Article: Eight Weeks In: Twins Trends And Tidbits

[Nick Nelson]

On Monday, the Minnesota Twins endured their worst loss of the year, melting down after Ervin Santana left with a six-run lead on the way to an embarrassing 16-8 loss against Houston.

 

Still, they are 26-21, in first place, and miles ahead of their pace from a year ago. Let's run through some of the latest noteworthy trends and attention-grabbing tidbits – both good and bad.Bullpen Blowout

 

Yep, that was a spectacular implosion from the Twins relief unit in front of the home crowd. Ryan Pressly, Craig Breslow, Matt Belisle and one-day call-up Drew Rucinski combined to remarkably allow 14 runs – all earned – on 13 hits and three walks while recording six outs. It came one day after a costly blown save from Brandon Kintzler.

 

Pressly, initially tabbed as the club's top setup man out of spring training, opened the floodgates by entering in the eighth inning, up 8-2, and allowing five of six batters to reach. He's been a perplexing case this season.

 

His elite velocity has been giving batters fits, as the righty owns a 31.8 percent K-rate that towers over his 18.3 percent career mark. At times he looks completely unhittable, including the stretch leading up to Monday's disaster. Over his previous five appearances, he allowed two knocks over 6 1/3 innings with 12(!) strikeouts. But on numerous occasions this season he has completely unraveled, and the latest is tough to forgive.

 

I think Pressly has at least one option left, and perhaps a demotion or DL stint is in order. But at least there is enough there to be worth keeping around. I'm not sure I can say the same for Belisle.

 

There have been no redeeming qualities in the veteran's performance. He was a contact-prone pitcher who relied on pinpoint command to get by, and now that's gone amiss. Through two months he has issued 13 walks, putting him on pace to more than double his career high as a reliever. In fact, his 15.5 percent BB rate ranks as one of the highest in the league.

 

Belisle was either hurting or lacking Paul Molitor's trust over the two-week stretch between May 12th and 26th, during which he made only one appearance. In three outings since re-entering the fold, he has allowed two homers.

 

It's time to move on, but to what?

 

Searching For Relief

 

They've made many good decisions since taking over, but the biggest blunder committed by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine as heads of the front office was their approach with the bullpen. Now, the team is hurting for it.

 

Minnesota's sole major-league signing to address the unit, Belisle has ruled himself out as a reliable option in the late innings. Now, the Twins need to find a superior option to replace him. While they have some candidates in the minors worth trying out, there's no one that can be thrown straight into a setup role with any kind of expectation.

 

For a more substantive fix, Falvey and Levine must look to the trade market, meaning they'll need to pay in talent rather than money. One wonders how quickly a move could come given the increasingly dire state of affairs.

 

On one hand, it's tougher to find sellers this early with fewer teams feeling out of contention. On the other hand, if you're going to give up a prospect for an impending free agent, you might as well maximize the return.

 

With Nick Burdi gone for the year, JT Chargois stuck in injury limbo, and Glen Perkins a poor bet to return and make an impact, the Twins can't afford to count on internal reinforcements to bail out this battered bullpen. They'll need to look outside.

 

Santana's Stolen Spotlight

 

The painful ending of Monday's game took away the headline from Ervin Santana, who should have cruised to his eighth victory by holding a potent Astros offense to two runs over seven innings (one of those runs owed to a head-scratching defensive gaffe by Eddie Rosario).

 

Dating back to the start of last year, Santana has a 2.90 ERA over 258 1/3 innings. He continues to defy luck on batted balls in astonishing fashion.

 

From Batting Cleanup to Clean Out Your Stuff

 

Eleven days ago, Kennys Vargas enjoyed perhaps his biggest moment in a Twins uniform, clutching victory from the jaws of defeat with a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth against Kansas City. He followed by batting .429 over six games, lifting his OPS to .837 on the season. On Sunday, he was filling Miguel Sano's customary spot in the starting lineup, sandwiched between Joe Mauer and Max Kepler.

 

Then, he went 0-for-8 in a 15-inning affair, and found himself optioned to the minors following the game. Life comes at you fast, huh?

