Kuzul

In 2001, the Minnesota Twins (along with the Montreal Expos) were threatened to be contracted from Major League Baseball.

Take a look at where this team has come in the time since.

Rather than folding like a cheap suit, the Twins have risen back to becoming a potent catalyst in the sport in the last decade.

The 2010 season was a special year for the Twins, as highly anticipated Target Field opened for business.

The Twins took the division and ran away with it in September, winning 94 games and finishing six ahead of the hated White Sox.

Fans reached a seemingly all-time high in happiness, and merchandise and ticket sales were through the roof.

There are several factors on why they have been the team to beat in recent history, and why they will continue this trend in the 2011 season. 

This might be shocking to some, but I don’t honestly see the Twins losing a step to the rest of the division by giving up some of their better-known players such as Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier and J.J. Hardy (and possibly Carl Pavano, Orlando Hudson and Jim Thome, as well). 

The offseason proceeding the 2011 season has been one of the most busy in recent history. Teams are shipping their superstars for up-and-coming prospects, and vice versa.

There has been no lack of signings in the AL Central, as even the Twins have acquired highly-touted Japanese shortstop Nishioka Tsuyoshi.

The Chicago White Sox perhaps made the largest move, acquiring slugger Adam Dunn from the Washington Nationals. They have also reached a deal with former Twin reliever Jesse Crain.

The Detroit Tigers signed catcher Victor Martinez, and in doing so acquired one of the most well-rounded at the position.

The Cleveland Indians have signed just about everybody that they needed to during this free agency period.

The Kansas City Royals have gotten rid of long-time outfielder David DeJesus and 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke just signed with the Brewers last night. On the flip side, they have agreed to two solid deals with former 26-year Atlanta Braves in Melky Cabrera and Jeff Francoeur.

So why do I still believe in the Twins having a shot?

First Off, They Have the Best Farm System In All of Baseball

If you name a current Minnesota Twin, their is a decent chance that he came up with the team. Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, Denard Span, Danny Valencia, and Scott Baker are just a handful of many who have called the Twins organization home since their beginnings.

In all honesty, I could go all day naming players on other squads who called the Minnesota farm system home first. Johan Santana, Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, David Ortiz, Torii Hunter and A.J. Pierzynski are just a few current pros who highlight the many who were brought up by Ron Gardenhire’s club.

What does this have to do this year’s team though?

Easy; it just means that the Twins have a greater chance to develop players like Ben Revere and Brian Duensing into the major leaguers that they have aspired to be since they were toddlers.

This is of course based on the fact that new talent develops, and in Minnesota there isn’t much doubt that it will indeed happen.

Still want to argue with that “best farm system in all of baseball” comment? I didn’t think so.

Secondly, They Time and Time Again Destroy the Division Competition

The Minnesota Twins have dominated the American League Central Division in the last decade.

In that time they have had just one losing campaign, in 2007. In that same span the Royals have had nine, the Indians and Tigers with six apiece, and the White Sox two.

As previously stated, they have won six division titles: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010 (don’t forget that in 2008 the White Sox needed 163 games to eliminate Minnesota).

The White Sox and Indians each have a pair of titles in that same period, and the Tigers and Royals have been empty-handed (although the Tigers did have a World Series appearance in 2006).

The Twins have been more successful than most of the league in the last 10 years. They have won 888 games in this period, totalling more victories than the rest of their divisional foes: the White Sox had 850; the Indians put up 795; the Tigers totalled 731; and the lowly Royals have won just 662.

Why isn’t there a reason to believe they can win it in 2011?

The White Sox always seem to be better on paper than the Twins, but Minnesota always knows how to beat the White Sox, especially later in the season.

Finally, the Twins Play Their Best Baseball from July On

Year in and year out the Twins play their way seemingly out of the division race by May, only to rise up and defeat the competition in the final 90 games or so.

