Twins Win AL Central, Will Play Yankees Tonight

The Minnesota Twins scored in the bottom of the 12th inning to edge Detroit 6-5 in a one-game playoff to win the American League Central title.

Baseball Tonight talks about the Twins winning the AL Central Title.


Joe Mauer talks about the Twins-Tigers Tiebreaker game.

2009 MLB Preview: AL Central

The Cleveland Indians have some new faces. Will that help them win the AL Central?

The AL Central in 2008 was home to one of the greatest divisional races in recent memory. The White Sox and Twins ended up playing 163 regular season games to decide who would win the AL Central, which the White Sox won 1-0 on a Jim Thome monster homerun.

What is in store for 2009? Let's have a look.

Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians have Baseball's best Centerfielder, Grady Sizemore, and Travis Hafner can still hit the ball a mile. The Indians acquired two great players via a trade and I think these two will make a huge difference right away. The first huge addition: Kerry Wood. He comes over from the Chicago Cubs, and I think he instantly upgrades Cleveland's bullpen. He will come in and get saves right away for this team. The second player is Mark DeRosa. He also comes over from the Cubs. When he was in Chicago, he played all over the field. In Cleveland, it looks like he will be set to play third base. The Indians rotation is anchored by last season's AL Cy Young award winner, Cliff Lee. Everyone that follows him in the rotation is a questionmark, however. If the 2 thru 5 guys can pitch like they're capable of, the Indians rotation will be a pleasant surprise this season.

Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are the defending division champions. The White Sox rotation is anchored by Mark Buehrle, who is still one of the American league's best pitchers. John Danks and Gavin Floyd are capable, young starters. Jose Contreras will work to beat a lineup the slowest way possible, and Bartolo Colon begins this season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder after getting released from the Angels.

Offensively, the White Sox should not strugle in that department. The White Sox will finally get to see a whole full season of Josh Fields, after they released Joe Crede, Alexi Ramirez will continue to impress, as his stroke is almost exactly like Alfonso Soriano's. Chris Getz will be the new second baseman, and Dewayne Wise will play Center Field. Carlos Quentin should be back in full swing this season, and let's not forget about Jermaine Dye in right field. Paul Konerko will play First base, and Jim Thome will launch some homeruns from the Designated Hitter spot.
Detroit Tigers

Times are tough for all things Detroit right now, and that includes the Tigers. The Tigers suprisingly released Gary Sheffield after he wasn't cutting it, and if they fall out of contention early, more may be next. The Tigers are still waiting for Joel Zumaya to get healthy, and for Dontrelle Willis to get back to The D-Train of old.

The Bright spots for Detroit: Curtis Granderson is still one of baseball's best leadoff men. Major League scouts are raving over pitcher Rick Porcello, and Miguel Cabrera is forecasted to have a big season this year.

Expect The Tigers to fight to make it above .500 this season, which sounds a whole lot like what they did last season.

Minnesota Twins


This is the final season that the Minnesota Twins will play inside the Metrodome. The Twins move into the outdoors when they play in Target Field. Francisco Liriano appears to have his good stuff this Spring. He'll be the ace. Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins are capable, and Nick Blackburn could really pitch fantasticly this season. Who will be Minnesota's Fifth Starter?

Offensively, the Twins will get a lot of offense from Justin Morneau. Joe Crede willplay Third base, as he comes over from the Chicago White Sox. Denard Span could have a breakout season this year.

Expect the White Sox and Twins to slug it out for the AL Central title.
Kansas City Royals

This is The Kansas City Royals 40th anniversary. Their rotation is anchored by Gil Meche, followed by Zach Greinke, Kyle Davies was a surprise this season. Was Sidney Ponson just a World Baseball Classic Wonder? The Royals will find that out as he made a slot in the rotation. Horacio Ramirez rounds out the rotation.

The Royals are hoping that Alex Gordon has a much better season this year. Mike Jacobs becomes Kansas City's new first baseman, Mike Avilles will play short, and Alberto Callaspo will play second base.

Don't expect a surpise team out of Kansas City this season.

My Division Prjections:
1. CHICAGO WHITE SOX
They have the pitching, offense, and defense to repeat as division champions.
2. Minnesota Twins
Justin Morneau will be good, as usual, and their pitching looks good this season.
3.Cleveland Indians
Their offense will be there, but their pitching (outside of Cliff Lee) has questionmarks.
4. Detroit Tigers
Miguel Cabrera will have a good season, but the rest of the team will struggle.
5. Kansas City Royals.
They won't compete this year.

In our next MLB Preview. We will look at the AL West. Will Los Angeles repeat as Division Champions? Will Texas Surpise? Will Seattle be competitive? Find out in the next MLB Preview.

BBTN Minute: White Sox Vs. Twins Preview

Starting tonight, The White Sox and Twins meet up in a huge matchup that will decide the AL Central. Baseball Tonight has a preview.

MLB Preview: AL Central

Can Acquisitions Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis help Detroit clinch their first World Series Title since 1984?

Detroit Tigers fans still can't believe their incredibly good luck. Minnesota Twins fans can't believe how far they're team has fallen off the map with the loss of Johan Santana. White Sox fans hope the improved bullpen can help them win more games, and Royals fans are hoping Alex Gordon and Gil Meche can help lead Kansas City out of the cellar.

And then there's Cleveland, the winner of the AL Central last season. All forgotten. Indians fans like it this way. They hope this quiet team can surprise again.

