dave_dw

I'd be surprised if de Aza can repeat his .404 BABIP from last year.

They say those Baby Boomers spend their golden years working...

I'm hoping for a MINOR surprise instead of a MAJOR one this year, as in minor leagues.

Here's the player by player totals for the Twins. Pretty ugly.

I was browsing Fangraphs, and I came across these interesting stats. In 2011, the Twins had a 9.8 WAR. In 2011, Jacoby Ellsbury had a 9.4 WAR. I hope 2011 is a year we can all look back on and laugh at. (The WAR calculations combine hitting, fielding, & base running for non-pitchers)

Interesting. There's a good chance Casey McGehee wins the 1B job, so my guess is that Jones hits 8 home runs.

Start warming up, Mr. Hendriks?

I just saw this article through Aaron Gleeman at Hardball Talk, Joe Christensen reporting that the Twins are monitoring Baker after some "red flags" during last Saturday's game against the Pirates. Go here for Parker's write up.

After being traded during the 2011 season, Delmon Young went to Detroit and hit twice as many home runs (8) in just 40 games as he did in Minnesota where he hit 4 home runs in 84 games. After hearing about JJ Hardy and David Ortiz not being able to develop power in Minnesota, its seems totally possible that Detroit could see the power that Young was hyped throughout his minor league career. What do you think? How many home runs do you think Delmon Young will hit in 2012? I say 27.

Nice article. I like this optimism. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm sick of waiting for the season! There are so many question about the 2012 Twins, I want a few to start getting answered.

This would be great, and I could see it happening if his average on balls in play buoys upward, but I'm more concerned with which defensive Valencia will show up--2010 or 2011? He was awful in the field last year after being very respectable in 2010.

Nailed it.

My revised version of this post: "The only reason Burt got his number retired is because he deservedly got into the H.O.F."

It is interesting that the Twins ignore the Senators' stats completely in their team records. Nothing from the Senators counts in Minnesota or in Washington, yet the Nationals still list Expos stats in their team records. I wonder if this is because there have only been the Nats for less than a decade, and if they'll ever stop counting Expos stats in their team records after they put in 20+ years in Washington.

Bert wins as a Twin - 149 Radke wins as a Twin - 148 Radke's in for sure. (While this shouldn't be the case because wins are the worst stat in the world, it's probably going to happen).

Great article! It takes some work to make people excited for Alexi Casilla, and now I'm excited to see how he does.

I like the idea of having a pitcher friendly park. It's worked well for the Giants recently, and the early 2000's A's and Mariners. I wouldn't mind that kind of team. Plus the Twins struggle to have home run hitters as it is, so Target Field is perfect for their style of hitting.

This is very true. I can maybe understand using Spring Training stats to break a dead-even tie between two guys, but other than that Spring stats mean nothing. It makes way more sense to see how many good at-bats a player has or how good they can field, things that aren't as fickle as hitting is. All this to say, I really hope the Twins don't get sucked into giving a big league roster spot to Mike Hollimon or anyone else based on how well they play in a few games in March.

The reason Alexei is the best SS in the Central is because of his defense. Peralta and Asdrubal are the best offensive SS in the division, but looking at their defensive numbers at Fangraphs, it's clear that, outside of Peralta's unrepeatable last year, these two are not good defenders. Shortstop is one of the most important defensive positions in baseball, and Alexei Ramirez is a great defender as well as being a good hitter.

It's spring training! If we're going to value the stats in these games that much, then Mauer should be benched behind J.R. Towles! I agree that Dozier and the Twins would benefit most from him starting in AAA, but please leave spring training stats out of this.

Nobody's expecting Derek Jeter here, but another Jason Bartlett would be nice.

This is the start of.....THE NICK PUNTO CURSE

Outside of maybe the NL West, this has got to be the worst division for 2B in the MLB.

The A's also did it with a tremendous pitching staff.

From what I picked up from Goldstein's podcast and the Baseball America podcast, the Twins' system has a lot of young, athletic players with lots of potential, but also with a lot of risk. With a solid season from these young guys in 2012, this system could rank near the top next year.