2008 Minnesota Twins

Last year Minnesota Twins fans were hoping for another division title after they took the Central title in 2006. That didn’t happen, as the Twins just couldn’t seem to get things rolling. They ended up finishing 4th in the division and only winning 79 games. Manager Ron Gardenhire will have a tough road ahead of him in 2008. The Twins lost the best pitcher in baseball in Johan Santana and one of their best offense and defensive players in Tori Hunter. What you have to remember is that the Twins have made a living doing this; they have traded away great talent for prospects and have continued to win with the young talent they bring in. This year they will count greatly on Francisco Liriano to fill the void left by Santana and newly acquired OF Delmon Young. Young has the potential to be great and help make up the loss of Hunter. This is going to be a young team with a lot of upside, but they might be a year or two away from taking over the division again.

Pitching:

The pitching unit took a big hit when the team traded away Santana. They did add veteran Livan Hernandez to help aid Liriano’s transformation to the new ace of the team. For those who don’t remember Liriano was 12 – 3 with a 2.16 in 16 starts before going down to injury in 2006. The injury caused him to miss the whole 2007 season, so it will be interesting to see if he can return to that form he had in 2006. Boof Bonser, Scott Baker, and Kevin Slowey will finish up the rotation. While these three pitchers are mechanically sound, they will have to stay healthy and give the team close to 200 innings each. The bullpen should be primed for a good year in 2008. They are led by star closer Joe Nathan. Nathan is coming off four straight seasons with at least 35 saves. The team also has good setup men in Pat Neshek and Mat Guerrier.

Offense:

The offense should be pretty solid in 2008. While they lost Hunter, they still have all stars Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau and newly acquired Delmon Young. The team also needs RF Michael Cuddyer to have a big year and improve on his numbers from 2007. The team added Craig Monroe from the Cubs to play leftfield. Besides Morneau at first the team will see a completely new infield. Mike Lamb will look to step in to play third with former Houston teammate Adam Everett likely to start at short. Second base is still up in the air and probably won’t be decided till after spring training. This unit scored the third fewest runs in the American League last year, only finishing ahead of the White Sox and Royals. We expect the offense to bounce back in 2008, but we don’t think it will be enough to add to the win column.

Defense:

The defense lost Gold Glove winners Hunter and Santana, so others will have to step up to make up for their great play on that side of the ball. The dense did a pretty good job shutting down the run game thanks to the arm of Joe Mauer. Everett is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game, but Lamb will play a poor third. Overall we don’t expect much of a drop off from 2007.

Prediction:

While we really like where this team is headed, there are just to many things that have to go right for them to have a successful year. We think that they will have a close race with the White Sox for third in the division, but when it is all said and done they will finish 4th ahead of the Royals. Like we said before this could be a dangerous team in years to come.

2008 Minnesota Twins Odds to Win World Series 60 – 1

For every team’s odds head over to Sportsbook.com and check them out. You can also go to Sportsbook.com to look at the odds for teams to win their division or league pennant. Feel free to leave any comments in the comment section.

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