With the addition of DH Jim Thome the Twins will likely use Jason Kubel in the field a lot more against righty starting pitchers. The 27-year old lefty swinging Jason Kubel played in 146 games for the Twins last season in which he was 154 of 514 (.300 avg, .907 OPS) with 73 runs scored, 28 homers and 103 RBIs. Kubel didn’t make any errors in 29 games in LF last season while showing good range. If Kubel’s knees hold up he might get most of the starts in LF against righty starting pitchers with Thome DHing.

24-year old Delmon Young was the starting LF last season but he just wasn’t good enough to keep the full-time gig last season. Young played in 108 games for the Twins last season and he was 112 of 395 (.284 avg, .733 OPS) with 50 runs scored, 12 homers, 60 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Young made 5 errors in 98 games in LF last season for the Twins while showing slightly above average range. He does have a solid throwing arm as he had 4 assists out of LF last season. It will be interesting to see how well Young responds to a serious threat to his playing time this spring.

26-year old lefty swinging Denard Span will be the full-time starting CF in 2010 so don’t expect him to get much P.T. in LF this year. Span played in 74 games in LF last season for the Twins in which he made 2 errors while showing outstanding range. Span also had 3 assists while in LF showing a good throwing arm from there.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE LF IN 2010: B