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The Minnesota Twins had one of the greatest months in franchise history in May, going 20-7 and putting themselves in the conversation for the American League Central Division. Unfortunately, they've gone 10-16 since then with only a couple games left in June and now see themselves 5.5 games back of the Kansas City Royals in the division and 1 game back of an American League Wild Card spot. The bats have quieted down in June and the bullpen has come back down to earth. A big reason for the 20-win month of May was that everything seemed to be clicking. Starting pitching was very good (3.66 ERA, 1.19 WHIP), the offense was scoring 5.15 runs per game and the relievers were finding ways to get guys out and get the game to closer Glen Perkins. In June, the starting pitching has actually been better (3.43 ERA, 1.26 WHIP) but the offense has only scored 3.38 runs per game and the bullpen has been one of the worst in baseball, 13th in the AL & 27th overall. In May, the bullpen was 8th in the AL & 14th overall. The primary relievers other than Glen Perkins have been Blaine Boyer, Aaron Thompson, Ryan Pressly & Casey Fien when it comes to close games. You can put Brian Duensing in there too but he’s primarily a lefty one-out guy (a LOOGY.) Looking at those names doesn’t bring a lot of confidence in getting the job done for a lot of reasons. The main reason is most of them are not power pitchers with the ability to strikeout hitters when they need to. Ryan Pressly and Casey Fien have that ability but Pressly is still developing at the major league level and Fien has been dealing with injuries most of the season. Aaron Thompson started out great and that curveball was helping him get guys out but it hasn’t been as sharp lately and the hitters have adjusted to his stuff and he’s now getting hit hard, really hard. Blaine Boyer started out terrible and was everyone’s pick to be sent down, released or just shown the door one way or another. Everyone wondered how he was still on the roster but then Boyer the Destroyer showed up and he was lights out in May as the setup man in the 8th inning. Now, he’s getting hit around a little bit again and fans are starting to wonder why the Twins haven’t done anything about it. To me, baseball is not really a game where making quick judgements of players works. You set your lineup, pitching rotation and bullpen and see how it goes for awhile and tweak it as you need to. The bullpen and relievers are probably the hardest to figure out because they could have one bad outing and you don’t know how that will affect them the next time they pitch. Relievers aren’t guaranteed to pitch the next day or even the day after that. They don’t know the next time they’ll get on the mound. A hitter will get in the next game or have another at-bat coming within a few innings. A starting pitcher knows he’s pitching every fifth day so they can prepare for it. How does that change how a relief pitcher pitches when he gets in a game? Nobody could’ve guessed that Blaine Boyer would turn into the Destroyer the way he began the season. You have to give a player some time to play through their struggles and figure things out. We don’t know if there was something wrong with him injury wise or if he was just struggling with command because he’s changing the grip on a pitch or still working on that pitch. Can the Twins do anything to change their bullpen situation? They can look in the minors for some relief (pardon the pun) but there’s really not much in AAA Rochester to help them out. The only option I see is A.J. Achter, who is currently the closer for the Red Wings. In 34.2 innings in AAA this season, A.J. is 3-2 with 12 saves and he’s allowed only 14 hits and 9 runs (5 HRs) with 7 walks and 34 strikeouts. He was up with the Twins at the end of last season as a September call-up. He pitched in only 7 games but got his first major league win in the last game he pitched on September 26th. His fastball only touches 90 but he also has a cutter, a slider and a changeup. There’s the option of trying to pick up a reliever via trade. The starting rotation will start to get crowded pretty quickly with Ervin Santana coming back shortly so what better time to get something from Mike Pelfrey’s great season or Tommy Milone pitching well lately. They could always trade some prospects for something too. There’s also the option of moving one of the starters into the bullpen but that doesn’t usually help the late innings of a game. Starters going to the bullpen usually end up being long relievers so that won’t help. It may be just a wait and see approach for the time being. We’ll find out. That’s my TwinsTake! What’s your TwinsTake? Let us know what you think in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter and/or Google+. Our Takes, Your Takes, TwinsTakes.com!

