Minnesota Twins

For the Minnesota Twins, 2011 is a brand new season. So far it's looking too much like how 2010 finished. 

The Twins finished off the regular season by losing three of four games against the Toronto Blue Jays. In that series, the Blue Jays hit 10 home runs and outscored the Twins 25 to 11.

Fast forward to Opening Day 2011—same two teams, different venue, same result.

If you were waiting for the Twins' bats to come alive and Minnesota to finally look like the team they can be, your wait is over.

The Twins finished off their opening series against the Blue Jays of Toronto with a 4-3 win. It was a Danny Valencia homer in the third and a Denard Span homer in the ninth that propelled the Twins to their first win of the season.

The Twins struggles continued into the weekend as they received another lashing at the hands of the Blue Jays. The pitching wasn't quite as putrid as it was it was last night, but the bats weren't any quicker or louder. 

Don’t hand the Twins the AL Central title just yet. The kinks made themselves visible Friday on Opening Day for the Twins.

The Twins ace, the man who is supposed to be the rock in the Twins rotation, got mauled in the first inning for four runs. Carl Pavano only lasted four innings and ended up allowing eight runs, seven of which were earned. But the beatdown didn’t end there.

The Twins basically got out-hit, out-pitched, out-everythinged.

For whatever reason, year after year, the Twins get overlooked, yet they always seems to sit atop the AL Central standings by season's end.

Last year they won 94 games, despite the opening day starters missing more than 300 games.  Justin Morneau missed the second-half of the season due to a concussion.

Speaking of Morneau, he plans on starting opening day, but that remains to be seen.

How many baseball fans know that the Minnesota Twins won one less game than the Yankees last year? Not many, I am sure. This is fantasy land though where wins in real life don't necessarily translate into fantasy points.

You will not find many Twins going as high as you might think. One thing that is perfectly clear though is that Target Field is holding back many Twins from decent power numbers.

9 Innings Blog will be bringing you previews of every Major League Baseball team for the next 30 days. This is in accordance with our 30 teams in 30 days series. Today, we are going to give you the 2011 preview of the Minnesota Twins who are trying to three-peat as American Central division champions. The Twins also have Justin Morneau coming back this season as he could add to this dangerous team.

After the 2009 season, Denard Span appeared primed to entrench himself as a top 30 outfielder.  That’s what happens when you hit .311 with 23 SB, 97 R and hitting atop a lineup featuring Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.

Maybe the injury to Morneau played a bigger role than we realize…

Maybe the regression of Mauer helped to sabotage him…

Maybe he just played over his head in 2009…

For the Minnesota Twins this spring there are only two battles remaining. While Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey are battling for the last spot in the starting rotation, there is also the battle to replace Nick Punto as the utility infielder.

At this point I am not including the bullpen, as there will more than likely be a year-long battle with a revolving door to the bullpen as the Twins tinker with the relief corp.

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.