Back in the Pen!

After a too-long hiatus, the Bullpen Catcher has returned to the pen.

Time for a few thoughts about the first month of the Twins season:

1. Well, the Twins bullpen leaves a lot to be desired. When you have a knuckleballer in there, a few folks who can't keep the ball down, and Joe Nathan playing less than stellar, things are just not going to go well for this team. Right now it's starting pitching or nothing for the Twins. Maybe the Joe Crede aquisition was the big front page deal of the off-season, but what really stands out is how badly the team needed bullpen help and did nothing but get a very shakey Luis Ayala.
2. It sure is different when Joe Mauer plays, huh? When he's in the lineup and catching behind the plate, the Twins have a formidable lineup and strong defense. When he's not, well, you have either the option of Red Dog slapping one over to right field every once in a while or Jose Morales hitting, but struggling to mitt the ball.
3. When this pitching rotation gets in synch it could be fun to watch. Unfortunately, it's early and we haven't seen all five of the big arms put it together in the same karma zone. The first time this happens this year, the Twins will vault to first place. Think of it: Baker tosses one of his gems, Slowey follows it up, Liriano dominates, Perkins fools another team and Blackburn looks like he did when he was brilliant at times last year. That will be a hell of a week when it happens -- and it will sometime this season.
4. It would be nice to see Joe Crede get a hit.
5. It was the right choice to send Alexi Casilla to the minors. What the heck was that we were watching. Two words on Alexi so far this season: Clue Less.
6. Isn't it cool that of all the Big Four outfielders that Denard Span is the one producing? Span had that godawful Spring Training and then stepped into the regular season like it was last season again. He's one heck of a leadoff hitter.
7. Punto? Come on.
8. Ron Gardenhire is doing a pretty darn good job so far. Just on the guts of moving Casilla to the minors and in sticking with Span in the leadoff spot despite pressure to do other things is impressive enough.
9. Admit it: we all look over at that new stadium no matter what when we drive down I-94 or are on that side of town. Try not to look next time you're over there. Just try ...

Finally, A Win

Sunday's win over the Kansas City Royals kept the Twins in first place and has many of us watching WGN-TV tomorrow at 1:05 p.m.

It was nice to see the Twins get some hits. It was even better to have Scott Baker look like a formidable pitcher against the Royals crummy offense. And, yes, wasn't it nice to see Joe Mauer not hit into a single double play?

Let's hope the Tigers are peeved they have to continue their terrible season. Let's hope the White Sox continue to implode. Let's hope Freddy Garcia can still pitch.

As Homer Simpson put it when he opened his Mr. Plow business: "Now we play the waiting game ... The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos." In all sincerity, there was no way I thought this team would win 88 games this season. No way. Damn nice job, no matter what the outcome tomorrow and Tuesday.

Who said it was over?

White Sox Being The White Sox

The Twins winning the first two over the White Sox is a major step. Now just a half game out behind Chicago, the Twins are proving a reality of baseball: The White Sox are poised for another of their patented season-ending blowups. Sure, Chicago is just as hobbled and have as tired a starting pitching staff as the Twins, but the White Sox also had a 2.5 game lead heading into the final handful of games in the season. Whether the Twins pull out another AL Central title or not, the White Sox fans and front office cannot be happy with how poorly Chicago has played in the past month.

Whether the White Sox win the division or not, word around the league is that Ozzie Guillen's job isn't safe. Guillen's brash behavior coupled with his sometimes team-critical demeanor has made him an easy target for a firing at the end of the season.

Heck, if Ned Yost gets fired so close to a playoff berth and so late in the season, then Guillen can't be comfortable with his job security.

Guillen's love for the Twins organization -- or more importantly, their fundamental strengths and manner of play -- is setting up his downfall. He wanted Javier Vazquez to pitch like a big-time pitcher so he calls him out in the media and Vazquez quickly gets shelled by the Twins. Guillen hoped for Vazquez to do as Twins pitchers Scott Baker and Nick Blackburn did over the past two games ... suck it up and pitch better than their now sloppy, tired and slow arms would allow. Guillen did whatever he could to get Vazquez to pitch like a Twin.

Mark Buerhle, on the other hand, did what Vazquez couldn't tonight. Fortunately for Minnesota the Twins kept all but Ken Griffey Jr. from making more than a dent on the scoreboard.

Kudos to the Twins. They continue to hang on and hang on, keeping close enough to the Sox to have a puncher's chance. The standing ten count could come tomorrow. I don't think either the White Sox or Twins will do much in the playoffs, but right now who cares? It's getting damn fun.

Doesn't it feel great to have playoff-like baseball back?

Tired Arms, But Twins Are In First!

Glen Perkins' showing in Game 2 of Saturday's doubleheader exemplifies a problem with the young Twins pitching staff. Perkins has a tired arm.

It was pretty obvious Saturday as his fastball was all over the diamond and ball movement lacking any snap.

Manager Ron Gardenhire smartly pulled Perkins and began a parade of recent Rochester Red Wings pitchers to finish off the Baltimore Orioles, 12-6.

Like Perkins, the rest of the starting staff are challenging the most innings they've ever pitched.

• Perkins (12-4, 4.11 ERA) has tossed 175.6 innings this year (that number includes the 33.3 innings he's thrown in the minors). That's the most innings he's piched in a season. He threw 134 innings in 2004.


• Nick Blackburn (10-8, 3.67) led Twins pitchers in innings pitched with 176.7 innings heading into Sunday's final game with the Orioles. His previous top inning season was 2005 (156.6 IP).