Aaron Thompson marches to the beat of his own drum. That probably isn’t a shock to many, as he falls in a number of subsets that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing oddities from. Bert Blyleven will frequently suggest pitchers are a different sort on Twins telecasts, but beyond that Thompson is also a reliever as well as left-handed — two things that push him further down the oddball spectrum in baseball circles.Twins general manager Terry Ryan — a fellow former left-handed pitcher in his own right — said as much in a pregame chat with the media earlier this month. “He’s a unique personality, I can tell you that,” Ryan said. “He’s a little different egg, in a good way. He’s just a good fella. He’s a good worker and a good teammate. He’s left-handed, too, don’t ever forget that.” Ryan also hinted in a later chat that Thompson is one of the more heady players on the team, and opined that if he wanted a future in coaching, that it’d probably be there for the taking for him in the future. More on that later. Thompson also has a pretty good left-handed confidant out there in the bullpen in coach Eddie Guardado. Guardado was the first name off Torii Hunter’s lips in a recent chat with Cold Omaha on what the difference was between this year’s team and last year’s. “Guardado is huge,” Hunter remarked. “A lot of guys go to them and ask him questions and he gives it to them. I think he’s probably one of the biggest parts of that bullpen down there; he gives them that bulldog mentality.” It’s not just bark, but also bite for Guardado, even at age 44. When diminutive utility man Eduardo Escobar got a little lippy before Wednesday’s series finale against the Red Sox, the former closer — with the aid of catcher Kurt Suzuki — gave the infielder turned outfielder a bit of a beatdown. All in good fun of course, but it simply feeds the notion that this is part of what has contributed to a much looser and carefree clubhouse atmosphere so far this season. Winning also helps. And the funny thing is that as loose as the roster is, it’s one Thompson nearly didn’t make. In fact, he didn’t, but once rosters were set and he was on his way to Rochester, word of the Ervin Santana suspension came down and suddenly Thompson was a lefty in luck. Thompson surely hasn’t been used like a 25th man, however. Only Seth Maness of the Cardinals and Jeremy Jeffress of the Brewers have appeared in more games than Thompson coming into Friday's action. He’s not really being used as a LOOGY — lefty one-out guy — either, as he has more appearances recording four or more outs (eight) than he does recording one or zero outs (six). The splits back it up, too, as he’s faced 56 right-handed hitters and 39 lefties. To Thompson’s credit, he doesn’t do too much differently against righties or lefties either, with one interesting exception. He scorns the changeup against left-handed hitters as most pitchers will to same-side hitters — “I don’t use a lot of changeups and stuff to lefties. It’s a real specific thing. You think lefties like it down and in, and you throw a pitch if they’re out in front of and fooled, it’s still down and in. Bad news.” — but the real interesting thing he does is that he moves on the rubber based on the handedness of the hitter he’s about to face. The reasoning is simple, but intuitive: “That’s the way I practice is to execute angles and things that have worked for me. I don’t move pitch to pitch, just batter to batter. It’s really not like a trick.” One should note that Thompson has, despite his usage, nuked lefties (.121/.205/.152) and has been somewhat pedestrian against righties (.308/.339/.423). He also hasn’t been used for a full inning in his last eight appearances as well, so perhaps his role is and will continue evolving. And maybe that’s more about his teammates — the continued excellence of Blaine Boyer for instance — than it is him. It’s hard to say. So where did Thompson come from? It might surprise you that 10 years ago, Thompson was a first-round pick (22nd overall) of the Florida Marlins. In fact, Thompson was one of five first-round picks — including the supplemental round — for the Marlins that year, along with Chris Volstad (No. 16), Jacob Marceaux (No. 29), Ryan Tucker (No. 34) and Sean West (No. 44). For comparison’s sake, the Twins nabbed Matt Garza (No. 25) and a hulking slugger named Hank Sanchez (No. 39) who barely made it out of Rookie League that year. Current Twin Mike Pelfrey was the No. 9 pick in that draft as well. Only Marceaux never made the