Poll results and other odds and ends

Not a lot of Yankees fans currently following the blog: Fifteen votes on who we want to see win the Series. Fourteen want the Phillies to repeat, one wants the Yankees.

New poll up.

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On Friday, when I outlined the Twins pitching staff, I forgot completely about Bobby Keppel (above).

I wasn't all that impressed by him, and I don't think anybody can argue that he's secure in one of the bullpen jobs, but he does have the one pitch the Twins are most interested in — the two-seam (sinking) fastball. As such, he's got a chance to be around next year in a long man or utility pitcher role..

But that chance, I suspect, hinges on other players — injuries and/or trades. There's no way he can rate ahead of Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Jesse Crain or Jon Rauch if all are healthy. And he doesn't qualify for a LOOGY role.

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I've done some housekeeping on the blogroll.

The Chicago Tribune folded its "Hardball" blog into something called chicagosportsbreakingnews.com; as such, anything posted about the Cubs or White Sox is getting lost in a blizzard of updates on Da Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks. I don't care about the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks, so I've dropped it from the roll. And I decided to take Rany Jazayerli at his word that "Rany on the Royals" is done; should it return in the spring, I'll restore it to the roll.

Losing them really underlines a gap. I have nothing in the roll focused on any of the Twins' AL Central rivals. Everything is now Twins-oriented or very broad. That's a flaw I hope to address by next season.

And I've added "Seth Speaks" — Seth Strohs does a bang-up job on the Twins farm system in particular. I added it, frankly, because I'm a lot more likely to visit the site if it's linked to from my blog.

The other thing I've done is add links to the other Free Press blogs, as much for myself as for you. As with Seth, I'm more likely to visit my colleagues' work if I have them handy at mine.