I should not go to Las Vegas.  The past week is proof of that.  Last week I took a look at the current roster, future call ups and the guys that were coming back from injury and I said that Joe Mauer at 1B was going to be a myth for the rest of the 2011 season.  How wrong I was.  Since that time Mauer has played at first base at least three times.  Such much for that.  Then yesterday I suggested that despite facing AL Cy Young candidate, Justin Verlander, that the Twins had a chance to beat the Detroit Tigers.  Turns out, that Verlander guy is as good as advertised and the Twins floundered against his mid-upper 90s fastballs.  So I am not going to Vegas, and I am going to steer away from making some predictions for a while, let my luck build up.

The good news is that the Twins have an opportunity to face three Detroit pitchers who are not Justin Verlander over the weekend (Max Scherzer, Brad Penny, and Rick Porcello, each of whom is very beatable).  The Twins can win the next three games and head to Texas directly in the rear view mirror of the Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians.

And here are the links:

Each week over at Seedlings to Stars their staff of writers will be recapping all of the players that made their Major League Debuts.  This week, the Twins’ own Scott Diamond made his debut and StS has the coverage.

Seedlings to Stars had another Minnesota Twins related feature this week, this time it was Nathaniel Stoltz providing some insight into one of the Twins next bright stars, Liam Hendricks.  (The article has a weird two page format, but just click through for the good stuff on page 2)

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the internet, it turns out that planking is dead.  Now, I cannot be sure that planking was ever alive, ever something that we should have paid attention to, but this new craze that is taking it’s place is even cooler. @HippestHipster would be proud.

Mike Moustakas is not a super hero yet, and he doesn’t have his own set of rules like teammate Eric Hosmer, but he’s going to get there.  And when he does, look out world.  For now though, he’s suffering through some growing pains.  Twins fans everywhere only hope he never grows into his big league shoes.

How long has Frank McCourt been in the news?  Too damn long.  How soon until MLB takes over the Dodgers and McCourt is bounced from MLB?  Not soon enough.  Just go AWAY!

You know how Twins fans like to joke about how dumb White Sox fans are?  NotGraphs is on your team, here is some video evidence to back up those claims.   (more…)

And now, on to the links.  (more…)

Since it’s been a while, a couple of these links will be older than a week, but I’ve only kept the very best that are older than 7 days.  Without further ado, here are the links:

I love NotGraphs.  Every day there is something humorous and at least tangentially related to baseball.  This entry features the Golden Gopher’s very own Luke Rasmussen giving the starting line ups in a way that would make Sven and Ollie proud.   (more…)