DETROIT TIGERS
The Tigers in 2007 hoped to repeat their success from 2006 when they marched to the World Series. They may have failed to do that, but this team still made history last season. Comerica Park was abuzz on June 12th as Justin Verlander threw a no-hitter against the Milwaukee Brewers, winning the game 4-0. This was the first no-hitter by a Tiger since Jack Morris did it in 1984 and the first ever thrown at Comerica Park.
Curtis Granderson became only the second player in franchise history to have at least 30 doubles, 15 triples, 15 home runs, and 10 stolen bases in a single season. The other Tiger to accomplish this feat was Charlie Gehringer in 1930. Magglio Ordonez .363 batting average was the highest in Major League Baseball. He finished the season as the AL batting champion, and is the first Tiger player to accomplish the feat since Norm Cash in 1961.This Tigers team will get much better in 2008, primarily due to the addition of the final two members of the 2003 Florida Marlins that were with the team last season.

Pitching Wise, Justin Verlander is the ace of the rotation, but filling in at the number two spot will be former Marlins Ace Dontrelle Willis. Nate Robertson and Kenny Rogers will follow him, leaving the final spot to be won in Spring Training. This team has been improved tremenendously in all areas with Miguel Cabrera. The Tigers would be smart to sign both Cabrera and Willis long term. Curtis Granderson will continue to score runs from the lead off spot in any way imaginable. There will be a lot of homeruns for this team. On Paper, they're the World Series Champions right now. But we all know that games aren't won on paper. They're won on the field.

The expectations for Detroit are high. Let's see if they can be met.



CLEVELAND INDIANS
The most important thing for the Indians' future is to re-sign C.C. Sabathia. He collected his 1000th career strikeout on May 21st, on Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners. He was also named to the American League All-Star team for the third time. On September 28, he became the youngest pitcher to record 100 career wins since Greg Maddux in 1993. On October 23, Sabathia won the Players Choice Award for Outstanding AL Pitcher.[2] His pitching performance led the Cleveland Indians to their first American League Central Division Championship since 2001, his rookie season. For his performance, he was awarded the 2007 American League Cy Young Award joining Gaylord Perry as the only two Cleveland Indians pitchers to ever win the award.

If Sabathia can't be resigned this season, expect both the Yankees and the Mets to lure big money to try to lure him to their side of New York.

Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner will continue to slug balls out of Jacobs Field.

Fausto Carmona and Joe Borowski headlined a magnificent Indians bullpen in 2007, and the bullpen has added former Japanese Closer Masahide Kobayashi to the bullpen.

Cleveland will fight for the Wild Card Spot in 2008.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX
The 2007 White Sox started off the year in unbeleievable fashion, as Mark Buehrle threw a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers on April 18th. The Sox got a bad case of the injury bug down the stretch, but during that time, we got to see how well Chicago develops it's talent. Josh Fields played so well playing for the injured Joe Crede that the Sox are considering trading Crede. Mark Sweeney played well in the outfield and will be replaced with Nick Swisher, who would have gone to the North Side of Chicago if the Cubs weren't able to lure Kosuke Fukudome away from Japan. The White Sox made moves to improve their bullpen, which was not very good last season. Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel have been signed to help hold down the fort for Bobby Jenks in the ninth. Jenks was dynamite in 2007, retiring 41 straight batters in 2007.

The Sox have also improved in the infield. Danny Richar leads at the battle to man second base and the Sox acquired Gold Glove winner Orlando Cabrera by trading away Jon Garland. Let's not forget about Powerful Paul Konerko at First Base and Jim Thome at Designated Hitter.

Can Chicago contend in a crowded AL Central? The key will be their bullpen and defense keeping leads the starting pitching pitching and offense gives them.

KANSAS CITY ROYALS
The Royals are hoping to surprise in 2008. They lured Trey Hillman away from Japan to try and get this ballclub back on the right foot. They signed outfielder Jose Guillen to a three year contract, despite the fact that he will serve a 15 game suspension for perfromance-enhancing drugs.

Alex Gordon will only get better at third base, as will Ryan Shealy. Gold Glove Winner Mark Grudzielanek will be in betweeen both, manning second base. Gil Meche is the Royals Ace, and had a suprisingly good first season. Will be able to repeat it? I don't think so, simply because of how good the whole AL Central is.

In The Bullpen, watch out for Yasuhiko Yabuta.

MINNESOTA TWINS
The Twins had an unfair Free Agency Period. First, they lost Torii Hunter to Free Agency, then they lost Johan Santana in a trade. To "replace" Hunter, the Twins traded Matt Garza away for Delmon Young. To "replace" Santana, the Twins signed former Diamondback Orlando Hernandez. The Twins are also hoping Francisco Liriano can be healthy all season and catch that "lightning in a bottle" of a season in 2006 after missing the 2007 Season to recover from Tommy John Surgery.

MY PROJECTED ORDER:
DETROIT
CLEVELAND
CHICAGO
KANSAS CITY
MINNESOTA

That Concludes this MLB Preview. In our Final MLB Preview, we will take a look at the National League Central. Can Chicago Repeat as Division Champs? Will Milwaukee Step Up and contend again? Can St. Louis make noise? Can Miguel Tejada avoid the talk of the Mitchell Report? Can Pittsburgh avoid last place? Find out all this and more in our next and final MLB Preview.