30-year old righty swinging Michael Cuddyer and 25-year old lefty swinging Denard Span are still in a battle for the starting job. Cuddyer played in 71 games for the Twins last season in which he was 62 for 249 (.249 avg, .699 OPS) with 30 runs scored, 3 homers, 36 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Cuddyer has played in 690 games in his major league career to date and he has a .268 batting average with a .785 OPS so the Twins expect better numbers out of him in 2009. Cuddyer played in 58 games in RF last season for the Twins making only 1 error while showing above average range.

25-year old lefty swinging Denard Span took over for Cuddyer when he was injured last season and he didn’t look back. Span played in 93 games for the Twins last season and he was 102 for 347 (.294 avg, .819 OPS) with 70 runs scored, 6 homers, 47 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. Span made 3 errors in RF last season while showing outstanding range for the Twins.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE 2009 SEASON: C