Links-n-Things: The weekend has arrived!

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,

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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