2009 AL Previews: Minnesota Twins

Team Name: Minnesota Twins

2008 W-L Record: 88-75

Place in division: 2^nd

2009 Outlook:

As Dave Cameron discusses here, last year the Twins were lucky to win 88 games. This offseason they didn't do a whole lot to shore up an awful offense and defense.  Instead they are depending on young players getting better. Last year the Twins had three outfielders of 24 or younger (Young, Gomez, and Span) play a total of 398 games. They also had 23 year-old Alexi Casilla play 98 games at primarily second base. The Twins are hoping that Span (who will spell all three OF positions) will put up the solid production from last year going forward; that Gomez, Young, and Casilla will do something with the bat; and that Delmon can't possibly be as bad in the field as he was last year. Throw in a full year of a healthy Cuddyer and Liriano (instead of the terrible Livan Hernandez), and you see what the Twins will need to succeed. The big issue, though, is that is a lot of chips that need to fall right. The Twins will also need a relatively young staff-- with only one guy that really strikes guys out-- to keep teams from scoring runs on a pretty bad defense (that has guys projected at +9, -1, -4, -8, +3, -6, +12, and -8). They have Harris on the bench who ranges from awful to terrible as well. All in all, I would not expect much from the Twins, although I thought the same thing last year when they finished second in the division.