 

It's an unfortunate break for Vargas, the victim of circumstance as the Twins needed extra arms having gone through nine in the game. But his perceived expendability speaks to the thin margin for error his profile entails.

 

Vargas offers minimal defensive value and doesn't run well, so he needs to be carried by his power and patience combo. The former has been on display but he has fallen back into an old habit of chasing too often outside the zone, resulting in just three walks in 93 plate appearances. While the demotion surely had more to do with the roster crunch than his performance, the Twins are surely looking for Vargas to demonstrate better strike zone control in Rochester.

 

More May Magic For Mauer

 

The month of May has almost always treated Joe Mauer well, most notably in his MVP 2009 season when he put up a ridiculous .414/.500/.838 line with 11 homers. Now, he's wrapping up another great one: with June two days away, Mauer's line for the month sits at .351/.451/.545. He has gone hitless in a start only once since the end of April.

 

If he finishes strong in the next couple of days, Mauer could complete a month with a four-digit OPS for the first time since 2013, when he put up a 1.026 mark in – you guessed it – May. His strong showing over the past four weeks comes on the heels of a terrible April, and carries several indicators that the first baseman is on top of his game. He's back to drawing walks (14.3 percent BB rate) and spraying liners to all fields.

 

Say what you will about Mauer, but there's no denying this: the lineup is far more dangerous when he's going good. Lately he's looked like the vintage version and while time has told us that can be fleeting, I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts.

 

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[Old Twins Cap]

Pressley can't locate his off-speed stuff, especially the big curve.  They sit on his fastball, which is straight and can fly a long way.

 

Belisle actually has very good control, which is why he is walking so many hitters.  If he throws strikes, he will get hit -- hard.

 

Breslow, formerly below average MLB reliever, at best.

 

Kintzler, above average MLB reliever, but not enough stuff to close.

 

That leaves Duffy and Rogers to hold down the fort. 

 

This bullpen will work out for the Twins against .500 teams.  The good teams will eat our lunch.

 

So we won't contend, but hopefully the young guys, especially Buxton, take a stride forward.  Wasn't that the story heading into the season?

 

 

[Han Joelo]

I know saves are overrated, blah blah.  Man, what a chain reaction that blown one by Kintzler set off, though.  Gassed bullpen, Vargas' big league dreams in jeopardy, Rucinzki's likely gone forever.  Berrios will probably put too much pressure on himself tomorrow and get shelled, who knows how Hector will look.

 

Nonetheless, I feel like this team has some fire in its gut.  Last year, it would have been woe is me, and they would have curled in a ball and kept getting kicked.  I feel like this group has some fight, however, and can find a way to regroup.  We shall see.  These are the growing pains of true champions, however.  

 

 

[OldFartAtPlay]

It is an understatement to say I was shocked by the implosion of our bullpen. I know they are not the best in the league but I thought they could surely get 6 outs. Some loss of control (walking Reddick and then hitting Altuve) , some bad luck (that 50 foot single), and some just plain old poor pitching turned a 6 run lead into an 8 run deficit.

Was Mr. Wheeler at the stadium? Why did Mr. Molitor go with pitchers who were gassed from the marathon the day before? Granted  that Mr. Rucinski was fresh, but methinks he's just not very good. I never thought this would be another magical '91 last to first season but I still have hopes of finishing around or (dare I say it..) above 500. But to me, this season is what the Twins should have been doing last year. Bring up young players and give them an honest chance to succeed or fail. Meaning don't sit them on the bench for a week, have them pinch hit , see them fail and send them down again. Everyone has off days, or a bit of bad luck so patience is needed, but get them in there! Let them get their feet wet and their noses bloodied!

Sorry to be so verbose but today really galled me.

[nater79a]

Here's the problem with the bullpen:  Do you ever watch that pitch counter in the corner of the TV screen when guys like Hughes, Gibson, Mejia amd Santiago are pitching? It registers like 92 pitches in the 5th inning game-in and game-out.  Then the relief corp has to be pulled in and pitch the last half of the game.  OF COURSE, the bullpen is going to be fried by Memorial Day!!!!   This has been going on for years and years. Every year the same thing.  It's frustrating.

