AaronGleeman.com

Normally my annual series on the Twins' top 40 prospects would have started by now, but it seemed smart to hold off for a while when a Johan Santana trade appeared imminent. I spend way too much time as it is compiling the list, writing the profiles, and debating whether some 20-year-old who may never even make it to the majors should be ranked 38th or 39th, so I'd have felt even sillier finishing the series only to see the Twins acquire multiple top prospects for Santana.

I'd really prefer to avoid having to significantly rearrange the rankings and boot several deserving prospects off the list to make room for players who came over in a big trade. Of course, a Santana deal seemed imminent in early December and it's now mid-January, so at some point the show must go on. If nothing happens on the Santana front over the next 24-48 hours, this year's top-40 prospects series should begin later this week.

In the meantime, it occurred to me that it's been almost exactly three months since I opened the floor up for reader-submitted questions. In fact, the last time was mid-October and back then I wrote that "it's a good idea" to do so "every few months." If you're unfamiliar with how this works, it's basically a poor man's version of an online chat session. You ask questions, either by posting in the comments section or e-mailing me, and then I answer them in this space at some point in the near future.

In the past when we've done this there have been more than enough submissions to devote separate entries to answering "baseball questions" and "random questions," so it's perfectly acceptable to ask something that has absolutely nothing to do with the Twins. In fact, it might be preferred. If there's some pressing issue that you want my opinion on or some random thing that you've been wondering about me or this blog, fire away. And ... go!