How many wins?

[thatoneguy]

87-89 wins. They were on the DL a ton last year. I look at the last decade and see this team being way more competive then last year, which was a abbreviation not the norm.

I laughed for 15 minutes when I read that. If they clear 75 wins it will be a miracle.

[alleyes]

81

[greebs]

I am optimistic for a .500 season. If you think about, every single offensive position in the lineup could potentially be better than they were last year. (I know that's not saying a lot because there really were no bright spots last year offensively.)

[Kyhl]

71. I expect them to be 10 games under .500.

I hope I'm wrong.

[LABS4ME]

Under .500, going with 76.

they did nothing to shore up the pitching rotation. Capps blows as a saver(?) use that term loosley.

Morneau is basically done, he has no swing...

Nishi is still in the U.S. (ugggh)

DannyV is still in uniform.

Man... 76 may still be a stretch.

good Luck!

Ken

[SPUD BAR]

I guess Im not near as optomistic as the rest of you guys. After really thinking about it, Im gonna say they will finish 60-102. If they even come close to .500 I think it will be considered a very successful season considering who they are gonna have on the field and especially on the mound!

[Kyhl]

I feel like I should explain my "guess" of 71 (10 games under 500) a little.

I expect that Danny V will have grown up a little, a little more calm.

Making him:

1) a better hitter,

2) easier to deal with in the locker room, and

3) better defense

Mauer will be in better shape. I think he did take the deserved lumps over last years showing. When healthy, taking the day after a night game is still inexusable to me. I don't expect that to change but I disagree with it.

Mornoe is a question mark. If he's there, they will definitely do better than last year.

Span should be back and I expect him to be a better hitter too.

Pitching is the another big question mark. They will need a lot of offense this year to overcome the pitching problems.

Add, if Hughs can hit .225+, there is the top 5 batters being above average. Throw in a DH and you are left with a 1/3 of the lineup below average. Sounds good to me.

Combined hitting and pitching will not be enough to get them to 500 this year, but it should be fun none the less.

[Musky Buck]

I don't want to bash Span but I've never quite understood any hype about him ? I've watched him jack balls to right and watch them like they're gone only to be caught. I better go check his stats, somewhere I'm missing the boat on him, I guess I figure what other teams could he be the starting centerfielder for ?

[Rippinlip]

78-84, 6 games under.

15 more wins than last year.

A healthy Mauer is worth 7-8 games

A possibility of Morneau adding something could be 2-3 games.

Danny V is going to come through 3-4 games for us.

Liranio on a contract year should be worth 2-4 games more. If something or somebody gets to his head, that number could skyrocket.

Hopeful here, I really like the Twins.

[thatoneguy]

I'll be EXTREMELY optimistic and predict a record of 70-92. The rotation is terrible, the bullpen is terrible, they're not an elite fielding or baserunnng team anymore, and they lack batters that will hit for power or average. Not much to like about this team's prospects, and there are no impact players at AAA.

If Mauer and Morneau both return to full performance, and if Liriano gets his head on straight, they could make a run at .500. But I don't see it happening.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

All i have to say is after doing basically nothing in free agency and dropping the payroll 15 million after a 99 loss season, which to me is inexplicable, the twins will be just a tad better then garbage. We may finish 4th in the division if all goes well... Thats how optomistic i am

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

I'll be EXTREMELY optimistic and predict a record of 70-92. The rotation is terrible, the bullpen is terrible, they're not an elite fielding or baserunnng team anymore, and they lack batters that will hit for power or average. Not much to like about this team's prospects, and there are no impact players at AAA.

If Mauer and Morneau both return to full performance, and if Liriano gets his head on straight, they could make a run at .500. But I don't see it happening.

Couldnt have said it better myself!

[Musky Buck]

Wasn't too cool seeing Carl our opening day starter get rocked yesterday by guys names I've never heard of some of them and to top it off that's who we get in game 1 Baltimore, hopefully he was just serving it up and the nasty pitches will be used opening day.

[schmitty3]

Wasn't too cool seeing Carl our opening day starter get rocked yesterday by guys names I've never heard of some of them and to top it off that's who we get in game 1 Baltimore, hopefully he was just serving it up and the nasty pitches will be used opening day.

