Winding Down a Season

We’re into September and the baseball season is winding down for non-contenders like The Twins. And it’s also winding down on my first year of blogging. Sadly I haven’t performed much better than Aaron Hicks in my rookie year. I underestimated the commitment necessary to even post one blog entry a week. But just like the Twins, it’s important to try and finish strong in the final month. So here’s 10 things I would like to see in the closing month of 2013 for the Twins to set them up for a big step forward in 2013.

1. Get Chris Colabello plenty of playing time. He may be too old to be considered a prospect but he’s shown plenty of power and might just be a late bloomer who could be a cheap but effective first baseman / DH and right handed power bat.

2. Give Liam Hendriks plenty of opportunity to show if he can be a rotation candidate next spring.

3. Brian Dozier continue to establish himself as a top 2B and clubhouse leader. The batting average is still ugly. But everything else about Dozier has shined this year after a slow start. If he keeps this up and gets the average up to .280 or so, he might just be an All Star next year.

4. Josmil Pinto gets plenty of opportunity to see if he can be  the guy who moves Joe Mauer primarily to 1B.

5. Joe Mauer gets back on the field and shows he has no lingering concussion symptoms.

6. Aaron Hicks has a big postseason and regains his confidence so he can re-claim CF.

7. Trevor Plouffe have a big month and show he still has a future with this team somewhere or at least start building up some trade value.

8. Oswaldo Arcia get healthy and get his confidence back. He needs to be a fixture in the middle of the lineup for years to come.

9. Ryan Doumit and Josh Willingham have big months to start building some trade value back up for this offseason or next year’s trade deadline.

10. Ron Gardenhire gets his 1000th win and then retires. It’s time for some new blood to lead this team. I’ve never been a big Gardy guy but hope he gets his milestone.