Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Spring Training is in full swing down in Fort Myers.  The Twins are playing (meaningless) baseball games everyday, often more than a game per day!  Although Ron Gardenhire made a point of beginning Major League camp a couple of days early, the Twins are still making blunders and errors on the base paths and out in the field.  But not everything is going poorly for the Twins in southern Florida.  They have beaten the Tampa Bay Rays on three consecutive occasions, and, despite dropping a couple of games to the Red Sox, they are still in possession of the Mayor’s Cup, which Gardy insists is his for the keeping.

While you are waiting for the Twins to once again take the field against the Rays (this afternoon at 12:05 pm CST) enjoy another edition of the Thursday Links:

A must read site for any Twins fan is John Swol’s Twins Trivia.  Not only does Swol possess a great archival knowledge of the Minnesota Twins, but the recaps he does chronicling his visits to the Twins’ Spring Training home, Lee County Sports Complex, are candid and entertaining.  Last week, John Swol spent Another Beautiful Day at the Ballpark.

At the end of last week, FanGraphs wrapped up their review of MLB’s TV broadcasting teams.  The Minnesota Twins finished in the middle of the pack.  Of particular interest to fans is this tidbit of information, “Bert Blyleven — a man who, it must be said, both (a) loves to fart and (b) is zero percent ashamed to admit it.”  FanGraphs will be taking on the AM dial later this week as they begin gathering data on the best and worst radio teams.

Looking for more middle-of-the-row rankings for the Minnesota Twins?  MLB DepthCharts ranks the Twins 16th in their organizational rankings that combine scores for the 40-man roster, the farm system, management, ownership, and the stadium.  If the Twins were still playing in the Homer Dome they’d fall about 10 spots.  (more…)

The move definitely puts pressure on the Twins to improve their team drastically in the next two years or risk becoming an also-ran in the Central, but Nick Nelson notes that Fielder does not remove all hope for the Twins in 2011.  Ultimately, the Fielder signing changes little for the Twins, as Judd Zulgad notes, as they still need Francisco Liriano to return to dominance and for Scott Baker to remain healthy for an entire season to anchor a pitching staff that includes Carl Pavano (Opening Day starter?!) and Jason Marquis.  Minnesota will also need a couple of new faces in the bullpen to out-perform expectations (as Glen Perkins did in 2011) and if Mauer and Morneau are healthy, the Twins will have a chance to make sure Detroit’s Championship Drive detours through Minneapolis.

And now the links:

The real Winners and Losers of the Prince Fielder deal lists Fielder as both a winner AND a loser.  Sorry, I just cannot find any reason to think a guaranteed contract of $214 million dollars makes you a loser, not no way, not no how.

Even the Gleeman and the Geek Podcast is getting in on the Prince Fielder news, discussing the acquisition at length in their most recent podcast.  This podcast has definitely improved by leaps and bounds, from its debut during the height of the Twins’ downward spiral late in 2011, and is quickly becoming a weekly must-listen in my books.

In addition to the podcast, the Twins Geek, John Bonnes, examines the Hyperbole of Fielder and realistically assesses his value to the Tigers in 2012.

Even without Victor Martinez, the Tigers have themselves a fearsome homerun tandem in Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera.  John Swol looks back at Twins history and spot lights their biggest and best home run power combinations (Killebrew is half of the top six power combos!)

Because I know you were hoping for one last Prince Fielder related article, here is the Sweetspot’s David Schoenfield with a position by position breakdown of AL Central player rankings.  Despite my own optimism heading into 2012, Schoenfield does not list the Twins as having the best player at ANY POSITION, (not even Joe Mauer at catcher), and when he adds all the rankings together, he projects the Twins to once again be the doormats of the Central.  Not good, Twins fans.  (more…)