Spent some time with John Bonnes, who does the TwinsGeek blog, over the weekend at TwinsFest and he shared that another Twins blogger, Andrew Kneeland, is promoting that February 12 be Nick Punto Day -- with Twins bloggers throughout the universe sharing their thoughts about the infielder/whipping boy/tiny superhero.

There are enough people who seem to have signed on that, by Alice's Restaurant standards, this already qualifies as a movement.

So book that as something to look forward to -- or a reason to stay away from the Internet for a day.

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The Joe Mauer speculation has certainly heated up. Mark Rosen's report on the WCCO website set off a flurry of denials and kind-of-denials, with representatives from both sides (whom you can assume to be near the top of their party's food chains) telling Joe and La Velle that no deal has been reached yet. It's clear that stuff is falling into place and both sides are hopeful of doing this sooner rather than later.

Also keep in mind that, like your grandmother's china, stuff can go from falling into place to falling on the floor and shattering.

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If you want to follow me on Twitter, click the button on the left of the page. (Until Monday, it went to a feed of our Twitter page that provides Twins headlines. On Friday night, I tweeted from the corporate sponsor's gathering at TwinsFest, including Joe Mauer's contention that he got tired during the All-Star Game's home run derby "because Morneau kept me out late the night before" and new shortstop J.J. Hardy saying it was tough to play defense behind Brewers pitchers because they don't throw strikes.

It's hard to do much journalism in 140 characters or less, which is why I try to tweet in moderation. (I'll also tweet from random events now and again, like Saturday afternoon's Benilde-Hopkins basketball game.) But if you're into Twitter, I'm there. So follow me.

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When we give our Twins presence on startribune.com a makeover later this month, we'll have more minor-league information available. In the meantime, Aaron Gleeman has started his annual and meticulous ranking of the Twins' Top 40 prospects. You can finds No. 31 through 40 here.

Am I the only one slightly bummed that 7-foot-1 pitcher Loek Van Mil is only No. 39 on the list?