It was just ten years ago that Jack Morris threw 10 innings of shutout baseball in a fantastic Game 7 to help the Twins to a World Series Title over the upstart Atlanta Braves. That allowed the Twins to clinch their second World Series in four years. Boy how times have changed, but this year’s Twins team could be poised to make some noise for the first time since that 1991 season.

Tom Kelly enters his fourteenth season as manager of these Minnesota Twins, and he will have one of the youngest teams in baseball to work with. First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz hopes to finally win the job outright and have a big year. He has shown to be a Gold Glove caliber defender and also has flashed the ability to hit 20 plus homers in a starting role. At second base will be rookie Luis Rivas, who started off at AA last year and moved his way through the minors quickly to make the parent club. He’ll team with shortstop Christian Guzman, who last season was the first American Leaguer to hit 20 triples since the Royals’ Willie Wilson way back in 1985. At third base will be Corey Koskie, who had a career high .400 OBP with 9 HRs and 65 RBIs in 146 games played. The catching position looks to be decided during an open competition in spring training, where as many as four guys figured to be battling for the starting position. I would look for Matt LeCroy to win the job by the time it’s all said and done. The DH job will go to David Ortiz. Nicknamed “Big Papi”, Ortiz is a big boy who has flashed the ability to be a quality big league hitter with good power. He hit 10 HRs last season, but look for him with a full season’s worth of work to be someone who is capable of hitting a minimum of 25-30 HRs.

The outfield will feature the veteran Matt Lawton. Last season Lawton hit .305 and had a team leading 88 RBIs as well as a team leading 23 swiped bags. In left field will be Jacque Jones, who had a nice rookie season, leading the team with 19 homers. Center field will be manned by Torii Hunter. He comes in this season as the full-fledged starter after ending the year as hot as anybody on the team. He finished up hitting with a .280 batting average from the leadoff spot.

Kelly believes this is his deepest pitching staff since he’s been here, which is saying a lot. Brad Radke (12-16, 4.65) had a chance to test free agency, but decided to stay with the small market Twins for another tour of duty. Kelly has two very good lefthanders right behind him in Eric Milton (13-10, 4.86) and Mark Redman (12-9, 4.76). Joe Mays will be the fourth starter, even though he was 7-15 with a high ERA of 5.56. Matt Kinney, J.C. Romero, and a promising rookie by the name of Johan Santana will duke it out for fifth starter.

The Twins bullpen has some experience, but will go into the season with a young closer by the name of LaTroy Hawkins. He ended up as the closer by default for the last two months of last season and did a terrific job accumulating 13 saves in that time. His 3.39 ERA showed that he has the ability to get out of trouble. The Twins have the luxury of having a pair of lefthanders coming out of the pen, with Eddie Guardado and Travis Miller. The bullpen was about the only strength that the Twins had last year and they expect it be just one of many strong areas for them in this upcoming season.

Twins fans, don’t expect this to be the second-coming of the 1991 team, but there is a huge upside with all the kids that Kelly plans on playing this season. Look for this team to make some noise in the AL Central and possibly compete for a playoff spot, if not a division title.