Only two seasons after voting to have his own team contracted so he could make off with some loot, Carl “Mr. Burns” Pohlad has again struck a blow at the Twins faithful by starting his own fake sports network (Victory) and overcharging for it to the point that cable and satellite networks refuse to add the channel and fans can’t watch their beloved team play.  This guy has been so great to the community he really deserves a publicly funded stadium.  Enough about the bad, let’s have a look at the good—the Twins team of 2004.

Terry Ryan had some tough decisions to make this offseason, let’s hope they were the right ones.  Ryan may not have a best seller written about his general managing style like Billy Beane, but he has been able to put a competitive team on the field four years in a row with very modest means. This guy deserves a lot of credit for the team’s success the past few years and I trust we will be applauding him again this year. Here’s why.

Sure, we lost AJ, Latroy and Eddie.  This seems troubling at first, but at a closer glance, one sees tremendous reason behind these offseason moves.  Firstly, Joe Mauer is a STAR, no doubt a first ballot Hall of Famer.  Seriously.  This kid is ready to play in the show.  In high school he was national player of the year in not only baseball, but football as well.  So in two of the most widely played sports in this great nation, Joe Mauer was the best player in both.  When you’re Bo Jackson good at sports, it’s safe to say you’ve got some skills.  In spring training this season I personally witnessed Joe Mauer take the best round of BP I’d ever seen.

It was incredible. All he does is hit line drives. Count me on board the bandwagon.  His swing is nothing short of amazing. While his early season injury was heartbreaking, and seeing Henry Blanco in the lineup makes me feel like I’m Kurt Warner waking up to a CFL wife, Joe will be back soon, and he will be good.  I’ll certainly miss watching AJ foul off 17 pitches, but while he hit over .300 last season, the guy never walks and his OBP is actually quite mediocre.  In return for getting a better player behind the dish, we also received Joe Natham, a replacement for Eddie Guardado, who was grossly overpaid by Seattle.  I love Eddie, but he’s due for a bad season, watch.  The Twins will certainly miss the services of the Hawk, but to be honest I never completely forgave Latroy for blowing the 2001 season (remember the Indians game when were ahead 8-4 in the 9th and like two games out of first place and Hawkins blew the lead and you knew the Twins weren’t making the playoffs, it still hurts) so I’m not that upset. 

The bullpen still has a chance to be good this year. JC Romero is going to have a good year, and if Juan Rincon can find the strike zone, he could be as formidable as the Hawk.

The Twins’ worst offseason move perhaps could be the trading of Eric Milton.  While Milton has not pitched well of late, remember 9/11/99. Bottom line, good lefties are worth keeping in the rotation. On the surface, the signing of Shannon Stewart seems a bit inconsistent with Twins philosophy.  On a tight budget, why pay over market value for a player in a position where you have several players in the farm system who are well deserving of a chance to play (see Lew Ford, Michael Cuddyer, Michael Restovich and Mike Ryan).  However, the Shannon Stewart signing was based more on principal than logic.  It’s like when we overpaid Radke to come back, it’s a message to the team and the fans that the front office is committed to winning.  Shannon Stewart was the spark-plug that ignited the Twins’ playoff run last year - easily the team’s MVP.  Losing Stewart would have been a moral loss we could not have overcome.

That’s the offseason, so here’s what we can expect in the season ahead. We already talked about the bullpen.

Outfield:  A solid unit should provide some power to the offense and let’s face it, watching Torii Hunter play center field is worth the price of admission alone, Torii, get well, Ja bless.

Infield:  Rivas and Guzman picked it up at the end of last season and their improved play has carried over to this year.  Doug and Koskie are solid at the corners with the glove and the stick, although Koskie needs to hit this year or I may stop believing he’s good.  Overall, the offense is going to have to pick up some slack which I think they are capable of doing.  Stewart and Doug need to maintain, everyone else should improve their stats this season.

Starting pitching:  Even early in the season one can see that this could be what keeps us out of the playoffs.  Santana is filthy but has some health issues.  Everyone else is mediocre at best.  Hopefully increased offense will keep us in games because these guys aren’t that good.

When you look at this Twins team it doesn’t scream out Division Champion because of the pitching.  However, this is a better than average team in a bad division.  The Tigers are still bad despite their good start, Cleveland has no offense, the White Sox will never be able to beat the Twins in the division after we took them out last year (best series of the season, White Sox sweep to take division lead, awesome), the team to worry about is Kansas City whose team last year had a season much like the Twins of 2001, and the Twins won the division in 2002.  Concerning, yes, but in the end I have to believe the Twins will come out on top. I guess that’s what makes me a fan.