In preparation for the looming 2013 baseball season, we've rolled out a new look for TwinsDaily.com. You should find the new site easier to navigate, easier to read, and hopefully, find your experience an improved one all-around. We've worked to better integrate the forums with the front page, linking the two with widgets to see what is happening in various sections of the website.

We'd also like to thank Summit Brewing for being the first official Twins Daily sponsor! Recently, we've been reaching out to local businesses in an attempt to better target our sponsorships to our readership. Summit, being one of Minnesota's premiere breweries, seemed like a great place to start and we thank them for being our first sponsor on the site. Click through their ads and show thanks to them for allowing us to continue to do what we do here at Twins Daily.

Also, be sure to mark March 23rd on your calendars, as that is the first Twins Daily viewing party of 2013. It will be hosted at 612 Brew in Minneapolis with the game scheduled to kick off at 12:05pm Central Time. Come by and join us to watch the Twins take on the Tampa Bay Rays!

As always, any new site will "feature" its host of bugs and problems. This is the first time I've done a complete redesign of the site using this software so if you see any problems with how the site appears on your browser, be sure to mention it below!

Thanks again for visiting Twins Daily and we hope you enjoy all the work we've done to continue improving the site.

We're never satisfied with Twins Daily and continually strive to bring you the best experience possible. Unfortunately, that means a little down time now and again as we upgrade the software and/or implement new features on the site.

This Sunday, TwinsDaily.com will be down 4-6 hours while we transition to a new server, upgrade the software, and put in place a brand-spankin-new design. It's cleaner, easier to use, and should provide a much improved user experience. We're also hoping that the site will be a little speedier with the new server.

So, if you check the site on weekends, have no fear if the site is down early in the day. We're just upgrading a bunch of stuff and everything will be back to normal by mid-to-late afternoon.

In Twinsland, this offseason has been marked by a couple of trades that have been embraced by the community and a couple of free agent acquisitions that have been viciously attacked by a large portion of the fan base.

Most of us love what Terry Ryan did with the Twins' only marketable surplus, center fielders. Moving Denard Span for Alex Meyer and then flipping Ben Revere for Vance Worley and Trevor May were classic Ryan moves, taking advantage of competitive teams' desire to win now in exchange for a youth movement.

On the flip side of that coin, we've seen some questionable handling of the free agent market by the Twins front office. After losing out on the Baker sweepstakes early in the offseason, it appears that the front office reacted rashly and offered up two years to Kevin Correia, whose stat line last season is frighteningly close to that of a certain Jason Marquis in 2011 (88 ERA+ for Marquis for the Padres, 87 ERA+ for Correia for the Pirates). Before I flog that already bloodied horse for the thousandth time on this site, let's take a look at another part of the Twins roster that was completely ignored:

The middle infield.

Last season, Brian Dozier posted some rather abysmal numbers for the team (.234/.271/.332) before being sent back down to the minors to regain his stroke (and fielding, and patience, and probably a bit of his sanity). He was replaced by Pedro Florimon, who hasn't authoritatively hit a baseball since playing as a teenager in the Dominican Republic. They are coupled with Jamey Carroll, veteran steward of middle infields across MLB for the past decade. While I like Carroll as a player and think he brings a very steady hand to an organization that - dons Hat of Positivity - has scuffled with their middle infield options since the departure of JJ Hardy and Jason Bartlett, it cannot be ignored that Carroll is entering his age 39 season as a middle infielder, an area of baseball where very few players make it out of their mid 30s as productive players.

All in all, Carroll would be a great player to have on a competitive team. He's steady, gets on base at a rather good clip, and is a nearly perfect player to come off the bench and spell the starters up the middle of the diamond. Which brings me to a few issues:

1. The Twins aren't competitive, particularly in the middle infield. That means Carroll, like Nick Punto before him, is not being used in his natural role as a bench player with versatility.

2. If Jamey Carroll receives 401 plate appearances in 2013, the Twins are on the hook for a $2 million player option in 2014. Given the Twins, uh, lack of expected production in the middle infield spots in 2013, those 401 plate appearances are nearly guaranteed, barring an injury to Jamey.

3. The Twins have payroll flexibility. A lot of flexibility, as their adjusted 2013 payroll is on par with their payroll in the final years of the Metrodome.

Most everyone agrees that the free agent market for the middle infield was lacking in quality players but that doesn't mean the cupboard was entirely bare and the Twins need middle infield help nearly as much as they need starting pitching. Despite that fact, the Twins failed to pursue any of the free agents available to them. Which, in turn, means that the Twins are likely to be forced to pay a 40-year-old Jamey Carroll $2 million in 2014. Add in the second year of the Correia contract at $5.5 million and you're looking at $7.5 million committed to large question marks in 2014. That's nearly 10% of the 2013 payroll as it stands now. Add in the rather inexplicable contract to Drew Butera, a historically bad hitter, and that number jumps over 10% of payroll.

