I live in Seattle, a city known for rainy days and craft beer. I like it here, and while I'm a long way from my beloved Minnesota Twins, the Mariners community here in Seattle is quite welcoming. After watching the Twins fall to the Tigers on Opening Day I headed over to the open house held at Safeco Field.

(this post originally appeared at www.baseballtwins.com)

The Mariners opened the stadium at 6pm with free admission for all fans, free parking and 5-dollar beers all evening. 15,000+ Mariner fans showed up to watch the game on the newly installed jumbo tron, the biggest in all of baseball. I got a chance to walk around the warning track and enjoy a wide variety of craft beers around the stadium before finding a seat and watching Felix Hernandez stifle the Oakland Athletics. I even picked up a Seattle Pilots cap which I'll be sporting around Seattle in the days and weeks ahead. The Pilots, who left Seattle after one season to become the Milwaukee Brewers, had one of my favorite caps in MLB history (http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.js...31&cagpspn=pla).

A big thank you to the Mariners for putting on the Open House. It was fun being able to walk around the warning track and take in the new additions to Safeco field. There's a great patio seating section in Center field now that they've moved the fences in, and Seattle legend Edgar Martinez was on hand signing autographs and taking pictures in Edgar's lounge. A neat way for Seattle fans, and baseball fans of all sorts, to get back into the baseball mode.

It was fun being back in a major league ball park watching baseball. And while I didn't get to see the Twins or the Mariners play in person, the huge screen, the roar of the crowd, the smell of hot dogs, beer and fresh grass was enough to have be back in baseball heaven after a long and somewhat depressing off-season. Baseball is back, and I'm looking forward to another season of America's pastime.

Episode 31 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.


In Episode 31, Paul, Eric, and Cody get together to discuss Twins news leading up to Opening Day, the Twins 25-man roster, and they make their MLB predictions for each division, for the World Series, and for MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year. Cody does a great job in his first full show on Talk to Contact, and while his segways are initially weak, he gets stronger as the episode goes along. Along the way we’re joined by Bryan Craves, the Displaced Tigers Fan, to talk about Opening Day, Justin Verlander, and what might happen in the Twins’ first series of the year. Brace yourself for more than 130 minutes of awesome.



If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes (ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help Wilkin Ramirez get playing time).
You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan.
Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.
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Episode 29 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

"Murica!

This week on the Talk to Contact Podcast, the brothers Pleiss dicusss, among other things, their plans for the weekend, Anthony Slama, Hudson Boyd, Bob Allison and Roy Halladay, among other Twins related topics, to include Aaron Hicks, Jamey Carroll and some dude named Eduardo Escobar. Paul gets drunk early in the podcast, Eric tries to remain competent and everyone has a good time. Happy St Patrick's Day everyone!Thanks to Mark Smith (@MarkArtSmith) for the new logo!
You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast. If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.
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Episode 28 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.Eric and Paul are joined this week by not one, but two guests with international flavor. In the first segment the twins are joined by Gary from Italy (@ForzaGemelli) to talk about baseball in Italy and hopes for the Italian team in the WBC (including Drew Butera, the boat anchor). Later in the podcast fellow international traveler Thrylos (@Thrylos98) of tenthinningstretch.blogspot.com to talk about spring training battles and baseball in general. Eric and Paul go on to discuss injury news coming out of spring training, J.T. Chargois, Camile Pascual, the World Baseball Classic in both generalities and specifics before getting sidetracked talking about beer, and other nonsensical things.

Thanks to Mark Smith (@MarkArtSmith) for the new logo!

You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast. If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)
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Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.comwww.baseballtwins.com

Episode 27 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Eric and Paul discuss the Twins news of the week, ranging from the Oswaldo Arcia injury, the CF competition, Joe Mauer's twins to the Baseball Prospectus prospect rankings. They are joined this week by Kristen Brown (kbrobaseball.blogspot.com) to talk about spring training, voodoo paper dolls and being a female sports writer in a male dominated world. After K-Bro the twins take a closer look at Gary Gaetti's time in Minnesota, and Deolis Guerra's future with the organization before getting into the world of beer and stolen sausages.


If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)
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Episode 26 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

Thanks to Mark Smith (@MarkArtSmith) for the new logo!

Now more than 6 months into the podcasting experiment the Pleiss brothers tackle the glory and excitement that is the dawn of the 2013 baseball season. Among things discussed are the real value of spring training stats (none), things to watch around the diamond in 2013 for the Twins (infield, outfield, rotation, bullpen) and a discussion of arguably the biggest post MVP flop in baseball history (Zoilo Versalles); toss in some banter about whether or not bigger is actually better, prospect talk (Jorge Polanco and Niko Goodrum) with Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) and some other baseball banter and you've got a fine mess for your listening enjoyment.


If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)
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www.baseballtwins.com

Episode 25 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Drew Butera and Brian Duensing out golfing, photo credit Dustin Morse
This week on the podcast Paul and Eric delve into the excitement of spring training and make some bold predictions for what they see happening in the AL Central this season. We take a look at the ZIPS projections for the Twins and discuss what the numbers mean for the 2013 team, we even spend some time talking about the Twins promotional giveaways coming up this season. This week's Twins HOF'er is Earl Battey. In the prospect world we take a look at Adrian Salcedo and then jump into emails and beer talk before the show is through. 95 minutes of magic.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)
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Episode 24 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.



