The Twins chose to add a reliever for game 2 as the 26th man. They will start both Berrios and Perez today. That pushes the problem of a starter until Wednesday against the Astros.

 

They had other options.

 

They could have called up Littell to start game 2. He started yesterday for Rochester but the weather was known early enough to use a different pitcher in Rochester

 

They could make game 2 a bullpen game with the extra arm in Romero.

 

The Wednesday game is against the Astros. They could make it a bullpen game without the benefit of the extra arm. They could send out Duffey and call up Littell for that game. They would then return Littell with Magill or Moya possibly ready.

 

I just wonder if you would rather have that bullpen game or Littell start against the Orioles instead of the Astros.

 

I hope there is some flexibility here. If Berrios goes deep in game 1 and they have a rested pen why not make game 2 a bullpen game? I suppose they might also cut Perez off at 50 pitches and then start him Wednesday essentially making game 2 a bullpen game.

Game 2 in the books and that was a wild one...

 

I guess the rest of this will not be answered until Wednesday or so...

I do like the look of Zach Littell. His stuff might play well at the mlb level because of his quick delivery, same release point for his heat and his slider, and he appears to have good command. 

What is up with Romero? He had some great starts last year and can't get even one clean inning as a reliever.   

The options seem to be...

 

1) Bullpen game

2) Call up Littell

3) Perez or Berrios on three days rest

 

If a bullpen game they will have a day off Thursday to rebound. That may depend on how much they need the bullpen leading up to Wednesday.

 

If Littell they could return Duffey or Harper. Either would need to be down 10 days but Moya or Magill should be ready to replace them when Littell is returned.

 

Perez had the less stressful outing and might be the better option of one of them starts on short rest.

Go with a bullpen game but start Harper could be an option. He gets you three innings at least.