Let me start by stating up front, as a Minnesota Alumni, I bleed Maroon and Gold.

John Anderson, Minnesota Head Coach, has done a tremendous job coaching the University Men's Baseball Team. In 2009 he became only the 39th coach win 1,000 games in Division I College Baseball.

"First and foremost I would like to thank the Minnesota Twins organization and Pohlads for giving us the opportunity to be part of the experience of bringing outdoor Major League baseball back to the state of Minnesota," said Anderson.

Next up in the updated starting rotation series is the American League West. The West is a real interesting division in terms of starting rotations because there are so many young starting pitchers in this division.

This division is filled with pitchers in their mid-to-late 20s. Pitchers like Felix Hernandez, Cliff Lee, Jered Weaver, and Brett Anderson make this division a nightmare for opposing batters.

Here are the updated starting rotations for each American League West team.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

While it’s early in the tenure of new Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts and any opinions formed thus far are based on an admittedly small sample size, the only apparent difference between the Chicago Tribune and the Ricketts is a face with the name.

During the entire offseason, the Braves rotation has been touted as one of the most solid in baseball. In the past couple of weeks, though, they have been excluded from many top lists.

MLB.com picked the Phillies to have the top rotation in the NL East. The Boston Globe's Tony Massarotti picked the Cardinals, Phillies, and Giants over the Braves in the NL. These are just a couple of examples.

It has perplexed me how the Braves' impressive pitching could be ranked so low. How does a team with few problems over spring training go from tops to glossed over?

The San Francisco Giants Jonathan Sanchez had a year of great improvement in 2009, which featured a no-hitter and an amazing second half of the season. 

His electric stuff led to a lot of strikeouts, but also a fair amount of walks.  He struck out 177 batters in 163.1 innings pitched (for a K/9 of 9.75), which is seventh best among Major League Baseball starting pitchers with a minimum of 100 IP. 

Unlike his counterpart on the other side of town, you’re not going to find Lou Piniella tweeting any time soon.

As you probably already know, Piniella responded to a minor Twitter controversy early in the spring sparked by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who joined the social networking site to communicate with fans.

Sweet Lou has never been tagged as a web-junky, and do not expect to find the old-school manager updating his Facebook status at your local Starbucks.

Over the last couple of days, there have been a lot of star players who have hit the disabled list and won’t be ready for Opening Day.

When you look at this list of players, they would be a good foundation for any All-Star team.

Here are the players who have recently landed, or will land, on the DL prior to Opening Day.

Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers

Drafted: Fifth Round, 2008 (Portsmouth, RI)

Height: 6′2″; Weight: 195 lbs

Born: April 27, 1990

This is where I choose to slot Westmoreland. While his future is in question following his recent surgery, his talent is too great to ignore…but there are too many questions in play to slot him ahead of Kelly, Reddick, or Kalish.

The Angels won the A.L. West again last season after posting a record of 97-65, but the team that takes the field on Opening Day will be substantially different than the one that eliminated the Boston Red Sox in the 2009 ALDS.

I read the latest scouting report on Jesus Montero's defensive skills. It might be the first decently positive report on his defensive talent—but the secondary reports by bloggers mostly reported the negative.

I bet those guys will be all over the Tiger Woods interview next week.