Off Kevin Towers and his crew go to the winter meetings in Texas, though the general feeling seems to be that there might be not much more going on for the Diamondbacks, than kicking the tires on a few players.. Which will probably be the queue for Towers to surprise us all and sign Albert Pujols. You heard it here first, folks... More realistically, here's this week's round-up of the latest news and

• [dbacks.com] In good shape, D-backs still plan to talk at Winter Meetings in Dallas - "Club pondering starting pitcher, relief and backup first baseman". And the last might be sorted if Overbay accepts the team's offer.
• [FSAZ} D-backs have short shopping list - "Unlike last winter, the D-backs do not appear likely to make a large splash in Dallas … although, knowing Towers and his willingness to deal, nothing should be ruled out."
• [BaseballAmerica] 2011 Minor League Team of the Year: Mobile BayBears - "When the Diamondbacks plotted the possible rosters for the 2011 minor league season last winter, they suspected that they might have something special at Double-A Mobile, a likely landing spot for many of their top prospects. They could not been more right."
• [dbacks.com] Kirk Gibson wins Negro Leagues Museum Award - Interesting quote from Cap'n Kirk: "I have to take this stuff with a grain of salt. I know that next year is going to be just as tough if not tougher. My thought process is already moving forward."

Diamondbacks (more)

• Twitter / @Buster_ESPN - "Joe Saunders has a very good chance of returning to the Arizona Diamondbacks on a two-year deal." See blank_38's fanshot for the discussion on this one.
  
• [ESPN] Justin Upton leads top 50 list of MLB players under age 25 - Keith Law ranks the top 50 major leaguers age 25 and under, starting with Justin Upton. Being Insider, you only get the top three, but we care about the #1.[H/T to azshadowwalker for their Fanpost. Go discuss this one there!]
  
• [MLB.com] Hidden free-agent gems might be on horizon as deadline to tender contracts nears - "Teams must tender contracts to players under their control by Dec. 12. Most of the time, they will. But if a club doesn't believe a particular player is worth what he's projected to get via arbitration, it may simply opt against it." Saunders and other potential candidates are discussed.
• [DenverPost.com[ Cubs have interest in Rockies’ Stewart - Interesting because of this: "The Rockies, until now, have resisted the urge to move the third baseman. They turned down Arizona at last July’s trading deadline." Hmm...
• [MLB.com] Competitive Balance Lottery to shake up First-Year Player Draft - "The first Competitive Balance Lottery will take place in July, after the 2012 Draft signing deadline has passed. The 10 smallest-market teams and the 10 lowest-revenue teams will be placed in the lottery to have a chance to win one of six extra picks in 2013." The D-backs are one of them.

Diamondbacks (less)

• [AZCentral] Scottsdale to debut spring baseball festival - "Tentative plans for the Feb. 25-26 festival include a display of spring-training memorabilia dating to the 1950s in Scottsdale, interactive baseball activities, the debut of a Cactus League film and talks on the science of baseball."
• [Yahoo!] Wily Mo Pena signs 2-year Japan deal - "He joins the defending Japan Series champion, as the Pacific League team beat the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League last year for its first title."
• [AZCentral] Bar raised for comments on azcentral - "Beginning today, azcentral users wishing to comment on any of our blog posts will need to do so through the use of a personal Facebook account." Not exactly hard to get around, but anything that helps drain that cess-pool [and the article has some particularly pungent examples] can only help.
• Geoff Blum's coif (blummercoif) on Twitter - Yes. Finally, Geoff Blum's hairdo has its own Twitter feed..