Three Reliever's That Could Work Into High Leverage

This does not fill me with confidence.

Moran is the only one of the group, bugs bunny change up as a lefty. Who can be a late inning relieve at the majors.  The walks and overall control have to get better.  
 

thielbar can be a lefty specialist and have success.  
 

Im not sold on Cotton.

trevor Magill looked good in his limited role.

Thank you Cody for giving us some hope there in the BP. Hope all of them work out in some way or another. After losing Rogers we desperately need a compliment to Duran.

Baldelli has way over used our short relief, he needs to get out of his mind set and establish a regiment of long relief especially with the rotation we have. With Cotton's repertiore he could be part of the calvery to help support us until our burned out and injured pitchers get back on their feet.

Again the answer to spare a weak, injured and burned out short relief isn't extending a weak arm rotation, that'll end up with a burned out & injured rotation. It's establishing a long relief corp to extend the game to the closer or even complete the game, that's the purpose of long relief. This is what the FO suggested in the beginning of the off season, ignoring long relief has in the past & will continue to bring disaster.

Moran and Duran have to trust their stuff, and at the major league level, have coaches (and a catcher) who can call their pitches...if they can throw them as called.

Challenging the hitters will be important to these two, rather than playing the edges of the zone.

I agree with all 3 of your choices. Every pitcher will have a game here and there that they just don't have their best stuff and get roughed up a bit. When that happens Rocco needs to first recognize it and then pull them before too much damage is done. He's been way to slow IMO to get a struggling reliever out of the game. There is no harm in pulling a pitcher 1 batter too soon verses 1 batter too late. Currently Duffey and Smith have not been good. Both should be relagated to mop up roles until they prove they can get guys out again on a consistant basis. Another arm that looks like it has good potential is Cano. Yes he got off to a rough start but a lot of young pitchers do. Keep giving him opportunities and he may surprise you. IMO he's a better option than Duffey right now. Bundy needs to go to a long relief role as soon as Ryan and Gray are back. Smeltzer looks like he has figured things out. Archer may be turning the corner as well. If Ober can come back healthy it should give them a solid 5 going forward. If not it might be time to ramp up Jax to be a starter again. He's been one of the most consistant 2-3 inning guys in the pen and could be an easy fix for the #5 spot in the rotation. Problem is the Twins very seldom/never try a pitcher as a starter again once they move 'em to the pen so now he's probably a reliever for the rest of his Twins life. 

The best solution is to limit high leverage situations overall.

The fact is that players get hot/cold. Hopefully Smith is better by Sept/Oct again. And the team adds or develops 2-3 more trustworthy arms who are hot at the right time.

While I think the bullpen right now is stressful, to be polite, the past few seasons have had similar patterns of instability that slowly builds up by year end.

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

The best cure for what ails the bullpen is longer starts. The second best cure is multi-inning relief outings. When healthy, Smeltzer, Gray and Ryan look like they can give six or seven innings on a fairly regular basis. It appears both Gray and Ryan will be back within the next ten days, however we'll probably see caution exercised since they will both have been out for a while. 

I disagree that Baldelli has overused his short relief guys. Thanks to an expanded roster, back-to-back appearances are infrequent as are appearances with over 30 pitches. Much criticism has been leveled at Rocco for his bullpen management. I think the underlying reason for what might appear as questionable decisions is avoiding overuse.

Jax, Duran and Cotton have thrown multiple innings more than once IIRC. Having a potential starter (Winder, Gonzalez or Bundy) in the bullpen might also fill a need for longer relief. 

My idea of long relief is pitching  3-4 innings. I'd limit Duran to 1 inning because how they are using him and his history. Jax and Cotton can be used for at least 2 innings but spot SPs Winder, Gonzalez and I'd put Ober in this group because I'm guessing Bundy would have difficulty adapting to relief and would be better suited at opener.

Again I'd love 5 work horses that can go 6+ but we don't have them. Now days they are hard to find with all this attention on high velo & spin rate, most pitchers can't go more than 5 through out the season. The name of the game in MLB is adapting and those who will not change their mindsets will be left in the dust.

The only SP that they've used right is Archer.  In the beginning he was considered the weak link but right now he's the only one who is healthy & effective. He's at 5 innings and eventually he'll go 6 or more. The others of the orignal 7, are on the IL or their arms are dead.

We are are in a severe bind with Bundy, if we weren't in such a bind in fielding SPs, we should put Bundy on a 10 day IL and start him back slowly as an opener. Hoping that he'll bounce back to his prior self. The others are still on the IL and should be brought back slowly when they return. Therefore needing long relief.

Last night Smeltzer should have been pulled after 6, his arm was dead coming into 7 and we didn't gain anything by leaving him in but lost plenty. Hopefully his arm will bounceback & he'll give you another 6 inning game. But if we continue to squeeze another inning out of him eventually we'll lose him too. We've been having a lot of problems with injuries and dead arms for a few years now especially entering post season. Many say "Oh, it's bad luck" I say "it's bad management".

Too bad they didn't keep a pitcher that is consistently healthy and typically gives 7 innings.  They certainly have the $$$$ to keep him and still sign Correa and Buxton,   Stats are interesting but don't paint the whole picture. He was the pitcher we have been waiting for since J Santana!  This is the reason many good players do not want to come here knowing the ownership never intends on putting out a great team and are happy to sign players that may or may not have one last good year or trade away a blue chip player for prospects.  

14 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

If I were to guess which current Twins reliever might surprisingly turn into a real weapon, I'd go with Megill. He has, IMO, the best stuff of anyone not named Duran. 

You're right about him having the best raw stuff, but after watching him pitch that guy is a loose cannon! Hopefully they can harness that in a good way. 

I see Pagan and Duran handling the closer role until the trade deadline. It will depend how they do and how healthy they are as to what level of closer the Twins get then.

With injuries being such a problem I would think trades might be easier done than said. It might get the Phillies under the cap so the price might be reasonable but Hand, Gibson and their other decent reliever are on expiring contracts. Might not be a large cost in terms of decent prospects. Of course 5 years later when a prospect is having a decent few weeks there will be complaining, but at this time it seems like a good idea

The Twins should still look to get some quality relievers, and soon. Jorge Alcala might be back by the All-Star game, but that’s about it. Just add maybe 1 high end and then a few decent relievers and the Twins will be fine