Puckett’s Pond January Recap

Today is the last day of January. In baseball terms, that’s good news, because it means that the offseason is almost dead. The hot stove is now almost completely cold, but Florida and Arizona are warming up. Next month Spring Training starts, and actual baseball isn’t far behind.

But January was an incredibly productive month here at Puckett’s Pond. Just in case you missed anything, please allow me to present a little recap:

Staff Writer Christian Engels wrote a piece to help Twins fans understand the Timberwolves, who are surprisingly not terrible this year. Another great way to understand the Timberwolves is to read Dunking with Wolves, Puckett’s Pond’s basketball sister site.

Senior Staff Writer Eric Pleiss has been busy forecasting the season. He’s looked at Bill James’s projections for pretty much every Twins regular and offered his own opinions as well. Check out his pieces on Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll, Denard Span, Josh Willingham, and Danny Valencia. You can find them here.

Staff Writer Paul Pleiss wrote about prospects this month. Here is a piece about Puckett’s Pond’s Top 10 List. And Paul presented his own Top 20 list here. By the way, if you want to see the Top 10 Prospect lists from all four of Puckett’s Pond’s writers (as well as Seedlings to Stars writer and former Pond editor Wally Fish), you can find them in Seth Stohs’s Twins Prospect Handbook. It is the most detailed, well-researched, and insightful reference on Minnesota Twins minor leaguers that exists. You can order a copy at his website.

Speaking of Twins prospects, I spent most of the month talking about the 25 men who will be in camp with the Twins as non-roster invitees. There will be at least one more piece in that series out later this week – a recap and/or a discussion of which players are most likely to contribute to the Twins in 2012. When I wasn’t writing about the non-rosters, I took on some other life-changing topics, such as the Korean version of the Twins, the American Twins’ struggle to get on base, and Terry Ryan’s lengthy trade record.

Happy Reading!