From: lsmith@deci.cs.umn.edu (Lance "Squiddie" Smith)
Subject: Re: The Minnesota Twins
Organization: The Little Squids of the Poor
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 18:32:25 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.160407.19251@cs.cornell.edu> tedward@cs.cornell.edu (Edward [Ted] Fischer) writes:
>In article <93008.004857MV013374@NDSUVM1.BITNET> steve eliason <MV013374@NDSUVM1.BITNET> writes:
>>       I just want to say I am a big Twins fan and wish them the best of
>>luck this year. I predict that they will be untouchable if and only if
>>they get their hands on a decent pitcher.
>
>What does their lineup look like?  The keys (Puckett, Hrbek, Harper,
>Mack) are all another year older, and the loss of Gagne will hurt.
>(Winfield more than makes up for Davis, though, IMHO.)  The left side
>of the infield looks weak, and the pitching staff is a bit shaky.
>(Tapani and Erickson are solid, but Mahomes is still young and
>inconsistent, and the other spots are unknowns.)

It's really hard to guess how the Twins will do this year. The pitching
is a big question mark. The defense, once always dependable, now starts
to become questionable. The offense still seems to be there, but will
it be enough to overcome less than stellar pitching. 

The loss of Gagne will probably hurt more than people expect. His bat,
with the patented Spiral Swing of Death wasn't much help, but he was 
solid up the middle. With pitchers like Erickson (circa 1991), you
need a good shortstop. Leius has been playing well at third, so I'm
hoping he makes the conversion back to short. If Jorgenson finally lives
up to his Portland numbers I think you have a gain in offense, but lose
in defense.

I like Winfield at the price they paid for him. He's another reason to
keep going to the park. Davis' numbers weren't bad at DH (before they
started benching him) but he didn't have the glitzy homer totals from
the first half of 1991 last year. (No surprise really.) 

I expect Harper and Mack to remain close to '92 levels. Puckett almost has 
to decline in both offense and defense. I'd settle for a small decline
in both. Believe it or not, I expect better things from Hrbek this
year. Most reports have him taking his "No DQ snacks" diet seriously
and reducing his weight to Kirschlike svelteness. I like to hope
that Knoblauch is still improving. 

With the pitching, I just shrug. No idea. There isn't one Twins pitcher
I would be able to predict how they'll do in '93. I mean they just
signed Bert Blyleven again. It's only for a minor league contract, but...

>The Twins could win.  I don't think anybody really dominates that
>division.  But I think they need more than one more pitcher to really
>run away with it.  (Besides, where are they going to find one?)

At this point the Twins aren't going to find any new pitchers. (Unless
they have some scouts in Tibet.) The West is really up for grabs. I think
the Twinkees still have an edge in the all important Maynard Intangibles 
Metric, but I'm not about to risk by unscathed reputation by woofing in 
January. B{)

-----------------------------
  Lance "Cr2O3.2H2O" Smith  | "Moments after being named manager for the
    (lsmith@cs.umn.edu)     |  Oakland A's, Mr Peanut was crushed by a 
  Special Limited Edition   |  red headed loner wielding an aluminum bat." 
     r.s.bb  .signature     |                _Murder at the Mausoleum_
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