 

Yes, the bullpen can some take some of the blame at times, But you can't allow your relief pitchers to come down with dead arms 1/3 of the way through the season.

 

Until we fortify the back end of the rotation with guys that can semi-regularly pitch into the 7th inning nothing will change.  Why can't this organization either acquire or develop quality starters (beyond Berrios)?  Other teams do.. The Cards do.  The Rays do.  

 

For crying out loud...

[akmanak]

Nater makes a great point, this team continues to believe it can simply over work their bullpen year after year and year after year we see this team implode badly.

[HitInAPinch]

Falvey and Levine's approach to the bullpen is what I kinda expected.  Not to make excuses for them, but they had a late start to the season.  At that point, and attempted patch to the bullpen was about all they could accomplish.  That being said:

 

Time to get that MiLB merry-go-round a rolling!  Get some of those relief pitching prospects up for their auditions!  And start digging into other teams MiLB's for starting pitchers.

 

Twins pitchers need to start mirroring the growth/success of the position players.  Or, Begone with Ya!

[old nurse]

Daniel Hudson,  Brad Ziegler, Brett Cecil, Mike Dunn, Junichi Tazawa, Travis Wood, Santiago Cassila. Joe Blanton Neftali Feliz, Plunk down the money and be on the hook for a bad contract. Of the 18 contracts over 4 mil a year handed out, half are not living up to the contract at this point.

[Seth Stohs]

 

Daniel Hudson,  Brad Ziegler, Brett Cecil, Mike Dunn, Junichi Tazawa, Travis Wood, Santiago Cassila. Joe Blanton Neftali Feliz, Plunk down the money and be on the hook for a bad contract. Of the 18 contracts over 4 mil a year handed out, half are not living up to the contract at this point.

 

Yeah, free agency isn't the way to build it... but unfortunately, pretty much all the relief pitcher prospects have been hurt and missed time with significant injury. Hildenberger and Busenitz are close.

 

Belisle's been a mess and now two months into the season, they can make a decision on him, whatever that is; DL or DFA. He's going to be fine at some point - I think - but it isn't happening now.

 

Breslow's actually been pretty good this year, before yesterday. Not too worried about him either.

 

What Nick wrote about Pressly is exactly right. Too much there to give up on. Often can be dominant... but has these days too. Frustrating, but is what it is.

 

Kintzler has been terrific. Say what you want about what a closer "should be," but he's gotten the job done most of the time (I think 2 blown saves), and that's not different from guys who are what closers should be. He's not the problem at all. 

 

Wheeler was up for long relief. He's there for emergency if the starter exits early and they need someone to eat some innings and throw 80-100 pitches. He's definitely not a guy you want pitching in the 8th inning. 

[yarnivek1972]

Yeah, free agency isn't the way to build it... but unfortunately, pretty much all the relief pitcher prospects have been hurt and missed time with significant injury. Hildenberger and Busenitz are close.

 

Belisle's been a mess and now two months into the season, they can make a decision on him, whatever that is; DL or DFA. He's going to be fine at some point - I think - but it isn't happening now.

 

Breslow's actually been pretty good this year, before yesterday. Not too worried about him either.

 

What Nick wrote about Pressly is exactly right. Too much there to give up on. Often can be dominant... but has these days too. Frustrating, but is what it is.

 

Kintzler has been terrific. Say what you want about what a closer "should be," but he's gotten the job done most of the time (I think 2 blown saves), and that's not different from guys who are what closers should be. He's not the problem at all.

 

Wheeler was up for long relief. He's there for emergency if the starter exits early and they need someone to eat some innings and throw 80-100 pitches. He's definitely not a guy you want pitching in the 8th inning.

Breslow's walked 5 and struck out 9 in 18 IP. 4 of those walks were to LHB. You know, the guys he's supposed to be good at getting out. As a result, his obp vs lefties is actually higher than righties. That's not good. I would say Breslow hasn't been the trainwreck that Belisle and Pressly have been. Pretty good? Don't see it that way. I would say he is definitely not someone to use in high leverage situations. The problem is that is true of just about everyone down there. Duffey, Rogers and Kintzler have gotten the job done pretty consistently. But they can't keep up the workload they are being subjected to. Rogers has appeared in 24 of the team's 47 games. Kintzler 22. Too many. Duffey has a team leading 25 relief IP. That paces him to 80 or more. That's a lot IMO.

