March 2008 Archives

With the exception of the cruddy weather outside, you can't really ask for a much better opening day if you're the Twins. Livan Hernandez pitched well enough that 3 runs were all the Twins needed to win. He allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 0 walks through 7 IP. With a pitch count only in the eighties, I was surprised not to see him sent out for the eighth. Perhaps, if the there had been a little more padding on the lead, Gardy would've given him another inning.

Game Time: 6:05 PM (CT) Location: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Opponent: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The season has technically started, but I think it's still early enough to fairly submit my predictions. Feel free to add yours to the comments.

Michael Cuddyer was rewarded for a great 2006 and a decent follow-up season in 2007 with a 3-year $24 million contract, which will keep him in Minnesota through the 2010 season. Let's dive into his numbers:

Carlos Gomez has some big shoes to fill after beating out Denard Span and Jason Pridie to replace Torii Hunter in center field. By the way, he was also the centerpiece in the Johan Santana trade. The comparisons to Hunter will come instantly as he'll be sharing center with Hunter when the Angels open the season with a 4-game series at the dome. Although, if you ask me, the real pressure is on Torii Hunter, who needs to prove to the Angels that he's worth the 5-year $90 million contract they gave him. Let's look at what we can expect from Gomez:

Delmon Young will be duking it out with Carlos Gomez as fan's favorite Twins' newcomer in 2008. Delmon definitely has the edge in that he's already an established every-day player. Delmon, younger brother of Dmitri Young, came to the Twins in the Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett trade in November. Let's take a look at his numbers:

The Twins offered Mike Lamb a 2 year $6.6 million contract to man third base in 2008 and 2009, with a $3.5 million club option for 2010. Will they get their money's worth on this deal? Let's see:

Francisco Liriano won't start in the rotation, but he'll likely be in the big show by the time April comes to an end. Here's the full list of players that will be coming north for Monday's home opener.

...and that will be decided with Francisco Liriano's start today against Pittsburgh. If he looks sharp he'll likely get the final spot in the rotation. If not, he'll start the season in AAA getting in a little more preparation after returning from Tommy John surgery and getting a late start to the spring with visa issues.

Initially it was thought that Brendan Harris would replace Jason Bartlett at shortstop following the trade with Tampa Bay, but shortly after that the Twins signed free agent Adam Everett to fill that void. Let's look at his numbers. They're scary, so proceed at your own risk.

We've covered a couple familiar offensive faces, now onto one of the new offseason acquisitions, Brendan Harris. Harris was acquired in the trade the sent Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett to the Rays for Delmon Young and Harris.

After leading off on with Joe Mauer for the hitter projections, we'll keep moving around the diamond to Justin Morneau, who signed a 6-year $80 million contract in the offseason.

The speculation of the weekend culminated in Monday's official announcement by the Twins that they have signed Joe Nathan through 2011 with a team option for 2012. For a team who's recent history has been to let star players go when they enter their most expensive years, this should come as a pleasant surprise. It's really hard to get too upset over this; every fan wants their team to retain its best players.

The Twins open the regular season in just a week and it won't be long before we have a clear picture of what exactly the team will look like at the Metrodome on March 31st.

I've done projections for all the pitchers, now it's time to get to the hitters before the season begins. We start with the catcher, Joe Mauer. As with pitchers, let's start by taking a look at the ZiPS projection for 2008 as well as his past two seasons.

Finally, we reach the final of the pitchers for the 2008 projectsions—Joe Nathan. It should come as no surprise that he's projected to be great again in 2008.

Glen Perkins is next on the list for 2008 projections. First, the stats:

Dennys Reyes is next on the list as we continue running through the 2008 projections for the Twins' bullpen. Let's get right into his numbers:

Jesse Crain is next on the list as I work through the remainder of the bullpen for the 2008 projections series. Crain is working his way back from 2007 shoulder surgery and so far hasn't had much luck this spring. Here are his projected and recent numbers:

The Twins game today against the Phillies was televised on FSN and I got a chance to watch a large portion of it. Tomorrow's game is also televised (WFTC29).

Continuing with relief pitchers in the 2008 projections series, today we meet Juan Rincon, a guy trying to bounce back from a difficult 2007. Let’s look at his 2008 ZiPS projection and his previous two years’ numbers:

Matt Guerrier is next on the list for the continuing series of 2008 projections. We've done the likely starting pitchers already and are rapidly working through the bullpen. We'll get to the hitters next week. Let's look at Guerrier's numbers:

We're getting into the relief pitchers now as we continue the series of 2008 projections. Let's take a look at Pat Neshek, everyone's favorite blogging relief pitcher.

Continuing with the 2008 projections series, we move onto Nick Blackburn. Nick joins Kevin Slowey and Philip Humber as the three players I think have a legitimate shot at rounding out the Twins' rotation.

The Twins will play their first real game just three weeks from today...it's getting close! For some reason, I just looked at the current Grapefruit league standings and couldn't believe that the Twins are 8-4. I don't remember eight wins, but I guess I was never keeping close track of the outcomes.

Continuing on with the 2008 projection series, we now reach Philip Humber. He's the 6th pitcher I'm covering, which doesn't necessarily mean he won't make the starting rotation. He is fighting for that fifth spot along with a couple other guys.

First, my apologies for falling off track the last couple days with the player projections. Thursday's announcement of the iPhone SDK completely hijacked my attention. Anyway, I've managed to redirect myself back to baseball and the goal is to get several projections done this weekend, so I can keep them going throughout the week.

Today we round out what I think will be the starting rotation to begin the season for the Minnesota Twins as I continue the 2008 projections series of posts. We've gone through Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano, Livan Hernandez and Boof Bonser. That leaves Kevin Slowey to round out the starters.

I thought I'd interrupt the steady stream of projections posts to recap what's been happening down in Florida.

Boof Bonser is next on our list as we continue our series of 2008 player projections. We're working our way through the pitching staff and should get to the hitters next week. As usual, let's start with the numbers:

Let's continue on with the 2008 player projections. We're working through the pitching staff right now, and then we'll move onto the hitters. Today, we get a look at Livan Hernandez, whom the Twins signed late in the offseason to a 1 year $5 million contract. I already gave a rundown of him in early February when the deal went down, so if you find you can just never get enough Livan talk, be sure to read that.

This is a continuation of the 2008 player projections series. We're currently working through the pitchers and today we find ourselves looking at Francisco Liriano who is working his way back onto the Twins roster after missing all of 2007 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

Welcome to the first of what will be a series of projections of Twins players, one-by-one, as the start of the 2008 season approaches. I'll be starting with pitchers and then move on to the hitters. Expect 1 or 2 to be released each day for the next couple weeks.