Whether they were pitching back-to-back-to-back complete game shutouts (as they did a few years back against the Royals), or sweeping the White Sox in September, I as a Twins fan expect a burst like that every year.

With the team developing players like no one else, beating the competition better than almost everyone, and playing flawless ball from July on, it seems no one in the division will stop the Minnesota Twins.

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With the 2010 MLB Winter Meetings heating up, everyone is waiting to find out whether the Yankees, Rangers or perhaps another suitor will win the Cliff Lee sweepstakes. No matter what team Lee ends up choosing, his decision is sure to set off a chain reaction in the baseball world, as Lee’s signing will be just one major move in what promises to be a busy winter.

Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Zack Greinke might be the second hottest topic this offseason, as the Royals seems poised to trade away their Cy Young award winning ace to the highest bidder. Teams that lose out on acquiring Cliff Lee via free agency will be forced to focus their pursuit on the services of Greinke.

The Cliff Lee saga may have passed for the Minnesota Twins this past July when they were unable to make a trade happen, but as we move towards 2011 Zack Greinke appears to be on the radar for Twins management. Given the disappointing finish to this past season and some uncertain circumstances heading into 2011, the Twins would be wise to do whatever possible to bring Greinke to Target Field.

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Baseball’s winter meetings begin this week in Florida.

This can be a time when those hot stoves really get fired up.

Twins’ General Manager Bill Smith has needs to be addressed as the team heads into its second season at Target Field.

No longer playing small-market ball, the team’s payroll is projected to be around $102 to $120 million for the 2011 season.

If Minnesota is going to successfully defend the American League Central Title and make that step to the next level, then Smith will have to make some moves.

Here are 12 points to ponder as Twins’ fans look forward to the 2011 season.

The official start of winter may still be a little over two weeks away, but keep in mind that pitchers and catchers report in only 74 days!

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Victor Martinez will receive a four-year deal for $50 million with the Detroit Tigers, according to Venezuelan reporter Ignacio Serrano of El Nacional, who first reported the agreement.

The Associated Press reported that the deal is pending the results of a physical. Martinez made $7.7 million last season.

The contract is a good one for Detroit, who needs offense. They did not have any player with an OBP over .350.

If he could also catch on a fairly regular basis, his value would be even greater, as his offense is rare for a backstop, but not as great for a DH.

Nevertheless, it was a good move by the Tigers, even if he will be overpaid by the third or fourth year of the deal. Theo Epstein and the Red Sox would like to have re-signed Martinez, but probably weren’t willing to guarantee a fourth year.

Meanwhile, this signing reminds us just how valuable and rare a commodity good hitting catchers are in MLB.

Just how rare? Well, take a look at this Top 10 list and see what you think.

Debate is strongly encouraged. There are different ways in which to judge a catcher, and I’m a little old school in that I want my catcher to be defense-first, with a strong throwing arm.

But it is so difficult to objectively measure defense, as even the most sophisticated metrics do a poor job of evaluating catcher defense, so I will focus more on offense. In other words, you will not see any .200 hitting catchers who play good defense on this list.

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The debate over the true nature of the Most Valuable Player Award rages every year. What precisely, constitutes “most valuable”? Is it the player with the best statistics at year’s end? Should the winning candidate come from a playoff-bound team?

Further questions cloud the issue even more so. Can pitchers, although they play in less than half their team’s games, be considered for the award? What about designated hitters that only contribute offensive production and are otherwise nearly non-factors?

Throughout the 2010 Major League Baseball season, we have seen fantastic seasons from a wide variety of players across the American League, helping to interject their names in the MVP discussion. Perennial favorites return year-after-year, emerging superstars turn the corner into a new era of greatness, a sudden blast from nowhere out of an unlikely source in Toronto, and even a long-time veteran who only seems to enter this conversation when he’s playing for a new contract.

