MLB

Everyone has likely participated in the wonderful world of fantasy baseball at least one time during his or her lifetime.

Whether home base was at CBS, FOX, Yahoo, ESPN, or Sandbox, the goal was the same: compile the best team, destroy your friends, and remind them of it until next season.

Last year the Minnesota Twins won the American League Central for the fifth time in eight years, but it was how they did it that was so significant.

Trailing the Tigers by seven games on Sept. 6, the Twins closed out the season with a 17-4 run to force a one-game playoff.

The one-game playoff ended up going 12 innings, and Minnesota clinched a playoff berth with a 6-5 win.

Can the Twins repeat? Let's take a look at their chances, along with their season win total projection.

Pitching

In case you missed it, the biggest news of the morning is the Yankees decision to waive Chad Gaudin, thus eliminating him from the fifth starter competition and probably from the team altogether.

Here are some other news items of note:

The Milwaukee Brewers needed to make a pitching splash in free agency over the winter. Once it was apparent that John Lackey wouldn't become a Brewer, GM Doug Melvin signed the next best option, Randy Wolf.

Wolf signed a three-year, $29.75 million deal with the Brewers on December 9.

There were two main thoughts by most after the signing: Wolf is a good pitcher, but the Brewers overpaid to get him.

Both statements are true, but that's the price the Brewers must pay in order to get a big-name free agent to come play in Milwaukee.

According to Ed Price of Fan House, the Yankees have placed right handed pitcher Chad Gaudin on waivers. There are four scenarios that can happen now and only one involves him pitching with the Yankees in 2010.

Up until this point, we at Baseball Professor have done a lot of talking about BABIP and its value in determining whether or not a player should maintain a certain level of performance. This is great when analyzing batters, but it's only part of the picture when looking at pitchers.

Today, we’ll examine xFIP.

How about we talk about a team that rarely gets some love on The Ghost of Moonlight Graham: the San Diego Padres. I am going to take it a step further. I am gonna talk about the Padres and not even mention Adrian Gonzalez or any trade talk surrounding him.

Here are some of the things going on at Padres’ camp this spring.

Jon Garland has a “cranky” shoulder

Photo: Joe Mauer and I at the 2008 All-Star Game party in New York.

I think it is safe to say that every fan of the Minnesota Twins is now breathing a little easier.

The Twins officially signed catcher Joe Mauer to an eight-year, $184 million contract. The deal, which begins in 2011, will earn Mauer an average of $23 million a season.

Well, I think this is not only great news for the Twins, but great news for baseball as well.

Seattle Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said this weekend that he will likely have new acquisition Chone Figgins play second base, and move incumbent second baseman Jose Lopez to Figgins' primary spot over the past three seasons, third base. 

Figgins will bat second behind Ichiro in the Seattle order, while Lopez will bat fifth and sixth with about equal frequency. None of that changes with the position flip-flop, and so obviously, the fantasy impact of the switch from a strict production perspective is minimal.

Here are some outfielders who could struggle to match their 2009 production.