Friday Links and Thinks

also available at www.SethSpeaks.net -

I think I would like to make this “Friday Links and Thinks” a regular occurrence. There are a lot of great Twins blogs that deserve to be noticed.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

The other part of the Friday Links is the Thinks. Today, I’m going to throw out who I think that the Twins will send to the Arizona Fall League this year, and you can add your thoughts or selections. Normally the Twins send three pitchers and three hitters (and then usually one more). The players must be from countries that do not have winter leagues, and they must have played at AA or AAA. Teams have been able to send one person from Hi-A Ft. Myers, and last year, they were allowed to send two. Typically the Twins don’t send guys back two years in a row. Here are my seven picks:

• Alex Wimmers – I think that they will want the 2010 top pick to get some more innings.
• Kyle Gibson – Although his innings will be monitored the rest of this season, as long as Gibson is healthy, they may want to have him throw another 20-25 innings in Arizona.
• Carlos Gutierrez – Might as well get the 2008 first-rounder there too, right? I think it’d be a great environment for him to continue to work out of the bullpen.  
• Liam Hendriks – I’m not 100% certain if Australian players are able to play in Arizona, but after his appendectomy cost him more than a month of an incredible season, it would be good to get him some innings.
• Ben Revere – OF – if he is cleared to play after his eye injury, the team would like him to play in Arizona.
• Joe Benson – OF – It’s been a breakout year of sorts for Benson, and it would be good for him to get more at bats in the Fall League.
• Danny Lehmann – C – It’s always good to have extra catchers in Arizona, and Lehmann, defensively, is excellent and would work well with the pitching prospects.

What do you think? Who would you send?

WEEKEND AHEAD

The Twins won two out of three at Target Field against the White Sox and increased their division lead to four games. Next up is a weekend home series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Torii Hunter will return to Minnesota and make his Target Field debut. He will get to make his first attempt against the right field wall. The Angels are seven games behind Texas Rangers in the AL West, a position they share with the Oakland A’s, and a position they are not accustomed to this decade. The Twins will see the Angels best two pitchers in this series, but hey, the Angels get to see the Twins best pitcher of late (Duensing), and maybe Kevin Slowey will throw another seven no-hit innings, and this time get a chance to complete it… maybe?

Here are the pitching matchups:

• Friday night – Brian Duensing (6-1, 2.00, 1.05, .223) vs Dan Haren (1-3, 3.44, 1.31, .269)
• Saturday night – Kevin Slowey (11-5, 4.22, 1.23, .270) vs Trevor Bell (1-3, 5.40, 1.70, .333)
• Sunday night – Scott Baker (10-9, 4.85 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, .284 BAA) vs. Jered Weaver (11-8, 3.11, 1.10, .221)

TWINS BLOGS

Here is a look around the Twins blogosphere. A good site to find 66 Twins blogs is Newsbobber’s Minnesota Baseball Blog site., but you can also look on the left side of this page for many. I’ve only included blogs that have been updated in the last few days (let me know if I’m missing any sites that I should add):

• Nick Nelson wrote about The Crain Game, a look at the interesting story and timeline of Jesse Crain.
• Inept Ullger takes a look at the pitch selection for Jim Thome’s walk-off on Tuesday night.
• Andrew Kneeland wrote a tremendous blog post called Matt Capps and the Immediacy of Twitter. It’s terrific!
• On the road with Shawn… adds another stat to the blogosphere by contemplating the effect of the double play.
• North Dakota Twins Fan writes about Five Goals for the rest of the season.
• Target Field: No Longer Where Joe’s Balls Go to Die is the creative title of For the Love of the  Game’s most recent blog post.
• Babes Love Baseball went Under the Bleachers with Jeff Manship.
• Emoeby gets to raise the flag at the Twins game.
• Aaron Gleeman posted Twins Notes on Thursday.
• Erin from Twinkie Talk wrote about Francisco Liriano’s Home Run rate and puts it into historical perspective.
• Coffeyville Whirlwind posted its All Franchise Team for 1981-1990.
• Baseball Outsider Ed Thoma blogged on the splits of Jason Kubel.
• Check out the Jim Crikket rant on Knuckleballs.

TWINSCENTRIC STUFF

Here are the links to the StarTribune.com TwinsCentric blog postings for this week:

• Monday – Sunday’s Game: One right decision, another questionable
• Tuesday – Seth Stohs – Admitting is the first step…
• Wednesday – Nick Nelson – If the playoffs started today
• Thursday – Seth Stohs – Twins 2010 draft update
• Friday – Parker Hageman – Behind Mauer’s second-half surge  
• By the way, the next TwinsCentric (and Sooze) Viewing Party will head out of the Twin Cities Metro and up the road to St. Cloud. The lovely and talented Sooze is running the show on this one. On August 28^th from 2:30-6:30 at Howie’s in downtown St. Cloud, there will be drink and appetizer specials as well as some give-aways. Those in the Metro, it’s not too far away, and those in the outstate, come on down! These events have been a lot of fun and a great opportunity to meet some of your favorite bloggers.
• And then you’re also probably reading the other Twins blogs at StarTribune.com: LaVelle E. Neal’s Twins Insider, Joe Christensen’s Around the Majors, and Howard Sinker’s A Fan’s View.
• John Bonnes is on The Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN Tuesdays and Friday’s during the 7:00 hour. (Podcasts available here.) I am on KFAN with Paul Allen each Thursday morning at about 9:20. If you would like to listen, the podcast is available here.

PODCASTS AND MORE

• On Sunday night, I was joined on the SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast by co-host Travis Aune from Travis Twins Talk, We were joined by Phil Mackey of 1500ESPN and from the White Sox writer for Examiner.com JJ Stankevitz. We discussed the A’s series, the decision to remove Kevin Slowey from a no-hitter, Justin Morneau, and previewed the Twins/White Sox series.
• Last night, Travis Aune asked me to be a guest on his podcast. It was a lot of fun. We discussed a lot of Twins minor league topics, the Twins and White Sox, and even a little about the Vikings! 

Any thoughts on the Twins or the Twins blogosphere? Feel free to leave your questions and comments here.