This week Eric and Paul are joined by long time Twins blogger Cody Christie (@NoDakTwinsFan, www.NoDakTwinsFan.com) to talk about the Twins off-season moves and a look at 2013. Also joining us is MLB Fan Cave applicant, Michael McGivern (@McGive_It_To_me, www.McGiveItToMe.blogspot.com), to discuss his attempt to gain entry to the MLB Fan Cave, why he's worthy, and his life as a Minnesota Twins fan (you can vote for him here). In addition to the above, the Twins twins also discuss the Anthony Swarzak injury, Jim Perry's place in the Twins HOF, prospect Deibinson Romero and a look forward to spring training. Join us for almost 2 hours of half-drunken #MNTwins talk on the Talk To Contact Podcast.

You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)


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Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on TwitterCheck out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Episode 23 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

This week the Pleiss brothers spend way too much time discussing obscure state capitols and bantering on about MySpace and hipsters but in between those strange and obscure conversations you can find plenty of talk about the Minnesota Twins, including a discussing of the 25-man roster,Frank Viola, prospect Luke Bard and former Twins around the MLB. Also making his Talk to Contact podcast debut it Jason from The Inverted W podcast (www.invertedW.com) to continue the series looking around the AL Central, this time discussing the Kansas City Royals.

You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon’s Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)

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Episode 22 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.



(Getting some ink from Twins top prospect Miguel Sano; his signature, by the way, is almost completely illegible.)

Paul spent the weekend up in Minnesota attending TwinsFest, drinking beer and talking baseball. As a result, he sounds both hungover and lifeless on the podcast, but there's still lots of great content. Apologies to the listener for the audio quality at points during the recording as Paul was using his AWESOME (sarcasm) travel laptop for recording, thus you can literally hear the computer fan whirring in the background trying to keep the computer from exploding. We are joined towards the end of the episode by Jose Bosch (@HJBosch21 from Motor City Bengals to take a look at the Detroit Tigers off-season. We also discuss Tony Oliva, Matthew Summersand a comprehensive review of TwinsFest and the cat video guy.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)



You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.
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Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on Twitter
Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Episode 21 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.


Once again the Pleiss brothers get together to talk Twins baseball. Continuing their look around the AL Central division they are joined by Lewie Pollis (@LewsOnFirst) from WahoosOnFirst.com and BeyondTheBoxScore.com to talk about what's been happening with the Cleveland Indians since the end of their season and what we can expect from the Tribe in 2013. Later in the podcast Seth Stohs (@SethTweets) joins the podcast to talk about the recent release of his Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook 2013. By the end of the podcast you will have learned something about the Heart of Darkness, Greg Gagne, Josmil Pinto and a whole slough of other Twins news and notes.

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Episode 20 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

This week Eric and Paul are joined by Ken Boehlke from WBBM Chicago to take a closer look at the Twins division rival Chicago White Sox. After talking with Ken we discuss Bert Blyleven's plae in Twins history, the baseball HOF's induction process (or lack thereof), and reveal each of our top ten prospect lists going into 2013. We discuss beer, baseball, and not a whole lot else, join us for the twentieth installment of the Talk to Contact Podcast.If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes
(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)
You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.
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Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on Twitter
Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Episode 19 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.


Eric and Paul have returned from their winter hiatus to bring you more witty banter about the Minnesota Twins. This week they are joined by listener of the week, Mark Smith, to project opening day lineups and discuss spring training battles that will have to be won. After Mark's departure the twins discuss Kent Hrbek's place in the Twins Hall of Fame, Eddie Rosario's future as a second basemen and of course what type of beer they're drinking.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes
(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)

You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.
Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.



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Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Episode 18 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.

Eric and Paul are joined this week by special guest Brandon Warne of Star Tribune Storts, Fangraphs and other places around the web to talk about the newest Twin, Mike Pelfrey and what that signing means for the team going into 2013 and beyond. After Brandon departs the twins discuss Rod Carew, whether or not Daniel Turpin will ever reach the big leagues and what the Mets/Blue Jays trade means for baseball in Canada.
This is what it looks like when Eric records the podcast.

If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes
(ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which help us become warlocks.)

You can follow Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) or read his writing at the Knuckleballs Blog.Once again thank you to Egon's Unicat for letting us use their music on the podcast.


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Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

Bad teams often have a lot of room for talented prospects to move quickly through the farm system and get a chance to play with the big league club. After losing 99 games in 2011 the Twins stunk it up again in 2012 and lost 96 games. Half-way through the off-season the Twins have traded away their two best center fielders and while they have gotten back three quality arms in return, two of those arms still have a ways to go before they make it up to the big league club. The Twins also added a veteran arm to the starting rotation, but by all accounts it looks like the Twins are building for the future at the expense of the 2013 season. Who are the young guns in the system to be on the lookout for? Follow me Down on the Pond and together we'll take a look at some of the top prospects in the Twins minor league system. This week we take a look at the prospects I have ranked 16th-20th.

20. Adrian Salcedo. Salcedo was limited to just 9 games this past season after he suffered a broken nose when a line-drive came back and caught him in the face. In 2011 Salcedo posted a nice 2.93 ERA in low-A Beloit but only struck out 92 batters in 135 innings after having struck out 81 in 93 innings the year before. I look for Salcedo to return to the Miracle in 2013 where his K rate will hopefully return and his ability to keep the ball in the park will remain.

19. Daniel Santana. Santana is switch hitting short-stop who spent 2012 with the Miracle. After hitting .247/.298/.373 (AVG/OBP/SLG) in Beloit in 2011 he made the jump up to high-A and improved his slash line to .286/.329/.410 in 2012. Santana was the Miracle's primary SS, but also spent some time at second base. Santana committed 27 errors at SS in 2011 but reduced that to 16 in as many chances in 2012, unfortunately he committed another in limited duty at second base. Has Santana done enough to start the season in AA?
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