I was thinking today that it's possible that the Twins could be better or at least as good at every position this year compared to last. So I started thinking it over and tried to come up with some rough estimates and comparisons to see if it really was possible.

Starting Pitchers:
Carl Pavano becomes Carl Pavano. Pretty much steady Eddie. Can we assume he'll perform this year about the same as last? Difference: -0 wins.

Scott Baker becomes Scott Baker. He performed great last year, but got limited starts due to health. Should we expect much else? Difference: 0 wins.

Francisco Liriano becomes Francisco Liriano. One of the toughest guys to project this year, but I think we have to have hope he'll be better than last, or at least no worse, right? Difference: +3 wins.

Nick Blackburn becomes Nick Blackburn. Supposedly healthy. Without even matching his two decent years before the last two he's an improvement over himself. Difference: +1.5 wins.

Brian Duensing becomes Jason Marquis. BD didn't have a great year as a starter. Marquis should be able to at least replicate that. Difference: +0 wins.

Relief Pitchers:
Closer versions of Capps and Nathan become Matt Capps. Even if he's bad, he should be better. Don't forget how bad Nathan was to start the year, too. Difference: +1 win.

Glen Perkins becomes Glen Perkins. Hard to expect him to replicate his '11, but he's the same guy so we can hope he's just as good. Difference: -0 wins.

Jose Mijares becomes Brian Duensing. Looking at BD's numbers as a reliever and how bad Mijares was last year, have to think it's an upgrade. Difference: +1.5 wins.

Setup versions of Capps and Nathan becomes Burton. Gotta hope he can at least be replacement level (or someone else can be). Difference: 0 wins.

After that, last year was a mish mash of anybody they could try. This year will start out Swarzak, Maloney, and others. Has to be an upgrade, even if small. Difference: +0.5 wins.

Lineup:
Mauer/Butera/Rivera/Holm becomes Mauer and Doumit. Umm...Improvement? I might actually be going conservative with this large number when you consider what happened last year. Difference: +4.5 wins.

Morneau/Cuddyer/Parmalee/Hughes/ugh...becomes Parmalee with pitch-in from Morneau/Mauer/everyone else. Hard to figure out how much of his value Cuddyer acheived at 1B and all that, but can we hope for a push here (especially when you figure just how bad Morneau was when he gave it a go)? Difference: 0 wins.

Casilla/Nishi/Hughes/etc become Casilla/Hughes. Nishi took value away, Hughes may be a year better, Casilla could be healthier. Maybe a bit optimistic but... Difference: +1 win.

Danny Valencia becomes Danny Valencia. Even getting part way back to his rookie year makes this an easy upgrade in the same body. Difference: +2 wins.

Casilla/Nishi/Plouffe/etc become Jamey Carroll. Again this seems like a pretty easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins.

Delmon Young becomes Josh Willingham. Even with a bad year by his history, this is an easy upgrade. Difference: +2 wins.

Span/Revere becomes Span. Span was really good for the first half last year and Revere did a better job than could be expected. Difference: 0 wins.

Cuddyer/Kubel/etc become...I don't even know! I can't see the revolving door being quite as good as what was out there last year, but mostly I don't even know who will playing out there for how much. And the dream of the "as good or better at every spot" goes out the window! Difference: -1 wins.

Thome and whoever else DH'd when he wasn't in the lineup (a lot) become Justin Morneau with pitch in from Doumit/Mauer/etc. Thome didn't play enough to make this as close as it could be. Should be an upgrade even if Morneau doesn't continue his late spring surge. Difference: +1 win.

I'll take the bench as a whole since I think 73 people occupied the bench at some point last year. Gotta be better this year. Difference: +1 win.

That all comes out to +19.5 wins (I think...it's late), which gets them to right around 0.500. I feel like before I started this breakdown, that's where my gut said they'd finish. So what are your thoughts? Where was I too optimistic or too pessimistic? I have some top candidates even in my own mind now that I have gone back and re-looked at some!