The Hosken Powell Memorial Linkdump is Pretty Much Josh Willingham Trade Rumor Central Now

Hey, actual news in Twins Territory! Let's roll.

• Josh Willingham was the deserving recipient of an AL Silver Slugger award following his banner offensive year in 2012. The other outfielders: Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton. Good company.
• Speaking of Willingham, the Star-Tribune's Joe Christensen, who is at baseball's GM meetings in California, broke down how Willingham and Denard Span make sense as trade chips with the Twins' opponent in the 1991 World Series, the Atlanta Braves. Basically, the Braves need a corner outfielder with power and a center fielder who can lead off, and as has been reported here at Twinkie Town, the Twins need starting pitching, which Atlanta has in abundance.
• Speaking of the 1991 World Series, remember when the Twins deked out Lonnie Smith and he didn't score and the Twins ended up winning Game 7? That was pretty awesome.
• The Orioles have inquired about Willingham's availability, per MLB.com's Paul Hagen.
• Per 1500ESPN's Phil Mackey, those of us expecting a big return in any potential Willingham swap are likely to be disappointed, due to his age (34) and defensive liabilities. One AL exec told Mackey that Span has better trade value.
• Speaking of Joe Christensen, the longtime baseball reporter and Twins beat writer is switching jobs with the Star-Tribune's Phil Miller, who will surrender the Gophers football beat to Joe C. and join LaVelle E. Neal The Third on the Strib's Twins beat. You may remember Miller was the Pioneer Press's Twins reporter before being laid off in 2009. Joe will be missed, but Phil is a helluva writer. And for those that care about such things, Miller is a SABR member.

If anything breaks on the trade front, we will be here.