Adding Jim Thome to the lefty-dominated Twins lineup is a great move. For a baseball-paltry $1.5 million contract, Thome joins a team with powerful lefties Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Denard Span and Jason Kubel. There isn't a team in the league with enough lefties to roll out in late innings against this crew.
It's just too bad we couldn't have had Thome for the last 3-4 years. He would have 650 career homers if he had played in the Metrodome any more ...
I'm going to slap a few lineups together for fun. I'm also going to bank on Joe Crede signing on with the Twins for one more year of seeing if he can stop being hurt all the time. That said, here's the prediction:
1. Denard Span, CF (L)
2. J.J. Hardy, SS (R)
3. Joe Mauer, C (L)
4. Justin Morneau, 1B (L)
5. Michael Cuddyer, RF (R)
6. Jim Thome, DH (L)
7. Joe Crede, 3B (R)
8. Delmon Young, LF (R)
9. Punto/Harris/Tolbert/Plouffe, 2B (R)
or
1. Span (L)
2. Harris (R)
3. Mauer (L)
4. Cuddyer (R)
5. Morneau (L)
6. Kubel (L)
7. Thome (L)
8. Hardy (R)
9. Punto (R)
or
1. Span (L)
2. Mauer (L)
3. Cuddyer (R)
4. Morneau (L)
5. Thome (L)
6. Kubel (L)
7. Crede (R)
8. Hardy (R)
9. Casilla (L/R)
It's actually hard to create lineups with all that out there. It will be interesting to see what Gardenhire does with this team.
Here's my current predicted 25-man active roster for Opening SnowOut:
C--Mauer, Morales
1B -- Morneau, Thome
2B -- Tolbert, Casilla
3B -- Crede, Harris
SS -- Hardy, Punto
OF -- Span, Young, Cuddyer, Kubel
SP (in order) -- Pavano, Baker, Slowey, Blackburn, Perkins
RP -- Swarzak, Liriano, Mijares, Guerrier, Neshek
CL -- Nathan
