EVENTS
 Sportsman of the Year
 Heisman Trophy
 Swimsuit 2001

5. Minnesota Twins

You get what you pay for. With the majors' tiniest payroll, the Twins have no shot

By Stephen Cannella

Offense Defense Starting Pitching Bullpen Manager 1999 Record 63-97 (fifth in AL Central) Batting Order LF Chad Allen 2B Todd Walker RF Matt Lawton DH Butch Huskey 3B Corey Koskie 1B David Ortiz CF Jacque Jones C Javier Valentin SS Cristian Guzman Bench IF Ron Coomer IF Denny Hocking OF Torii Hunter C Marcus Jensen Starters RH Brad Radke LH Eric Milton RH LaTroy Hawkins RH Joe Mays RH Sean Bergman Bullpen RH Hector Carrasco RH Eddie Guardado RH Bob Wells RH Bobby Ayala LH Travis Miller LH Johan Santana Next Up... Plain and simple, third baseman Corey Koskie was overmatched when he was called up to the majors in September 1998. Though he had a .301 average at Triple A Salt Lake City that year, he hit only .138 with the Twins, striking out 10 times in 29 at bats. Things were dramatically better last season, when Koskie led Minnesota with a .310 average. Desperate for deep threats, the Twins could still use a little more power from the 6'3", 217-pound Koskie, who hit 11 dingers last season. They will definitely get better glovework from him; this winter Koskie spent time in Minneapolis working on his less-than-graceful defense with infield coach Ron Gardenhire. The 26-year-old Canadian improved enough to win the Twins' every-day job at the hot corner. Says teammate Ron Coomer, who will be Koskie's backup this year. "He's worked as hard as anybody to get better." The Book An opposing team's scout sizes up the Twins "The Twins are young, but they don't have very many high-ceiling guys. It's a team of role players, so this will be an interesting club to watch around the trade deadline. Players like Denny Hocking, Ron Coomer and Eddie Guardado will have value to contenders down the stretch.... Brad Radke's velocity dropped a bit last year, but he'd still fit nicely near the top of anyone's rotation.... Joe Mays is the guy to watch on this staff -- he throws 91 to 93 mph, has four pitches and shows absolutely no fear.... If you're going to compete in the AL, you have to hit home runs at the corner-infield and outfield spots, so David Ortiz has to be in the lineup somewhere.... Doug Mientkiewicz has a good glove, but it's tough to have an opposite-field hitter at first base.... Cristian Guzman has a chance to be a solid shortstop. He has good range and a good arm and can run. This year he might break out a bit at the plate.... Tom Kelly would like to run a lot to try to make something happen, but there's not much speed here."

Doug Mientkiewicz is the face of the Minnesota Twins. Like most of his teammates, the first baseman is young (25), inexperienced (one of 17 rookies used by manager Tom Kelly last season), short on power (two home runs in 352 career at bats) and facing an uncertain future. In fact, after holding down a starting job last season, he will start 2000 in the minors, and, truth be told, he's not sure the Twins didn't make the right decision. "It's not humanly possible to hit any lower than I did last year," says Mientkiewicz, who had a sickly .229 average in 1999. "I'd go back to the dugout and say, What am I doing? Who's wearing my uniform?"

Backup Coomer -- just like almost every one of his teammates -- is modestly talented and grateful to have a major league job.John Iacono

You hear a lot of that around the Minnesota clubhouse. "If I were with another team, I probably wouldn't get all these chances," says righthander LaTroy Hawkins, who at age 27 passes for an elder in this dugout. Despite going 10-14 in '99 -- the third straight year he's had double-figure losses -- and having the highest ERA (6.66) in the majors among pitchers with at least 162 innings pitched, Hawkins is entrenched as the No. 3 starter. "I felt guilty all f------ year," he says. "I went to winter ball because I felt I had to do something to show the team I want to get better."

Meet the Twins, the club that's forever developing but never developed. Minnesota won the fewest games in baseball last year, scored the fewest runs, hit the fewest homers and drew the fewest fans in the American League. This season figures to be just as few-tile. "I thought with the club we had, we did pretty well last year," says third baseman Ron Coomer, who led Minnesota with 16 homers in '99 and was its lone All-Star representative. "I mean, it didn't get ugly too often."

But, alas, it has the potential to get worse, given that many of the veterans from last year's roster are either gone or on their way out the door. The Twins traded their alltime saves leader, Rick Aguilera, to the Cubs last May and let Mike Trombley (24 saves) walk as a free agent after the season, opening a gaping hole in the bullpen. Bobby Ayala, who has eight saves for three organizations since the start of the '98 season, is the closest thing to an established stopper on the staff, but Kelly will use the entire bullpen to try to nail down save opportunities -- not that there will be many. "There's no sense having a closer if you're going to win 40 games," says Kelly. "Finding a closer is not a priority at all."

Much more pressing is figuring out what to do with former 20-game winner Brad Radke, whose 3.75 ERA in '99 was the league's fourth best. The righthander is eligible to become a free agent at season's end, and he wants not only a three-year extension worth $27 million but also an opt-out clause that allows him to become a free agent after the 2001 campaign. General manager Terry Ryan has told the many teams interested in Radke (who says he wouldn't mind playing for his hometown Devil Rays) that his ace is not available, and by mid-March the Twins were reportedly willing to increase their earlier offer of $21 million for three years to $24 million.

Beyond Radke are the makings of a decent rotation. Righthander Joe Mays, 24, was scintillating at times as a rookie -- he pitched 20 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings in July and throws a nasty sinker -- but he's inconsistent, too. Lefthander Eric Milton, 24, made huge strides in his second full season, pitching a no-hitter against the Angels in September and lowering his second-half ERA (3.82) by more than a run from his first-half figure (5.17). He also held opponents to a .243 batting average, fifth lowest in the league. "He's still young," says pitching coach Dick Such, "but Eric's real close to putting it all together."

The one other bright spot for Minnesota is the defense, which statistically was the league's second best last year. But even an error-free season wouldn't make up for a frightening lack of pop in the order. Mientkiewicz is an excellent defender, but he was sent down to make room for the bat of David Ortiz (30 home runs at Triple A Salt Lake City). Free-agent acquisition Butch Huskey is a huge improvement at designated hitter: Twins DHs hit just 14 homers, nine of them by the now departed Marty Cordova. Huskey hit 22 in just 119 games with the Mariners and the Red Sox.

With a puny $17 million payroll, the best the Twins can hope for is that its young players gel earlier than expected, much as Oakland's cast of youngsters did in 1999. "The baseball gods didn't like us young pups coming up so soon," Mientkiewicz says of last season. "Veteran teams win a lot of the games that we lost. Hopefully, we'll learn how to win those games."

Issue date: March 27, 2000

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