Minnesota Twins Player Preview: Brian Dozier

Strengths

-Dozier has been an offensive staple for the Twins ever since his first full season in 2013. His production has continued to improve each season, particularly his power numbers. His home runs, RBIs, doubles and hit totals have steadily increased each year.

-Defensively, Dozier has been everything the Twins need at second base and more. Last season, he was a finalist for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award before losing out to Houston Astros stud Jose Altuve.

-Dozier has shown he is more than capable of putting the team on his back and leading them. His first half in 2015 was as good as they come as he proved he is more than ready to become the leader of the team. Leadership will be something the Twins will be looking for following the retirement of outfielder Torii Hunter.

Weaknesses

-Strikeouts have been an issue for Dozier as those number have also steadily increased with each subsequent season. Especially if the Twins are going to go with Dozier as the 2016 leadoff man, one can only hope he can cut down on those numbers.

-Career-wise, his production has always seemed to fall off in the second half. According to Baseball Reference, Dozier has hit substantially less homers and driven in less runs, but the biggest concern has been the batting average and how it seems to always go down in the second half. Yes, the second half is shorter than the first but the stretch run is always important, hopefully Dozier can start to figure things out in the second half.

Next: Dozier's 2016 Outlook