Vegas picked the White Sox to finish fourth in the AL Central this year, pegging them to win about 74.5 games. Chicago's season essentially ended last night when the Tigers clinched the division, but that means the Pale Hose' playoff hopes lasted until October, about four (five?) months longer than the Twins. They also made anyone who bet the “under” in Vegas look like a fool, exceeding Vegas preseason estimate by 10 games and counting.

I am one of those fools. In our Gleeman and the Geek podcast, I predicted a miserable season on Chicago’s south side. They had won 79 games in 2011, but with a run differential that looked worse than that. And then they lost Mark Buehrle to the Marlins and traded away slugger Carlos Quentin and closer Sergio Santos. They had also lost manager Ozzie Guillen, for better or worse.
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The Minnesota Twins release Tsuyoshi Nishioka, contemplate coaching changes, and the John and Aaron review the MLB season via their preseason predictions. Here are:

• the podcasts
• the rss feed if you want to subscribe and
• the podcast on iTunes.

If you want to chat about the topics, let us know....

• Was Nishi a scouting error or a revenue driven?
• Should the Twins make field staff changes?
• What surprise AL team should we have predicted?

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It's the last Friday of the regular season and that means this will be the last Friday the Twins will be playing until opening week of next year. That might be sad to think about for some fans but it has been two tough seasons in a row. The 162 game schedule can be grueling for the players and it seems logical to think some of them are ready for their up coming break. It's been the second year in a row that the Twins haven't been close to making the playoffs and that hasn't happened since the 1999-2000 campaigns. Sigh...
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I was listening to this week’s Gleeman & the Geek episode. In it, they discussed briefly how many Twins prospects might make Baseball America’s 2013 Top 100 prospects list. It certainly is an interesting question, especially given that the Twins minor league system has been generally considered very weak the last few years. However, there is little question in my mind, that the Twins organization will likely rank in the Top 10 minor league systems again.

The general belief is that Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton will likely be Top 25 prospects in all of baseball. ...

It is easy to despair over Liam Hendriks after starts like the one he turned in on Monday night against the Yankees, when he coughed up four homers en route to his eighth loss in 15 tries for the Twins this year.

Certainly the right-hander has offered little cause for encouragement here in his first extended exposure to the majors, but we shouldn't let these rocky outings completely sour us on his long-term outlook.
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In last night's loss to the New York Yankees, Matt Capps made his return to the field after missing almost the entire second half of the season. It was the first action for Capps after not appearing in a game since the middle of July. The season has been injury plagued for the 29-year old relief pitcher and his time with the Twins has been full of plenty of ups-and-downs. Fans seem to hold a grudge against Capps for his poor play in the last couple of years but some of this hatred might be better aimed at the front office for the Twins. The past decisions with Capps have left fans scratching their heads and it's tough to know what the next move will be from the front office. ...