The All-Decade Team

Here are my picks for the Twins' All-Decade Team. These are the best individual seasons at each position, min. 500 PA for starters, 180 IP for the rotation, 50 IP for relievers, and 150 PA for bench players - backup C or guys who played multiple positions (because they deserve some love, too!).

Starters

C - Joe Mauer, 2009: .365/.444/.587, 28 HR, 94 R, 96 RBI, 4/5 SB, 8.8 WARP, 170 OPS+
Didn't have to think too hard about that one...

1B - Justin Morneau, 2006: .321/.375/.559, 34 HR, 97 R, 130 RBI, 3/6 SB, 4.4 WARP, 140 OPS+
Maybe he didn't deserve league MVP, but still his best season to date.

2B - Luis Castillo, 2006: .296/.358/.370, 3 HR, 84 R, 46 RBI, 25/36 SB, 2.4 WARP, 91 OPS+
Pretty nice table-setting OBP and a very good .991 fielding %, but otherwise kinda underwhelming. Turns out there was only one season in the decade in which a qualifying MI had an OPS+ over 100...

SS - Christian Guzman, 2001: .302/.337/.477, 10 HR, 80 R, 51 RBI, 25/33 SB, 3.9 WARP, 110 OPS+
...and here it is. Guzman led the AL in 3B and had one of his best defensive seasons, too.

3B - Corey Koskie, 2001: .276/.362/.488, 26 HR, 100 R, 103 RBI, 27/33 SB, 5.9 WARP, 120 OPS+
What a fantastic all-around season - look at the SB! And he played great defense at the hot corner as well. He has never been replaced.

LF - Jacque Jones, 2002: .300/.341/.511, 27 HR, 96 R, 85 RBI, 6/13 SB, 4.2 WARP, 123 OPS+
The SB% was about the worst of his career, and he struck out in over 20% of his PA, but the rest of his game was at its peak.

CF - Torii Hunter, 2002: .289/.334/.524, 29 HR, 89 R, 94 RBI, 23/31 SB, 1.5 WARP, 124 OPS+
All of Hunter's tools were on display, as he set career highs in SLG%, SB and Assists. (The rather low WARP, which comes from Baseball Prospectus, is based on what they rate as a well below average defensive season. UZR does not agree - FanGraphs has his WAR at 4.1.)

RF - Michael Cuddyer, 2006: .284/.362/.504, 24 HR, 102 R, 109 RBI, 6/6 SB, 3.1 WARP, 124 OPS+
It was a tough call between this and last year, but I was swayed by the higher OBP, perfect record on the bases, and slightly better OF defense.

DH - Jason Kubel, 2009: .300/.369/.539, 28 HR, 73 R, 103 RBI, 1/2 SB, 4.0 WARP, 136 OPS+
Even when David Ortiz was on the team, DH was never really a strength until last season.

Bench

C - Mike Redmond, 2006: .341/.365/.413, 0 HR, 20 R, 23 RBI, 0/0 SB, 1.6 WARP, 103 OPS+
A lot of teams would've been thrilled to get production like that out of their starting catcher.

OF - Bobby Kielty, 2002: .291/.405/.484, 13 HR, 71 R, 57 RBI, 4/5 SB, 2.2 WARP, 136 OPS+
He played all 3 OF positions and 1B, and was sure to give you a tough AB as a PH. Too bad he peaked that year at age 25.

IF - Nick Punto, 2006: .290/.352/.373, 1 HR, 73 R, 45 RBI, 17/22 SB, 2.7 WARP, 90 OPS+
That's pretty close to the year Castillo had at 2B. His excellent fielding in 88 games at 3B was one of the keys to the Twins' turnaround that season.

UT - Denny Hocking, 2000: .298/.373/.416, 4 HR, 52 R, 47 RBI, 7/12 SB, 0.9 WARP, 97 OPS+
All that while playing every position except pitcher and catcher.

