After a solid Arizona Fall League in which he helped his team to a championship victory, Nick Blackburn rolled into Spring Training last season with a hot streak. His already crazy year just got better as he made the Opening Day rotation, posted an 11-11 record as a rookie, and took the mound for the Twins in game 163.

It was a long, crazy year for the rookie to say the least, and with the experience from both the Fall League and the '08 season, there is no doubt that Blackburn has the ability to improve upon his numbers in the upcoming season.

The projections aren't all that stellar for Blackburn. After nearly pitching 200 innings last season, only Bill James expects him to get close to that number again in '09. James projects 196 innings, with the others project 151 and 154 respectively.

If Blackburn can put up similar numbers to the ones he did last season, including near 200 innings, he could be a pretty good fourth or fifth starter for the Twins in the upcoming campaign.

In the comments below, leave your projections in the following format:

In his first full season as a starter for the Twins, Kevin Slowey established himself as a top-of-the-line starter and control pitcher. Heading into the 2009 season, Slowey will likely find himself as the number three starter behind only Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano.

Slowey's control has long been solid, and because of it he has been compared to former Twin, Brad Radke. Last season, in just over 160 innings of work, Slowey walked just 24, allowed about one hit per inning at 161 total, and struck out 123 hitters.

Projections have Slowey putting forth another good year in 2009; with Bill James predicting the best. James believes Slowey will post a 3.60 ERA while the other two believe he'll be above 4.00 at 4.07 and 4.10 respectively.

If Slowey can post an ERA closer to Bill James' projection, he'll be a very productive three-starter in '09. The hope would be that he'll be able to also reach close to 180 innings in the upcoming season.

In the comments below , leave your projections in the following format:

Jim Pohlad told the media today that anything can still happen before the season starts, mentioning that the off-season still isn't over. Just hours after his talk with the media, the Twins made their first free agent signing of the long off-season.

The Twins have signed free agent reliever Luis Ayala to compete for a setup job this spring with the hope that the route to Joe Nathan will be much smoother. Ayala had a successful 2007 season with the Washington Nationals, but 2008 wasn't so nice for the 31-year old.

At $1.3 million for the upcoming season, if Ayala can post numbers closer to the ones of the '07 campaign he could be a solid addition to the bullpen. Assuming Ayala makes make the team, it also likely will mean the end of either the Boof Bonser or Philip Humber era in Minnesota.

The Twins could still bring in some other small guys to compete for the bullpen spot or to add depth in the system, but overall, expect Ayala to be the biggest fish when April rolls around.

Now, is there still some time to add an infielder?

Last season, Liriano headed to spring training hoping to prove he was capable of making the team as a starting pitcher. Instead, he headed to triple-A, and after his eventual call-up shortly after the start of the season, he was quickly sent back down after a rough start.

Liriano did eventually make it back to the bigs in August, and from that point on showed many signs of progress, and put a lot of hope into the minds of fans everywhere.

They say the second year removed from Tommy John is when players really return to themselves, and that's the hope in Minnesota. All three projections predict very different things from Liriano in '09. For example, one says he'll reach near 170 innings, another says he'll get to around 130 innings, and a somewhat pessimistic one says he won't even clear 100 innings.

The Marcel projection either doesn't think Liriano will finish the '09 season, or simply just goes based off last season. If Liriano can be anywhere near his pre-surgery form, he'll be a huge guy in the young rotation.

As we did before, in the comments below , leave your projections in the following format:

After a long off-season it's time to get back into the thick of things with baseball talk instead of rumor talk and the hopes of signing or acquiring players (although it'd be nice if that happened in the final two weeks). What better way to do that than with Community Projections for each player; and what better player to start with than the Opening Day starter, Scott Baker.

Last season Baker started off slow after coming off an injury in Spring Training. He finished the season as one of the team's top pitchers sporting a solid 3.45 ERA to go along with a record of 11-4 in just over 172 innings of work.

This season, projections have Baker putting up an ERA just below and just above 4.00 along with innings between the 160 and 180 mark.

Baker has said that his goal for the '09 season is 200 innings, and if he's healthy, as the number one starter, that is without a doubt a possibility. None of the projections think he'll get much closer than 180.

