going to happen to Joe Torre, the New York Yankees manager for the past 12 years but who might not be back for a 13th.

And there is little doubt that the leading candidate for the Yankees managerial job is coach Don Mattingly.

Edge to offense

Vikings linebacker Ben Leber believes the NFL has set up all its rules in favor of offenses rather than defenses.

"You can't touch quarterbacks anymore, they get really ticky-tack on pass interference and holding calls, and they're giving offensive players a whole bunch of leeway when they push off of us in coverage," Leber said. "So I think there's a little bit of a double standard, but that's the way the game is. They want scoring and they want excitement, and that's how they can get it."

Leber said defensive players can get penalized for being aggressive.

Dunbar remembered

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, whose team plays host to the Gophers on Saturday, is a big supporter of Gophers offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar. The two were on the Northwestern staff together from 2001 to '05, with Dunbar spending four of those years as Wildcats offensive coordinator.

Dunbar put in the spread offense the Wildcats are using, so maybe he can give the Gophers defensive staff some tips on how to stop it.

"Obviously, Mike is held in the highest respect and highest regard in this program," Fitzgerald said at his Monday news conference. "[He's] a great member of our family that brought so much success to the program while he was here, and a great impact on our recruits and a lot of our young men. ... It'll be a lot of fun and great to see him."

During the five-year period Dunbar was on the staff, the Wildcats were 17-23 in Big Ten play. But they were 4-4 in 2003 and 5-3 in 2004 and '05. Dunbar then went to California last year, and the Golden Bears had 531 yards of total offense in a 42-17 nonconference victory over the Gophers.

Twins President Dave St. Peter said the team will try to get the major league All-Star Game at its new stadium for either 2014 or 2016.

The word on Tommy Becker, the former Wayzata standout who has decided to leave the Gophers, is that coaches didn't believe he had the speed to play linebacker but thought he had a future as a fullback. But Becker, who was one of the top recruits in the state, insisted on playing linebacker. Don't be surprised if he winds up at Wisconsin, a school that recruited him hard.

Vincent Hill, a wide receiver for Milford Academy Prep School in New Berlin, N.Y., verbally committed to play for the Gophers on Thursday.

Texas Christian football coach Gary Patterson was one of the finalists for the Gophers job that went to Tim Brewster. You wonder what Patterson's thoughts are about the job now as he watches the Gophers struggle. TCU is 3-3 in Patterson's seventh season there.

The Gophers haven't set up all their nonconference football opponents for the coming years yet, but North Dakota State is not on any of the future schedules. Brewster believes the Fargo school is a strong competitor to recruit against. There are about 5,000 tickets left for the Bison's visit to the Metrodome to face the Gophers on Oct. 20. And this is big deal financially for North Dakota State, which will be paid $300,000 for the game.

Devron Bostick, the 6-5, 210-pound forward from Southwestern Illinois Community College who committed to play basketball for the Gophers, averaged 19.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game last season. He is originally from Racine, Wis., and helped Racine St. Catherine's win consecutive Wisconsin state titles in 2005 and '06.

Ben Roberts, the son of former North Stars defenseman Gordie Roberts, is a member of the Augsburg hockey team. The senior Roberts is a scout for the Montreal Canadiens.

Ex-Gophers defenseman Jordan Leopold was traded from the Calgary Flames to the Colorado Avalanche last season but missed all but 15 games because of three separate injuries. So far this season, he has one assist in three games for Colorado. ... Matt Niskanen, a former Minnesota Duluth defenseman from Virginia, Minn., has two assists in four games for the Dallas Stars. ... Former Breck standout Peter Mueller didn't register a point in his first three games for the Phoenix Coyotes.