2008 Projection: Michael Cuddyer

By: Kris Richardson
Published: Mar 30, 2008 12:37 PM

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:

Year Age AB BA OBP SLG HR BB K SB
2008 ZiPS 29 527 .269 .352 .427 15 62 113 3
2007 28 547 .276 .356 .433 16 64 107 5
2006 27 557 .284 .362 .504 24 62 130 6

Just about all the stars of 2006 regressed a bit in 2007, and Cuddyer was no exception. The hope is that he can approach 20 home runs and clean up any RBI's that Delmon Young and Justin Morneau may have missed in front of him.

In right field, he doesn't exactly have much range, but speedy Carlos Gomez should be able to shorten Cuddyer's distance this year. Cuddyer does, however, have a cannon for an arm, as his league leading 19 RF assists can attest to. Ron Gardenhires says we can expect Cuddyer to be Morneau's primary backup at first, although there's no expectation that Morneau will get many days off. Cuddyer played 4 games at 1B in 2007

Michael struggled a bit in the final two month's of the season, but the entire team was a bit flat at that time. If the bats around him can stay productive and he can keep his somersaults to a minimum, he should have a fairly productive 2008.

Other 2008 projections

Pitchers

Hitters

Topics: Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez, Ron Gardenhires, Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano, Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey, Philip Humber, Nick Blackburn, Pat Neshek

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