Minnesota Twins

I tend not to put up a ton of pieces like this, but this is my favorite day of the baseball year outside of Opening Day. Every year, two friends and I make the trek to the Hall of Fame for induction weekend. A truly great four days. This year, I would certainly be voting for Roberto Alomar, and he should get in. Four others would be on my ballot as well. I ended up leaving Jack Morris off. Just couldn't make the cut with him.

Despite opening a brand new outdoor stadium, re-signing their franchise catcher for the better part of the next decade, and winning their division in relatively easy fashion, the Minnesota Twins 2010 season would end the same as in previous years.

Yet another first round elimination at the hands of the New York Yankees would leave Twins fans wondering what it would take to succeed in October.

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).

In 2010 the Minnesota Twins may have found their long term answer at third base in Danny Valencia.

Valencia joined the team in June and established himself as the everyday third baseman playing in 85 games and hitting  .311—third best on the team. 

With Justin Morneau on the opposite corner of the infield the Twins could have a very formidable twosome guarding the lines at Target Field. 

I took a look back over the Twins' history and, surprisingly, found only seven sets of corner infielders that ever played together for more than a single season.

I thought I'd take a look at which players had the best decade in several key areas of the game. I don't really care who hit the most homers or had the highest batting average.

While those statistics are useful, they are talked about a bit too much at the expense of some others. So let's take a look at some other things.

Note: my decade doesn't include 2000.

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As we approach the voting results for the Hall of Fame this year, Bert Blyleven's case deserves one more look.  It has been a long and arduous path for Blyleven gaining votes almost yearly until last year he was but five votes short of induction to baseball's highest honor.  This path reminds me of his career — 4970 innings, twice fighting back from injury to reclaim excellence.

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.

The 2010 Minnesota Twins, while having a great season with a 94-68 record, won their 6th American League Central Title since 2002.

The post-season struggles of the Twins have been well documented. The Twins will need to have another stellar season to stave off the reloaded Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.

The Twins should have the following list of New Year's Resolutions in order to get back to the playoffs, and wreak some havoc should they make it there.

It's been a relatively uneventful offseason for the Twins, albeit only on the major league side. The Twins have landed a slew of relievers for their minor league system, as well as a few promising young prospects. Most notable is 17-year-old shortstop Javier Pimentel of the Dominican Republic. 

Besides the signing of Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Twins' major league squad remains fairly depleted. Key losses of Carl Pavano, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Brian Fuentes, Jon Rauch and J.J. Hardy seem to overweigh the small but earnest gains.

With Zach Greinke off the board signing with the Milwaukee Brewers, what if the Twins were in a position to grab their neighbor to the east's other prized possession, Prince Fielder? Bleacher Report will examine this possibility and rate it on a scale of one to 10 with one being the least likely. We will also look at a few other stars in major league baseball and their chances of playing the Twin Cities in the near future.

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