Welcome to the introduction to the Twinkie Town community prospect vote for 2015! This is something we've done every year for as long as I can remember. Our good friend Roger introduced the idea and refined it, and now that he's enjoying the finer aspects of retired life we do our best to fill his shoes.
Our community prospect vote is exactly what it sounds like: we vote to determine the Top 30 prospects in the Minnesota Twins organization. One by one I present votes to you, with a number of players on the ballot. You vote, the ballot closes a day or two later, and we have our winner for that round. Those who don't win stay on the ballot, and stay there until they eventually win.
Before the voting even starts, I have players listed in tiers on a spreadsheet. This is how we control, to some extent, who gets placed where. As we go through the voting process I will eventually add more players to the ballot as others drop off due to winning a vote; sometimes I'll add one player, sometimes three or four, sometimes I'll add nobody. It all depends on where we are in the voting process, how many players are on the ballot from the previous round, and how many players are in the next tier on my fancy spreadsheet. (It has colors and everything. It's pretty sweet.)
As members of our community, you're always welcome to suggest names of players you hope to see on the ballot soon. At the very least I'll usually take a look at the player, and will of course bump him up the chart a little bit if I agree with your assessment.
That's it, folks. Pretty simple. I'll create ballots for you, featuring must-have information on each candidate, and you make your pick. We'll kick things off at 7:00pm central with Round 1. See you there!