Spring Training Making Minnesota Twins Skeptical

Now is the point in the season when all the pressure is split up between multiple people. The pressure is on the players, and Minnesota Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire.  This is the time of year when the players are playing their hardest to win the starting spots, or a spot in the rotation.  

The manager, Ron Gardenhire, has to make his cuts and assignments based on scouting reports, and player performance.  

His dilemma? Inconsistency.

Players have had ups and downs, slumps and breakouts, and just about any other performance related opposite you can think of. Joe Crede, for example, had a batting average of less than .100, but just last week he went 3-for-3, including a home run, double, and single, and a walk.  

Another problem, for the team in general, is their cohesiveness and team consistency. They were 8-3 through 11 games, their record today? 12-10, losing seven of their last 11.

I am a die-hard Twins fan myself, but I do not have so much pride in team as to say they haven't done anything wrong, they have. But one aspect no one has looked at was injuries and the WBC. Joe Mauer, injured and will not play on opening day, possibly not for a few weeks of the season.  

As for the WBC, they were left with none of their regular position players, Joe Nathan was their only bullpen pitcher left over, simply because of injury, and the inability to play in the WBC.

The only players left over were a few starting pitchers.  

So the question is, were the Twins' two four-game winning streaks just flukes, or do we think the Twins truly have the ability to compete this year? 

Personally, I believe that there is no way to tell and we have to wait, but if required to make a decision, I would predict a first place finish, by two games, with at least a .600 winning percentage.

Why? The Twins now have a roster full of young players that had major league experience last year and are already competing this year; veterans that are still relatively young; and a select few rookies that are already performing well.  

The Twins' final cuts, to get down to maximum roster size? Hard to tell.  But we do know that Gardy will make the right choice, doesn't he always?

*Thank you to the reader who spotted my error, Ron Gardenhire is the Minnesota Twins' Manager, not General Manager.