From the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Jason Williams (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)

“I know how good Torii Hunter (above) is, and he would be a good fit,” Johnny Damon said before Friday night’s game at the Metrodome. “We still have Gary Sheffield (in right field), which Gary may end up moving to the DH spot. I’m sure there’s a lot that we can do. Whatever makes the team better.”

Damon, in his first season with the Yankees, pointed out that when he was with the Kansas City Royals in 1999, he moved to left field to allow then-star prospect Carlos Beltran to play center field.

Damon was asked if he would be willing to switch positions again to make way for Hunter.

“I had to do it for Carlos Beltran to make his job easier in the big leagues, and he seemed to do pretty good,” Damon said. “Yeah, it doesn’t matter to me. Whatever needs to be done. It’s all about going out there and trying to win. (Hunter is) definitely one of the game’s best players, but I’ll leave that up to (Yankees general manager) Brian Cashman. I can’t be running my mouth.”

Damon, known throughout his career as a team-first player, confirmed Friday that he told a mutual acquaintance of his and Hunter’s in the offseason that he would be willing to move if the Yankees pursued the American League’s top defensive center fielder. Hunter said Friday that the mutual acquaintance informed him during the offseason what Damon had said.

“That’s an honor he would say that,” Hunter said. “That shows you what kind of a guy Johnny Damon is. But right now, I’m just going to focus on winning the division with the Twins. After that, we’ll see.”

I don’t know much about the gambling industry, but if the there’s a ton of money being wagered on the Yankees very close to tonight’s first pitch in Minneapolis, it might be a sure sign that Jaret Wright has been scratched from his scheduled start.

Cleveland’s Travis Hafner has tied Detroit’s Chris Shelton with a two-run HR off Jeremy Bonderman in the first inning ; the Indians are comfortably ahead, 7-0 after 6.

The Dodgers’ Yhency Brazoban is done for the year and is scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.  I do wonder if there’s much of a discount if Tommy John performs the operation himself.  No word yet on whether or not LA will commission the guy who came up with the Eric Gagne “GAME OVER” shirts to design a “SEASON OVER” tee.