Twins Bull (pen)

While preparing for a Mother's Day cookout yesterday, I had the Twins game on the radio most of the afternoon. Now, I absolutely love good pitching in baseball. I'd much rather watch a well-pitched 2 -1 baseball game that lasts two hours than a 10-6 tilt that lasts four and a half hours. So yesterday was my kind of game.

For seven innings.

For seven innings, Nick Blackburn breezed through the Seattle lineup. Blackburn needed only 99 pitches to complete seven shutout innings. Then, after those grueling 99 pitches, Ron Gardenhire decided to remove Blackburn for his so-called 8th inning specialist, and hamburger lover, Jose Mijares. The dreaded pitch count, you know. At this point, I felt a little sick to my stomach, sensing impending doom. Sure enough, Mijares walked the first batter on four pitches. A very bad sign because, as the Metrodome scoreboard warns, "Walks Will Haunt." After the walk, the next batter and future Hall-of-Famer Ken Griffey Jr., proceeded to hit a ball so hard that it almost took out one of those vampire seats in right field. Home Run. Suddenly, before Blackburn even had a chance to sit down and spit some sunflower seeds, it's 2-2. His victory was gone.

Back to the game - Mijares is now out, Jessie Crain in. This is like pouring gasoline on a forest fire. How did he do? Three batters, three hits, two more earned runs. Crain out, Craig Breslow in. The good news about Breslow is that he is now walking less batters than earlier in the year. The bad news is that those batters are now hitting home runs. Breslow serves up a dinger, and it's suddenly 5-2 Seattle. The Twins go on to lose 5-3. So much for excellent pitching. And on top of it all, I was late for the Mother's Day cookout.

We're now about 5 weeks into the MLB season, and some things are becoming apparent about the 2009 Minnesota Twins. There are constants such as Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. There are some pleasant surprises such as Michael Cuddyer's ability to drive in runs and Denard Span's overall game. A couple of things have sucked, however. One has been the play of 2B Alexi Casilla (sent down to the minors), and, of course, The Bullpen.

If the Twins can get to their closer Joe Nathan, they typically will win the game. Getting to Nathan, however, has been the problem. Other than Nathan, the bullpen has been terrible. Check out these stats from four of the MAIN bullpen pitchers:

Jose Mijares - 0-1, 6 IP, 6 hits, 2 blown saves, 4.50 ERA,
Jesse Crain - 1-1, 8 IP, 6 hits, 7 ER, 7.88 ERA
Craig Breslow - 0-1, 10.2 IP, 8 hits, 8 ER, 6.75 ERA (This. Is. Terrible.)
Luis Ayala - 1-1, 15.1 IP, 21 hits, 8 ER, 4.70 ERA

Wow. Having seen a good portion of the games these guys pitch in, I can tell you that this is giving me a facial tick. I'm getting whiplash from watching all of the line-drives being blasted by opposing batters. This is shades of Ron Davis. This is the kind of stuff that led to my pointed corneas.

Three things have become apparent to me. One - I've been lucky to watch some pretty good Twins bullpens throughout the years, and I started to take the bullpen for granted. Two - I totally agree with Bert Blyleven that pitch counts are overrated. And Three - when this season is over, and if the Twins miss the playoffs, the bullpen will most likely be to blame. The starting pitching for the Twins has not been great, but they are starting to pitch much better. I believe that Baker, Liriano, Perkins, Slowey and Blackburn will be OK when all is said and done this year. They might not have many wins, however, if the bullpen continues to fail.

The time has come, I believe, to consider a trade to bring in some bullpen help. The time has come to offer one of the outfielders up as trade bait to attract some relief pitching. Denard Span is untouchable, however. Cuddyer is a good RBI-guy and great clubhouse leader so I wouldn't trade him either. Carlos Gomez was part of the Johan Santana trade and has some "upside," so he isn't going anywhere. This leaves - Delmon Young. Young is a classic underachiever, a defensive liability, and doesn't fit into the Twins "way."

The time has come for the Twins to shop Delmon Young for bullpen help. I would think that there is a team out there who would give up a pretty good pitcher for Young, who is a talented hitter.

So, let's go Bill Smith. What are you waiting for?

Jeff