The Minnesota Twins have won five American League Central titles in the past eight years. Brian Cashman the GM of the World Champion New York Yankees was quoted last year as saying that the Twins front office and their player personnel decision making is the envy of every Major League Baseball franchise.

This year the Twins will move from the friendly confines of the indoor Metrodome to Target Field in the Warehouse District. Can a new home help the Twins get out of the first round of the postseason?

While they have made the post season in the last five of eight, they have failed to get out of the first round in four consecutive postseason appearances?

Most experts think that GM Bill Smith had a strong offseason and has put together the best team manager Ron Gardenhire has had to work with since he's been there.

A team that began last season with a $65.3 million payroll will likely start this season with a payroll in the $95.8 million range. That's a decidedly un-Twins-like 47 percent increase.

Minnesota's Opening Day payroll ranked 24th out of the 30 teams in 2009. Assuming that major league salaries again increase by 4 percent this year (that was the jump from 2008 to 2009), the Twins' 2010 payroll would rank 13th.

That puts them in the upper half, a position they haven't occupied in recent history. And that's without including a potential raise this season for Joe Mauer, something that could happen as part of his impending contract extension package.

Minnesota's projected Opening Day lineup features nine players making almost $56 million, which is nearly what the entire team made a year ago:

CF - Denard Span ($450,000)
2B - Orlando Hudson ($5 million)
C - Joe Mauer ($12.5 million)
1B - Justin Morneau ($15 million)
DH - Jason Kubel ($4.1 million)
RF - Michael Cuddyer ($9.4 million)
LF - Delmon Young ($2.6 million)
SS - J.J. Hardy ($5.1 million)
3B - Brendan Harris ($1.6 million)

The total would surpass $58 million if Nick Punto ($4 million) starts at third base instead of Harris.

That figure also doesn't include a pitcher. The Twins have a fairly economical starting staff, even after giving Carl Pavano $7 million. The rest of the projected rotation (Scott Baker $3 million, Francisco Liriano $1.6 million, Kevin Slowey $450,000, Nick Blackburn $450,000) makes a total of $5.5 million.

Minnesota's bullpen has a higher price tag on it, primarily because of closer Joe Nathan ($11.25 million). When you include the bench and add it all up, the Twins are close to the $100 million plateau, a threshold reached by just nine of the 30 major league teams last season.

The top end is still a long way off: The Yankees' 2009 payroll was $201.4 million, and the Twins' 2010 payroll ranks behind the 2009 figures for five other American League teams (Red Sox $121.7 million, Tigers $115.1 million, Angels $113.7 million, Mariners $98.9 million, White Sox $96.1 million).

But at least the Twins are now in the mainstream financially. And on the field, they could be a lot better than that. Personally, I think they have an outstanding offensive lineup.

Minnesota's starting rotation is at least workmanlike, and could be better than that if Slowey bounces back from injury and Liriano pitches like he did in winter ball (and not like he did last season). The bullpen should be above average, particularly if Pat Neshek has fully recovered.

On paper, this has the potential to be the Twins' best team since 1991, a year when as you may recall, big things happened.

The Twins don't have any ‘studs' or ‘stoppers' in their rotation and you would expect Joe Nathan to once again lead the league in saves. Nathan will have to improve his post season performance however if the Twins are going to make a run because recently, he been doing his best to make Armando Benitez look clutch.

As pointed out in the 'clutch' piece, Nathan has now pitched in 7 post season games. In those 7 post season games he's pitched 7.1 innings, given up 10 Hits, 7 walks and 7 runs. He only gave up 16 runs all of last regular season and that was over 70 games!

The Twins can compete for a title this year but Nathan is going to have to earn his pay. - Brian James

Brian is an independent sports journalist. Brian has been covering major professional sports for over 25 years.

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