I received an e-mail about a new television ad for "Explore Minnesota" that features Twins catcher Joe Mauer singing. It's a fun advertisement, so make sure to check it out!
Dear Mr. Mauer,
On behalf of all Twins fans, please stick to baseball.
Josh
March 25, 2011
February 4, 2011
Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook - 2011
Twins fans,I'm pleased to announce that the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook - 2011 is now available to order. The book costs $14.95, but trust me, it's worth every penny and then some. Seth Stohs (Seth Speaks) asked me for a little help with the book and I jumped at the chance to help him. As many of you know, Seth has been a big help to me since I started writing and I'm happy to help him with anything I possibly can. As Seth has said, the meat and potatoes of the book is the prospect profiles of 150+ Twins minor league players, but the book also has a lot of other cool things that make the book whole:
- An article on the Rochester Red Wings by Josh Whetzel, their radio and TV play-by-play guy since 2003.
- An article on New Britain Stadium by Jeff Dooley, the team's Director of Broadcasting and their play-by-play guy on the radio.
- An article on the Ft. Myers Miracle by their play-by-play broadcaster Alex Margulies.
- An article on the Beloit Snappers by Jeff Vohs, the team's General Manager.
- Q&A with Danny Valencia: Major Leaguer - an interview with Valencia after his rookie season came to an end.
- Interviews with Minor League Player of the Year, Joe Benson, and Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Kyle Gibson.
- Stories from the 2010 Draft - an article on the Twins draft and stories on five of the players that the Twins selected.
- Nate Hanson: Minnesota's Own - Seth wrote an article on Chaska native (and former Gopher) Nate Hanson, who had a breakout 2010 season in Ft. Myers.
- Winning vs. Development - an essay by Travis Aune (Travis Twins Talk).
- In the Right Direction - I wrote an article on the progress made by Twins 1B/OF prospect Chris Parmelee.
- Lists and Rankings - includes Top 10 lists from many of your favorite Twins minor league bloggers and other "experts." My top 30 prospects are included.
So what are you waiting for? Order a copy today!
January 20, 2011
An explanation
I know it's been long overdue, but I think it's time for me to explain my absence from this site.
As many of you know, I'm in college. I started in 2006 and I'm still going at it. I went into college having no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Over the first three years, I switched my intended major four different times before finally deciding on journalism. Unfortunately, my indecisiveness (and my decision to transfer) ended up costing me a lot of time (and money). So in the Spring of 2010, I got to the point where I had enough of college and I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible (a decision many have told me they don't agree with). So in doing so, I started taking more and more credits. I took 18 last Spring and 19 this fall. Sadly, this made it too hard for me to write outside of class.
I still continued to watch a lot of baseball and I continued to pay close attention to the Minor Leagues, but after writing all day long at school, the last thing I wanted to do was to come home and write more. (If you're wondering, yes, I will probably delete this in the future so that my future employer never finds it. Haha!) I do apologize to anyone that actually does read this site, it was never my intention to be gone this long.
My initial "leave" came with the intent of starting up a new site. But I quickly found out that I knew very little about website design and it's created a lot of headaches over the past few months. I wish I could come here today to say that I'm close to a solution, but I can't. I thought I was "techie" enough to do it, but I quickly fell flat on my face and I'm still trying to pick myself off the pavement.
Over the past few months, I've been given the opportunity to write in Seth Stohs' "Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook - 2011" and the Minnesota Twins Annual 2011. Despite being M.I.A. in the blogging community, Seth and the rest of the Twins Centric crew both gave me the opportunity to write for them, which truly meant a lot to me. Both were great writing chances and I can't express how thankful I am enough.
Moving forward: I wish I knew what was going to happen with the website situation. I'm going to continue trying to find help, but at some point, I might just decide that I've had enough and resort to coming "back" here. Either way, I know I will be happy with my decision.
I know many people might not care, but I felt that it's better late than never to write an explanation. I hope to be writing more in the near future, but in the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter : @JoshsThoughts.
And as always, please feel free to e-mail me at jajohnson021@yahoo.com.
As many of you know, I'm in college. I started in 2006 and I'm still going at it. I went into college having no clue what I wanted to do with my life. Over the first three years, I switched my intended major four different times before finally deciding on journalism. Unfortunately, my indecisiveness (and my decision to transfer) ended up costing me a lot of time (and money). So in the Spring of 2010, I got to the point where I had enough of college and I just wanted to get out as quickly as possible (a decision many have told me they don't agree with). So in doing so, I started taking more and more credits. I took 18 last Spring and 19 this fall. Sadly, this made it too hard for me to write outside of class.
I still continued to watch a lot of baseball and I continued to pay close attention to the Minor Leagues, but after writing all day long at school, the last thing I wanted to do was to come home and write more. (If you're wondering, yes, I will probably delete this in the future so that my future employer never finds it. Haha!) I do apologize to anyone that actually does read this site, it was never my intention to be gone this long.
My initial "leave" came with the intent of starting up a new site. But I quickly found out that I knew very little about website design and it's created a lot of headaches over the past few months. I wish I could come here today to say that I'm close to a solution, but I can't. I thought I was "techie" enough to do it, but I quickly fell flat on my face and I'm still trying to pick myself off the pavement.
Over the past few months, I've been given the opportunity to write in Seth Stohs' "Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook - 2011" and the Minnesota Twins Annual 2011. Despite being M.I.A. in the blogging community, Seth and the rest of the Twins Centric crew both gave me the opportunity to write for them, which truly meant a lot to me. Both were great writing chances and I can't express how thankful I am enough.
