Before I begin to share my thoughts about the off-season, I would like to take a moment to remember Twins owner, Carl Pohlad. Carl passed away this winter at the age of 93. He was a very loyal owner throughout the years. He brought us two World Series championships (1987 and 1991). After many years of battle with the Minnesota government, he also delivered us a new ballpark, which will open next season. So I greatly thank the Pohlad family and especially Carl for keeping the Twins in Minnesota.
As the off-season winds down and Spring Training approaches, the Twins don’t have much to figure out on who will be making the team and who will be sent to Triple-A Rochester. This was a typical off-season for the Twins with very little movement in the free agent market or trade market. Twins fans have grown accustom to not expecting much during the off-season over the last several years, but somehow continue to support the team and their winning ways.
One of the highlights of the Twins off-season was the re-signing of shortstop Nick Punto. The Twins and Nick agreed upon a 2 year, 8.5 million dollar contract with a 5 million dollar club option for the 2011 season. After hitting a miserable .210 in 2007, Nick regained his confidence and hit .284 during the 2008 campaign. So maybe he deserved a new contract. His defense is what really stands out on the field though. He is one of those players that you never know what he will do when a groundball is between him and the third baseman. Only time will tell though if this was a good move by Bill Smith.
The one thing that bothered me all winter, were all the Delmon Young trade talks. For only having him one year, I don’t see why we would get rid of him that quick. So what if he had a slow start to the season. He was with a new team and just getting adjusted to how the Twins play small ball. In the second half of the season, he started to show us why he was voted the A.L. Rookie of the Year in 2007. If I’m the Twins, I hold onto this guy for at least a few more seasons, and then see where he is at. Of all the rumors that were centered around Delmon, not one of them was legitimate. One of the first rumors was a Matt Cain-for-Delmon Young deal with San Francisco. That would have helped us with pitching, but the Twins would have likely needed to toss in quite a bit more to get Cain from the Giants. As we all know, we already ripped them off once in the Pierzynski trade. So they likely will be very careful if they were to ever deal with us again. So, before we get any further into Delmon trade talks, lets give the guy a break and see how he performs in the 2009 season.
Another thing I wish the Twins would have improved on this winter was the bullpen. With the loss of Pat Neshek for the 2009 season due to Tommy John Surgery, we don’t have that set-up man that we need before Nathan comes in. I was hoping that would be the focus point for Bill Smith this off-season, but not much happened with that. We did take a middle reliever by the name of Jason Jones in the Rule 5 Draft. Other than Jason, we will have to rely on the arms we had in 2008, along with a few candidates from the minors. I would say Guerrier, Crain, Breslow, Korecky, and Mijares are safe bets to make the team. So that leaves us with likely one ore spot to make it 12 pitchers on the Opening Day Roster. Some of the possibilities are Philip Humber, R.A. Dickey, and Brian Duensing. There had been talk of Eric Gagne signing, but the Twins backed out at the last minute, so hopefully Bill has something in the works to acquire a relief pitcher.
Overall this off-season, on a scale of 1-10, I am at about a 7 of how satisfied I am with what Bill has done this winter. But I should be used to this by now after living and following the Twins since I moved to Minnesota in 1995. But then again, we weren’t expected to do well last year and we were one game away from the playoffs. Yes, I’m still bitter about the whole “who gets the home game” idea. So who knows how the 2009 Twins will do in their last season at the Homer Dome. </span>
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