Carl Pavano

The Twins have finally addressed their pitching issues by nabbing Carl Pavano from the Indians. While Pavano sports an ugly 5.37 ERA that doesn't look like much of an improvement, his FIP is a much more encouraging 4.26. This was a necessary move, as the starting rotation was suddenly beginning to look like one of the worst in a long time, and I think Pavano will be better than whoever's spot he takes.

Whose will it be, though? Scott Baker obviously stays, and Nick Blackburn is a virtual certainty too, but that still leaves three options to move to the bullpen: Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins, and Anthony Swarzak. Swarzak has the best numbers of the three, but he's also right-handed and the newbie. Liriano and Perkins have both pitched pretty badly over a good number of starts, so it's all a matter of guesswork which one of those two has the edge.

We do know, however, who is leaving the Twins to make room, and it's R.A. Dickey. After a hot start that lasted through June, Dickey had a 2.45 ERA, 31-to-17 K:BB ratio, 40 hits allowed, and a 53% groundball rate in 40 innings. In the last month-plus though, he's posted a 9.30 ERA, 11-to-13 K:BB ratio, allowed 34 hits, and induced only 36.3% groundballs.

While this move doesn't inspire great confidence in me, something clearly needed to be done in regard to the pitching staff, and this was definitely an improvement.

July in Review

The Twins played their fifth extra inning game of their July schedule last night, and it ended in a disappointing manner. Despite leading 5-2, the Twins lost to the Angels 11-5 in 11 innings. Bobby Keppel and Jesse Crain were the bullpen culprits, combining to allow the first 8 batters to reach in the final inning. It was an ugly loss, so let's hope the Twins can start August on a better foot.

Record: 12-12
Best record at any point (games above .500): 47-44
Worst record at any point (games below .500): 48-50
Days in first (and biggest lead): 0 (2.0 GB)
Days in last (and furthest out of first): 0 (5.0 GB)
Longest win streak: 4 games
Longest losing streak: 4 games
Runs scored/runs against: 128/140
Most runs scored/most runs allowed: 13/16
Shutouts/times shut out: 0/0
Extra inning games: 5
Longest game: 16 innings


Hitter of the month: Justin Morneau (93 AB, 16 R, 7 HR, 19 RBI, 15 BB:19 K, .280/.380/.559)
Despite hitting worse than he has for the year as a whole, Morneau finally managed to earn hitter of the month honors in 2009. Yet again it was a close contest between he and Jason Kubel, but Morneau's extra playing time was what pushed me in his favor. In the month, Morneau had two 2-homer games and set a career high with 7 RBIs in one game. He didn't end the month well, though, going 0 for his last 12 and striking out 5 times.

Bizarro World hitter of the month: Brendan Harris (75 AB, 8 R, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB:17 K, .187/.218/.307)
The whole middle infield was pretty awful this July (as with the entire year), so I could have chosen Nick Punto or Alexi Casilla pretty easily. Punto, though, had slightly better numbers than Harris, and Casilla's 7-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 5 stolen bases, combined with his less time in the lineup, made Harris the choice. While many people, myself included, aren't sure how much of an upgrade Orlando Cabrera will be, it's pretty clear from looking at their July stats that a move of some kind was necessary.


Pitcher of the month: Matt Guerrier (2-0, 16.1 IP, 8 H, 0 BB, 9 K, 0.49/0.55)
Guerrier was magnificent this month, and only in his final outing did he allow a run--unfortunately it was a game-tying homer from Mike Napoli. But enough with the negative, as Guerrier allowed less than a baserunner every other inning. It's all part of an excellent year for Guerrier, who's quietly accumulated an ERA of 2.09 and a WHIP of 0.79. Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan, who combine with Guerrier to be the only legitimate relief options, also had very good months.

Bizarro World pitcher of the month: R.A. Dickey (0-1, 17 IP, 28 H, 9 BB, 9 K, 7.94/2.18)
While the few good relievers the Twins have were pitching very well, the rest of the bullpen was lobbing batting practice to opposing hitters. Dickey, Jesse Crain, Bobby Keppel, Kevin Mulvey, and Brian Duensing combined to throw 57 innings and give up 76 hits and 44 runs, while also walking 29 batters, the same number they struck out. Dickey was the worst of the bunch, allowing more than 2 baserunners per inning and giving up more than 3 runs on four different occasions.

Winter Meetings Recap

The Winter Meetings ended yesterday after the Rule V draft, so I figured today I would recap what the Twins accomplished at the winter meetings, which could accurately be called "next to nothing." First, the Twins outrighted infielder Chris Basak to the minor leagues, and after clearing waivers, he was placed on the Rochester roster. Also, the Twins passed on their pick (#11) in the Rule V draft, but they had 3 players taken from them in the major league phase and 3 in the minor league phase. Catcher-turned-pitcher Tim Lahey was taken 1st overall by the Rays and then sent to the Cubs for $150,000. Lahey pitched well in 78 1/3 innnings in AA, and even managed a late-season call-up to AAA. However, with all the Twins' pitching prospects, he didn't seem to have a great future ahead of him, but he could hide in the back of the Cubs' bullpen in 2008. Next, recently-signed knuckleballer R.A. Dickey was taken at #15 by the Seattle Mariners. Though he may have gotten a spot start here or there for the Twins, Dickey was really a AAA rotation-filler, and probably will not be missed much. He spent 2007 in the minors, and only pitched 3 1/3 (terrible) innings in the majors for the Rangers in 2006. The third Twin taken in the major league phase was Garret Guzman at #30 by the Washington Nationals. I mentioned that the Twins should have protected Guzman, but they did not and he was taken by the Nats. However, I have a feeling that he will be back with the Twins since the Nats already have Austin Kearns, Lastings Milledge, Elijah Dukes, Ryan Langerhans, Nook Logan, Dmitri Young, and Wily Mo Pena competing for spots in the outfield.

In the minor league phase of the draft, outfielder Rashad Eldridge and pitchers Josh Hill and J.P. Martinez were taken from the Twins' organization. None of three were big losses. Eldridge, Hill, and Martinez all put up decent numbers mainly in AA last year, but all three were old for that level. Eldridge and Martinez were 25 and Hill was 24, and none of their numbers were anything special anyways.

So, all in all, the Twins had six relatively unimportant players taken from the organization in the Rule V draft and sent Chris Basak to the minors. So those were the extremely active winter meetings I had looked forward to, huh?