It’s the best time of the year. Most of winter is in the rear view mirror and the phrase, “pitchers and catchers report to spring training" has been heard.  Full work outs by this weekend, followed by the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues and the regular Major League Baseball season the first week of April.

Once again, KROC AM will carry all 162 regular season games along with some selected spring training games and Twins play by play announcer Cory Provus will be a weekly guest on Rochester’s Good Morning every Thursday.

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So here’s my totally unbiased and semi detailed look at how the Twins will do this season:

Defense

Overall we should be good especially in the outfield.  The infield will be ok with the possible exception of third base.  Miguel Sano will need work. Juan Castro should be an upgrade behind the plate.

Offense

You can’t expect Brian Dozier to duplicate last year, but you can expect 25-30 homeruns. We're not going to get as much from our catchers. Sano should be better and I expect Byron Buxton to start living up to the hype. Otherwise, not much change

Starting Pitching

The only one you can count on is Ervin Santana for consistency.  There were no major moves in the off season, so we’re hoping Phil Hughes has a bounce-back season, Kyle Gibson finally shows some consistency and Jose Berrios lives up to his alleged potential (see Buxton).  The rest are only so-so. Lot of ifs.

 Bullpen

Could be decent, except we still don’t have a closer.  Doesn’t look like Glen Perkins will be ready for awhile.

PREDICTION:  80-82 (I will retain the right to edit this number as I see fit)

Thoughts?

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