Check online tomorrow night for my winter meetings preview, which should get you up to speed on where the Twins stand in their quest for improvement.

I’ve been talking with Twins officials and agents, and none of us know what to expect. The winter meetings were in Nashville last year and will be in Indianapolis (I think) next year. Having it in the middle of the Las Vegas strip sounded like fun a few months ago, but a lot of us are worried if everyone will scatter at the end of the day to absorb the city, making it difficult to do what we do best - meet in the lobby or a hotel bar, swap stories, check out rumors and work our sources.

Will GM’s and other officials hang around at night, or will I have to find them at the craps table or Cirque de Soleil?

And there’s a LOT to do in Vegas over the next few days.

Eddie Guardado’s annual charity poker tournament started today and ends on Sunday with a golf outing, and I know a few Twins players are involved.

The Las Vegas Marathon takes place Sunday - I have a friend entered in the race.

The National Finals Rodeo - aka Cowboy Christmas - started Thursday and runs through the 13th. I’ve heard the rodeo industry takes over the city.

Somehow, the winter meetings have been wedged in with all of this. We’ll see.

I am pleased to announce that, after 11th hour negotiations,  the staff of Winter Meetings Confidential has been re-hired to work the lobby (perhaps the whole strip) to provide you will all rumors bouncing around the meetings. In addition to Twins coverage, keep an eye out for WMC updates in the Strib.

Other stuff…

After 30 games, during which he batted .293 with 2 homers and 14 RBI, Luke Hughes’ time at Aragua of the Venezuelan league is supposed to wind down. But Twins GM Bill Smith said there was a chance that the club may try to talk Hughes into a longer stay.

Matt Tolbert has arrived at Aragua. He’s played in three games so far.

In fact, go here to get winter ball stats of Twins players. 

And Francisco Liriano will pitch for Escogido of the Dominican Winter League. Smith said Liriano asked to pitch and will treat it like spring training, starting with 30 pitches and working his way up.

It looks like Liriano may pitch for the Dominican Republic in the next year’s World Baseball Classic.

Finally, Happy Birthday Erin and Hana!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 5:18 pm and is filed under The offseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.