--C Joe Mauer went 0-for-3 in the tiebreaker against Chicago, but he held on to win his second AL batting title by finishing at .328, two points ahead of Boston's Dustin Pedroia. Mauer also finished with 31 doubles, a franchise record for a catcher.
--LHP Francisco Liriano threw 198 innings at three levels in 2008, a heavy workload after returning from Tommy John surgery. But Liriano said he plans to pitch in his Dominican Republic homeland this winter, probably once a week, in order to keep building up the strength in his new elbow ligament. --LF Delmon Young added two points to his batting average in 2008, but he suffered severe declines in extra-base hits. Young had 28 doubles and 10 home runs for the Twins, below the 38 and 13 he collected during his rookie season for Tampa Bay, and his RBIs declined from 93 to 69. The Twins remain hopeful, however, that Young, who turned 23 in September, will become more of a power hitter as he develops.
--LHP Jose Mijares, who didn't even make his major league debut until Sept. 13, may have earned a spot in the Twins' bullpen in 2009 with his amazing success in the season's final weeks. Mijares, who spent most of the season recovering from a January auto accident that broke his pitching elbow, was expected to spend next season in Class AAA. But those plans may have changed after the rookie retired 31 of the 34 hitters he faced in September.
--C Mike Redmond played in only 38 games because of Joe Mauer's healthy 2008 season, but the Twins exercised their option on Redmond's contract for 2009. At $950,000, the 37-year-old veteran isn't expensive, he hit .287 as a fill-in for Mauer, and he was one of the most respected leaders in the clubhouse.
BY THE NUMBERS: 111 -- Home runs hit by the Twins in 2008, fewest in the American League.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "It's like one of those movies. It goes off (and you think), 'It wasn't supposed to end like that.'" -- RF Denard Span, on the abrupt end to the Twins' season in a 1-0 tiebreaking loss to the White Sox.