Below in the comments, leave your projections in the following format:

Back in the middle of the 2006 season, it was Nick Punto who stepped up and filled the third base void to help add some production to the lineup. It work: Punto was great defensivley from the left side of the infield and he was one of the players who helped the Twins make one of the best postseason pushes ever.

After a disappointing defeat in the playoffs, it didn't take long for Punto to be named the starting third basemen for the upcoming 2007 season. This move didn't work. Handing Punto the job outright was a mistake, and it was something he couldn't handle.

The reason for Punto's .290 average, RBI numbers, and all of the other success in '06 was due in large part to the fact that Punto was put on the spot, forced to just play, not think. Handing the third base job outright to Punto for the '07 campaign loosened him up, and while he did obviously still work hard, he had the job locked down, and had pressure he could have never felt before.

The result was a devastating one for the Twins, and more so Punto's mentality. In 2007 he hit just .210 with just 25 RBI in 150 games. Fans got on Punto hard, and it wasn't entirely his fault. Gardenhire ran Punto onto the field night after night, in all but 12 games no matter how bad it got.

The bad taste left in the mouthes of the fans has not gone away to this day. No matter how well Punto played in the 2008 season, fans criticized his every move, and always looked for something he did wrong when it seemed like everything was going right.

In 99 games, mostly as a bench player, Punto hit a decent .284 with 28 RBI; a decent haul for the low amount of games, and better numbers than his 150 game season the year before.

Despite the decent year for Punto, and great year defensively, most fans didn't want to see Punto back in the Twins uniform. Not because of his '08 season, but because of the bad taste they still have from the '07 season.

When April rolls around in just a few months, Nick Punto will be the starting shortstop. It's time to clean the slate, let Punto start fresh and see what he can do. If he doesn't perform, okay, but lets wait to see what happens.

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The Twins had multiple scouts in Arizona to watch Joe Crede work out, and according to some people on hand, he did solid job. Solid enough in fact that a few teams have made offers. Before the workout, it was known that the San Francisco Giants and the Minnesota Twins were both interested, now it looks like the number of interested clubs has risen.

To this point, according to Joe Christensen, the Twins have not made an offer. Crede reportedly would like a deal right at, or bigger than his $5.1 million deal from last season with the White Sox; a season in which he appeared in just 97 games.

This begs the question, what exactly is Joe Crede worth, and should the Twins pay his price to add him to the 2009 lineup?

Over the past two seasons, Crede has played in just 144 games due to back injuries. He feels that everything is fine after surgery, but until he begins to play everyday, nothing is certain.

As you look at Crede's numbers dating back to the 2003 season when he began to play regularly at third, you'll see this:

His power numbers would be a nice addition, as would his defense at third base. But, is he worth the $5.1 million plus incentives in this seemingly slow market?

The Twins do have the money as they currently project to be $10 million or more below their normal payroll in 2009. If they are willing to take a risk on a guy that could add quite a bit to the lineup (or someone who could play in less than 100 games), than Crede is definitely their guy.

Only time will tell how interested the Twins really are in making a possible upgrade. Crede is almost certain to continue to draw offers and it's only a matter of days and weeks before he too is off the market.

What are your thoughts, is Crede worth the money or should the Twins stick with Buscher/Harris at third?

The Minnesota Twins will not have Eric Gagne in the bullpen come April. This news comes after reports that the Twins and Gagne's agent, Scott Boras, had been in contact last week. There is no real reason at this point that the talks stopped, but apparently they've stopped for some reason.

An interesting note from Joe Christensen is this:

The Twins have broken off their negotiations with free agent reliever Eric Gagne and appear to be focused on finding eighth-inning relief help through a trade.

What kind of trade? Not sure.

If the Twins make a trade for a late-inning guy, who do they give up? If something were to happen, it'll almost certainly be a shock to all of us, because the only names we've heard in the last month are Brandon Lyon, Russ Springer and Eric Gagne; all of which will pitch somewhere other than the Metrodome in '09.

On another note, as expected, Joe Crede worked out for teams today in Arizona. The Twins were expected to be there, and if he did well, we'll probably hear more about the workout and a possible signing soon.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE: According to a report, Gagne had agreed to terms and would have accepted a one-year, $3 million deal. After several talks and an apparent compromise, the Twins told Gagne they were going in a different direction. I'm guessing they have something up their sleeve to have this sudden change.