[Mike Sixel]

Let's just say we disagree that they need to trade for RP. Let's also disagree that they "started late" and not good RPs were available for them to sign. That's, um, just not true.

 

They decided to add old, bad players. They then added more old, bad players. They clearly don't want to call up the any young RP from the minors. They don't want to take a starter from AA or AAA and make him a RP in the majors. 

 

Breslow and Belisle aren't "fine" or any other word for "meh". They are bad. No one wanted them on their roster for a reason. 

 

I do agree on your ESan take, he was great again. It's criminal how under rated he's been here. And, Mauer has been great in May. Let's hope he can keep it up.

[Dave The Dastardly]

 

Here's the problem with the bullpen:  Do you ever watch that pitch counter in the corner of the TV screen when guys like Hughes, Gibson, Mejia amd Santiago are pitching? It registers like 92 pitches in the 5th inning game-in and game-out.  Then the relief corp has to be pulled in and pitch the last half of the game.  OF COURSE, the bullpen is going to be fried by Memorial Day!!!!   This has been going on for years and years. Every year the same thing.  It's frustrating.

 

Yes, the bullpen can some take some of the blame at times, But you can't allow your relief pitchers to come down with dead arms 1/3 of the way through the season.

 

Until we fortify the back end of the rotation with guys that can semi-regularly pitch into the 7th inning nothing will change.  Why can't this organization either acquire or develop quality starters (beyond Berrios)?  Other teams do.. The Cards do.  The Rays do.  

 

For crying out loud...

I agree with your basic premise, but there's nothing magic about pitch counts. Even the guy who's responsible for the mythical 100-pitch limit says it was never meant to be a limit. I've been a baseball fan long enough that I can remember when starting pitchers lasted 8 or 9 innings regularly and did it with 4-pitcher rotations and nobody counted pitches. The guy pitched until the other team started slapping him around whether it was 5th 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th inning. Now a complete game is a fluke. But we religiously count pitches and still wind up with more and more pitchers on the operating table undergoing TJ or things like thoracic nerve surgery. Something stinks in Denmark. And I believe the smell is coming from the weight room.

 

"Saving bullpens" is an oxymoron; a tail wagging the dog sort of thing. Relievers have one purpose in life, saving the starter when he runs out of gas. If a guy can't handle throwing a couple dozen pitches every other day he's more of a dead weight than a reliever. He needs to get in shape. Not lifting weights shape, but conditioning and flexibility shape. In any case being a good reliever is more of a mental trait than a physical trait in my amateurish opinion.

 

Okay. Now that I'm done ranting... for now, I agree with you; we need better pitchers at the back end of the rotation to take some pressure off the bull pen. But we also need a better bull pen. And we need to better develop both starters and relievers in the minors. And "better develop" doesn't mean leaving them to languish in the minors until they're old enough to collect Social Security... Use 'em or lose 'em.

 

 

[USAFChief]

Daniel Hudson,  Brad Ziegler, Brett Cecil, Mike Dunn, Junichi Tazawa, Travis Wood, Santiago Cassila. Joe Blanton Neftali Feliz, Plunk down the money and be on the hook for a bad contract. Of the 18 contracts over 4 mil a year handed out, half are not living up to the contract at this point.

For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would care if the MN Twins were to hand out, say, four FA contracts over the winter over $4M, and, say half of them didn't work out.

 

How in any way would that be worse for anyone involved?

 

if that's too much money, fold up the franchise. Or be prepared to watch 550 losses over six years.

[Don Walcott]

On the Game Thread yesterday, there were all sorts of doomsday predictions.  That makes sense as those were two very tough losses to stomach.  However, this may be an opportunity for this team to show some character.  I really hope so.

 

The relief pitching situation is a no win.  Sure, the FO could have done more in the offseason, but what's the point of rehashing that over and over again.  What do we do now?  We don't want to trade prospects.  Some of our best prospects are hurt or not ready.  Looks like we're stuck with what we have.  So it'll be a rollercoaster ride for the rest of the season while we figure out whether to fish or cut bait on several of these guys.

