Hi, John here! Finally baseball is back!!!! What my family lives for The Minnesota Twins. At least three of four of us live for Twins baseball. Between my sister, dad and I one of us are watching a Twins game every night they are on. I even have my young sister playing fantasy baseball. She's 13!
It has been an interesting offseason for the Twins!
Well, let's start by saying goodbye to Carl. In his early years as the Twins owner he did everything right! The Twins won two titles in 4 years. He kept Kirby Puckett (my personal favorite Twin ever) as a Twin by giving him a great multi-year contract. And, Carl tried to surround Kirby in 1996 with talent such as Paul Molitor, Rick Aguilera and Chuck Knoblauch hoping that would bring on another championship.
After Kirby lost his eyesight to glaucoma Carl was not the same person when acquiring and keeping players. I will not spend a lot of time on this but I do think he could have done better even with a fair amount of trips to the playoffs but after 2000 we just never quite made it. We started a decade that resembles the Atlanta Braves of the 1990's.
None the less... Thank you, Carl Pohlad!
Now let's spend a little time on Joe Mauer - our home town wonder. Joe had a kidney surgery for an obstruction that appeared to have gone well and everyone thought that he would be back 100 percent and ready to go on February 14. That has not happened. Joe still has discomfort in his lower back, he has not picked up a bat all spring and concerns that he will not be ready for opening day are growing. Joe is going in for a "magnetic resonance arthrogram", a test that puts dye in the body, in the hopes that they can figure out what is causing his pain. GET BETTER JOE! The Twins and we, the fans, need you.
Now I want to spend a little time on 2009 spring training and what I think might happen. To start off I want to spend a little time talking about two players that I expect are going to have break out seasons this year if they stay healthy. My dad and I had a little thing going last year because in the spring he said Jason Kubel was the least respected Twin on the team. I told him how good Delmon Young was and that the trade of shortstop Jason Bartlett and pitcher Mat Garza was a great trade. My dad disagreed and for the first part of the season, I was starting to think he might have been right.
The areas where there are no questions, if health is not an issue this year, are the M&M boys. But they are the only absolutes. The catcher will be Joe Mauer and 1st base will be handled by Justin Morneau and that is pretty much it for the position players. Everything else is going to be up for grabs or, to be more precise, should be. Our disagreement led to a season long rivalry. Dad expected a little more out of Kubel than what he was able to produce and I expected a lot more from Delmon Young for the first half of the season.
Kubel improved in home runs from 2007 to 2008 while his batting average stayed the same. Young, on the other hand, did not show what Minnesota and its fans had expected from him, until after the All-Star break. Delmon also has to take the game a little more seriously. He made some costly mental errors in the outfield.
If Kubel stays healthy, I believe he will hit around .285 and hit 30 home runs; I believe that Kubel if given more playing time would give Morneau much stronger competition for the team home run title. That would be great news for the Twins
If Young does, what I believe he his is capable of this year, he will mature as a regular fielder and not commit so many errors. Young's home run count should get up to 20 to 25 with both Morneau and Kubel batting ahead of him.
Let's pop out to the outfield and see what's in store for the Twins out there.
The Twins have 4/5 outfielders with Kubel being 5; and I do not expect him to be playing that much outfield. Then there is the other four: Delmon Young, Calos Gomez, Denard Span and Michael Cuddyer. This is tough! I know that Gardenhire has only committed to one guaranteed spot in the outfield, and it is Cuddyer!
I agree that the other three all need to earn a spot, but I think that Cuddyer's spot shouldn't have any guarantees either. He has been injured a lot, while Young and Span have shown that they can produce and produce well In the big leagues. With Span making a surprise jump from the minors last year and becoming one of our best outfielders last year. Span has the potential to be the best leadoff batter we have had since Chuck Knoblauch and, quite frankly, Gomez, with a little more maturity, has an even stronger upside potential . However, just because the Twins messed up with Santana and Hunter last year does not mean Gomez should be learning his skills in the Majors. He still may need to do that in the minor leagues but if he shows consistency, I think Cuddyer could and should become the odd man out really fast.
As I told my dad last year he needed to acclimate to the team! Young did that in the first half of the season last year and were one of our best in the second half. Delmon will be just fine and an All Star for the Twins soon.
Actually the entire outfield could end up in an All-star game one time or another.
