MINNESOTA TWINS -- Adam Ulrey

It was just ten years ago that Kirby Puckett was hitting a game winning home run in Game Six of the World Series to force a Game Seven. The Twins clinched their second World Series in four years. How times have changed, as the Twins are now being talked about as one of the teams that could be asked to fold up shop.

Tom Kelly enters his fourteenth season as manager of the Twinkies and he will have a very young team. Coming off a great stint with Team USA, first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz hopes to finally win the job outright and have a big year. He has the ability to hit 20 plus homers. At second base will be rookie Luis Rivas, who started off at Double A last year and moved all the way up to the Twins. He'll team with shortstop Christian Guzman, the first American Leaguer with 20 triples since the Royals' Willie Wilson back in 1985. At third base will be Corey Koskie, who hit a career high .300 with 9 HRs and 65 RBIs. The catching position will be decided in spring training, where as many as four guys are battling for the starting position. Look for Danny Ardoin, who came over last year in a trade, or Matt LeCroy, to win the job. The DH job will go to David Ortiz, who had 10 homers and 63 RBIs last year.

The outfield will feature the veteran Matt Lawton. He hit .305 with 13 homers and a team leading 88 RBIs. He also led the team in stolen bases with 23. In left field will be Jacque Jones, who had a nice rookie season, especially in the second half of the year. He batted .285 on the year, with a team leading 19 homers and contributed 76 RBI.

Center field will be manned by Tori Hunter, who had a chance last year to win the job coming out of spring training and couldn't get it done. Now he comes in as the starter after ending the year as hot as anybody on the team. He finished up hitting .280 with 44 RBI's from the leadoff spot.

Manager Kelly believes this is his deepest pitching staff since he's been here, which is saying a lot. Brad Radke (12-16, 4.65) had a chance to test free agency, but decided to stay with the Twins for four more years. Kelly has two very good lefthanders right behind him in Eric Milton (13-10, 4.86) and Mark Redman (12-9, 4.76). Joe Mays will be the fourth starter, even though he was 7-15 with a high ERA of 5.56. Matt Kinney, J.C. Romero and Brandon Knight will duke it out for fifth starter.

The Twins bullpen has some experience, but will go into the season with a very raw closer, LaTroy Hawkins. He ended up as the closer for the last two months and did a terrific job with 13 saves. His ERA was 3.39 and he showed the ability to get out of trouble. The Twins have the luxury of having three lefthanders coming out of the pen, with Eddie Guardado, Travis Miller and Johan Santana. From the right side they will have the veteran Bob Wells. The bullpen was about the only strength that the Twins had lasst year and they hope it will be there for them again in 2001.

This will still be a long season for Twins fans, but there is a huge upside with all the kids that Kelly will be playing. Look for this team to be tougher than they have been in the recent past. They play the White Sox and the Indians six times each over the last two-half weeks of the season; they could help decide who wins the Central division.