High Hopes for the 2011 Season!

I as and many Twins fans alike, were a little disapointed in the outcome of the 2010 season. A lot of key injuries plagued our season although we still put up great numbers. Now coming into the 2011 season, hopefully that won't be the case. We have the talent that ranks right up there with the elites of the league. We just need to put up some numbers and stay healthy this season. We have all the key ingredients of a championship team. We made a key upgrade at middle infield this offseason witht the addition of Nishioka. This was our biggest weekness in addition to our bullpen. Hopefully with signing Yound and Thome, we can maybe think about putting Cuddyer at third to help anchor the left side defensively and give us a power hitter at third. So with all that said, our bullpen is probably not as strong as we would like it to be, but hopefully with Nathan, Neshek and Capps healthy, we can put up some solid numbers this year. The future looks bright for the Twins not only this year, but many years to come. Minnesota baseball is becoming an elite team of the MLB with the new stadium. We now have the money to compete with some major free agencies, the front office just needs to become a little more liberal than in years past. Can't wait for the Spring Training. GO TWINS! In Gardy we trust!

KP

Spring Training is Near

As we approach the 2011 spring training campaign many questions loom over the Twins. Among the leading storylines is the questions about the bullpen including Joe Nathan's injury status, Justin Morneau's concussion symptoms and our new shortstop Nishioka. As a diehard Twins fan it was an unsettling offseason watching our main division rivals add key pieces while the Twins did everything but that. As the 2 time defending AL Central Champs, winning the division is not enough anymore. We as Twins fans expect a championship and the front office didn't do much to help our case moving towards the 2011 campaign. But considering how much success we did have last season with many of the key parts having less productive years than the previous season. Among these players are Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, and Denard Span. I expect each of these players to improve upon their offensive numbers and make up for the loses we had in the offeseason. This is why I expect the Twins way of playing baseball to prevail as we pursue our 2nd Al Central 3 peat in the last decade. The Twins are much more than Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau. We are an organization that runs from Minneapolis, MN to Fort Myers, FL and to Rochester, NY. Each part of the organization will play a key role if the Twins are going continue our dominance over the AL Central Division....8 Days til the first game of the spring. In Gardy we Trust.
-NX

Delmon Young avoids arbitration

Delmon Young, the Twins RBI leader from a year ago avoided arbitration today by signing a one year deal worth $5.375 million.  I believe this is a good deal for the Twins.  On the basis of Delmon's 2.1 WAR on Fangraphs.  Fangraphs calculated the worth of each win to be $4.5 m / win (win values explained here), so with those calculations Young was worth $9.45 m last year.  This deal could be a steal for the Twins this year if Delmon actually "got it" last year like it seemed, with his ISO going from .l42 to .195, this means he was hitting the ball harder then he has ever done so in the Major's.  Delmon also cut down his K% from 23.3% to 16.2%, which still is high, but not so high that it hurts his value substantially.  Young did all this while his BABIP dropped from .338 to .312.  So all in all he lost some luck but hit for more power than he ever has in the Major Leagues.

I believe Delmon will continue to improve as a player because he is still young (24) and he has shown that with some patience and some more plate discipline he can be a real force in the Twins line-up for years to come.

-B