Moving forward: I wish I knew what was going to happen with the website situation. I'm going to continue trying to find help, but at some point, I might just decide that I've had enough and resort to coming "back" here. Either way, I know I will be happy with my decision.
I know many people might not care, but I felt that it's better late than never to write an explanation. I hope to be writing more in the near future, but in the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter : @JoshsThoughts.
And as always, please feel free to e-mail me at jajohnson021@yahoo.com.
Guest Post: PokerJunkie.com
The following is a guest post. The views expressed in the article are those of the author.
As most of you already know, earlier this month Bert Blyleven was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Roberto "I spit in your general direction" Alomar. For those of you younger Twins fans that are unaware of his accomplishments, Blyleven was an all-time great picture who spent 11 of his 22 years in the big leagues with the Twins. He finished with 287 wins, 3701 career strikeouts, and a career 3.31 ERA. He also had 242 completed games for his career. Clearly, Blyleven will go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Twins cap since it is obvious that he made his biggest contribution with the Twins. However, this brings me to the matter of whether the Hall of Fame should decide which cap a player should wear into Cooperstown.
The current policy of the Hall of Fame is to put the team cap on the player statue from the team that they are identified to have made their "most indelible mark" on the game. In the past, the hall has deferred to the player in choosing the cap, but that changed in 2001 after there were reports that some players were taking bribes to wear a particular cap.
Some of you may think that this policy would not have that big of an impact on players going into the hall. However, let's take a look at a few key examples. For those of you that remember Andre Dawson, what team do you identify him with? The Cubs right? Well, Andre must go into the hall wearing an Expos hat due to having spent most of his career there. When you think of Wade Boggs, you usually think of him as either a Red Sox player, or a Yankee. Boggs had requested to be enshrined as a Yankee since that is where he had his success. However, the hall decided to put him as a Red Sox. Gary Carter fans would expect no less than for him to be enshrined as a N.Y. Met. However, he went in as an Montreal Expo. (That would be the Washington Nationals for you younger fans.)
Luckily, we won't have that problem with Blyleven due to the two stints he had with the Twins, but imagine if he had been with another team for a reasonable amount of time and the Hall of Fame denied his request to be a Twin. I personally think that it is shameful that the hall does not defer to the players in this matter. If there is proof that the player is being bribed, that is one thing. However, in most cases the players are requesting to be enshrined with the team that they either had their best years with or the team that they consider "their team."
I have a lot of respect for the job that the Hall of Fame does. Unlike some sports, our Hall of Fame truly enshrines the great players throughout history, and not players that online poker sites rated as great. Deferring to the players to make a decision on their hat is a small concession that I feel that they should make, especially if you consider the fans. Andre Dawson will always be a Cub, Gary Carter a Met, and Bert Blyleven a Twin. In the end, the impact that a player makes with the fans is just as important as the impact made on the field, and that should in some part can be recognized by letting the players choose what hat they wear into Cooperstown.
This article is provided by PokerJunkie.com
As most of you already know, earlier this month Bert Blyleven was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame along with Roberto "I spit in your general direction" Alomar. For those of you younger Twins fans that are unaware of his accomplishments, Blyleven was an all-time great picture who spent 11 of his 22 years in the big leagues with the Twins. He finished with 287 wins, 3701 career strikeouts, and a career 3.31 ERA. He also had 242 completed games for his career. Clearly, Blyleven will go into the Hall of Fame wearing a Twins cap since it is obvious that he made his biggest contribution with the Twins. However, this brings me to the matter of whether the Hall of Fame should decide which cap a player should wear into Cooperstown.
The current policy of the Hall of Fame is to put the team cap on the player statue from the team that they are identified to have made their "most indelible mark" on the game. In the past, the hall has deferred to the player in choosing the cap, but that changed in 2001 after there were reports that some players were taking bribes to wear a particular cap.
Some of you may think that this policy would not have that big of an impact on players going into the hall. However, let's take a look at a few key examples. For those of you that remember Andre Dawson, what team do you identify him with? The Cubs right? Well, Andre must go into the hall wearing an Expos hat due to having spent most of his career there. When you think of Wade Boggs, you usually think of him as either a Red Sox player, or a Yankee. Boggs had requested to be enshrined as a Yankee since that is where he had his success. However, the hall decided to put him as a Red Sox. Gary Carter fans would expect no less than for him to be enshrined as a N.Y. Met. However, he went in as an Montreal Expo. (That would be the Washington Nationals for you younger fans.)
Luckily, we won't have that problem with Blyleven due to the two stints he had with the Twins, but imagine if he had been with another team for a reasonable amount of time and the Hall of Fame denied his request to be a Twin. I personally think that it is shameful that the hall does not defer to the players in this matter. If there is proof that the player is being bribed, that is one thing. However, in most cases the players are requesting to be enshrined with the team that they either had their best years with or the team that they consider "their team."
I have a lot of respect for the job that the Hall of Fame does. Unlike some sports, our Hall of Fame truly enshrines the great players throughout history, and not players that online poker sites rated as great. Deferring to the players to make a decision on their hat is a small concession that I feel that they should make, especially if you consider the fans. Andre Dawson will always be a Cub, Gary Carter a Met, and Bert Blyleven a Twin. In the end, the impact that a player makes with the fans is just as important as the impact made on the field, and that should in some part can be recognized by letting the players choose what hat they wear into Cooperstown.
This article is provided by PokerJunkie.com
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