Now the infield is a mess but not the same mess. I cannot believe that we got rid of Jason Bartlett last year. My dad was distraught when he heard about the Twins trading him and
Garza away, and obviously he was correct. Most baseball people, and Tampa Bay itself ,gives him a lot of the credit for their trip to the World Series. That is all I wanted to say..it is off my chest.
Like I said above, 1st base is solid there are few 1st basemen in baseball that are as good as Morneau , at least till August. But he is only slightly above average in September and October. If he could play the same type of game in those months, he would be the best in the AL, and few could argue.
I think that Alexi Cassila is a very good young 2nd baseman with very good speed and nice defense and can turn the double play but the problem with 2nd and Short in the last several years, is that no shortstop or 2nd baseman ever seems to last more than a season. Jason Bartlett was our best hope but again we traded him. It takes strong play up the middle to be a great team. You can sneak by once in a while with only one good consistent defensive player up the middle as we showed in 1987 when Greg Gagne play shortstop and Steve Lombardozzi was an adequate 2nd baseman. But it doesn't work often. We must remember that this was the worst regular season team record to have won a world series up till that time. The real challenge is shortstop and I know there are loads of Nick Punto fans out there because of his great defense, but if he is only batting .210, you could afford a few mistakes from a different play if he could give you more offense. So which Nick Punto shows up this year?... the one I loved in 2006 with a .290 BA?...or the one I hated in 2007 with the .210 batting average... or the one that was back again in 2008 with a .284 BA but less playing time. Then what if he gets injured; it will be shortstop by committee once again or should I say middle infield by committee.
Then we have third base. I would have normally talked about 1st and 3rd together but I felt this deserves its own little comments.
I know that the Twins need more power and my dad and I discuss that every off season, thinking the Twins home run potential is much better than it ever turns out to actually be. So the need for Crede at 3rd , in most cases, would be a no brainer. This time however I think it is a mistake. Brian Busher has produced an RBI for every 4.64 AB. If you use that ratio for 623 AB, like Justin Morneau had, that would have given him 134 RBI's in a position in the batting order that is not expected to produce that many RBI's.
Busher's batting average for being 7th in the lineup was not chopped liver either be batted .294 in 70 games. I would rather have Joe Crede as the backup to Buscher (3rd) and Kubel (DH). Up front, the numbers for Crede are respectable--- .248 BA with 17 homeruns, but I think I heard 8 of the homeruns came against the Twins that means 9 against all the other teams. Now he is playing for the Twins and I think there is a risk the home run production goes down. There is a bright side. It could be that 6 of the dingers were in the dome... then there may be hope to see them increase.
The last position is catcher and this is as solid as any on the team if Joe Mauer gets stays healthy. I do not understand how this guy isn't the Twins and the League 's MVP (Sorry Justin) but the year that he did not win the title the Twins had no chance at the playoffs. As good as Morneau is, Joe Mauer makes him MVP. Without Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau does not have the MVP title in 2006 and runner up MVP in 2008. Just to let you know, I would not trade Morneau for any other 1st baseman in baseball. He belongs on the Twins!
Last is the pitching Staff . This might be one of the top 5 pitching staffs in baseball and would have definitely been No 1 if Santana were still here but he isn't and they're not! Again, another Twins oops... all Twins fans know that. With a lot of young pitchers on this staff, l I believe the starters average age is 27, they ended last season in a first place tie with the White Sox for the AL central. The starters should be Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Glen Perkins and Kevin Slowey. Nick Blackburn who was incredible in the single playoff game with the with the Whites Sox last year. The boxscore says he lost, but the Twins gave Blackburn no support in that game. The relieving staff is one of the best in baseball and should still be with Nathan being one of the premier closers in baseball. It is disappointing that Pat Neshek will not be playing this season but I believe Jesse Crain will be up for the challenge to be Nathans setup man. Will Crain's new pitch make him more effective? We shall see.
All in all, I believe the Twins should be fighting for the AL Central title, but it will not be easy. I believe that the White Sox and the Indians are going to figure heavily in the race.
The Indians were not healthy most of the year last year until the end of the season when they won a majority of their games. The other thing is that when it gets to August, and the real push starts for the Division, will they get the one or 2 pieces that will put them over the top? Remember it is a Minnesota team that rarely makes deals by the deadline, if at all!
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