• Kevin Slowey (12-9, 3.63) is at 159.3 innings this year (13 in the minors) and is the most accomplished innings eater of the staff. Last year, Slowey combined for 199.3 innings between the majors (66.7) and minors (133.6). In 2006 he threw 140 innings in the minors.


• Scott Baker (9-4, 3.57) went just six innings in the early game Saturday and now has 158.3 innings pitched (5 IP in minors). Baker threw 169 innings at three levels of minor league ball in 2004. Baker also pitched 143.7 innings last year for the Twins when he was 9-9 with a 4.26 ERA.


• Francisco Liriano (5-3, 3.19) has thrown 62 innings for the Twins and 126 more in the minors this year (188 total). Those totals come after missing all of 2007 with Tommy John surgery. Liriano threw just 121 innings in his spectacular 2006 season (12-3, 2.16), but he did throw for a minors/majors combined innings total of 191.3 in 2005.

With 14 games remaining in the regular season, the Twins have to hold on and hope the bullpen --so atrocious lately--will respond and pick up innings.

Reyes, GRRR stink again and again

It's official. My patience with the bullpen ended today.

These guys can't do a damn thing right. I would much rather watch Scott Baker pitch another 30 pitches than that sludge we're carting out there in late innings right now. Baker would too. You could tell by the look on his face in the dugout.

Blackburn, Slowey, Baker keeping Twins alive

The Twins did it again this afternoon and took 2 of 3 from the Detroit Tigers. Just when you think this team will fade away, it gears up and keeps pace with those White Sox.

It's amazing to think that Blackburn, Slowey and Baker will all be around for years to come -- the promise of building a contender for 2010 in the new stadium seems to be real. But, for crying out loud, who would think the Twins could contend right now? In the next two years we just need Glen Perkins, Francisco Liriano or another pitcher to find his way into the rotation and to keep Joe Nathan back there closing.

Plus, with the way Casilla, Gomez, Mauer, Morneau and Buscher are playing lately, those younger players should be contributors in the future as well. It makes for a much more promising future outlook.

How 'bout the Rays?

Is anyone outside of New York City or Boston not rooting for Tampa Bay? After so many years of pathetic play in the difficult AL East, the Rays changed their uniforms, team name and entire play. Considering the crappy Metrodome-like stadium the Rays play in, the team and city deserve a year in contention.

Go Rays!

10-1 loss to Angels ... Ugh

Twins love the
binary system
Crappy offense yields nothing. Nothing.

By Bullpen Catcher

Homer: [on phone] Yeah, Moe, that team sure did
suck last night. They just plain sucked! I've seen teams suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

The Twins dropped yet another game last night, this time their offensive eruption wasn't enough to hold of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California Which Is Located In The United States Of America Baseball Team. The Minnesotans exploded for one run.

There's something wrong here. Binary system wrong. All 1's and zeros.

How's this for outbusts of offense? The Twins wasted a bunch of runs on the Omaha/Kansas City Royals on August 8 (11), but otherwise have nubbed out run totals of 1, 1, 1, 0, and 1 dating back to last weekend. Previous to that the Twins went on a 3, 2, 3, 5, 3 tear. Those numbers aren't going to cut anything, let alone with Scott Baker and Boof Bonser in the rotation.

It's gotten so bad even More-yes is in a hitting slump and not even hitting dingers to keep me interested. Did you notice John Mauer is hitting under .300. I guess it's time for everyone to start talking about moving him to shortstop or something.

Shut Out Again

Twins futility at the plate painful
Minnesota leads American League in being shut out

By The Bullpen Catcher
You can't ask much more of your fifth starter than what Scott Baker gave the Twins Tuesday night in Toronto. Let's be clear about it, Baker isn't exactly Jim Kaat in his prime, but he has worked himself into a doable fifth man in a wobbly rotation.

Baker was OK for a little over six innings, allowing just four runs in seven innings of work. He held a solid Blue Jay lineup at bay (three runs) until he would have normally given way to the bullpen. But, alas, the Twins bullpen is a geldingpen these days.

It's enough to have Paul Simon singing: "Where have you gone Ed-die Guar-dado? Everyday Eddie's arm is blown away. Hey, Hey Hey ..."

The bullpen is left to Matt G-R-R-R and Spaz Neshek. Guerrier is the typical journeyman long reliever and Spaz looks like he has a tired arm finally (wonder how that could happen with such good mechanics?). Last year, The Big Fat Dennys Reyes, Steriods Rincon and Billy Goat Crain would have stopped those Canadian bats and held Baker's ERA a little lower than his 5.30 showing. I'm not Baker's biggest fan by any means, but six hits, one walk and five strikeouts against the likes of Kelly Gruber Jr. (Troy Glaus), Lawrence Taylor (Big Hurt), Boomer Wells, and Grand Rios should make Ron Gardenhire happy.

The biggest problem wasn't the geldingpen. It sure wasn't Torii Hunter's idiot baserunning. It wasn't Baker.

It's the problem that should have Terry Ryan now in trade-for-the-future mode. The time to trade back into any race is over for 2007. Why? The offense.

The Twins offense has been as anemic and tempermental as a high school girl the week of prom.

Where are the runs? Justin Morneau can only hit so many homeruns to get this team to within four of the other team. Joe Mauer is the best bases-empty, down by five hitter in baseball and Torii defines sporatic at the plate. The Twins lead the American League by being shutout nine times this season. Time to get some middle relievers for next year and maybe someone to hit in that lineup for Gardy's boys.