big leagues of those five picks for the Marlins, and the sheer number of picks came thanks to losing Armando Benitez and Carl Pavano in free agency the previous winter. Thompson is the last one still kicking around in the big leagues, with Volstad still active in Triple-A with the Pirates (3-1, 3.60 ERA, 5.6 K/9, 1.42 WHIP). It wasn’t always an easy road for Thompson either; in fact, it’s really never been easy for him. It seems sort of crazy to think about it, but this free spirit of sorts was caught being a yes-man for a very long time before things clicked. Thompson remembers the day when the light flipped on, and he decided he was just fed up and was going to start doing things differently. “You all remember Logan Darnell, right?” Thompson said of his former teammate and current 40-man lefty down at Rochester. “I was in Double-A in 2012 with him and I was still starting. And it was like the fourth or fifth start in a row where it was in the sixth inning, and I had given up a run or two with two outs and two guys on and we’re up one or two — basically a pitch away from having a quality, good outing — and I give up a homer. I remember sitting in the shower with Logan, saying, ‘I don’t know if I want to cry or quit, but something’s gonna effin’ change.’ At that moment, I was just like, ‘It doesn’t have to be like that.’ Why did I feel like I had failed? Because we lost. If we won the game and I gave up nine runs, I don’t care because the team won. In the end, that’s really all that matters.'” The story checks out, and seems to correspond with a time around late July in that season when he allowed five or more earned runs three times in a five-start span. Interestingly, with his season ERA at 5.74 at that point, the Rock Cats shifted him to the bullpen the rest of the way, and he closed out the season with a 2.19 ERA and an opponents’ batting line of .277/.320/.362. That seems like a heck of a place to start out from. But to fully grasp Thompson’s struggles is to see that he was a former first- rounder being moved to the pen, and that was hardly the biggest of his issues. That was the fifth season Thompson has spent time at Double-A, and looking back it’s a level that didn’t treat him very well: 18-46, 4.95 ERA, 5.8 K/9 and a 1.54 WHIP. None of that resembles the look of a future big leaguer, let alone someone who has pitched in what BaseballReference.com terms ‘high pressure situations’ in 14 of his 24 appearances so far this season. Thompson’s struggles at Double-A go back to him being a yes-man, and they have to do with his repertoire. No pitcher who has thrown 20 or more innings this year relies on their slider more than Thompson, who has thrown it 50.9 percent of the time via PITCHf/x. It’s been a very good pitch for Thompson in a couple of respects, as it has induced a solid whiff rate of 17.9 percent, while opponents are hitting just .200/.255/.340 against it. It’s a pitch that was taught to him by current Marlins bullpen coach Reid Cornelius; it’s also a pitch that his next organization took away. “It was a cutter when I learned it,” Thompson said, reflecting on how different speeds on the pitch reflect different breaks, and throwing it slower like he has in 2015 can give it added depth. That typically reflects in it being termed a slider (slower, longer sweeping break) as opposed to a cutter (firmer, less break and depth at the plate). “I call it a cutter because of the mentality of it. It’s as though you’re throwing a fastball — an aggressive pitch. When I think slider, that’s like deception. I think of it as a cutter, though, a fastball that moves.” Thompson said he’s thrown it at times between 87-89 mph — “faster than my four-seamer” — and then it’s a true cutter, but in an effort to miss more bats, he’ll slow it down to get more movement, though he relies heavily on what Suzuki has to say on a day-to-day, or perhaps pitch-by-pitch basis. Thompson found himself with the Nationals in 2009, traded straight up for OBP machine Nick Johnson at the trade deadline that season. And in the lefty’s mind, that’s sort of where the trouble started. “They didn’t want me to throw it,” Thompson said of the cutter/slider hybrid. “So I was trying to please them. I had something I knew worked for me and threw it in the trash for two years. With the Pirates (two years later), I didn’t even bring it back. Then it’s funny, because the Pirates DFA’d me and put me in the bullpen in Double-A in my fourth or fifth year in Double-A. So I said, ‘Screw this. I’m going to throw that pitch again.’ I remember, I was good when I did that. It was funny, because I was in the big leagues a month and a half later. I’m not saying I said, ‘Screw them.’ I said no, they told me to believe in myself, and that’s really all I’m going to do. It’s funny how, there’s obviously been some downs since then, too, but none of it had to do with the pitch.” Speaking of ups and downs, it’s sort of ironic that Thompson’s first big break with the Twins came due to a suspension; it’s also how his time started with the team. Thompson was dinged 50 games at the beginning of the 2012 season for recreational drug use, and that makes for sort of an interesting parallel on each side of his Twins stint. The Twins stood by him — water under the bridge according to Ryan — and it’s paying dividends thus far, even if it’s been probably a longer play than either side anticipated. But even with the various struggles, Thompson said all he wants to do on the mound is compete. It wasn’t always that easy, either. “I think for a long time in my career I tried to pitch to what would appease a coach or a front office, and the funny thing is if you get the guy out, everybody is happy,” Thompson said. “I was a yes-man for a long time, I think finally it got to a point where if I could just compete out there, everybody could at least appreciate that. It’s the guys who don’t appear to be competing that guys get fed up with. I think for a while I might have looked that way in my past, but that wasn’t the case. I just didn’t really know how to compete. I had to learn how to do that, I guess, at a higher level.” In a way it’s sort of funny that a guy who can be known to skateboard to the ballpark could ever be a yes-man, but Thompson’s personal evolution has been anything but conventional. This post originated at Cold Omaha here; please consider clicking through to support the content. Click here to view the article

After yesterday’s crazy day at Fort Myers, today was considerably more serene. It also served as a deep breath before the last big push for several roster spots. Twins Manager Paul Molitor says he would like to get the roster set by this weekend, so the pressure to perform (or at least not mess up) is high. “It always is in spring training,” said Twins General Manager Terry Ryan. “Especially when you get to the last ten games or so.”I’ve written a lot about the other spring training battles but have stayed away from the bullpen, partly because Nick Nelson covered it this weekend and partly because there were just so many options. But with recent demotions, the bullpen battles are becoming a little more clear – but not a lot more clear. There are just so many factors, and the biggest ones might not be the individual relievers' performance. It might be the performance of the guys trying out for the fifth starter job or whether or not the Twins can make a trade for a Rule 5 pick. Here’s the breakdown: There are seven spots. Four of them are essentially spoken for: 1. Glen Perkins has overcome his oblique strain, so he’s in. 2. Casey Fien is in and seems to have overcome whatever ailed him last September. 3. Brian Duensing was hit by a comebacker yesterday just over the knee on his thigh, but while he won’t pitch for a couple of days, he should have no problem being back for opening day. 4. Tim Stauffer has a major league contract, and while Terry Ryan stopped short of calling him an “absolute lock” in his pregame press conference, he did say he’ll be getting the “benefit of the doubt.” So he’s in. That leaves three spots and they are largely dependent on what happens in the fifth spot in the rotation. At least one, and possibly, two, are spoken for. Mike Pelfrey, Tommy Milone and Trevor May are all competing for that last spot. Ryan confirmed that “is a fair assumption” that Pelfrey and Milone would end up in the bullpen if they don’t win the job, and oddly enough would not say that Trevor May would be sent to Rochester if he didn’t with the job, leaving the option open that he could be in the bullpen, too. However, that chance seems very remote. Your guess is as good as mine regarding the fifth starter job. Everyone seems to be playing their cards very close to their vest. Prior to the postgame conference, I would have handicapped it like this: Pelfrey 1:1 Milone 2:1 May 5:1 But I talked to at least one veteran sportswriter who thought Milone was still in the lead, and it also seemed like there was some confusion whether Pelfrey would get another start with the big league club. Whether that means he’s