AL Central

After a charmed season in which they seemed to be able to beat every team in the American League except the Yankees, the Twins now enter the offseason filled with hope and a hunger for more success.

Here are 12reasons why Twins fans should be optimistic for the future.

1. Joe Mauer

The Detroit Tigers are coming off of a heart-breaking finish to their 2009 season. After squandering away the division lead to the Minnesota Twins, they lost a one-game playoff to them and missed the playoffs entirely.

The Tigers now seem focused on shredding payroll heading into the 2010 season. Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson have both been mentioned as possibly being on the move to lower a payroll that already sits at well over $100 million between just 10 players.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times.

The Twins need another infielder and they need a legitimate hitter to handle the two-hole in the lineup.

Both of these facts have been beaten to death by Twins fans this offseason, and for good reason.

NPB Tracker just posted a report from the The Chugoku Shimbun that Justin Huber is close to signing a contract with the Hiroshima Carp.

Year: 1999

Record: 69-92

Win Percentage: .429

Win Percentage Change: +.028

Run Differential: -135

Pythagorean Record: 68-93

AL Finish: 11th of 14

Manager: Larry Parrish

Best Transaction: Traded Bryce Florie to the Boston Red Sox for Mike Maroth

Glen Perkins has dropped his grievance against the Minnesota Twins.

The two sides were able to reach a settlement earlier today, thus avoiding the hearing that was planned for this Friday in New York.

The grievance came as a result of the Twins’ decision to option Perkins to Triple-A Rochester after activating him from the disabled list at the end of August.

Perkins and his agent felt that he should have remained on the major league roster and been sent on a minor league rehabilitation assignment rather than being sent to the minors.

In baseball, it’s not always easy to find the answers.

To this day it seems that almost no pitchers have found the answer to Albert Pujols’ bat and no hitters—except Chase Utley—have found the answer for CC Sabathia’s left arm.

Today, however, there is one question that can be answered unequivocally:

According to Fox Sports, the Seattle Mariners are going to "kick the tires" on the availability of All-Star left fielder Jason Bay.

With the bloated contracts of C Kenji Johjima, SP Erik Bedard, SP Jarrod Washburn, RP Miguel Bautista, and 3B Adrian Beltre coming off the books, it frees up roughly $45 million in cap space for them to use.

Bay has played for the Boston Red Sox since they acquired him in a three-way deal that saw the departure of slugger Manny Ramirez.

The Minnesota Twins came into this offseason with three major goals:

1) Sign Joe Mauer to an extension
2) Improve the infield
3) Add at least one veteran arm to the rotation

General manager Bill Smith got off to a quick start on his offseason “to do list” by acquiring shortstop J.J.

Minnesota general manger Bill Smith is a busy man.

In the last week alone, Smith was rumored to be in on a deal for new Pittsburgh second baseman Akinori Iwamura, he traded away Carlos Gomez for J.J.