They announce Pavano as the opening day starter? I thought it was Liriano

[LABS4ME]

Liriano is opening day... I belive Pavano is Home Opener...

Good Luck!

Ken

[Ybone]

Pavano was named the opening day starter earlier in camp maybe even before camp and Baker was to start the home opener but Baker may not be ready with his elbow so that could change.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

but Baker may not be ready with his elbow so that could change.

Whats new? Same old song and dance with this rotation... but we didnt need anbody! we needed to cut payroll so the pohlads could make 40 mil this year instead of 25....

Good for them

[Musky Buck]

Oh, sorry right on, I think the news/sports channel I had on had things a bit backward, good to see Morneau touch a couple the other day, I'd DH him also maybe until all-star break and tell him no to breaking up a double play. It's crazy what we all think now, I wonder what we'll be thinking come October 1st. Now Willingham is going to left field ? Span in center, Plouffe in right with pus arm Revere as the rover, is that accurate ? How we looking up the middle with Casilla and Carroll ? It is shocking to see how different our squad looks compared to opening day 2 years ago. I thought those guys would be together for a very long time.

[B. Amish]

83-79

[Musky Buck]

I guess is this maybe the question....are we better than Detroit ? Cleveland ? KC ? Chi Sox ? If not then the number of wins needs to go down a lot, do we play these teams 20 times a piece ? I think our fantasy of dominating inter-leagueplay is done, thankfully we had it or we wouldn't have made the playoffs maybe a couple of times thinking we needed help and game 163 also. I did read some about a few stud ped taking Latin players in our organization to look for in the near future. If you don't think those players in the Dominican aren't using heavy juice your eyes are shut. I figure 12 wins a month so times 6 that's 72 wins and 91 losses. How's Nishioka ? For great, actually medium entertainment watch the inning cuddy pitched against the rangers and Nishi's efforts, there is 0 about that inning of play that would lead you to believe he's a big leaguer. 72 W's, pitch around Morneau and Mauer some and it may be less.

[greebs]

guys on mlb network the other night predicted 73 - 89 record and 4th place. pretty sad that as bad as that is it's ten games better than last year.

well I guess we can always watch former twins possibly have some success. got a feeling delmon is going to put up some big numbers in detroit this year offensively if he stays healthy. he's going to see a lot of good pitches to hit where he's at in that lineup.

[The Grebe]

15 the way they are playing tonight!

[The Grebe]

Most of the people that have been on the Twins team and have been let go to another team, flourish and do really well.

[dan z]

Just praying for a .500 team can't be worse than last year or I see Gardy fired....

[SledNeck]

Now I'm thinking keeping Mauer was a bad idea

[The Grebe]

Not by a long shot am I a baseball statistition, or a game expert, but I do watch and follow and going back over the years since the Gardenhire crew came in, we have changed alot of players.

It seems to me that they come in here with talents and before long, those talents are eroded? When they leave here, the talents come back to them, or are enhanced? Pitchers and hitters both. I guess one of the standouts would be David Ortiz, but there are alot of em! They are saying that Delmon Young is expected to do really well this year. Jamie Caroll didn't look bad, JJ Hardy looked pretty good, Loush, Garza, Knobloch, Mincavich (Sp), just a few names that pop into my head, but it goes back for years? Why do they fall off when they come here and charge when they go to another team? Even Mauer was getting homers when he started, now only occassionally.

In my opinion, it has to be the coaching? Not only the head coach, but the pitching and hitting coaches also? To my knowledge, we've had the same ones for a long time and the results are always the same. Why not get some new blood and shake things up? We surely couldn't do any worse then last year?

My son was telling me that Bill Smith did the same thing to the Twins as Matt Millen did to Detroit and it took them a lot of years to recover from it....what that is, I'm not sure, but it seems we've waited enough years, lets try something different?

[The Grebe]

Oh,oh, I got Caroll mixed up with someone else that was a Twins player in above post...scratch that one.

[mrklean]

There looking good so far

[The Grebe]

Yup, picked up right where they left off at the end of last season. Different players, same old coaching staff, same old results....makes it really exciting watching Twins baseball...ya really look forward to it!

[SledNeck]

well, I wont have to waste any days at target field this year