Beggars can’t be choosers, and the Twins are really in need of some pitching. There’s not much left to pick from even if the Twins had money to spend.

The Star Tribune puts the Twins’ payroll at roughly $96 million after the addition of outfielder Josh Willingham. If they really do plan to have a payroll of around $100 million, that doesn’t leave much left if the team really wants to add arms to the rotation and to a bullpen that finished with the worst ERA in the major leagues last year.

Free-agent starter Roy Oswalt is apparently interested in accepting a one-year deal somewhere, but would he really go to the Twins? And for how much?

I haven’t seen Oswalt’s name linked to the team. The guys that I have heard the Twins might be interested in on KFAN today are a pretty motley crew. I’ll rank ‘em:

• 1. Paul Maholm. Sorry, folks. If you’re seeing Maholm at No. 1, this is probably pretty discouraging. He has a 53-73 record in his seven-year career, all spent with Pittsburgh. But a few positives: 1) He’s 29 years old. 2) He carried a sub-3.00 ERA into mid-July last year, but finished at 3.66 before going on the DL with a shoulder strain. 3) Prior to 2011, he has been durable.
• 2. Joel Piniero. The 33-year-old posted a 5.13 ERA in 27 appearances for the L.A. Angels last year. But he was quite good in 2009 and 2010, with ERAs of 3.49 and 3.84 with St. Louis and the Angels in those two years. Like Maholm, he doesn’t miss a lot of bats. But unlike Maholm, he hasn’t been much of a horse. While Maholm missed time last year, he was good for about 180 innings per season. Piniero has eclipsed 155 innings only once since 2006.
• 3. Jeff Francis. Go back four years and Francis was a promising 26-year-old lefty for the Colorado Rockies. But those days are over for Francis. At 31 years old on opening day, Francis is coming off of a ho-hum 2011, going 6-16 with a 4.82 ERA. Opponents hit .301 off of him. He doesn’t get strikeouts anymore. Twins would be wise to avoid this one.

“The Hammer” appears to be on his way to Target Field.

The Minnesota Twins reportedly have agreed to terms with Josh Willingham, likely spelling the end of Michael Cuddyer‘s tenure with the organization.

Willingham and Cuddyer are pretty similar players. Both have some pop, and neither is a very good outfielder. What they both don’t do is pitch, which will continue to be an area of concern in 2012 since the Twins have done nothing to improve in that area. And one has to think that the team is running short on money to spend.

Besides the fact that pitching is being neglected, I like the Willingham move. Yeah, he hit just .246 last year. But he jacked 29 homers in 136 games for the Oakland A’s playing in a stadium that might be more hitter-unfriendly than Target Field is.

Cuddyer and Willingham will be both be 33 years old on opening day, which makes it easier to compare them. Cuddyer has hit 10 points higher than Willingham over the course of his career, but they have identical on-base percentages.

My guess is Willingham will come cheaper than Cuddyer. And while much has been made about Cuddyer’s leadership being needed in the Twins clubhouse, I think that can be overplayed. I would think it would be awfully tough to be a leader of a clubhouse if you’re not considered the team’s best player.

It’s not like Joe Mauer was too concerned about what Cuddyer thought when Mauer was reportedly resistant to doing a rehab assignment at Triple-A Rochester, instead opting for the sunny skies of Single-A ball in Florida, then returning to the majors and struggling from the outset.

Willingham will definitely help the Twins offense. But will it really matter if they go into 2012 with the same pitching staff as they one they had in 2011 (minus Joe Nathan)?

I’m watching MLB Network right now, and it’s so obvious how hard of a time Los Angeles Angels general manager Jerry DiPoto is having fighting off an ear-to-ear smile. And who can blame him? His team just got the best slugger and best pitcher on the free-agent market on the same day.

Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson each agreed to deals with the Angels. Pujols’ deal is for 10 years somewhere between $250 and $260 million. Wilson’ deal is 5 years and $77.5 million.

It’s a tough day to be a Texas Rangers fan, having lost Wilson to a division rival to boot.

And it’s a tough day for St. Louis Cardinals fans too. My annual ballpark tour landed me at Busch Stadium last year, and I got to see first-hand the way that city cheered and flat-out worshipped Pujols.

But Cardinals fans shouldn’t be discouraged. I know there’s always a desire to have the great players in the game play for the same teams throughout their careers, a la Stan Musial and Bob Gibson. But these are much different times, and they require a much different approach.

And let’s face it: It’s a two-way street. Pujols walked away from a big offer from the Cardinals. He could have been a rich man in St. Louis. But he decided he wanted to be elsewhere. Not much the Cardinals can do about it.

Pujols is the most feared hitter in the game. But he is 31 years old, and his batting average and OPS numbers have dropped in each of the last three years. He still hit .299 with 37 homers this past season. I’m sure we all wish we could regress to something like that, but you get the picture.

The point is that five, six or seven years into this deal, this could be a really bad deal. A franchise-killing deal. The Angels did the same thing – on a much smaller scale – four years ago by signing a 32-year-old Torii Hunter to a six-year, $90 million deal. Four years into that deal, Hunter is not the same player, and the Angels have been eclipsed by the Rangers as the dominant team in the AL West.

The Minnesota Twins saw first-hand this past season what can happen when a player making $23 million per season contributes very little. The Twins’ woes went well beyond Mauer, but when looking at how they fell to 63 wins, Mauer gets the first glance. People are always going to start by focusing their frustrations on the man who signed a lucrative eight-year deal and who once upon a time was mentioned in the same breath as Pujols when they both won MVPs in the same year.

What the Cardinals lost in a star slugger, they make up in payroll flexibility. And Prince Fielder is still out there too. How would Brewers rooters like to watch NL Central rivals like the Cards and Cubs launch into a bidding war over their free-agent slugger?

Give the Angels credit. The Dodgers are down, and they are seizing control of that Los Angeles market. But don’t hang your heads in St. Louis either. That’s a great organization and will continue to be one.