Several folks far more talented than me have already pointed this out, but on the heels of the Orlando Hudson signing suddenly the 2010 Twins are starting to look very good.I greatly enjoyed breaking the Twins down for the 2009 ALDS, but time we'll do a quick-and-dirty look at what I assume is a potential lineup using wOBA (though I have no idea who'll they use at 3B; I'm just going to use Brendan Harris because he seemed to get a hit against the Yankees every time in the DS, therefore he must be awesome):
They may not quite be the 2010 Yankees (whose Bill James average wOBA for the starting nine is .372), but that's a pretty potent lineup, even if it does fall off some in the bottom third. And considering Hardy posted a .355 wOBA in 2008 and is only 27, he seems like a reasonable bet to top a projection of .325. If only the Twins could land themselves a real third baseman, they could really lay waste to the AL Central.
Additionally, the rotation is rounding into form rather well. If Francisco Liriano can recover some of the form that made him one of 2006's nastiest pitchers, they'll have a pretty solid 1-5 (I can't believe I'm including Carl Pavano in that statement). Here are your FIPs:
Speaking of good starting pitching, the Mariners could have the scariest front three in the league if Erik Bedard comes anywhere close to regaining his Baltimore form:
The James projections seem a bit harsh on the King and Lee -- Lee in particular seems highly unlikely to gain 0.61 points of FIP. I wouldn't be surprised if all three of those guys wound up with FIPs under 3.50 at the end of the year, which is absurd.
The Twins were probably going to lay waste to the AL Cetnral anyway; who was going to challenge them? The Royals always stink, the Indians traded away their best players last season, the Tigers have financial problems and will probably unload the players they have left before the deadline... The AL West should be pretty competitive: Rangers and Mariners look improved and despite the Angels loses, I still believe they're going to find a way to be right in the running for the AL West championship.
ReplyDeleteFrom a Twins fan, 3B will most likely be a platoon of Brendan Harris and Nick Punto. Harris will hit against left-handers and Punto against right-handers. Going with your w/OBA stat. Harris had a OBP of .332 against left-handers and Punto had a OBP of .287 against right-handers.
ReplyDeleteThey still do not have lineup of the Yankees, but then again no one really does. However, with less holes in the lineup they are a much more dangerous team than the team you faced last year in the playoffs. I can't wait for baseball season to start.
That should say w/OBA instead of OBP. Their OBP's were .348 and .340.
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