Our Fortieth spot went to the reliever who may have had the best year of any reliever in the organization, Andrew Albers. Albers collected 38 of 171 votes (22%), with Dakota Watts second (29), Lance Ray third (25), Angel Mata fourth (23) and Jairo Perez fifth with 16 votes.

The four players receiving the least votes will be dropped from the next round, Daniel Santana (9), Danny Ortiz (7), Ryan O'Rourke (7) and Brett Jacobson (5). Added will be Kane Holbrooks, Bruce Pugh, Jorge Polanco, Steve Hirschfeld and Tim Shibuya. Holbrooks was again very good early in the season before struggling with an injury much of the year. Pugh was very good at Ft. Myers and equally ineffective when he moved up to AA. Polanco is a very young shortstop who must learn to hit, however, is gifted with a special glove. Hirschfeld was one of the better starters in the Eastern League for much of the year. Tim Shibuya was a 2011 23rd round pick who was named the Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year.

This next round will remain open through Saturday afternoon. Please leave comments of who you want added now that we are trying to maximize the number of players exposed to our voters.

This is what happened in Twins Territory this week:

• The Twins Caravan stopped at the Upper Midwest's finest Pizza Ranches, from Wahpeton to Glencoe. Thankfully, there were no reported casualties from the bus trip through the mysterious Biscay Triangle; nobody wants a repeat of the tragic 1979 Caravan, when Willie Norwood commandeered the bus, said he was, "Goin' south," and disappeared down US-15. He and Dave Goltz have not been seen since.
• Per Twitter, Perth native Liam Hendriks threw his first snowball. It was up in the zone and belted into the Fergus Falls night by Edwin Encarnacion. (DID YOU KNOW: although Australia does have winter, winter storm precipitation comes in the form of millions of tiny kangaroos and Men at Work cassingles, rather than snow. And that's...One to Grow On.)
• The next number the Twins will retire is Tom Kelly's #10. The announcement was made at Thursday evening's Diamond Awards. Hard to argue.
• The most important thing taking place during Twins Fest this weekend, besides waiting in line for Sweet Drew's autograph? Justin Morneau potentially getting the green light to start taking batting practice after wrist surgery. As Joe C. notes, Morneau also disputed an "Internet rumor" that he banged up his wrist in a locker room tirade, and said it was done through swinging.
• Joe C. also caught up with that one catcher guy, and says that, while he may not have gained 30 pounds as some have said, his face looks fuller and THERE ARE GRAY HAIRS BY HIS SIDEBURNS NOW. You're all one day closer to the grave, everybody!
  
• Speaking of whom, Danny Valencia tweeted that he's leaning on that one catcher guy to get on Twitter. In an entirely predictable occurrence, this caused internet wiseacres to kill the rest of their afternoon making #JoeMauerTweets jokes.
• In ACTUAL baseball news, Dan Wheeler, a relief pitcher who had expressed interest in signing with the Twins but the office phone kept going to voice mail, signed a minor-league deal with the Indians. Aaron Gleeman is nonplussed.
• If the Twins Geek gets too big for his britches and Aaron has to do the Gleeman and the Geek podcast by himself, Aaron Gleeman Is Nonplussed would be a good name for it.
• In other ACTUAL baseball news, the Tigers appear to be dead set on playing Miggy Cabrera at third base. As devastating as that lineup looks on paper, the thought of Cabrera and Delmon Young guarding the left field line with their combined UZR of "the car chase scene in Raising Arizona," should give Twins fans some measure of optimism.

Thoughts on these or any other things may be placed in the helpful comments section below.

Our Thirty-Ninth pick this year is the second pitcher out of Boston College to make our list, Pat Dean. Dean collected 34 of 163 votes (20%), with Andrew Albers second (28), Dakota Watts third (23), Angel Mata fourth (19), and Jairo Perez and Lance Ray tied for fifth with 15 votes.

For the next round we will bring back an exciting young shortstop, Daniel Santana. Santana is very fast with some power. This year will be interesting to see if he remains at shortstop or if the Twins follow through with a move to center where he played some last year.