For the purpose of this discussion, I’m going to exclude pitchers, not because I feel they are undeserving, but because the realistic probability of a pitcher winning the honor is low. Of course, it has happened numerous times throughout the history of the game, but in the last 25 years, we have only witnessed the occurrence twice.

Besides, this is a crowded enough field of potential candidates as it is, we can leave the discussion over the AL’s best pitcher for another day. That figures to be another spirited debate regarding that category.

In this piece, in addition to the familiar statistical analysis, I’ve also incorporated information from Fangraphs, utilizing their estimated WAR(Wins Above Replacement) statistic, in order to help gauge a player’s value to his team. Additionally, I also used their UZR(Ultimate Zone Rating) in order to help understand each player’s general defensive contribution as well. Of course, Fangraphs is not the only authority on such player assessments, but nevertheless, these two tools are useful and when viewed in conjunction with additional analysis, provide critical evaluations of a player’s performance.

Without further adieu, let’s take a look at ten of the leading candidates that will surely garner votes in the election to honor the American League’s Most Valuable Player. If you feel I have made any egregious omissions, please feel free to share your thoughts on the matter.

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It was announced today that Minnesota Twins‘ Joe Mauer won his third straight Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

His numbers are impressive. In 112 games he caught 951.6 innings and committed only three errors.

His 0.996 fielding percentage was tied for tops in the Major Leagues.

So what does this mean? 

For the Minnesota Twins, since Mauer became the regular catcher in 2005, it has meant an extra 5.7 wins per season. For the AL Central Division Champion over the past 10 seasons, only three times was the final margin greater than six games.

Many people would agree that Mauer is the most valuable player for the Minnesota Twins, and as Mauer goes, so go the Twins.

You don’t have to look any further than the 2010 season.

As the Twins approached the All-Star Break, Mauer was hitting just below .300 and the Twins found themselves in third place in the AL Central, with a 46-42 record.

Mauer found his stroke and finished with a .327 batting average, and the Twins had the best record in the second half of the season going 48-26 and winning the division by six games.

For Mauer, his .327 batting average equals that for his seven-year career.

His strength may also be a weakness.

Catching in the major leagues is the most grinding and debilitating position in baseball. Because of that, the number of games a catcher plays will be limited.

Twins’  manager, Ron Gardenhire typically will not play Mauer at catcher on day games following a night game. On some occasions he will insert Mauer in the lineup as the designated hitter, and in 2010 that would mean sitting the Twins best power hitter, Jim Thome.

The wear and tear on Mauer this past season kept him out of the Twins’ lineup 25 percent of the time—that adds up to 45 games, almost six weeks worth of the season without your best hitter.

There have been suggestions that perhaps it would be better to move Mauer to another, less physically demanding position, in order to allow him to play in more games, and possibly extend his career.

There are two problems with that.

One, where would he play?

If you move him to the outfield, it would have to be a corner outfield position and the Twins appear to be set with Delmon Young in left and Michael Cuddyer in right.

If he was to move to the infield again, the best fit would be on one of the corners where the Twins hope to have Justin Morneau back at first, and Danny Valencia has established himself as the long term solution at third.

Secondly, how do you move a three-time Gold Glover winner to another position?

Mauer has said he has no desire to move to another position and the Twins have stated he is their catcher.

So as Mauer looks to match the 10 consecutive Gold Gloves that Ivan Rodriguez won from 1992 to 2001 with the Texas Rangers, don’t look for him to be playing anywhere else on the diamond.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Minnesota Twins start their 50th season in Minnesota next season.

I thought it might be fun to choose the best starting lineup possible from the last 50 years. I also included the top five pitchers for a starting rotation and a closer.

There were a few rules to make the list. They must have either been a Twins player for at least five years, or done something extraordinary on the field (such as a World Series victory, MVP award, batting title, etc.).

They also must have spent most of their time at the position they played at, so I wasn’t allowed to DH someone who wasn’t a designated hitter during their time in Minnesota.

So who made the cut? Read on to find out.

