Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch

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Here is this week's installment (also heavily influenced by Spring Training and brought to you from Fort Myers) :

• Please Check here later tonight for my report from Fort Myers today. Sure to please with a lot of photos, including: watching Tom Kelly manage a real live game, Twins' number one prospect Miguel Sano, a preview of Beloit next season and a couple of Twins' pitching prospects who are flying way under the radar. Will be posted here later tonight
  
• Good luck to Dan Osterbrock, Mike Tarsi, Kane Holbrooks, Blayne Weller, Spencer Steedley, Matt Schuld, Matt Bashore, Chris Cates, Steve Pearce, Dustin Martin, Ben Tootle, Tyler Koelling, Jason Bulger, Roy Larson, Deinys Suarez and Derek Christensen who were released by the Twins' organization last Thursday. I really do not understand how they could release Dan Osterbrock (he was ranked my top Twins' pitching prospect in 2008) but after they released Pedro Guerra earlier this year, I can believe that everything is possible...
  
• It sounds like Ron Gardenhire (and not Terry Ryan) will make the decision on whether they will carry 3 catchers. And with the one who had the best spring, Rene Rivera, cut today, sounds like another futile season of Drew Butera going North.
  
• Looks like, in addition to Capps, Perkins and Duensing, Swarzak and Maloney made the Twins' pen and Burton is pretty close to a lock as of yesterday (per Anthony on the Radio)
  
• Apparently Drew Butera is an annoying roommate, maybe because he is doing this without cleaning up; while a certain other Twins' player should be careful when what he is tweeting could be taken with a couple meanings and one of them pretty bad.
  
• Visitors to the Texas Rangers' ballpark will be able to feast on a new culinary hubris: The Champion Dog. Allegedly, this mess features a 1 lb hot dog in a 2-feet-long bun topped with sauteed onions, cheese and chili. All for just $26. Bucket or air sickness bag comes extra.
  
• This is an interesting development. Still in the idea box, but I think that it has the potential to chance how Latin American amateurs are looked at by the MLB teams.
  
• Meanwhile, here is a collection of Nishioka-themed Haikus. Wonder whether there are any original Haikus written in Japan about his demotion
  
• The Do you know your Twins? challenge is still open. And I am not sure that there are any winners yet, so feel free to participate
  
• Continuing the Twins' product of the week feature. Because there are so many out there and some of them are, well... interesting. This weeks' winner is: MLB Minnesota Twins Protoasthttp://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=biowriters&l=as2&o=1&a=B003C0BI10 You know those slices of toast that have the images of famous people and fetch a million dollars on ebay? A slice of toast with the Twins' logo is more fun.
  

The parting shot today is of the get to know them variety. I am sure that even the most seasoned Twins' fans and the biggest Twins' Minor Leagues aficionados will not recognize the player pictured. He is one of the new Twins' Minor League free agents, Catcher Billy Killian. This is his age 26 season and has bounced in the Padres', Rangers', White Sox' and Orioles' systems (up to AA) before he played for the Frontier League Evansville Otters the past two seasons. On Sunday I saw him play with the Fort Myers and Beloit kids in their inter-squad game and was nothing short of impressive (of course he is much older.) Just another good story and a player to keep your eye on in the Twins' minors.

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