Following this round, we will drop the four players receiving the least votes in each round. That will allow us to get about fifty players involved in the voting before we finish. This round will remain open until noon, Friday.

If there is one player in the Twins organization who you expected to be on this list, it's Miguel Sano. He's a special talent, appearing at #23 on MLB.com's top 100 list but topping Baseball America's 2012 prospect list for the Twins. Sano is Twinkie Town's top prospect, too.

MLB.com places Sano's ETA at 2014, which would be his age 21 season. This seems a bit early, considering he was still in rookie ball in 2011. When we tried to estimate top prospect arrivals, we looked at the average time it takes a player from a certain position to reach the Majors and concluded that Sano would reach the Twins sometime between 2015 and 2016. That still makes him just 22 or 23, but it also seems like a very, very long way off.

It's feasible that Sano flies through the system, perhaps starting the 2014 season in Rochester and getting a callup later in the season. But if he were to make the Opening Day roster that year, I doubt any of us would be disappointed. This team needs young talent and needs it fast. Unfortunately, 2014 will have to suffice.

Speaking of young talent, the other player on MLB.com's list is Aaron Hicks, who slides in at #72. Hicks was the only other player who I thought had the chance to crack the top 100, although I was no longer sure he would. Particularly since he is no longer a top 10 outfielder according to the same source. Clearly his tools, particularly his speed, his patience (passiveness?) at the plate, and his raw and as-of-yet undeveloped power, still appeal to scouts. Which is good to hear.

Interestingly, Hicks drops to number four on Baseball America's list of top Twins prospects for 2012. Joe Benson is a sneaky and odd choice for number two, while Eddie Rosario is a well-deserved number three. Twinkie Town's top three include Sano follwed by Rosario, Oswaldo Arcia, and then Hicks fourth again.

In the post I referenced earlier, we estimated that Hicks would make his MLB debut in 2013...at the earliest. That would be his age 23 season. MLB.com has him arriving one year later, in 2014, apparently spending all of this year and next between double-A and triple-A.

More Twins top prospect reading...

Chris Parmelee MLB.com's #5 first base prospect
Miguel Sano MLB.com's #2 third base prospect
Anything by Seth Stohs

Danny Rams surged towards the finish line to collect 64 of 209 votes (30%), thus, winning the Thirty-Eighth spot in this year's poll. Andrew Albers was second (34), Pat Dean third (28), Dakota Watts fourth (23) and Angel Mata fifth (16).

Tyler Grimes received only three votes and will be dropped from the next round. Added will be two young men who were ranked 35th and 36th last year, Brett Jacobson and Daniel Ortiz. Jacobson, who is the lone piece of the J. J. Hardy trade still with the Twins, was 5-6 with a 4.56 ERA in 100.2 innings for New Britain last year. Following his season, he had a 6.94 ERA in the Arizona Fall League. Ortiz began his season with a month to remember in Beloit, however, it went downhill after the 1st of May. Ortiz, who many believe could be special, hit .239/294/.391 in 468 at bats with ten home runs.

This round will remain open until noon tomorrow, Thursday. Beginning following the fortieth round, I will eliminate the four players with the fewest votes so that we can get more names who have yet been available to vote on.

As everyone knows by now, the Detroit Tigers made a huge splash yesterday by inking Prince Fielder to a nine-year, $214 million contract. The deal ranks as one of the largest in baseball history, putting Prince in the same company as Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols in terms of total contract value.

The impact of this move on the Tigers has been well covered. Detroit ran away with the division in 2011, finishing 15 games ahead of second-place Cleveland and 32 games ahead of the 2010 Division Champs. While they were set to enter the season as the likely favorite in the AL Central, the devastating injury to Victor Martinez had seemingly opened the door for their division rivals.

Then yesterday happened. Prince signs the fourth-biggest free agent contract in history, and suddenly the Detroit Tigers have the best 3-4 punch in baseball to complement a pitching staff that features the best pitcher in the American League. What does this mean for the Tigers - and the AL Central - in 2012? Here's a couple takes, after the jump:

Continue reading this post »