Ranking the Twins’ Top 5 Relievers by Level of Trust

[KBJ1]

Tiday is Exactly what will happen and take the heart out of ANY team when you parade this  bullpen out onto the field. 

Get two.good arms or leave Falvey.

[ashbury]

What is this word "trust"?  And how does it relate to this bullpen?

[Battle ur tail off]

7 hours ago, TwinsAce said:

This shows we have 2 guys we trust plus another 2-3 at any given time that we trust. Unfortunately, this is constantly changing and doesn't give confidence for the playoffs or against top teams.

Joe Smith I still trust if he comes in to cleanup the inning. Pagan if he doesn't throw the cutter and can get strikes with his other pitches. Thielbar should be trustworthy...

I imagine the Twins are hoping for clarity over the next month on two rehabbing pitchers. Alcala and Maeda. If both of them are on track by the deadline, I could imagine the Twins only trading for one reliever max and focusing on a starter instead. Those two would slot in above Jax, which would be amazing.

Don't expect anything from Maeda. I have seen that floated in here quite a bit. Not realistic. Most likely, if he pitches, it will be a few mop up innings when rosters expand to get him some work. 

[Battle ur tail off]

I trust only Duran. 

No one else. Time for a trade or to bring up whatever bullets you have left in the minors. This group isn't getting it done. 

[LA VIkes Fan]

If we believe what we read, Wes Johnson has been making a lot of the bullpen decisions rather than Baldelli. Maybe this late inning love affair with Pagan will go when he goes. In any event, having him experiment with a new grip in the Majors is looking like a mistake. Does Pagan have any options let? If not, maybe an IL stint with a rehab assignment is in order.  Let him close at AAA and see if he can get his mojo back.

As for a replacement, what about either Winder, Sands or Ober (when he returns) as a late inning relief pitcher? Smeltzer belongs in the rotation with his performance to date. , Bundy doesn't have late inning reliever stuff, same for Archer. Maybe one of the young starters can help out. 

[Aerodeliria]

Duran's dominance increases with every fastball...more fastballs and fewer breaking balls. (Notice how many fastballs he threw in his previous super-dominating display?)

[Riverbrian]

12 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

If we believe what we read, Wes Johnson has been making a lot of the bullpen decisions rather than Baldelli. Maybe this late inning love affair with Pagan will go when he goes. In any event, having him experiment with a new grip in the Majors is looking like a mistake. Does Pagan have any options let? If not, maybe an IL stint with a rehab assignment is in order.  Let him close at AAA and see if he can get his mojo back.

As for a replacement, what about either Winder, Sands or Ober (when he returns) as a late inning relief pitcher? Smeltzer belongs in the rotation with his performance to date. , Bundy doesn't have late inning reliever stuff, same for Archer. Maybe one of the young starters can help out. 

Pagan has less than 5 years service time and he has 1 option left. 

[stringer bell]

Ah, the wonders of recency bias and small sample size. I certainly like Duran in the bullpen. This season would look very different without him. The demons (walks and home runs) have again beset Pagan. Someone with those demons shouldn't be pitching in the highest leverage situations. 

The Twins currently have an eight-man bullpen. They also have three relievers on the IL (Smith, Megill and Coulombe) and one (Cano) on option at St. Paul. On top of that, they have three, maybe four pitchers on the 60-day IL who could be activated within the season. Injuries will happen, but that is a lot of players to fit into a bullpen and if more are added by trade, many will be jettisoned. Of all the options within the organization, I'm hard pressed to see anyone who could be trusted to get crucial outs at the end of a game in October. 

[Seth Stohs]

On 6/28/2022 at 8:30 AM, MinnInPa said:

I just dont know how Jax is doing it...Does not have great stuff..reminds me of Stashak...once he's seen a few times he's gonna get blasted... I have zero trust in any of our Bullpen..maybe Duran..a little bit..no lead is ever safe when we go to the pen

Doesn't have great stuff? Dude is throwing 95-96 with a plus-plus slider. That's not to say he won't have some bad games, but his stuff is electric. 

[Seth Stohs]

1. Duran
2.) Jax 
(Alcala) 

 

3. Thielbar
4. Thornburg
(Coulombe) 
(Smith) 

5. Moran
6. Pagan
7. Duffey
8. Cotton 
(Megill) 

[jorgenswest]

I just don’t see anything in Thornburg to suggest the Twins should use him in high leverage. He doesn’t get swinging strikes. His contact rate is high. Usually that combination goes with a really low walk rate but he has a high walk rate. Minny5 wrote about the slider but he isn’t getting swings and misses overall.

The only thing I see is no barrels in a few low leverage appearances. Perhaps he is a soft contact pitcher but that usually goes with a low walk rate and ground balls when successful which hasn’t fit his profile.

What am I missing? What is the coaching staff missing that some are seeing here? I don’t see a high leverage reliever I would trust in Thornburg. I want to be wrong. I appreciate his story of persistence

[MinnInPa]

21 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Doesn't have great stuff? Dude is throwing 95-96 with a plus-plus slider. That's not to say he won't have some bad games, but his stuff is electric. 

we will just have to agree to disagree....i've seen him throw..i'm looking for relievers that fool hitters...and miss bats ..maybe i'm wrong ..but i just dont see this in Him.. 

[dex8425]

On 6/28/2022 at 8:30 AM, MinnInPa said:

I just dont know how Jax is doing it...Does not have great stuff..reminds me of Stashak...once he's seen a few times he's gonna get blasted... I have zero trust in any of our Bullpen..maybe Duran..a little bit..no lead is ever safe when we go to the pen

Jax throws 97 with a hard slider.... Stashak's stuff is way less impressive than Jax's. Stashak throws like 91 with little movement.