Minnesota Twins Offseason

Well it is a snowy morning in Minneapolis this morning, and I think it is the perfect time to talk Minnesota Twins baseball. The Twins come off a season where they found out that they have no big time hitters in there lineup. So lets go through the lineup what we got and a little speculation on what I think they should go after.

1. Catchers: Joe Mauer is coming off a soild season where he hit over .300 with some power and some RBI's. He played soild defense and has a knack of throwing out runners in the clutch. Mike Redmond is a clutch hitter he knocked in many 26 RBI's with only 148 at bats. The catcher position is our best position and should be soild for years.
2. First Baseman: Justin Morneau came off a off-season where he had chicken pox and other aliments. Then when he finally getting back into the groove he got hit in the head in Seattle. He had a pretty good year 79 RBI's, 22 HR's and 23 doubles, but he had .239 average and striked out 94 times and only walked 44. He is going to be fine and his defense is soild.
3. Second Baseman: We had five second baseman and all of them were below average. Luis Rivas was the starter for the beginning of the season and his hitting stats sucked, and defense was good not going to be back. Nick Punto is very injury prone and should be our utility infielder. Luis Rodriguiz was a god sent last year and should also be another utility infielder. Boone and Abnernathy were our other second baseman and there not going to be back next year.
4. Shortstop: Jason Bartlett is the future shortstop of this team and the coaches need to stick with him because he is a soild bat in the lineup and he has shown great improvements in defense. Juan Castro was the other starter and his defense was soild but his batting was bad and he was injuried alot he has one more year left and might be back.
5. Third Base: Michael Cuddyer was our third base most of the season and he put up better second half numbers. He is going to be moved to second base or back to right field which will suit him better.
6. Left Fielders: Shannon Stewart is getting old but he is our best clutch hitter I wish he had some more speed for a lead off hitter, but overall he was fighting injuries all year, and a soild year.
7. Center Fielders: Torri Hunter was having a really good year until he broke his ankle. He is going to be back, if not going to be traded. All speculation has said that he won't be traded. Lew Ford played soild after Torri went down he didn't put up the numbers like 2004, but played rock soild defense he will be back as a utility outfielder.
8. Right Fielders: Jacque Jones is going to be signed with another team. He strikes out too much and hits lefties bad. Jason Tyner looked like a leadoff hitter and has been re-signed for Rochester or a utility outfielder. Jason Kubel is coming off that horrible knee accident and should be ready for spring training. He is the X-factor and might be platooned with Cuddyer to play Right.
9. Designated Hitters: Matthew Lecroy is gone and will probably be playing ball in Japan next year. He hits lefties great but againest righties he was awful. So they will need a new DH next year to be platooned with Lew Ford.

2006 Starting Lineup

Shannon Stewart LF
Jason Bartlett SS
Joe Mauer C
DH
Justin Morneau 1B
Torri Hunter CF
3B
Jason Kubel LF
Michael Cuddyer 2B

Bench
Mike Redmond C
Lew Ford OF
Nick Punto IF
Luis Rodriguiz IF
Jason Tyner OF

So we need a soild 3rd baseman and a DH to make this team soild. Tomorrow more on the Twins and who they should get and later in the week highschool hockey speculation. Please leave comments.