Rotation

1P - Johan Santana, 2004: 20-6, 2.61 ERA, 228 IP, 265 K, 54 BB, 0.92 WHIP, 8.4 WARP, 182 ERA+
He had 3 great seasons in a row, but this was the one in which he was most unhittable (6.2 H/9, 10.5 K/9).

2P - Brad Radke, 2004: 11-8, 3.48 ERA, 219.2 IP, 143 K, 26 BB, 1.16 WHIP, 4.8 WARP, 136 ERA+
Career bests in ERA, HR/9 and K/BB, and yet he still got only 11 W. If he'd only been able to stick around for the run support the offense provided in 2008-2009.

3P - Joe Mays, 2001: 17-13, 3.16 ERA, 233.2 IP, 123 K, 64 BB, 1.15 WHIP, 5.6 WARP, 145 ERA+
Alas, the only good year of his career.

4P - Carlos Silva, 2005: 9-8, 3.44 ERA, 188.1 IP, 71 K, 9 BB, 1.17 WHIP, 2.5 WARP, 129 ERA+
If you're going to serve up 1.2 HR/9 while getting only 3.4 K/9, you'd better not walk anybody, and he didn't.

5P - Rick Reed, 2002: 15-7, 3.78 ERA, 188 IP, 121 K, 26 BB, 1.16 WHIP, 2.2 WARP, 118 ERA+
Served up 1.5 HR/9, but led the league with 1.2 BB/9.

Bullpen

CL - Joe Nathan, 2006: 7-0, 1.58 ERA, 68.1 IP, 95 K, 16 BB, 0.79 WHIP, 6.7 WARP, 283 ERA+
Lots of good stuff to choose from, but I'll take the season with career bests in WHIP, K/9 and BB/9.

RHP - Juan Rincon, 2004: 11-6, 2.63 ERA, 82 IP, 106 K, 38 BB, 1.02 WHIP, 3.7 WARP, 180 ERA+
Rincon at his most unhittable, with career bests in H/9 and K/9. Notice that he earned as many wins as Bradke - offense obviously took their time that season.

RHP - LaTroy Hawkins, 2003: 9-3, 1.86 ERA, 77.1 IP, 75 K, 15 BB, 1.09 WHIP, 3.7 WARP, 243 ERA+
Too bad it took the Twins so long to figure out that Hawkins was meant to be a setup man.

RHP - Matt Guerrier, 2007: 2-4, 2.35 ERA, 88 IP, 68 K, 21 BB, 1.05 WHIP, 2.8 WARP, 182 ERA+
Last year was similar, but in 2007 Guerrier gave up 1 fewer HR in almost 12 more IP.

LHP - Eddie Guardado, 2003: 3-5, 2.89 ERA, 65.1 IP, 60 K, 14 BB, 0.98 WHIP, 3.5 WARP, 157 ERA+
The best WHIP and K/BB year of Guardado's long, successful career.

LHP - JC Romero, 2002: 9-2, 1.89 ERA, 81 IP, 76 K, 36 BB, 1.21 WHIP, 3.8 WARP, 236 ERA+
Too many BB (and it got worse from there), but just 3 HR allowed in 81 IP.

LHP - Dennys Reyes, 2006: 5-0, 0.89 ERA, 50.2 IP, 49 K, 15 BB, 0.99 WHIP, 2.5 WARP, 504 ERA+
Held LH batters to .148/.219/.205 with just 3 XBH allowed in 96 PA. But he also got RH batters out that year (.640 OPS against).

Looking over this list, a couple of things strike me. The Twins have been pretty weak at SS for awhile, and have been terrible at 2B since Todd Walker left. They really only had 2 great starting pitchers, Radke for 7 seasons, Santana for 6. They haven't had a good 3B since 2004. Their most consistent areas of strength have been the bullpen and the bench, where, year after year, they got exceptional performances out of youngsters and journeymen. Look at what Redmond, Punto and Reyes gave them in 2006. Look at what they got down the stretch this season from Matt Tolbert, Ron Mahay and Bobby Keppel. Somehow, when the rest of the division is falling apart, the Twins manage to come together. That's a trait I hope they'll take with them into their new ballpark and a new decade.