Carl Crawford Owns Delmon Young. Crawford and Young have begun a war of words ever since the latter was traded to Minnesota and Elijah Dukes to Washington. Following their collective departures, Crawford told the media the Devil Rays would enjoy a more comfortable, relaxed clubhouse without the presence of Young and Dukes. Young took exception, and fired back at Crawford. Then Crawford got angry and shot back once more:

Carl Crawford has a message for former teammate Delmon Young: Shut up.

Irritated at Young’s reaction to his comments about the Rays having a calmer clubhouse without Young and Elijah Dukes, Crawford spoke out early Friday morning.

“These are exactly the the kind of distractions we were talking about with the Rays, a young guy popping off at the mouth, talking too much,’’ Crawford said. “He needs to just shut up and play baseball.’’

Crawford said that if Young didn’t fully understand his comments about the Rays benefiting from having fewer distractions, Crawford said he will be more than willing to explain it. After reading Young’s comments in the Times early Friday morning, Crawford was animated in his response:

“Nobody even mentioned the word losing, losing games. We know we’ve been a losing franchise. He just wanted to say something back like he’s always running his mouth. That’s what he does. He runs his mouth all the time. Nobody was blaming him for anything. For him to come back at me was a personal attack. I feel that if there is anything that he is unsure about, tell him I would be more than happy to say it in his face, or any kind of other way, that would make him understand.”

That first Twins-Rays game should be fun to watch.

Garza for Young Deal Done

The deal involving Matt Garza and Delmon Young has officially been finalized.

This is probably the first domino to fall, with the second being a Joe Nathan deal and the third being the Johan Santana blockbuster.

Not sure if this means Phil Hughes is more or less likely to be included in any deal, but something tells me Brian Cashman may offer multiple very good prospects to make up for the exclusion of one great prospect (Hughes).

At least I hope so. Guys like McCutchen, Melancon, Sanchez, etc. are valuable lower level guys who the Twins may covet more than we know. I think adding Kennedy and Horne in Hughes place would be tough, but necessary in the end.

There are literally tens of combinations both teams will contemplate, but which one matches each team's desires is something nobody will know until it happens. Seems like Santana really wants to pitch in New York and for the Yankees, however, so that has to fall in the Yankees favor in some capacity.

* Meanwhile, Troy Percival is another option for the Yankees, along with Riske, Mahay, etc.