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Every year, managers, coaches and writers from around Major League Baseball award honors and trophies to the players. And every year, they screw up.

This week, Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists kicked off our preemptive response to the BBWAA’s ineptitude: a 16-part series in which 33 writers weighed in on who should win the game’s top honors, starting with the AL Gold Gloves on Monday and the NL Gold Gloves on Tuesday.

Today, we turn our attention to the AL Silver Sluggers—the best hitters at each position in the Junior Circuit.

So read on, see how we did and be sure to let us know what we got wrong.

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There have been many important days in Twins history. Oct. 25th, 1987 (first World Series victory), Oct. 27th, 1991 (second World Series), and June 5th, 2001 (drafting of Joe Mauer) spring to mind for many fans. But the absolute most important date had nothing to do with winning a world series or drafting a future hall of fame catcher. The day in question is July 3rd, 2000.

The franchise was at a crossroads. The Twins hadn’t had a winning season since 1992. In 1995 the hero of the franchise (Kirby Puckett) was forced into retirement after being struck in the jaw by an errant fastball, and subsequent glaucoma the following spring.

They had lost their only remaining true star, Chuck Knoblauch, after a trade to the Yankees following the 1997 season. The 1999 season saw the Twins finish in last place once again.

The Twins were sporting a $17 million dollar payroll, and the attendance barely topped one million for the season. Roughly 12,000 fans a game.

And on top of all this, Carl Pohlad was open to the idea of contraction. This would wipe the Twins franchise off the face of the earth, while putting about 150 million into Pohlad’s pocket.

This was all changed on July 3rd, 2000, when the previously stingy Twins extended Brad Radke’s contract. Radke signed for a then franchise record of four years and $36 million dollars. It was a vote of confidence for fans all over Twins territory, and signaled the change of culture which led to a decade of excellence.

If you look at where the Twins were to where they are today it is quite remarkable.

2000 Twins 69-93 – 1,000,760 fans – $17.5 Million dollar payroll – Played in Metrodome – Highest payed player at time was Radke making $3.5 Million dollars.

2010 Twins 94-68 – 3,223,640 fans – $97.5 Million dollar payroll – Played in newly opened Target Field – Highest payed player was Justin Morneau who made $15 Million.

This dramatic turn around has many reasons: The great drafts, home grown talent, good management, piranha’s, etc. But without the re-signing of Brad Radke a decade ago. Who knows what history may have been written for the Twins. Would there be that shiny new ballpark in downtown Minneapolis? Would there be six division title banners? Would there even be a Twins team? I can’t honestly answer that.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Every year, members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America fulfill their duties by voting for the Rookie of the Year, Manager of the Year, Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards. And every year, they find new ways to screw up.

Remember when Justin Morneau was named AL MVP in 2006? Or when Bartolo Colon took home the AL Cy Young in 2005? Just last year, a majority of voters chose Adam Wainwright over one or both of Chris Carpenter and Tim Lincecum for the NL Cy Young, therefore implicitly declaring that wins are somehow the most important pitching statistic.

When managers and coaches vote, things get even worse. What possible justification could there be for Torii Hunter being named a Silver Slugger and Derek Jeter taking home a Gold Glove after last season? Then there’s the Rolaids Relief Man Award, which is given out based solely on wins, losses and saves.

Everyone has an opinion, and everyone thinks he could do a better job. But talk is cheap, and saying you could do better is very different from actually doing better.

So Bleacher Report’s Featured Columnists decided to put our money where our collective mouth is. During the last week of the regular season, 33 FCs submitted their picks for Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, Comeback Players of the Year, Relief Men of the Year, Rookies of the Year, Managers of the Year, Cy Youngs and Most Valuable Players in at least one of the two leagues.

This slideshow, showcasing the winners of our AL Gold Glove vote, will be the first of a four-week, 16-part series featuring 110 players and managers. So read on, see how we did, and be sure to let us know what we got wrong.

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