The RandBall Better Half is addicted to a site called Yearbookyourself.com, where you can create “yearbook” images of yourself in two year increments from every year from 1950 to 2000. Admittedly, it is quite hilarious, and if our photo loading was working correctly (we spent 45 minutes trying to figure it out, hence the late first post) we would show you what we look like as a high school senior circa 1976, the year of our birth. It’s not really a pretty sight, though we will maintain that we should have been 23 years old in 1970. That would have been right in our wheelhouse. (23 is the prime age for any non-ballplayer. It is the best year of anyone’s life. You can look it up. It’s science). That said, it reminded us of one of the underrated sports debates that we often have (internally, anyway): looking at a player and deciding what year would have suited him best to be in his prime. So we shall go through the Twins’ lineup as best we can. Feel free to disagree, of course, and add on with various other players:

Denard Span: 1993. Seems like the prototypical leadoff man of today, but even more so of 15 years ago.

Alexi Casilla: The year should be 1985, and he should be playing for the San Diego Padres. We don’t know why.

Joe Mauer: Definitely the 1980s. He could have hit for average, like Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn, and nobody would have hassled him about the home runs.

Justin Morneau: 1967. A throwback, but not all the way back. He could have lived without the Internet.

Delmon Young: Not getting a read on him at all.

Jason Kubel: 1954. Can you picture it? Yeah, thought so.

Brian Buscher/Brendan Harris: 1988. The height of platoons.

Nick Punto: 1921. His head first dives would have blended right in. Can you imagine him taking a 15-hour train ride while letting his wet uniform dry as it hung outside the window? Yes you can.

Carlos Gomez: 2174. The world is chaos. Lawlessness rules and wild swings are the flavor of the day. Gomez is in his element.

Fasola-link! The sham of airport security.

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