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Links-n-Things: The weekend has arrived!

Paul Pleiss — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:19:11 +0000

For the first time in the last 3 weeks the Twins have no traded away their starting center fielder and forced me to put off my weekly collection of links. The links must have their day! Come join me as we take a trip through the interwebs and see what’s happened in the last week.

Front runner for the Twins CF job in 2013, Darin Mastroianni dives for a fly ball… and comes up way short. Photo credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Denard Span is gone. Ben Revere is gone. But in their wake the Twins have received a couple of prospects in Trevor May and Alex Meyer, plus potential “Twins Ace” Vance Worley. There was a whole mess of great articles covering the shake ups and what it means for the Twins going forward.

The Twins Fan From Afar (@MNfanfromafar) takes a look at what the Twins rotation could look like in the future, he also recounts his experience throwing out a first pitch at a New Britain Rock Cats game.

With the addition of power arm prospects May and Meyer, Michael Rand wonders if the “pitch to contact” era is over in Minnesota.

Over at RotoGraphs, the fantasy side of FanGraphs site, they take a look at what the center field situation in Minnesota means for fantasy players.

The Tenth Inning Stretch gives us some youtube piutching video of Twins Rule 5 draftee Ryan Pressley and new prospect Trevor May.

The Twins also went out and signed veteran pitcher Kevin Correia to a 2 year deal worth $10 million. John Bonnes, the Twins Geek, wonders if this signing signals a paradigm shift in Minnesota. Eric Pleiss, of Knuckleballsblog.com also put together some words about the Correia signing. It seems that by most accounts no one is very happy with this move by the Twins front office. Also over at Knuckle balls, Capitol Babs shares with everyone that Twins Fest tickets are now available. Pre-order tickets are available for $9 ($15 at the door). I’ll be making a trip to Minnesota and attending all three days of Twins Fest, so get your tickets and come on out and we can share a beer or two and talk baseball with like minded individuals.

Nick Nelson wonders if lame duck managar Ron Gardenhire is as good as gone, what do you think? Another member of the Twins Centric crew, Parker Hageman thinks the door may be open for the Twins to make another trade before the off-season is over. You can see all of the posts from the Twins Centric crew, plus a lot of other great Twins writing over at Twins Daily.

Rumors began circulation Thursday night that the Dodgers may be looking to move Nick Punto. Cody Christie, the North Dakota Twins fan, ponders what it would take to bring lil Nicky Punto back to Minnesota. The Twins have not been the only AL Central time making waves this off-season, Cody takes a look at what the Royals trade means for the Twins. Mark Simon of ESPN put together a blueprint of how the Royals can win the AL Central in 2013. And that’s not all on the Royals trade, Dayn Perry, who writes for NotGraphs, put together a poem entitled “Do not tell the people that Will Myers has been traded.” Bob Ellis, over at Kings of Kauffman is on board with the trade and takes a look at what it means for the Royals going forward.

For those who enjoy humor, check out the recent Tweets from @OldHossRassbourn as he reviewed ESPN’s list of the top 100 baseball players of all time. It’s pure Twitter magic. NotGraphs put together a few of them for your reading pleasure. Also over at NotGraphs, Carson Cistulli gives us five new baseball idioms, my favorite of which is “Wade Boggs” which means “to drink enthusiastically and with vigor.”

Edward Thoma, The Baseball Outsider, takes a look at the Twins short stop prospects and makes some projections for their 2013 seasons.

Are you wondering what to get the men on your Christmas shopping list? The Art of Manliness (TAOM) takes a look at 15 Fantastic Homemade Gifts for Men. Feel free to get any and/or all of these for me. Also over at TAOM, Brett completed a GORUCK challenge and offers a thorough review for you. This is an intense manly trek through your local city. I highly encourage you to give it a read and think about completeing a GORUCK in your own town.

Dustin Parks of Getting Blanked gives you 10 stray thoughts, including thougths on rising salaries. Along that same vein, David Schoenfield takes a closer look at the rising player salaries in baseball. Eric and I will be discussing this topic when we record the next episode of the Talk to Contact Podcast. Joe Posnanski also looks at the money issue and how it relates to long term contracts, which typically do not pan out.

Jason Wojciechowski went on a curise and upon his return made note of five supposidly fun things that baseball teams should never do again.