 

I like the Nick's summary, and would add that there are very encouraging signs in our developing young core players.  Sure, they all have had slumps and bad moments, but they have dusted themselves off and gotten back in there.  After he endured a historically bad slump, seeing Sano hit a homer yesterday was great.  I hope Rosario responds with a great game today (I think he will).

[Mike Sixel]

 

On the Game Thread yesterday, there were all sorts of doomsday predictions.  That makes sense as those were two very tough losses to stomach.  However, this may be an opportunity for this team to show some character.  I really hope so.

 

The relief pitching situation is a no win.  Sure, the FO could have done more in the offseason, but what's the point of rehashing that over and over again.  What do we do now?  We don't want to trade prospects.  Some of our best prospects are hurt or not ready.  Looks like we're stuck with what we have.  So it'll be a rollercoaster ride for the rest of the season while we figure out whether to fish or cut bait on several of these guys.

 

I like the Nick's summary, and would add that there are very encouraging signs in our developing young core players.  Sure, they all have had slumps and bad moments, but they have dusted themselves off and gotten back in there.  After he endured a historically bad slump, seeing Sano hit a homer yesterday was great.  I hope Rosario responds with a great game today (I think he will).

 

if this is what they are stuck with, then the manager needs to actually use those players, whether he likes it or not...

[drjim]

 

I agree with your basic premise, but there's nothing magic about pitch counts. Even the guy who's responsible for the mythical 100-pitch limit says it was never meant to be a limit. I've been a baseball fan long enough that I can remember when starting pitchers lasted 8 or 9 innings regularly and did it with 4-pitcher rotations and nobody counted pitches. The guy pitched until the other team started slapping him around whether it was 5th 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th inning. Now a complete game is a fluke. But we religiously count pitches and still wind up with more and more pitchers on the operating table undergoing TJ or things like thoracic nerve surgery. Something stinks in Denmark. And I believe the smell is coming from the weight room.

 

"Saving bullpens" is an oxymoron; a tail wagging the dog sort of thing. Relievers have one purpose in life, saving the starter when he runs out of gas. If a guy can't handle throwing a couple dozen pitches every other day he's more of a dead weight than a reliever. He needs to get in shape. Not lifting weights shape, but conditioning and flexibility shape. In any case being a good reliever is more of a mental trait than a physical trait in my amateurish opinion.

 

Okay. Now that I'm done ranting... for now, I agree with you; we need better pitchers at the back end of the rotation to take some pressure off the bull pen. But we also need a better bull pen. And we need to better develop both starters and relievers in the minors. And "better develop" doesn't mean leaving them to languish in the minors until they're old enough to collect Social Security...

 

I'm not sure how much of this is true. Pitchers got hurt a lot in previous generations, we just remember the ones that didn't. Previous generations didn't have TJ or TOS, they just had bum shoulders and elbows, and either didn't pitch again or became junkballers. Another difference between today and older generations of baseball, is that pitchers are max effort today, when previously they would coast more during the game. Coasting doesn't work anymore, hitters are just so much better, at all positions.

 

While there is nothing magical about 100 pitches, there is some pretty solid work on what happens after 115-120 and the likelihood of injury following that many pitches. There is also great work on diminishing effectiveness of a pitcher each time through the order. Not all pitchers are the same, obviously, but these are pretty accepted frameworks from which to operate.

[Mike Sixel]

 

I'm not sure how much of this is true. Pitchers got hurt a lot in previous generations, we just remember the ones that didn't. Previous generations didn't have TJ or TOS, they just had bum shoulders and elbows, and either didn't pitch again or became junkballers. Another difference between today and older generations of baseball, is that pitchers are max effort today, when previously they would coast more during the game. Coasting doesn't work anymore, hitters are just so much better, at all positions.

 

While there is nothing magical about 100 pitches, there is some pretty solid work on what happens after 115-120 and the likelihood of injury following that many pitches. There is also great work on diminishing effectiveness of a pitcher each time through the order. Not all pitchers are the same, obviously, but these are pretty accepted frameworks from which to operate.

