Update 9:50 AM

The Rockies have agreed to take Kevin Slowey, according to MLB.com. The Twins will receive a player to be named later. Kevin Slowey is going to hang out with ski bums in Denver; this is an oddly perfect fit.

Good morning everyone. Day two of the winter meetings is upon us, and Twinkie Town will be here throughout the day with updates. Hopefully today is the day we hear one way or the other regarding Michael Cuddyer... Getting right to it:

Matt Capps

By now, most of you have hard about the Matt Capps signing. I think the best we can say is that the Twins now have a closer for 2011. I'm pretty much with Jon from the evening update below, meh. Unless Capps can regain form and miss bats (career low 4.66 SO/9 last year), expect the ninth inning to remain a roller coaster in 2012. I'd rather the Twins have promoted Glen Perkins to closer and signed one or two cheaper bullpen arms, preferably ones with solid strikeout rates, without paying a premium for a "closer". Not to mention an additional supplemental draft pick. But Capps is now a Twin, hopefully he will bounce back and have a solid 2012 season.

Kevin Slowey

According to Buster Olney's Twitter feed, Slowey is a non-tender candidate and the Twins have let teams know he's available. This doesn't come as a surprise to most of us, as the organization has been actively shopping Slowey since last season. In my opinion, it would be a mistake to non-tender Slowey or trade him for a bag of balls. With Brian Duensing looking more and more like a reliever every day, and injury risks associated with Scott Baker and others in the rotation, I'd rather slot Slowey in the #5 spot in the rotation and at least give him a fighting chance at a solid 2012 season and improving his trade value over the summer. Thomas Harding of MLB.com thinks the Rockies' Seth Smith may be a match for the Twins. If the Twins are truly done with Slowey, this wouldn't be the worst trade in the world, and it would be a decent replacement for Jason Kubel.

The Sports Media Watch blog published a list of the TV ratings for every game of the World Series for the last forty years. It's kind of a fascinating look at how baseball - once the king of the hill in terms of TV ratings - has dropped off, in terms of share of the national consciousness. In the 1970s, World Series games were regularly watched by more than 30% of the households in the country that owned a television. In 2011, the best rated-game was Game 7, which drew a 14.1, and Games 1-5 couldn't even crack the 10% mark.

A few tidbits about the Twins - and more specifically, about the 1987 and 1991 World Series:

Game 7 in 1991 was the last World Series game to be watched by more than 30% of households, or by more than 50 million people. With the direction the ratings are moving at the moment, it might be safe to say that there will never be another World Series game that cracks those barriers; the 2011 World Series was watched by an average of less than 5% of people in the 18-49 age bracket.

Here's the top five in ratings over the past three decades:

• Game 7, 1986: New York-Boston, 38.9
• Game 7, 1982: St. Louis-Milwaukee, 38.2
• Game 7, 1987: St. Louis-Minnesota, 32.6
• Game 7, 1985: St. Louis-Kansas City, 32.6
• Game 7, 1991: Atlanta-Minnesota, 32.2

If you include 1972-1981 in that list, those games would drop down about twenty or thirty places.

There hasn't been a higher-rated Game 6 since the Twins and Braves drew a 25.4 in 1991. In fact, you can say the same about every game of that Series, all of which were seen by more than 20% of American TV viewers except for the first game. Even Game 1, which drew only a 17.6, is the highest-rated Game 1 of the past 21 years.

Just because I know you're wondering: the lowest-rated World Series game of all time was Game 3 in 2008. The Phillies beat the Rays 5-4, and the game drew a 6.1 rating. It was watched by just 9.8 million people, still the only World Series game ever to be watched by less than 10 million viewers.

I suppose this is all part of the great migration of baseball viewership over the past twenty years: local ratings are up, national ratings are in the tank. It's why local TV deals are so much more important than national TV deals; it's why the Rangers got $80 million a year from FSN Southwest even though nationally televised baseball games barely out-draw soccer games for viewership.  Baseball has become the opposite of football in the TV game. And maybe that's not a bad thing.

It's all the baseball we're getting tonight, sadly; we'll have to live with what we have. I suppose we can all cheer for Miguel Cabrera to tire himself out.

If you're watching the Derby tonight - discuss below.

Hey sports girls and guys,

To coincide with the impending launch of the SB Nation Minnesota regional site, we're throwing a massive party!

