Go Twins
The Twins do not need to spend money for its own sake--their payroll will rise this offseason and they presently spend more than last year's darlings in Tampa. Their payroll is slightly less than Texas and not dramatically lower than playoff teams Colorado and St. Louis. They also do not need to be taught anything--they are perennially one of the top three most fundamentally sound teams in all of baseball if not number one. Mistakes happen, and did.
My guess is that the team will spend the winter trying to sign Cabrera and Pavano, while working on Mauer. They will never spend huge dollars on a free agent pitcher, and pitching was not what cost them in the ALDS. They opened the series with a rookie #5 starter because of the way the regular season came down to the wire. In the other two games, the mighty Yankees "amassed" one run off starter Blackburn and two runs off starter Pavano, so I highly doubt some stud free agent would have done any better. The Twins had a 15 game winner who never got to throw and a 10 game winner through June on the shelf.
In sum, the Twins have won their division 5 of the last 8 seasons, and should win it again next year, barring injury and a healthy return for Morneau and Slowey.
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