The Wake

Boom! There it goes!

New York Yankee Rueben Sierra just belted a Juan Rincon slider 350-plus feet up into the Metrodome’s right field bleachers, thereby inducing a dramatic halt to the Homer Hanky waving of 52,498 Twins faithful.

Minnesota fans and players were crushed as, for the second straight season, the vaunted Yankees ended the Twins’ American League pennant and World Series hopes. Many Twins fans wondered…will we ever get past those pesky pinstriped players from New York?

Well, there’s definitely a chance, but the 2005 team will have to recover from some key losses and injuries in order to do so. One vacancy this year is third base, where Corey Koskie covered the Twins’ hot corner for six years. His replacement, however, is the first of five players I’ve selected as the keys to Minnesota’s 2005 success.

Michael Cuddyer, who provided invaluable service as a utility man last year, is entering his fifth season with the Twins. Though he’s seen little experience as a starter, the time is right for this 26-year-old Virginia native to step into that role.

Last year, Cuddyer was also able to post career highs in batting average, homeruns and RBI. I, for one, am excited to see what type of numbers Cuddyer will put up with his latest promotion. Early reports say that Cuddyer’s defensive skills at third base are improving daily, and he also has two homers in his first 20 spring training at-bats.

Across from Cuddyer, at first base, is where my next key, last year’s rookie phenom, Justin Morneau, lies. Though Morneau is no Doug Mientkiewicz with his glove, fans should be excited about the Canadian-born slugger’s hitting prowess — the 6-foot-4-inch player had 19 homers in his rookie campaign and could very well become the first Twin to reach 30homeruns since 1987.

With regards to pitching, the Twins should have one of the best staffs in the Majors. However, two question marks are Twins starting pitchers Kyle Lohse and Joe Mays.

Lohse had his worst season as a pro last year. The 26-year-old righthander posted an 9-13 record and 5.13 ERA in 2004. Lohse, and the entire team, hopes he’ll be able to find the groove he had in the previous two seasons when he posted a combined 27-19 record and a 4.43 ERA.

Mays is ready to put his hard rehabilitation work to use. The sixth-year player suffered an elbow injury in 2003 and was out all of last season, but he is poised for a comeback. If the 29-year-old is able to echo anything even close to his 2001 all-star earning performance (17-13, 3.16 era), both Mays and the Twins will be quite happy.

My fifth, and final, key is catcher Joe Mauer. Ahh, I saved the best for last. Mauer is a huge story for numerous reasons. The fine-tuned athlete is a mere 21 –years old and was the number one overall draft pick in 2001. And from Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, Mauer’s a hometown boy.

But let us not forget April 6, 2004. On this day, his second professional game, Mauer suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee, thereby sidelining him for the bulk of the his rookie season.

The smooth swinging slugger was, however, able to impress many in only 107 at-bats. Hmm, let’s speculate. Taking the numbers Mauer put up in his shortened 2004 season and stretching them into a full year’s production, Mauer would have hit more than 20 homeruns and had more than 70 RBI.

If Mauer, who says his knee has fully recovered, can stay off thedisabled list, Mays and Lohse pitch the way they are capable of, Morneau’s power potential pans out and Cuddyer can flourish in his new starting role, I believe the Twins will win their fourth consecutive American League Central title, hands down.

And I’m not factoring in the rest of Minnesota’s 2005 roster. With Johan Santana (last year’s Cy Young winner) and the rest of the team, I’m inclined to believe a healthy 2005 Twins team can defeat the evil Yankees, win 100 games, and perhaps a World Series.

Jeff Barthel welcomes comments at jbarthel@wakenews.org