 

spot on. Especially the diminishing returns part. 

[USAFChief]

Yeah, free agency isn't the way to build it... but unfortunately, pretty much all the relief pitcher prospects have been hurt and missed time with significant injury. Hildenberger and Busenitz are close.

 

Belisle's been a mess and now two months into the season, they can make a decision on him, whatever that is; DL or DFA. He's going to be fine at some point - I think - but it isn't happening now.

 

Breslow's actually been pretty good this year, before yesterday. Not too worried about him either.

 

What Nick wrote about Pressly is exactly right. Too much there to give up on. Often can be dominant... but has these days too. Frustrating, but is what it is.

 

Kintzler has been terrific. Say what you want about what a closer "should be," but he's gotten the job done most of the time (I think 2 blown saves), and that's not different from guys who are what closers should be. He's not the problem at all. 

 

Wheeler was up for long relief. He's there for emergency if the starter exits early and they need someone to eat some innings and throw 80-100 pitches. He's definitely not a guy you want pitching in the 8th inning.

 

"Free agency isn't the way to build it," yet three of the relievers you mention were added as free agents, including both the "terrific" Kintzler and the "pretty good" Breslow.

[drjim]

 

On the Game Thread yesterday, there were all sorts of doomsday predictions.  That makes sense as those were two very tough losses to stomach.  However, this may be an opportunity for this team to show some character.  I really hope so.

 

The relief pitching situation is a no win.  Sure, the FO could have done more in the offseason, but what's the point of rehashing that over and over again.  What do we do now?  We don't want to trade prospects.  Some of our best prospects are hurt or not ready.  Looks like we're stuck with what we have.  So it'll be a rollercoaster ride for the rest of the season while we figure out whether to fish or cut bait on several of these guys.

 

I like the Nick's summary, and would add that there are very encouraging signs in our developing young core players.  Sure, they all have had slumps and bad moments, but they have dusted themselves off and gotten back in there.  After he endured a historically bad slump, seeing Sano hit a homer yesterday was great.  I hope Rosario responds with a great game today (I think he will).

 

This is a good word. The front office screwed up in the offseason and went the cheap route instead of trying to add talent. I'm skeptical of the value of re-litigating that over and over again.

[Dave The Dastardly]

 

I'm not sure how much of this is true. Pitchers got hurt a lot in previous generations, we just remember the ones that didn't. Previous generations didn't have TJ or TOS, they just had bum shoulders and elbows, and either didn't pitch again or became junkballers. Another difference between today and older generations of baseball, is that pitchers are max effort today, when previously they would coast more during the game. Coasting doesn't work anymore, hitters are just so much better, at all positions.

 

While there is nothing magical about 100 pitches, there is some pretty solid work on what happens after 115-120 and the likelihood of injury following that many pitches. There is also great work on diminishing effectiveness of a pitcher each time through the order. Not all pitchers are the same, obviously, but these are pretty accepted frameworks from which to operate.

All good points. However if accepted frameworks aren't delivering, perhaps they need to be altered.

[Seth Stohs]

 

"Free agency isn't the way to build it," yet three of the relievers you mention were added as free agents, including both the "terrific" Kintzler and the "pretty good" Breslow.

 

Minor League Free Agents... not $3-6 million per year F/A. 

[drjim]

 

All good points. However if accepted frameworks aren't delivering, perhaps they need to be altered.

 

I think it is delivering as much as it can. Pushing starters longer would make it worse.

[Don Walcott]

 

More May Magic For Mauer

The month of May has almost always treated Joe Mauer well, most notably in his MVP 2009 season when he put up a ridiculous .414/.500/.838 line with 11 homers. Now, he's wrapping up another great one: with June two days away, Mauer's line for the month sits at .351/.451/.545. He has gone hitless in a start only once since the end of April.

If he finishes strong in the next couple of days, Mauer could complete a month with a four-digit OPS for the first time since 2013, when he put up a 1.026 mark in – you guessed it – May. His strong showing over the past four weeks comes on the heels of a terrible April, and carries several indicators that the first baseman is on top of his game. He's back to drawing walks (14.3 percent BB rate) and spraying liners to all fields.