Tomorrow night (Wednesday, June 16), from about 7 to 9pm, there will be a get-together at Hubert's Bar & Grill in the Warehouse district in Minneapolis.  A lot of SB Nation folk will be there as well as a bunch of other fans, so not only do you get the chance to get out of your house on a beautiful June evening, but you also get to have a drink or two, have a bite to eat and do what we all love to do:  talk Minnesota sports!

Twins fans talking about Mike Lowell and Brendan Harris.  Vikings fans doing their best Purple Jesus impressions.  Wolves fans, those precious, hardcore Wolves fans, donning brave smiles as they talk about the future.  Wild fans talking about the draft.  And Gopher fans, well...we all bleed maroon and gold somewhere.

I'm hoping we have a number of representatives from Twinkie Town there--I know if I were in the country, I'd be there in a second.  I mean, yeah, I love the Twins and I love Minnesota sports...but I also love Hubert's!

If you want to go, click here to RSVP as soon as possible.  The more, the merrier!  Date, time and location are all behind that link, so click through to get all of the happy details.

Eat, drink, talk sports and be merry!  If you go, be sure to post a picture or two so I can feel like I was there.

I spent 10 glorious days in the States not too long ago.  You may have noticed that the site was under full control with Jon, Adam and Stu for the week, with a little help from Cmathewson.  (Thanks again guys!)

These pics are from Sunday, May 30th, when the Rangers were in town.  It was ESPN's Sunday night game of the week.  Enjoy!

I, quite literally, stopped to take pictures of everything.  I'll just be sharing a few with you, but suffice it to say:  Target Field is beautiful.  It rained off and on through the first couple of innings, and I was determined to sit through the entire thing.  I didn't care how hard it rained or how wet I got.

Continue reading this post »

My wife and I will be the last two Minnesotans to see a game at Target Field on Saturday, winter permitting.  I don't know if there will be a ceremony or not to recognize this, but I'll wear a sash nonetheless, BECAUSE THAT'S HOW TWINKIE TOWN SENIOR WRITERS ROLL.  They're also slimming.

So, a couple things:

• The last time a saw an outdoor Twins game in Minnesota, Richie Zisk nearly hit me in the head with a home run.  I've never been that close to a fair or foul ball since.  I am owed.
• My wife and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this weekend.  She requested that we go to a Twins game.  Yes, I realize how lucky I am.
• Any advice or recommendations from those of you who've been to a game at the new digs would be most welcome. Please leave them in the comments.
• I've been to probably two dozen Twins games in my life, and I swear to Jeebus that half of them have been against the Baltimore Orioles.  I have seen Doug Corbett, Ron Davis and Mike Trombley all blow saves against the Baltimore Orioles.  I hate the Baltimore Orioles.  (I've never actually verified that all these blown saves were against the Orioles, so please don't go to Baseball Reference and look up old box scores to prove me wrong.  I am comfortable with the vagaries of my memory and the warm embrace of bitterness.)

I'll be back later with your game preview, but seriously, have you guys seen the forecast for Friday night?  It's going to SNOW, FOR PITY'S SAKE.  It would really stink if the game was postponed and they pushed Liriano back to Saturday so I could watch him in person.  I would hate that.

Joe Mauer is 27 years old today! 

One assumes that he probably bought himself his own birthday present this year, perhaps something on the order of his own Caribbean island, or a fleet of 31 cars from Mauer Chevrolet (one for each day of the month, of course).

I'm sure the rest of the clubhouse pitched in to get him a Jimmy John's gift card, though. And Justin Morneau probably baked him a maple-flavored cake.

(I'd say he deserves more, but with the city of Minneapolis already erecting 50 statues of the guy to go along with his gigantic new contract, he's probably set on the money and glory fronts.)

10,421 days ago, the Twins lost to Kansas City 5-2 at Met Stadium, and the era of outdoor baseball in Minnesota came to an end.

Larry Gura threw a complete-game four-hitter for the Royals. Pete Mackanin drove in the only Twins runs with a homer; it was his last major-league home run. Gary Gaetti and Tim Laudner were in the starting lineup for the Twins that day; Kent Hrbek was getting a day off. 15,900 people watched the Twins leave Met Stadium for the last time.

Ten thousand days later, the Rat, Buck-Ninety, and Herbie are our heroes - and the Twins are once again playing counts-in-the-standings Minnesota baseball outside. It's nice to be back outdoors.

This Afternoon's weather: Cloudy. Chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the middle 60's. Chance of rain delays and grounds crew interruptions. Chance of ironic grumbling in bleachers. 100% chance of happiness.