Friday Links-N-Thinks

After the long holiday weekend, the news has been slow-moving in regards to the Twins. This was not unexpected as the organization usually takes some time off during the holiday season. The baseball world has continued to swirl as the beginning of the new year is fast approaching. By turning of the calendar to the new year, it means that teams will shortly be packing their bags for the warmer weather of Florida and Arizona.

Spring training will prime teams for the 2012 season but for now here are this weeks helping of interesting links to prime you for the weekend.

• Seth Stohs ranked the Twins Top Moments of 2011. 
• Sully Baseball wrote about an interesting topic, "No Washington pitcher has ever clinched a post season series."
• At the July trade deadline the Nationals were interested in Denard Span, but now it looks like they will stick with Jayson Werth in CF.
• Would Puckett be in the Hall of Fame if he had played out the rest of his career?
• The Baseball Outside has been dissecting the Bill Smith era and earlier this week he gave me nightmares by reliving the Capps-Ramos deal.
• Mr. Jim Crikket at Knuckleballs thinks the Twins are taking a huge risk. What's the risk? Read the piece to find out.
• What Hall-of-Fame pitcher did Ron Gardenhire do very well against during his career? 
• Former Twin R.A. Dickey is climbing a mountain and his current team is not too happy about the adventure. 
• It is going to take a while to get use to using Cuddyer in different colors but I am a fan of him honoring Killebrew by wearing number three.

• Twins Fan From Afar looks at Liriano and his ability to throw first pitch strikes.
• One AL GM thinks relief pitcher Joel Zumaya won't be able to pass a physical. The Twins were one of many teams to show interest in him. 
• Who are the to players 25 and under for the Twins? MILB Prospects tries to rank the younger prospects.
• Puckett's Pond picks out five Twins prospects who need to take the next step in 2012. 
• Off the Mark makes an attempt to understand the concept of "pitch to contact."
• Boof Bonser has come full circle and will rejoin his original team, the Giants. 
• Danny Valencia is switching his number to 22 for the 2012 season.
• Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra did a Q&A with Brandon Warne over at Twinkie Town.
• The Tigers did not like what they got out of Jacque Jones as he made the Tigers Top Ten Bum List.

My Weekly Rundown:

• Tuesday: Lack of power could play well at Target Field
• Wednesday: Larkin comes to top of 2012 HOF Class
• Thursday: Killebrew's passing, Thome's 600th marked 2011

 Video of the Week: The folks over at MLB Hot Stove Report took a long hard look at Morneau's training regiment to come back from post-concussion syndrome. It makes you wonder how he made it on to the field at all last season.