The Bobcat Nation

A couple AL teams have beefed up their lineups in the off-season and hopefully they'll keep NYY from getting what seems like the auto-bid to the World Series this year. The Twins, and Mariners even moreso, made some big moves, but I think it's the Twins who could give New York a run.

Minnesota picked up JJ Hardy (ss) and Orlando Hudson (2b) to clean up a pair of major deficiencies in its batting order. Hudson replaces a good hitting Orlando Cabrera, who played a key role in the Twins late season assault of Detroit. Hudson is the better fielder of the two and is just as good with the bat. Hardy is coming off a bad year, but was a career .270 hitter before that and could see a bounce with being united with US Team member Joe Mauer. Minnesota was often dreadful in the bottom third of its order and Hardy should vastly improve that.

The Twins also landed veteran Jim Thome, who will get at-bats at DH and filling in for Justin Morneau at first base, but could be a pinch-hitting gem. One-time promising ace Francisco Liriano was his old unhittable self down in the Dominican this winter. He went 3-1 with a 0.49 ERA in seven DR playoff starts, while recording 47 strikeouts and five walks in 37 innings. Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, and Carl Pavano appear to have the makings of a solid rotation, but if the old Liriano returns that would change for the better.

Span cf
Hudson 2b
Mauer c
Morneau 1b
Cuddyer rf
Kubel dh
Young lf
Hardy ss
TBD 3b

man i hope you're right. i'm gonna try to get out there this summer or maybe early fall and check out the new stadium. we walked around the outside of it when i was there for a vikes game last month and it looks pretty sweet. just what you'd expect in a city like that. really nice, but nothing over-the-top fancy. still think it was questionable to put an open-air stadium in the twin cities though.

whitetrashgriz wrote:man i hope you're right. i'm gonna try to get out there this summer or maybe early fall and check out the new stadium. we walked around the outside of it when i was there for a vikes game last month and it looks pretty sweet. just what you'd expect in a city like that. really nice, but nothing over-the-top fancy. still think it was questionable to put an open-air stadium in the twin cities though.

Sounds good. Wish I could swing that. Yes, an open-air stadium, which is good, but I won't be making plans to see a game there in April. They did it before though.

TomCat88 wrote:

whitetrashgriz wrote:man i hope you're right. i'm gonna try to get out there this summer or maybe early fall and check out the new stadium. we walked around the outside of it when i was there for a vikes game last month and it looks pretty sweet. just what you'd expect in a city like that. really nice, but nothing over-the-top fancy. still think it was questionable to put an open-air stadium in the twin cities though.

Sounds good. Wish I could swing that. Yes, an open-air stadium, which is good, but I won't be making plans to see a game there in April. They did it before though.

i'm not as concerned about those april games as i am if the twins ever make it to the world series again. it seems it's going later and later every year. last year it went into the first week of november. it would just be a shame for a game that important to be played in temperatures in the teens, and snow! it would also be a shame to see games getting postponed or even cancelled. i think it's going to be a great stadium, and i think games played there in the summer will be fantastic. but i'm still nervous about potential weather conflicts in late october-early november.

F the yanks, and even more-so, F the Red Sox.

I like what both the Twins and Mariners are doing. Spring training is just around the corner.

Billings_Griz wrote:F the yanks, and even more-so, F the Red Sox.

I like what both the Twins and Mariners are doing. Spring training is just around the corner.

i also have always liked the mariners. them and the twins go about business in a lot of the same ways. breath of fresh air.

I'm pretty sure its Cubs year to win it all.

Braves

If Bedard is healthy by the All Star break, the Mariners are going to be tough to beat in the West, and even tougher to beat in a playoff series. Rolling out Felix, Cliff Lee and Bedard back-to-back-back in a series will make them nearly unbeatable.

I'm still concerned about their ability to drive in runs, but hopefully they won't need many.

AlphaGriz1 wrote:Braves

Really? Braves and Grizzlies. That's quite a combo. So which Bobby do you like best? Do you have that checklist on your signature line at ebrave.com? Are you AlphaBrave1?

GrizinWashington wrote:If Bedard is healthy by the All Star break, the Mariners are going to be tough to beat in the West, and even tougher to beat in a playoff series. Rolling out Felix, Cliff Lee and Bedard back-to-back-back in a series will make them nearly unbeatable.

I'm still concerned about their ability to drive in runs, but hopefully they won't need many.

The M's other big problem is being in the Angels division. They might not win the division, then they have to gun for the wild card where either NYY or Boston might knock them off. The Twins are in the relatively tame AL Central. The Twins starting pitching, however, isn't as good as Seattle's (or anyone's) in the playoffs.

The Twins need Liriano to re-gain form and then not have the ump blow easy fair/foul calls. (It's OK to rag on the umps if the replay shows they're wrong!) That goes for the tackle on Favre (among others) vs. NO, too.

Need to resign Mauer & now!!!

rollo_tumasi wrote:Need to resign Mauer & now!!!

they will. that guy isn't going anywhere ever!

The Twins already became the first team in MLB history to win a division without having a starting rotation, so who knows, maybe they'll win a playoff series as well.

I doubt it, though. I expect the Yankees to finish the Twins off in the Dome.

Good luck, Yanks fans!..

AlphaGriz1 wrote:Braves

Ditto

LTown Cat wrote:

AlphaGriz1 wrote:Braves

Ditto

Ditto to your ditto (makes me feel dirty all over liking the same team Alpha does )

whitetrashgriz wrote:

rollo_tumasi wrote:Need to resign Mauer & now!!!

they will. that guy isn't going anywhere ever!

8 years 184 million should ensure he's a twin for life if he chooses. and i think he will. now, if nathan wouldn't have went down.....

Yankees-AL East (Number 28 coming in 2010)
Mariners-AL West
Twins-AL central
NL- Who cares they never get it done

Suppose to be going out to Minneapolis this summer to watch the Yankees and Twins, should be a good time. By the way go Yankees!!!!!!!!!!

We're about 25 games into the season, so thought I'd dredge this thread back up. The Twins got off to a good start, but their bats haven't produced like expected. Thome has done well, but JJ Hardy hasn't. Span is slumping as is Kubel. The pitching has been good, esp. Liriano and Pavano, but Baker has been a dud and Slowey is hit and miss. The Twins can get by with the pitching they've had, but really need the bottom third of the order to produce if they are to advance in, make, the playoffs.

New York is New York and I don't see Minnesota or anyone else beating them if the playoffs started today. A lot of season left though. Tampa has overacheived so far, Detroit is looking decent.

TomCat88 wrote:We're about 25 games into the season, so thought I'd dredge this thread back up. The Twins got off to a good start, but their bats haven't produced like expected. Thome has done well, but JJ Hardy hasn't. Span is slumping as is Kubel. The pitching has been good, esp. Liriano and Pavano, but Baker has been a dud and Slowey is hit and miss. The Twins can get by with the pitching they've had, but really need the bottom third of the order to produce if they are to advance in, make, the playoffs.

New York is New York and I don't see Minnesota or anyone else beating them if the playoffs started today. A lot of season left though. Tampa has overacheived so far, Detroit is looking decent.

it goes to show just how important mauer and morneau are to this team. morneau missed a couple games with back spasms and we lost 2 of 3 to the tigers. our first series loss of the year. mauer was out last night with a bad heel and we can't even beat the indians! with those 2 in the lineup we can beat anyone. without them, we're pretty average. and we need to figure out how to get hits with runners on base. twice last night we had the bases loaded and couldn't get a single run in! one time they were loaded with no outs.