out of the running or they just don’t need to see any more is unknown. So again, take those odds with much more than a grain of salt. Like, maybe a shaker of salt. Back to the bullpen. Whoever wins could have a major effect on the makeup of the bullpen. Let’s look at the scenarios. What If Pelfrey Wins The Fifth Starter Spot? 5. Tommy Milone becomes the second (or third if you count Perkins) lefty in the bullpen. That leaves two spots in the bullpen. My best guess is they are taken by the right-handers: 6. Blaine Boyer and 7. J.R. Graham Missing out: RHP Mark Hamburger LHP Caleb Thielbar, Aaron Thompson Boyer and Graham are mostly a guess, though they have had great camps. But so have all the guys that are still in camp, so either one could be replaced by Hamburger. It’s also possible that the Twins could decide to still take another left-hander, and Terry Ryan praised both Thielbar and Thompson’s spring earlier today. Ryan also said a few days ago he doesn’t feel strongly about how many left-handers or right-handers are in the bullpen. What If Milone Wins The Fifth Starter Spot? 5. Mike Pelfrey becomes the third right-hander in the bullpen. That leaves two spots in the bullpen. My best guess is they would want a right-hander and a left-hander, so let’s go with: 6. Caleb Thielbar and 7. J.R. Graham Missing out: RHP Mark Hamburger LHP Blaine Boyer, Aaron Thompson I’m in the minority in thinking that the Twins would choose Graham over Boyer. But since Graham is a Rule 5 pick and since Boyer isn’t on the 40-man roster, that’s the way I’m going. I should emphasize – Boyer has really impressed people. If the Twins decide to keep Boyer and send Graham down in this scenario, they would either need to return him to the Braves or make a deal. In the past, the Twins have had some luck making deals with the Braves; that’s how they secured Scott Diamond. That happened very late in spring training that year, on the 28th of March. I’m optimistic that this could happen again. As for the lefties, I don’t know if Thielbar is really in front of Thompson. I think Thielbar will get the benefit of the doubt given his time on the team the last few years. Then today, Thompson pitched before Thielbar did today and Thielbar did struggle a bit, giving up two hits and the winning run (though I think it should have been unearned). However, Molitor emphasized that he didn’t mean to give them a “head-to-head” matchup; he just wasn’t able to use Thompson in the game yesterday, so he made sure he got him in the game today. What If May Wins The Fifth Starter Spot? 5. Mike Pelfrey becomes the third right-hander in the bullpen. 6. Tommy Milone becomes the second lefty in the bullpen. That leaves just one spot in the bullpen. My best guess is they would want a right-hander, so let’s go with: 7. Blaine Boyer Missing out: RHP Mark Hamburger, J.R. Graham LHP Caleb Thielbar, Aaron Thompson Looking at this, it seems that Trevor May is going to need to overcome even more than having an option to send him down and a limited spring training resume due to the flu. Putting him in the fifth spot also squeezes the bullpen that much more. (Oh, and the forecast for his start on Friday has a 90% chance of rain. What’s next? Locusts?) If you want to distill things a little further, it feels like there will likely be two spots in the bullpen and three pitchers essentially competing for it: Boyer, Graham and Thielbar. The key factor might be if they can work a trade for Graham. If so, and May doesn’t win the fifth job, the logjam could be cleared. Click here to view the article

Trevor May made the Twins decision-makers job a little tougher on Saturday afternoon. In his return to Grapefruit League action, he threw an efficient, fast-paced four innings, giving up zero hits, striking out three and walking zero. Manager Paul Molitor was impressed. “His first three innings were clean [with] nice variety [and he] commanded well.” Twins fans recognize that command is the key for May, and he knows it, too. That’s why this outing was so impressive. He threw only 12 balls among 42 pitches, and most of those in his last inning. He was so efficient he needed to go to the bullpen after to throw another 15 pitches so he can continue to build arm strength for the season.So why was he lifted? The Twins certainly wanted to get some innings for relievers Mark Hamburger, Aaron Thompson and AJ Achter, who are all competing for a bullpen role. But manager Paul Molitor added that May’s pitches were changing and elevating in the fourth inning. “Out