Every now and again, people ask what blogs I read to keep up with Twins stuff and other MLB news. The flippant answer is to tell them I get everything I need from me, JoeC and LaVelle. But I do check out other sites and I like a lot of ‘em. With the exhibition season getting under way and no shortage of news and opinion out there, I figured this was a good time to share a few thoughts about things to check out. I’m a bit of a blogroll packrat and err on the side of including links down the side of this page. I check every now and then to see if folks are still writing … and I’ve deleted a handful that have gone dormant.

But here’s some of the stuff I really like:

I assume most of you who come through Section 220 also check out the Big Three of local bloggers — Aaron, Seth and SBG. If you don’t, you should. All three have created strong followings without the muscle of a major news outlet to back ‘em up. Aaron Gleeman has used his blog as a springboard to other sites without neglecting his original; Seth Speaks does singular q-and-a’s with Twins prospects and offers up wisdom on American Idol at no extra charge; Stick and Ball Guy has a worthy posse of regulars, including my favorite numbers guy ubelmann.

To see the latest work of Twins bloggers, I check the “Twins blogosphere guide” at the Twins Geek-powered MN GameDay. For national stuff, I’ve been using the recently created Dugout Daily, which offers up a sample of what’s being written elsewhere.

I kill more time than I should wandering through baseball-reference.com, where Section 220 is the proud sponsor of Delmon Young’s page. The site has recently added minor-league stats, which lessen my need to wander through The Baseball Cube, another site where I can get happily lost.

I read Nick and Nick’s Twins Blog. I started out reading it mostly because I used to share an office with the grandfather of one of the Nicks and have kept reading because of insightful posts like the recent “Trend or Mirage.”

I’ve taken a liking to umpbump.com, which bills itself as “in-your-face baseball commentary” and refers to its team previews as: “…a series of posts in which we eviscerate each team for their unintenionally hilarious offseason screw-ups and dole out grudging praise for their not-horrible winter finagling. Heaven help Bill Smith on that one. There’s also a recent post that helps pop the myth of Derek Jeter’s alleged defensive prowess.

Babes Love Baseball is a fun combination of Haiku, snark and rabid Yankee hating. (Author Sooze is from a small Minnesota city where the local paper featured the blog on the front page last year). It’s THOSE Girls gets me to ponder stuff I wouldn’t normally think about and Yeah, Buddy has already decreed the 2008 Twins as “Short on Hotness.” Women baseball bloggers can be just as venomous as the guys, but tend to go a bit easier on Nick Punto.

When I need to remember how bad some of us looked in the ’70s and ’80s, I go to TwinsCards.com. There’s some unfortunate hair and eyewear on there.

But there’s nothing in the current Twins’ blogworld as scary as this.

Of course I read Pat Neshek’s blog. I suspect he’d have a baseball blog even if he didn’t play and I think he’d be amused by my closet of cards. The black type-on-red background is a bit hard on the eyes, though. From reading a questionnaire he filled out for the Rockies a few years back, I know that we’re coming up on the 10th anniversary of Pat’s wisdom-teeth extraction.

And, finally, today marks the makeover and expansion of Twins Territory. Among other things, fans can start their own blogs on the site, which offers this guideline: “Please use good grammar.” I’m all 4 that … and for a good year of Twins blogging in 2008.

other people are here too.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:40 am and is filed under Hot links, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.