Is this guaranteed to be a failure by the Twins? No, most certainly not. Carroll is a quality player (right now, anyway) and there's a chance Correia will earn his money.

But that's not the point, is it? The point is that a mid-market team such as the Twins has to be using their resources as intelligently as possible to fill in the gaps left by their minor league system at an above-average rate. By nearly anyone's standard, using 10% of their payroll to field a below average National League pitcher and a 40-year-old middle infielder is not the smartest use of available resources.

By doing nothing to shore up the middle infield, Ryan is essentially writing off $2 million in 2014 that could have gone to a younger player that could help the middle infield enormously and wouldn't be such a risk to decline overnight as they pass the start of their fourth decade on planet earth. A 29-year-old Ronny Cedeno just signed with the Cardinals for $1.15 million after posting a .259/.332/.410 shortened season with the Mets in 2012. Kelly Johnson, 31 years old, was just snapped up by the Rays after posting a .225/.313/.365 line for the Blue Jays and is just two years removed from a .284/.370/.496 line with the Diamondbacks.

None of these options are great ones; far from it. But given the wide-open nature of the Twins middle infield going into 2013, their obvious ability to spend some of that money, and the looming player option for Carroll, wouldn't it have been prudent to add another player to the mix in hopes that another body gives you a better chance to field a competitive team while also relieving you of being forced into a player option for 2014 that you may want to avoid?

It's only $2 million. I realize that, yes. On the other hand, it's $2 million that isn't being used in the best way possible by the front office.

And, unfortunately for Twins fans, that seems to be a recurring theme through this offseason.

For the second consecutive season, the Twins have been a pretty awful baseball team to watch. As long-time Minnesota fans, we at Twins Daily understand that. I'm not a Vikings fans so maybe I don't understand it quite as much as some of you saps, but I still understand the sentiment behind being very, very angry at your favorite team. Some of this frustration boils over into the comments section of articles and into the TD forums.

Lately, it's been a bit of an issue and that's going to stop. We've had a rash of posters who have stooped to calling each other names and that isn't the type of environment we're trying to foster here at Twins Daily. So, as of this point, if you see someone calling another person names or insulting their obviously rich family lineage, let us know about it. It's really easy. There's a "Report Post" function under every post made on TD (it's the little triangle with the exclamation point in it).

Now that I have that out of the way...

To the offenders of this policy. Listen, you're frustrated. We get that. But do you really need to call another person you've never met a ^&%$ing *$%#face &^#wipe because they think Joe Mauer should be traded for a pitching machine and an old Phillie Phanatic costume? There's a much more polite way to make your disagreement with that kindly gentleman on the other side of the keyboard known to all. Challenge him to a duel. Pistols at dawn is always a classy touch. Go create a website and yell at him there. GoDaddy offers cheap and affordable hosting for such a thing, if you can stomach the non-stop Danica Patrick ads long enough to find out how to buy something over there. The point is that if you're going to insult someone on the internet, you better find a different place to do it.

Or, better yet, stick around Twins Daily and learn to disagree with the idea, not the person. Everybody has the occasional insane idea of what constitutes "smart baseball". VodkaDave thinks the Twins should explore signing Morneau to a multi-year deal in the offseason. Do I agree with that? God, no. I think it's completely insane to even be thinking about it at this point in time. But Dave's a pretty smart guy who I agree with quite often on several subjects (particularly all things adult entertainment-based). So I go after the idea, not the person (also, Dave is a very sensitive person and I'd hate to upset his delicate sensibilities).

Not everybody out there is as smart as you, SABR guy with a post doctorate in mathematics... It's also possible they haven't yet been exposed to new baseball ideas. Or maybe they're just a little kid and you just sent them back upstairs, crying about how the bad Internet people don't like Nick Punto and asking his mom what she really did for a living before she met daddy. Nobody wants that. We were all baseball morons once and Twins Daily is doing its best to invite baseball fans of all knowledge levels and varieties to this great sport. It wouldn't kill you to show a little restraint once in a while and teach something instead of blasting the person out of the water like a drunken Hunter S Thompson fishing in a dynamite pond.

In short, stop with the insults. We're not going to put up with it but we do encourage civil (or, mostly civil) discourse on the state of the Twins. Again, it's a really simple rule:

Go after the idea, not the person.

Twins Daily was a bit tricky to navigate on smartphones. While the full version is great for desktop browsing, it left something to be desired on your Android/iPhone/iPod devices.

