Michael Cuddyer's Dimples Joins Colorado Rockies for 3 Years, $30 Million

A day after the Minnesota Twins signed free agent outfielder Josh Willingham to a three-year deal, Michael Cuddyer has made his decision. He's leaving Minnesota after 15 years in the organization to play for the Colorado Rockies.

The two sides agreed to a three-year, $31.5 million contract Friday, bringing a veteran bat to the lineup and a cannon of an arm to the outfield. Seriously, no one runs on Michael Cuddyer, and if they do, they are sorely mistaken. And out. A first time All-Star in 2011, the right fielder hit .284 with 20 home runs and 70 RBI last season, and had a .988 fielding percentage.

Young Lady Gets the Chance to Interview Curtis Granderson for Baseball Youth Magazine

When this email came across our inbox, we couldn't help but smile.

In an attempt to avoid dating myself, I'll just say that when I was Haley Smilow's age, I fell deeply in love with baseball and never looked back. Sadly, I never got the opportunity to interview my favorite player, Scott Leius. Anyway, we decided to share her interview with Curtis Granderson for Youth Baseball Magazine with all of you. It's awesome.

The 10-year-old New York City native and her family took a fun baseball trip around the Midwest this summer to seven stadiums in five states, including Miller Park, U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, Kauffman Stadium, Target Field, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, to enjoy 26 ballgames in 31 days. Now that's a vacation.

Along with several other players, Haley had the chance to meet the New York Yankees center fielder for an interview, which was published in Baseball Youth. While we are re-printing the interview in full, we encourage you to check out the magazine, which would make an excellent holiday gift for the little baseball lover in your life.

We Interviewed Joe Mauer (And Didn't Die of Elation)

Sooze and I have never made our infatuation with Joe Mauer a secret. In fact, it was our deep rooted love of Man Muscles that landed us a brief interview with him. No, I'm not lying. If you'll recall, a couple of weeks ago, we told you about the Kemps contest where Joe and our future mother in law his mom Teresa were choosing the biggest Mauer "Fan"ily to get to watch the shoot of Joe and Teresa's newest Kemps Ice Cream commercial.

We went behind the scenes today and got to meet the lucky (and adorable!) family, David and Kathy DeGear and their four beautiful children, who won the contest AND got to ask Joe and Mama Mauer a few questions. Without further ado, we bring you the best five minutes of our lives. Enjoy!

Babes Love Baseball: Let's start with one for both of you. How did you pick the winners of the biggest "Fan"ily contest?

Teresa Mauer: [To Joe] Oooh, he's gonna throw me under the bus, aren't you?

Joe Mauer: No, actually, you [To Teresa] pretty much picked it. And she did a great job doing it.

Teresa Mauer: It was hard! There were a lot of great families that sent in. But the bottom line, the one thing that stood out was that they were not only Joe fans, but also Twins fans.

BLB: They were really cute!

TM: They were. Great family.

BLB: [To Joe] Does it kind of creep you out a little bit that there are so many people obsessed with you? And my [Marea's] son's middle name is Joseph, after you, so I'll admit that I'm not exempt from this question.

Babes Love Baseball Greats: Ken Griffey, Sr.

While waiting in line for airport security, Ken Griffey, Sr. took the time to chat on the phone with Babes Love Baseball. No, I'm not kidding. The three-time All Star and two-time World Champion is pretty busy these days. He's not only a batting coach for the Reds single-A affiliate Dayton Dragons, but he's also joined Depend in spreading awareness about prostate cancer.

And now, for your reading enjoyment, I bring to you my attempt at interviewing a baseball great without completely shrieking like an excited 4-year-old. Enjoy.

Babes Love Baseball: Mr. Griffey, tell me a bit about the Depend campaign against Prostate Cancer.

Ken Griffey, Sr.: As a five year prostate cancer survivor, I've been doing work with Depend to raise awareness, to get people screened early, and to increase their chances of survival. I've been doing this for about three years now.

Under the Bleachers with Jeff Manship

We had the ridiculous pleasure of interviewing Minnesota Twins pitcher Jeff Manship recently. The 25-year-old righty was called up to the big leagues last Thursday when fellow reliever Jose Mijares hurt himself in an attempt to cover first base and landed on the disabled list. The Manship made his first appearance since July 19 Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox, going 1.1 scoreless innings and earning the win.

Instead of inquiring about his pitching repertoire, what it's like to get the call-up, the difference in batters from AA to AAA to the majors, etc., we decided to get to know him a little better. Enjoy...

Under the Bleachers With Joe Nathan

It's been a crazy few months for four-time All-Star Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Nathan. After having surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow during the off season, the badass closer ended up having season-ending Tommy John surgery just before the Twins started their 2010 season. This was a devastating loss to Minnesota fans, as he's easily one of the most feared closers in the game - he had an astounding 47 saves on the books last season alone!

Luckily, he's under contract through the 2011 season with a club option in 2012 - so Twins fans will get their beloved closer back next season when he's all better. Did we mention he's adorable, too? (Sorry ladies, he's married!)

Babes Love Pat Neshek!

You can imagine how pumped we were when our favorite side-winding hurler, Pat Neshek, was awesome enough to do an interview with us.

The Minnesota Twins reliever with the funky delivery landed on the disabled list back in May of 2008 with a right elbow injury, which ended up being serious enough for Tommy John surgery. After more than a year of rehab, he signed a one-year deal with the team last month and is feeling better than ever.

Not only is he a hell of a pitcher, but he's a really nice guy, too: you might even call him the most fan-friendly player in baseball. Got any sweet hockey cards gathering dust? Then go check out his long-running blog On the Road With Pat Neshek, where he writes about big league life and swaps autographs for trading cards.

Enjoy!

Babes Love Baseball: Our first question is one you probably get a lot. Why did you start throwing side arm?

Pat Neshek: It basically evolved from an injury in high school. I was batting at the plate and got drilled on my forearm. It really lumped up and hurt, especially when I went out to shortstop that next inning. I quickly realized it didn't hurt as bad when I lowered my arm slot to sidearm. Well to make a long story short, I finally was able to pitch after 3 months of playing shortstop, and when I went on the mound that first time everything felt great. But I didn't realize I was throwing a lot lower than before thanks to all the throwing at shortstop. After a couple days trying to change it my college coach thought it looked pretty nasty and told me to work with it. It worked out pretty well.