Twinkie Town Talk: Pitchers, pitchers, pitchers, and pot

We posted a lot here, so in case you missed it:

• I exchanged a bunch of questions and answers about the off season with the managers for our sister sites in the AL Central, Royals Review, Lets Go Tribe, South Side Sox, and Bless You Boys.
• Matt looks at where the various swiss army knives for the Twins might be used this off season.
• A guest post by Schmenkman looks at the value generated by international Twins signings. It makes Bill Smith look kinda... not awful?
• We just lost another way to watch the Twins. Your options are dwindling, because MLB is terrible at marketing their product
• You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but you won’t find any nuance in these AL Central predictions.
• Get up to speed with modern statistical projection systems, in part one of a very nice primer we are putting together.
• Rhode Island’s own Rocco Baldelli, the manager of the Twins, has exactly the required temperament to lead the Twins into the future, writes another resident of our smallest state.
• An interesting question: what happens if we put the best option into each individual spot in the batting order.

Oh, and we weren’t the only ones who wrote about the Twins

• Zack Littell has become an effective bullpen weapon by retooling his arsenal, including incorporating two different sliders—and even his catcher doesn’t know which one is coming.
• Griffin Jax, now with a restructured military commitment that allows him to pitch more, could be a fast riser in the Twins system this season. Here is a good profile on the reasons why.
• Aaron Gleeman ran through the projections for Twins pitchers this season. Lets hope at least a few of them over-perform. But, as John taught us yesterday, there is a good chance around half of them do so. Scroll back up and click that projections article if you haven’t, seriously!
• Sticking to the theme of pitchers, Homer Bailey had a good debut, and is feeling good so far with the Twins.

Other baseball links:

• Players on the 40-man, but not the 26-man roster will now be allowed to compete in the Olympics, providing a massive boost to the talent pool for the summer games.
• Due to the spread of the Corona Virus, the Japanese professional baseball league has closed access to their remaining preseason games.
• The new, looser MLB rules on marijuana usage are supposed to be a win for the players, but, uhm, basically, the league and teams are still claiming they can punish players for using or possessing it, so basically whats the point? Drug policies are stupid.
• Continuing to be somehow brilliant yet also a total dink, Trevor Bauer, aka Max Kepler’s large adult son, claims that he should pitch every fourth day, and he can prove its a good idea. I think he’s a dink though.