The Twins hope that 27-year old righty swinging J.J. Hardy just had a off year in 2009. He played in 115 games for the Brewers last season and he was 95 for 414 (.229 avg, .659 OPS) with 53 runs scored, 11 homers and 47 RBIs. The Twins are hoping that Hardy can get back to the player he was in 2007 and 2008 with the Brewers when he hit .280 with 167 runs scored, 50 homers and 154 RBIs. Hardy played in 112 games at shortstop last season for the Brewers and he made 8 errors there while showing slightly above average range. The Twins are excited about the defense they will have up the middle for 2010 with Orlando Hudson at 2B and Hardy at SS.

32-year old switch hitting Nick Punto will likely be sharing time at 3B with 29-year old righty swinging Brendan Harris but he will still likely be available for some time at SS in 2010. Punto played in 58 games at SS last season for the Twins and he made 7 errors while showing good range. Brendan Harris played in 56 games for the Twins at SS last season and he made 6 errors while showing slightly below average range.

With Harris and Punto likely getting most of their time at 3B it could set up a battle between 27-year old switch hitting Matt Tolbert and 25-year old lefty swinging Alexi Casilla for the back up job at SS. Tolbert only played in 3 games at SS for the Twins last season and he didn’t make any errors while showing out of this world range. Casilla played in 2 games at SS last season for the Twins while showing good range. Tolbert probably has a edge on Casilla because he can play more positions.

GRADE FOR THE SS IN 2010: C+