17 homeruns and on pace for 85 for the season. Normally this wouldn't affect me because like all Twins fans we are used to a lack of power. But looking into 09' we seem to have the majority of the offensive lineup allready in place for next year. Well, they will most likely cut Adam Everett but Tolbert & Punto seem to be the unfortunate answer there.
So coming into 09' barring an unexpected extension or two where would we go to improve this team offensively? With the team at 56,932,766 in 08', and projected to be in the 80 million dollar range, is obviously coming up short. But with the justifiable losses before the season you got to let this low payroll season slide. They will probably look to grab a solid starter especially with Liriano's early woes. My main point is we might be in another "They're young, the power will come" scenarios that slowly proves to be b.s. Young, Gomez, and Kubel will have 3 mile long leashes, and Lamb unfortunitely will be taking bats away from Buscher or a free agent pick up.
Every offseason a team looks at it's worst weaknesses and trys to improve on them. And so far in 08' we have played better against division opponents, and are playing better at home. But year after year we fail even to be average in power numbers, or even address 1/4 of the issue. I'm not saying we need to be like the whitesox (obviously power doesn't = wins), but look at tonight for example Boston scored 4 of there 5 runs on 4 homeruns. It's got to kill the Twins players to battle and scrap to pick up runs with opponents getting back in the game with a couple swings, just pathetic.
So where will we spend the possible 30 million next year? NO, you don't have to spend the money just to be at the expected payroll, but i think we all know something has to happen power-wise. What should they do? Might not be getting any better anytime soon unless they make a move.
"No country has suffered so much from the ruins of war while being at peace as the American."
