Posted earlier today at www.twinstrivia.com

The 2013 season is just around the corner so it is time to make my annual predictions on who will finish where and who the 2013 World Series champion will be.

AL East

Toronto Blue Jays

Tampa Bay Rays (wild card)

Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox

New York Yankees

AL Central

Detroit Tigers

Kansas City Royals (wild card)

Cleveland Indians

Chicago White Sox

Minnesota Twins

AL West

Los Angeles Angels

Oakland A's

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers

Houston Astros

NL East

Washington Nationals

Atlanta Braves (wild card)

Philadelphia Phillies

New York Mets

Miami Marlins

NL Central

Cincinnati Reds

Pittsburgh Pirates (wild card)

St. Louis Cardinals

Milwaukee Brewers

Chicago Cubs

NL West Los Angeles Dodgers

San Francisco Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres

The Detroit Tigers and the Washington Nationals play in the World Series with the Washington Nationals winning it all in 6 games.

The Minnesota Twins 2013 season opener at Target Field against the Detroit Tigers is just over a week away so after watching and listening to Twins in spring training and consulting with some of the worlds foremost baseball experts, here is what I see happening in 2013.

1. Josh Willingham will be traded and Oswaldo Arcia will be called up to take over a starting outfield position. Arcia will fill the role nicely.
   
2. Trevor Plouffe will not be able to hang on to the starting job due to injuries and inconsistent hitting and fielding and third base will be a black hole all season with Jamey Carroll, Eduardo Escobar, and Mark Sobolewski all getting a shot to win the job and none of these guys turns out to be the answer. The Twins will make a deal to fill the 3B hole but it will just be a stop-gap as they wait for Miguel Sano to finally fill the hole late in 2014.
   
3. Anthony Swarzak and Tyler Robertson will lose their bullpen jobs and will be replaced by PJ Walters and Ryan Pressly.
   
4. Jeff Clement will win a roster spot and be the Twins third catcher leaving Drew Butera out in the cold but not for long because the Twins will do him right by trading him to a team that will give him the back-up catching job.
   
5. Pedro Florimon and Brian Dozier give the Twins their first decent infield combo in some time playing well in the field and hitting better than expected.
   
6. The Twins will open the season with a starting staff of Vance Worley, Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Correia, Cole De Vries, with Scott Diamond joining the staff in early April. Kyle Gibson will be called up by June 1 and will replace..... Mike Pelfrey in the rotation.
   
7. Manager Ron Gardenhire not only makes it through the season but gets a new two-year deal.
   
8. Justin Morneau will be resigned to a multi-year deal before the All-Star game and will continue to call Minnesota home.
   
9. Tickets to watch the Twins will be easy to get as attendance at Target Field plummets by about 20% and the Twins will be lucky to hit 2.2 million in attendance with attendance dropping by over a half million.
   

I like.

I regret to say that with 4/5 of the projected rotation posting a combined 6+ spring ERA and the other fifth yet to pitch in a game, it looks to me like 74 wins is wild-eyed optimism.