Twins @ Yankees Series Preview

After a successful opening weekend in which the Yankees won two out of three, the Bombers will now host the Twins in their first four game series of the young season.  The Twins have a solid lineup headlined by Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jim Thome, and Michael Cuddyer.  Boone Logan will probably see a good amount of time on the mound in these next four games with Mauer, Morneau, and Thome being lefties.

(NY Daily News)

Their pitching is also pretty good as they have six viable starters in Carl Pavano, Francisco Liriano, Brian Duensing, Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey, and Scott Baker and a good back-end of the bullpen with Joe Nathan and Matt Capps.  Every aspect of the team is solid and that is why I have them winning the American League Central.  Here’s their projected lineup:

1. Denard Span, CF
2. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Jim Thome, DH
7. Michael Cuddyer, RF
8. Danny Valencia, 3B
9. Alexi Casilla, SS

Now let’s take a look at the projected pitching match-ups:

Monday

Scott Baker (12-9, 4.49 ERA) vs. Ivan Nova (1-2, 4.50 ERA)

Tuesday

Brian Duensing (10-3, 2.62 ERA) vs. CC Sabathia (21-7, 3.18 ERA)

Wednesday

Carl Pavano (17-11, 3.75 ERA) vs. Freddy Garcia (12-6, 4.64 ERA)

Thursday

Francisco Liriano (14-10, 3.62 ERA) vs. AJ Burnett (10-15, 5.26 ERA)

The Twins have two lefties projected to go in this series which means we will finally see the lineup where Derek Jeter leads off, Nick Swisher bats second, and Brett Gardner bats ninth.  This is the final series of the home stand before they head up to Fenway, a series that will be very intense, so they better get all of the kinks out of their system before that comes, although the Sox did start off the year by getting swept by the Rangers so that’s always good.  Anyway, it should be a fun couple of days and game one will start tomorrow night at 7:05 on YES.

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