Friday Links-N-Thinks

Well spring has sprung across the baseball world. Pitchers and catchers from MLB teams have reported for duty in Florida and Arizona. The position players for the Twins have also made their way to Ft. Myers and the team will begin full squad workouts in the coming days.

It is a great time of year to be a fan of baseball. There is hope in the air and every team is on an even playing field. There can be surprises around every turn and no one knows who will take home the World Series Trophy at the end of the year.

I got my season tickets delivered this week and I got to pick out seats for Opening Day at Target Field. The offseason is over and it is time to get the 2012 campaign underway.

Enjoy this weeks version of "Friday Links-N-Thinks" with plenty of headlines coming out of camps at this early juncture of spring training.

• To correspond with the start of a new season, a brand new Twins mega-site was launched by the TwinsCentric crew. Make sure to bookmark Twins Daily as some of my work has already been featured on the site.
• A Minnesota Twins fan has made the top 30 finalists for the MLB Fan Cave. Lindsay Guentzel is headed to Arizona to see if she can make it to NYC for 2012.
• The Twins Armchair GM looked at the Keith Law's Top 50 prospects for the June Draft and how the Twins will fare with the number two pick.
• In preparation for the draft, Seth Stohs took a look back at the Twins draft history since 1987.
• NBC's Hardball Talk site gave Ron Gardenhire the quote of the day earlier this week.
• Over at Twins Rubes, they tackled the issue of who should start in CF for the Twins.
• After I posted the Rays terrifying new mascot in last weeks links, they have a promotional giveaway that might be just as scary.
• Twins Fan From Afar tries to decide what the Twins should do with Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Brian Dozier at the start of 2012.
• The Twins haven't had an All-Star left fielder since before I was born.
• Former Twins prospect Wilson Ramos showed up to Nationals camp with a new tattoo as a reminder of the horrific events surrounding his kidnapping in Venezuela.

• Everyone kind of already knew the Yankees didn't push themselves to win the division in 2010. They were content getting healthy and playing the Twins in the first round.
• Former Twins infielder Cristian Guzman found his way back into the AL Central.
• Prospect list continue to trickle out with Baseball America releasing their top 100. Miguel Sano is high on the list but who else joins him?
• Is there one postseason award the Twins could be favored for this year?
• Seedlings to Stars tried to make sense out of the new CBA and how it will impact the 2012 MLB Draft.
• Puckett's Pond posted about the players who are out of options for the Twins and there is a good chance that not all of them will make the team. 

My Weekly Rundown:

• Monday: Twins will use Nathan's blueprint for Zumaya
• Tuesday: Blackburn shooting for a bounce back season
• Wednesday: To block the plate or not to block the plate?
• Thursday: Twins headlines turned into Oscar movie plots: 2012 edition

Video of the Week: As I mentioned before, Lindsay Guentzel is trying to be one of the fans selected to watch every MLB game this season from the comfort of the MLB Fan Cave. First she made the top 50 finalists and now she has qualified for the top 30. This means she is getting closer to representing Twins Territory on a big stage. Here is a look at her audition video: