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Projected Lineup (2003 stats) Pos. Player Avg. HR RBI SB LF Shannon Stewart .307 13 73 4 2B Luis Rivas .259 8 43 17 RF Jacque Jones .304 16 69 13 CF Torii Hunter .250 26 102 6 3B Corey Koskie .292 14 69 11 DH Matt LeCroy .287 17 64 0 1B Doug Mientkiewicz .300 11 65 4 C Joe Mauer* .341 4 41 0 SS Cristian Guzman .268 3 53 18 *Class AA stats Projected Rotation (2003 stats) H Player W-L ERA WHIP RH Brad Radke 14-10 4.49 1.27 LH Johan Santana 12-3 3.07 1.10 RH Kyle Lohse 14-11 4.61 1.27 RH Rick Helling 8-8 5.17 1.37 RH Carlos Silva 3-1 4.43 1.48 FANTASY BASEBALL Sign up Today! • NEW! Baseball Commissioner Full service league management tool. $99.95 per league • NEW! Fantasy Baseball Conquer your league and take home the pennant. $19.95 per team • NEW! Salary Cap Challenge Select your dream team with a $75 million budget. $9.95 per team

The Twins' young nucleus of players is maturing, and with two division titles to their credit, they're looking for bigger and better things this season. But the losses of LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado will make it difficult for Minnesota to three-peat as AL Central champs.

Always a standout because of his spectacular defense, Torii Hunter has developed into one of the best power hitting center fielders in the AL. Although his average took a 39-point dive last season, Hunter had a career high in RBIs and hit at least 25 home runs for the third consecutive season. Look for him to raise his average to the .280 mark while he reaches 30 home runs for the first time.

Doug Mientkiewicz is a Gold Glove-caliber fielder and can hit for average but he never developed enough power to make him anything other than a lower-rung fantasy first baseman. It's only a matter of time until Mientkiewicz is replaced by Canadian National Team cornerstone Justin Morneau, one of the organization's top prospects and one of the spring's hottest hitters.

Catcher. The first overall pick in the 2000 amateur draft, Joe Mauer was penciled in as the Twins' starting backstop after A.J. Pierzynski was traded to the Giants during the offseason. In two stops in the minors last season Mauer hit .338 but had only five home runs, so he's going to be more of a defensive option. When manager Ron Gardenhire wants more pop in the lineup, he'll turn to veteran Matthew LeCroy, who smacked 17 home runs last year in only 345 at-bats and will also see time at DH.

The double play combination of Cristian Guzman and Luis Rivas is vastly underrated. The two have little power but they do a great job of creating havoc on the base paths. Both should steal around 20 bases, be available in your league, and are recommended if you can deal with the power shortage.

Nathan was exceptional in setting up Tim Worrell last season for the Giants but he's never been a closer before. Neither has hard-throwing lefty J.C. Romero, who had a 1.89 ERA in 2002 but lost his command last year and gave up 108 baserunners in just 63 innings. By the end of the season one will be entrenched as the Twins' stopper. There's a very good chance that it will be Nathan.

Michael Cuddyer was compared to Chipper Jones he was coming up through the minors as an infielder. He's expected to finally capture a regular slot in the Twins lineup this year. A slew of young players are knocking on the Hubert H. Humphery Dome door, including Michael Restovich, Lew Ford and the aforementioned Morneau, who will all pass Cuddyer on the deph chart should the latter struggle again this season.

Jacque Jones, Corey Koskie, Johan Santana, Shannon Stewart

Henry Blanco, Joe Mays (injured), Juan Rincon