HPMLD: Collusion, boredom, weird midwestern habits

The Hosken Powell Memorial Linkdump is doing its best, ok?

• The sheer, mind-bottling lack of any free agent activity at this late date in the offseason (spring training starts in a month!) has once again raised the specter of collusion. Marc Normandin looks at the recent history of MLB owners being terrible at covering their tracks and reminds you that Peter Ueberroth was bad.
• Speaking of which, Grant Brisbee wants to know how Lance Lynn is still unsigned. (See bullet point #1.)
• In actual Twins news...Target Field will be lit with purple lights starting this evening. I guess there’s a football game on Sunday? In a Twinkie Town EXCLUSIVE, I can confirm that a popular local craft brewery will also be lit purple this weekend if the email chain I’m included on is any indication.
• “Ope” is the Minnesota “Excuse me”. The more you know.
• I’m not an ESPN Insider, so I cannot tell you if Buster Olney put the Twins in his Top 10. Someone who is, let us know in the comments. Will we celebrate or bemoan the predictions of a grown man named Buster? I’m on the edge of my dang seat.
• MLB.com ranked the divisions and did a way-too-early preview of each one. You will not be surprised to learn that, with the Central having one clear favorite and three other teams in some form of a rebuild, the Twins are the consensus sleeper team of the bunch.
• How did Jack Morris complicate the Hall of Fame chances of other candidates like Mike Mussina? ESPN’s David Schoenfield explains and mentions Hall of Famer High Pockets Kelly. I didn’t even know about High Pockets Kelly.
• Baseball Prospectus’ Rachael McDaniel wrote about early Blue Jays hero Doug Ault. If you follow any of these links, follow this one.

If anything really does happen (really), we’ll let you know.