Say what you will about Mauer, but there's no denying this: the lineup is far more dangerous when he's going good. Lately he's looked like the vintage version and while time has told us that can be fleeting, I'll enjoy it as long as it lasts.

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What many here were saying last season and over the off-season may be the proper formula for getting peak performance from Mauer -- give him some rest.  He's been rested more this season, and I hope they continue to rest him so he can perform near this level for the whole season.

[yarnivek1972]

Hildenberger remains an obvious call up option. Will his deceptive delivery play against MLB hitters? Don't know. But frankly he's earned a shot. If he hadn't thrown 2 2/3 IP on Saturday, he might have been called up yesterday. I would have no issues sending Pressly down and calling Hildenberger up. Among the candidates for removal from the 40 man are Tepesch, Rucinski and Haley. Although not sure they can "send back" Haley while he's on the DL. My guess is no, since it would effectively be an "outright" assignment.

[USAFChief]

Minor League Free Agents... not $3-6 million per year F/A.

 

So it's not free agency that doesn't work, it's cost?

 

please elaborate.

[Seth Stohs]

 

So it's not free agency that doesn't work, it's cost?

please elaborate.

 

Free agent relievers are a crap shoot. They obviously aren't going to get the Aroldis Chapman or Kenley Jansen or Mark Melancon types (though two of them have spent time on the DL already this year). Then there is that group of relievers each year that sign for between $2 and $6 million. Maybe 1/3 of them perform to hope... but figuring out which of them will be good or not good is impossible. As with most free agents, you're talking about 31-36 year olds, already on the downward plane of their careers... There are always a few good ones, but you never know which ones they'll be. 

 

Just my opinion... not claiming it's the right opinion. I know people can always find examples of free agents that were terrific. There are several of those. Maybe they should have brought back Anthony Swarzak this year? How would that have gone over with Twins fans this offseason? He's been remarkable for the White Sox. 

[savvyspy]

Saying free agency isn't how you build a bullpen is flat out nonsense. Every team including the Twins use free agency. The reason is its tough to develop 8 internal relief pitchers and trading top talent for relief pitchers isn't the most wise use of tradeable talent.

 

You just need to use a mix. Anyone could have seen that using minor league talent and picking up some low level minor league free agents wasn't going to work and it hasn't.

 

Belisle and Breslow were worthwhile free agent adds but you would never center a bullpen around either. They are decent supplementary pieces. 

 

Almost ever major league team has 2-4 guys in their bullpen making over $3 million. The Twins highest paid reliever is Belisle at $2 million. That isn't the formula. 

 

I don't think any approach to building a bullpen should be off the table. Especially when the one the Twins are currently employing may be resulting in the worst bullpen in the majors for the 3rd or 4th straight season. 

[Vanimal46]

 

Saying free agency isn't how you build a bullpen is flat out nonsense. Every team including the Twins use free agency. The reason is its tough to develop 8 internal relief pitchers and trading top talent for relief pitchers isn't the most wise use of tradeable talent.

 

You just need to use a mix. Anyone could have seen that using minor league talent and picking up some low level minor league free agents wasn't going to work and it hasn't.

 

Belisle and Breslow were worthwhile free agent adds but you would never center a bullpen around either. They are decent supplementary pieces. 

 

Almost ever major league team has 2-4 guys in their bullpen making over $3 million. The Twins highest paid reliever is Belisle at $2 million. That isn't the formula. 

 

I don't think any approach to building a bullpen should be off the table. Especially when the one the Twins are currently employing may be resulting in the worst bullpen in the majors for the 3rd or 4th straight season. 

 

Couldn't agree more. They need to step up and make some investments if they want a good bullpen. I don't know how many more years we have to keep playing supplementary pieces in high leverage roles... Hasn't worked for 4+ years. 

[Don Walcott]

Isn't there another thread or two where people are talking about the bullpen?  I understand venting over the last two games, but this is getting ridiculous.

[yarnivek1972]

 

Isn't there another thread or two where people are talking about the bullpen?  I understand venting over the last two games, but this is getting ridiculous.

 

 

The reality is that the bullpen is the area that is trending most poorly right now.