Minneapolis

NOTE: THIS SLIDESHOW DOES NOT PREDICT TRADES AND FREE AGENT SIGNEES.

The Minnesota Twins have lots of good prospects, and although they are not doing too well now, they will be able to filter these young stars into the majors in the future. The Twins have turned from a "homegrown" team (where players who were in your farm system are now on the team) to a team with more free agents.

One of the many questions entering the 2011 season for the Twins was "Will Joe Nathan be ready?"

Twins faithful got their answer and that answer is apparently no.

The Minnesota Twins have been following the same old story over the last 10 years. They have dominated the AL Central with six division titles over the last nine seasons, but that is overshadowed by their 12 straight postseason losses.

One of the most interesting races in baseball should be the AL Central Division.  The Midwestern division isn't the sexiest in baseball, but it's highly underrated. 

ESPN will give more coverage to one Red Sox/Yankees series than they will to the combined seasons of the five teams in the division, but the fans of those teams know it's shaping up to be a great race in 2011.

Joe Mauer has good reason not to believe in the "Cover Jinx."

After winning the 2009 American League Most Valuable Player Award, the Twins catcher was featured on the cover of MLB 10: The Show. While he didn't win the MVP again last year, Mauer hit .327, won his third Gold Glove and took home his fourth Silver Slugger Award.

Does any other MLB fan find it weird when a team goes out and buys former superstars, seemingly anticipating that putting them back together will magically bring back the spark from seven years before?

It's happening again this year, and it's certainly not the first time that two World Series champions have played on entirely different teams together. It's just weird to have it happen in the AL East and for it to not be the Yankees doing the purchasing.

After missing out on Zack Greinke, though it was unlikely he’d be traded in-division, who is a second top SP the Twins can get to team with Francisco Liriano (assuming the Twins sign him long-term)?

The Twins have enough power to win with good pitching and defense, but they need another postseason-dominant pitcher as opposed to their typical control-based rotation.

The following are 10 starting pitchers that would look good as the No. 1 guy ahead of Liriano or behind him in the No. 2 slot.

In sports, when a team looks too far ahead or dwells too much on what has already happened, they often fail in the present.  Sometimes it’s off the field issues, sometimes it's injuries, sometimes it's egos and sometimes it is just plain bad luck.  A trap season is the perfect storm of all these variables and more.  The 2010 Minnesota Vikings defined a trap season better than maybe anybody ever.

Two months until pitchers and catchers report. Baseball can’t get here soon enough!

With the Tigers and White Sox being active in the early free agent market and loading up to chase the Twins in 2011, it is setting up to be a three-team race in the American League Central.

In this installment, we will look at some deals the Twins should look at to maintain their hold on the division and earn their third straight division title (and maybe even get into the ALCS or World Series).

As the 2010 season approached, it was expected that the American League Central division race would come down to the final games. The division had been decided by a tie breaking 163rd game in 2008 and 2009, so there was no reason to believe that 2010 would be any different.