This is the freshest version of the weekend links, baked to your specifications. They were first published at RandBall, your source for half-baked insults about the game of hockey for the better part of a decade.

It’s been a week for turnarounds on the local sports scene. The Wild, so recently looking like a solid playoff team, got waxed in the South two games in a row. The Timberwolves, so recently appearing to be a D-League team, won two games by more than 20 points. And the Gopher hockey team, on a mini-roll for three weeks, lost at home in the playoffs to Anchorage. It’s a confusing time. (If only the turnaround bug had infected the Gopher hoopsters.)

Let’s try to make sense of it all with the help of a few weekend links:

*Let’s start with the Wolves, since they’re the team going in the right direction this week. Canis Hoopus writer Tim Allen has been everywhere lately. First, he made a visit to Wolves practice as a fan, and then, he jetted cross-country to attend the MIT Sports Analytics conference (part one is here; part two is here.) For the opposite viewpoint – one that was published before the Wolves’ current two-game hot “streak” – we turn to NBA genius Steve Aschburner, and his short study of the dystopia the Wolves have built in Minneapolis.

*Moving on to the Twins, Parker Hageman thinks you should be keeping an eye on Kyle Gibson, who’ll begin the year as a Triple-A starter but could be close to ready for a big-league callup. Hageman’s also got an analysis of Gibson’s two-seam fastball and his changeup, complete with animated GIFs to stand in for video, that you won’t want to miss.

*I also enjoyed Patrick Reusse’s musings on the mysteries of hitting. It’s a nice look at what even the very top prospects have to go through to reach the big leagues – and how much of a gulf there is between hitting .300 in high school or college, and hitting .300 in the majors.

*And finally, I’ve got two links that fall into the “and finally” category this week: first, the story of a baseball coach from Chicago that ended up being a coach for the Australian national cricket team. And second, you might remember the Batting Stance Guy; well, now he’s imitating the baseball literati who appear on Ken Burns-style documentaries. It’s a must-click for anyone who’s ever lost the remote while the TV was stuck on an “ESPN SportsCentury” marathon.

That’s good enough for this week, I think. Enjoy your weekend – and let’s see where all of these teams are at in a week’s time.