One of my favorite non-baseball blogs, The New Enthusiast provides us with a grammatical discussion and a seasonal name for male genatalia. Reader beware.

And finally, Richard Barbieri of The Hardball Times put together an end of the year grab bag which includes a lymeric about the Twin that fans love to hate, Joe Mauer (aka Baby Jesus).

Thats all for this week, here’s to hoping the Twins continue to bolster their roster and build for the future.

__________________

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Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact)
or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Saturday Morning Links and Notes

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:22:53 +0000

Looking for some good baseball-related reading to start your weekend?

Remember that guy? He threw a no-hitter. Great trade, Twins! Photo by Debby Wong-US PRESSWIRE

In case you haven’t heard, a certain former Twin threw a no-hitter last night against the Cardinals. It was the first no-hitter in Mets history, but it was the second for a player involved in the notorious Santana trade this year, because Phil Humber tossed a perfect game in April. With Kevin Mulvey out of baseball, this surely places a lot of pressure on Deolis Guerra to return to the starting rotation and hold somebody hitless.

Earlier this week I wrote that the Twins should trade Josh Willingham. According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Texas Rangers are looking for a right-handed hitting outfielder, and they’re willing to trade pitching to get it. None of the players mentioned in the story sound very appealing, but Texas does have some more promising prospects in the minors, such as LHP Martin Perez and RHP Cody Buckel. Willingham has hit quite well against the AL West this year (six homers in 68 PAs!), so Texas should at least consider making the Twins an offer.

The Star Tribune ran a great piece on prospect Miguel Sano yesterday. We all want Sano to zip through the minors and end the reign of awful baseball in Minnesota, but the super-prospect still has a long way to go before he gets here. Right now he knows how to crush fastballs, but he’s still learning to hit trickier pitches, cut down on strikeouts, and play third base. Imagine trying to figure all that out while being stuck in a small town in a country far away from your family where you don’t speak the language, and you might have some idea of the challenges Sano faces.

Speaking of Twins prospects, Seth Stohs of Twins Daily has completed his midseason list of the Top 50 Twins prospects. You can find the top 10 here. Spoiler Alert: Sano is #1.

If you’re looking for something a bit more pessimistic, how about this piece from Grantland. It describes a story we’re all too familiar with, the story of the Twins’ nasty decline from perennial contender to MLB doormat. All in all, it’s a nice little summary. The author seems to conclude that there’s no end in sight to the Twins’ troubles, but I disagree. I think that if the team moves Willingham, Matt Capps, Carl Pavano, and possibly Justin Morneau this summer, they could restock their farm system and build the nucleus of a decent team by 2014. But then, I’ve always been an optimist when it comes to the Twins.

Have you been checking out the Mock Drafts? MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo seems convinced the Twins will ignore their need for pitching and select high school outfielder Byron Buxton, thanks to his tremendous upside. Given the Twins’ tremendous need for pitching, I think it would be a mistake to take another outfielder at #2. Then again, I remember being very upset in 2007 when the Vikings drafted a running back seventh overall… so perhaps I don’t know what I’m talking about!

Friday Links

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:44:38 +0000

It is hard to believe that the 2011 season is over for the Minnesota Twins. On April 13^th the entire Puckett’s Pond staff compiled their predictions for the AL Central. Combined, the staff thought the Twins would reach 92 wins and edge out both the White Sox and the Tigers, both projected for 87 wins. We pegged the Indians for just 69 wins, and had the baby Royals finishing with 67 wins. At the time I predicted a rebound year from Michael Cuddyer, but outside of that, I pretty much got everything else wrong.

While the Pond didn’t do a great job predicting a 99 loss Minnesota Team, we were still rewarded with a spectacular finish to the 2011 MLB season. The Twins won their final two games, avoiding a 100 loss season and winning back to back games for the first time July 26/27. Outside of the AL Central, the rest of the baseball world exploded last night as 4 teams were fighting for the two Wild Card spots in the playoffs, and they didn’t disappoint. The Phillies won a squeaker over the braves in 13 innings, the Red Sox suffered a walk off defeat to the Baltimore Orioles, and the Tampa Bay Rays came back from a 0-7 deficit to beat the Yankees in 11 innings. Amazing baseball.

The Friday Links certainly cannot live up to that magic, but they should help you to close the door on the 2011 regular season, and prepare you for some exciting playoff baseball in the weeks ahead.

Enjoy. (more…)