of the stretch, he started elevating. He got the strikeout on the high fastball but his pitches were changing,” said Molitor. Whether the Twins were guarding against a negative impact to May’s confidence or his health isn’t clear. Both have been issues. May started spring training with the flu that was going around the Twins clubhouse, and that gave his candidacy for the fifth starter’s spot an early setback. Today’s game marked his return to an official Grapefruit League game; his last (reportedly impressive) start was on the minor league fields due to limited Grapefruit games and the Twins crowded rotation. The topic of May’s confidence came up in the pregame meeting with Terry Ryan, and Ryan says he sees a difference between May and the pitcher who took the mound last August and September. “For me, that experience that he got from August and September, looks to me like it’s been beneficial to him. He looks like he wants to fit in and belong. His body language is pretty good. His confidence level looks pretty high.” May also says he feels confidence is playing a part in how he is performing. “You gain confidence from a level of comfort, and having done it for a while and throwing to the hitters and in front of the crowd and stuff a few times, it’s easier to push that out of the way.” We’ll see if today’s effort earns May yet one more Grapefruit League start. He would be in line to pitch again on Thursday, though the Twins could juggle things a little, because they won’t have the luxury of a split squad game that day and Tommy Milone would also be in line to start. Milone pitched today in Fort Myers and also lasted four innings, but gave up five hits, two walks and four earned runs courtesy of a rocky second inning. Regardless of what plays out this week, in Terry Ryan’s mind, May looks like someone who can play a big role in the future. “I’m eagerly anxious to see him perform today, because we’re counting on this guy,” said Ryan before the game. From the glimpse we saw, that future looks a lot brighter now than it did last August. And maybe, just maybe, that future is now. Escobar Keeps Doing His Job – Whatever That Job Is Eduardo Escobar added an eleventh RBI to his spring training totals by driving in the game’s first run in the fifth inning. He was praised after the game by Molitor, just like he was praised after yesterday’s game when asked about Escobar’s production. Today Escobar played at second base, because “We want to get him prepared possibly to be a guy that will play around a little bit to get at-bats.” That sounds a lot like Escobar won’t be the Twins everyday shortstop unless something changes, and playing every day is one of the reasons Escobar thought he had such a good season last year. But regardless, he seems to be ready to embrace whichever role he has. “I come into the stadium ready to play. I’m here for Molitor. I’m ready for my chance,” stated Escobar. “When I have my opportunity, I play hard.” Roster Will Be Pitching Heavy Both Terry Ryan and Paul Molitor shared today that they expect the Twins to come north with a 12-man pitching staff, meaning they’ll break camp with seven relievers and four bench players. Asked about what the left-handed/right-handed makeup of that bullpen might be, Molitor was more guarded. But Ryan was fairly blunt that he just wants the seven best pitchers, regardless of role. “We might not go with a left, period, if we didn’t have to. We’re going to go with the best guys. Obviously we’ve got [Glen] Perkins, so he’s going to be a left, but whether or not we have any more lefties, that’s going to be up to how they end up responding here.” For what it’s worth, it sounds like Molitor is already including lefty Brian Duensing in one of the bullpen spots. But that doesn’t mean there can’t be others. One of the guys competing for the left-handed spot pitched today in Port Charlotte. Aaron Thompson threw two innings and Molitor noted that he continues to show that he has a good strikeout pitch against left-handers and enough pitches to be effective against right-handers. Click here to view the article

In a shortened show, Aaron and John broadcast live to an enthralled audience at the Minnesota State Fair. They discuss the odd roster move that cost the team Sam Deduno, the miserable year that top Twins prospects endured and then tackle the decisions the Twins will (or should) make in the upcoming offseason. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it atGleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article