Getting Excited...

I've seen the ballpark with my own eyes. I was in Minneapolis for this past Thanksgiving and while walking through the corridors of the SkyWay system, I saw it...it is beautiful, in a pristine brand-new ballpark sort of way. I can't wait to see a game there.

Aside from that, there's a lot of other exciting news coming out of Minnesota regarding the Twins. The re-signing of Joe Mauer appears imminent, reports out of spring training regarding Francisco Liriano are very encouraging, and there is generally a lot of reasons to be optimistic about this upcoming Twins season. The lone remaining question mark is what to do about 3rd base, and the chances of the Twins landing Orlando Hudson appear to be fading. However, the Twins rotation will return all five starters with a good bit of competition (it would seem) for that 5th spot. The Twins made some moves to shore up the bullpen and with Neshek coming back, the bullpen could easily become one of the strengths of this team. The Twins also traded for J.J. Hardy, a move that improves both middle-infield defense, and the line-up. In what will probably be the final move for the Twins this off-season (unless Hudson changes his mind), they signed Jim Thome to a no-brainer one-year deal. If Thome performs like he has for the last few years, he could be a very valuable addition in the DH spot, if not, they didn't waste too much money on him.

All things considered, I think there is good reason for Twins fans to have hope this year. Perhaps the front-office could have made another move here or there, but overall, the moves they did make were good ones and I think the Twins will have a very competitive team on the field of their brand-new ballpark...only about a month now until Spring Training starts.