Well, that has changed. Some of you may have noticed that when browsing on your smartphone, you're automatically redirected to a new version of the site that is designed specifically for the requirements of a smaller screen. Most (if not all) of the same functionality is there, now it's just smaller and simpler to use. This skin should be automatically enabled on any Blackberry, Windows Phone, iPhone, iPod, or Android smartphone. iPad and Android tablet users should still be redirected to the full site to take advantage of the extra real estate on tablet screens.

To navigate the mobile site, click on the square icon (the one with more squares in it) near the top right of the screen just to the right of the obvious-but-there-anyway text "Navigate Site". From that navigation box, you should be able to use almost any function found on the Twins Daily site.

Should you ever need to view the main site again, just scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click "Full Site". If you want to go back to the mobile version, again scroll down to the bottom of the page and on the bottom left of the footer, you'll see "Visit Mobile Site" with a drop-down menu. Choose "Twins Daily Mobile" and you'll be directed back to the mobile version of the site.

As with everything of this nature, the mobile Twins Daily is a work in progress. The skin has been briefly tested on an Android phone, iPhone, and iPad but given the overwhelming options out there to users today, there's no way we can test it on every browser and hardware configuration available for purchase so if you see something that's wrong and/or confusing, just let us know. We appreciate any and all feedback you might have on the skin and how to improve the experience. Comment below if you have something to say about the skin or just want to call me names. That's cool, too.

Some of you may know me already from my stewardship of Battle Your Tail Off over the past 6+ years or you may only know me by reputation (heh). Moving forward, we're going to work to integrate the BYTO and Twins Daily communities in an attempt to create the most lively, interesting discussion of the Twins anywhere on the internet. My background is of a technical nature; I've spent the past decade as an illustrator, graphic designer, and web developer. You won't see much in the way of original content from me; Seth, John, Nick, and Parker have that arena well in hand. My focus will be on user experience and forum management.

With that out of the way, I want to hear from you. What do you love about Twins Daily? What do you think can be improved? I want to hear ideas and opinions from everyone; you're all part of this community (the most important part, actually) and the five of us want to deliver the goods in the most accessible, user-friendly way possible. If you have anything to say, please, feel free to tell me about it. I'm just getting a feel for this community while some of you have been here for months already. I'll be leaning heavily on your support and input while I get up to speed with what the Twins Daily experience is all about.

Here are a few things I've already done to improve the experience:

- Facebook Connect. I'm sure a few of you have noticed a strange blue box at the top of the screen that says "F: Connect". That is a cool little feature that allows you to connect your Twins Daily account to your Facebook account. Don't worry, Facebook Connect isn't some nefarious plot to farm your personal information, it merely allows you to easily share Twins Daily content with your Facebook page. Like a post you created or want to let your friends know about a blog you just wrote? Click the "Publish to Facebook" check box below the text window and that content will be delivered to your Facebook wall for all to see.

- Forum imagery. You've probably noticed that icons have been changing around the forums. The text across the site has been slightly embiggened to make it easier to read on the smaller, higher resolution monitors in use today. Some of the widgets look a little different. Small and sometimes unnoticeable changes will constantly be happening here at TD. See something you don't like? You should let me know about it. I'm certainly not going to get everything right the first time around and user feedback is the best way to know I'm on the right track. The same applies to things I may have missed; if you see a glaring issue that I haven't addressed, I want to know about it.

- Forum content. To create a more active community, we're trying to consolidate where threads are located in the forums. Article threads will appear in the relevant forum instead of their own separate forum. Game threads will start in the Twins Forum before being retired to the Archived Game Forum after the conclusion of the game. The idea is to put our content in front of as many eyeballs as possible so you don't have to click through many different forums just to talk about the game in progress while also having a discussion about Trevor Plouffe and commenting on the latest article by one of the TwinsCentric crew.

- The community. One of our goals is to make the TD forums the first destination for Twins discussion on the internet. In the coming weeks, we will be trying out new ideas to strengthen the community, similar to what Seth is already doing with the great Adopt A Prospect thread in the On The Farm Forum. Some ideas I'm bouncing around are Pictures of the Week, Fun With Numbers, and other staples of the BYTO community over the past half decade. In this area, I'm always looking for new, fun ideas that will engage the readership. Most good ideas aren't top-down. You know better than anyone what interests you and I want to hear what that is, no matter how outlandish it might sound initially.

Again, this is only possible because of you, the Twins Daily community members. I look forward to hearing your ideas about how to make Twins Daily a better place for Twins fans to hang out and enjoy the team, even if they're not playing like the '61 Yankees right now.

-Brock Beauchamp