Ghetto mentality

Rob Neyer flags this column where Jim Souhan muses about the Twins trading Joe Mauer, and while you can say that it's weird to key in on getting a relief pitcher in exchange for the best player in baseball, that's not what I find odd about it.

The Twin Cities are the sixteenth largest metro in the United States, bigger than St. Louis, Baltimore and Denver, among others. They have the fourth largest median household income of any metro, behind only the Bay Area and Washington-Baltimore among baseball markets.

The Twins have a new park opening in a month, have made the playoffs five of the last eight years, and are running a $100 million payroll this year.

Why people still have it in their mind that Minneapolis is a small market I'm not really sure, but it isn't. It's not an especially large one, but this is the sort of team that should be heisting players other teams can't afford, not getting rid of its own stars, and from here it seems writing about the team should reflect that.