Today, we’re rolling out our 2011 Organizational Rankings. Like with the team previews, we’re going to do three posts per day for the next two weeks, taking us right up to Opening Day as we count down from the worst to the best. We’ve made some pretty substantial changes to the format this year, though, and I wanted to explain the changes.

The biggest change is the way the rankings were compiled. While previous lists have been based on a collaborative discussion with the staff, the questions posed this time around are different. Rather than asking our writing staff to rank each organization from 1-30, we asked them to grade each organization on four key variables – financial resources, quality of baseball operations department, present talent, and future talent. We then took these individual grades for each area and produced a final tally for each organization based on all the votes from the our staff members, and the list was generated from those numbers.

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This Sunday, sitting in a Chicago bar with knowledgeable fans of various Midwestern baseball teams, including the Minnesota Twins, news that the Twins placed reliever Pat Neshek on waivers broke via twitter. Reactions varied from “wait, what?” from the unaffiliated to the “[expletive deleted]” from the Twins fans in the group. Within 10 minutes, news broke, once again via twitter, that the Padres had claimed the 30-year-old righthander. Given the reaction from those who follow the organization as well as the speed with which Neshek was claimed, the move appears curious at best.

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This is Team Joy Squad for 2011, introduced a mere two hours ago.

#25 – Robinson Chirinos, C, Tampa Bay

Chirinos was one of five players who went Tampa-ward this past offseason — along with pitcher Chris Archer, outfielder Brandon Guyer, shortstop Hak-Ju Lee, and Smartest Guy Sam Fuld — for Matt Garza and two prospects. If you ask this guy, the trade was a no-question win for the Rays. Archer and Lee are the prospects, but Chirinos’ story — combined with his talent — makes him the most notable. Chirinos converted to catcher in the middle of 2008 after stalling out as a middle infielder. For reasons that only Nostradamus and/or Robinson Chirinos know, the latter’s bat has been revived by the move. He posted a ZiPS Major League Equivalency (zMLE) of .271/.347/.451 (.289 BABIP) in 318 PA last season and, by conservative estimates, will be the best player in history.

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Many people in my life (and by “many people,” I mean these three interns at FanGraphs who’re paid by David Appelman specifically to keep my self-esteem afloat) have riddled me a question this offseason about Curator of Cosmoses Colby Lewis. These guys have said to me, they’ve said, “Cistulli, with regard to Colby Lewis, are you pee-your-pants excited to watch him pitch this year, or pee-someone-else’s-pants excited?”

It’s a reasonable question, this, on account of how I made my affections for Mr. Lewis quite clear last year — starting with a declaration about his greatness during an opening-day live chat and ending sometime around one of those absurdly successful postseason performances of his.

The answer I’ve given is one that I’m almost totally sure will shock the nation. The answer is this: “In fact, no, I’m not particularly excited at all.”

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As most readers will know by now, Team FanGraphs recently completed a trip to Arizona. I, personally, just returned last night, and will empty at least part of my notebook here, as follows:

• The trip allowed me to see Colorado outfielder and personal cause célèbre Charlie Blackmon twice — once in person (at the Brewers’ Maryvale Park) and once on television. In both cases, he not only confirmed my (perhaps) irrationally high assessment of his abilities, but actually raised my expectations.

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At some point in baseball history, someone decided that there were two groups of player types – “up the middle guys” and “corner guys”. For whatever reason, it was decided that defense was important at catcher, shortstop, second base, and center field, while offense was the priority at third base, first base, left field, and right field. Little guys were shuffled towards the middle of the diamond, big guys were contained in the corners, and the self-fulfilling prophecy became a convention.

The problem is that this is an overly simplistic way of separating players, and it doesn’t actually reflect where each position draws its talent from. Rather than cutting the diamond in two, we should really slice it into thirds based on the traits that actually land players at one spot or another.

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Earlier this week, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Chicago White Sox are interested in moving Mark Teahen. With rookie Brent Morel seemingly slated to start at third this season, Teahen (last season’s third baseman to start the season) doesn’t have a place to start, and he’s a bit expensive to sit on the bench. However, the question is whether any other team has a place for Teahen to play or the desire to pay him what he is owed.

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Welcome to the 2nd annual edition of the MLB Over/Unders extravaganza. We’ll start with my regular intro to the column, and the process of picking Over/Unders, then get to this year’s picks.

A word of warning: I’m 5-0 lifetime (on actual gummi wagers…not quite perfect on suggestions). So if you believe in regression to the mean, feel free to short the hell out of these picks.

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After the jump, I’ve included some audio I recorded with FanGraphs’ Jackie Moore and Dark Overlord David Appelman during a Rockies-Brewers game last week in Arizona.

Not revolutionary stuff, admittedly — and with maybe sub-par audio quality at times — but fun, I think.

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