Below is an updated list of the pitchers who are in competition for Twins bullpen spots. Earlier rankings and comments can be found here.
Alex Burnett finally had a good spring outing which moved him up into the top contestants for a final spot. I think he is someone the Twins would like to take north. He has the experience and the stuff to pitch in the major leagues. I don't think they will have to be convinced he has it harnessed to win a bullpen spot. But he can't prove he doesn't either and that was the direction things had been going.
Manship, Maloney both also pitched well Saturday.
Waldrop, and Bulger, Walters had decent outings against Boston Friday night, although Bulger gave up a run in two innings. Thompson gave up a couple hits in one inning of work while also getting a couple strikeouts.
In Friday's afternoon game against Baltimore the pitchers did less well. Gutierrez and Burton both got tagged for runs and Vasquez gave up a couple hits in one inning. Burton gave up 2 walk and 2 hits while going 2 innings and move down the list as a result.
Thursday's game was a different story. Swarzak, Dumatrait and Wise all gave up three runs each. Perdomo helped himself by going one inning with no damage and two strikeouts.
There are still a lot of candidates out there and most of them seem to be getting the job done. With Gardy gone, I think the process of sending guys to the minors is probably stalled anyway. But, so far, there aren't many guys making those choices easy. These last couple weeks should be interesting.
UPDATE Sunday evening: Fien struck out all three batters he faced today. Gray and Deduno each pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Perdomo gave up a hit in one inning. No one made the coaches job easier.
UPATE Monday Morning: Sent to minors Gutierrez, Walters, Bulger, Perdomo, D. Thompson, Vasquez
Here are the rankings as of Sunday morning, March 18th:
Capps
Perkins
Duensing
Swarzak
Manship
Burnett
Waldrop
Maloney
Burton
Gray
Dumatrait
Doyle
Deduno
Fien
Wise
Hendriks
Sent to minors 3/19/2002:
Gutierrez
Walters
Bulger
Perdomo
D. Thompson
Vasquez
Sent to minors 3/15/2012:
Guerra
Robertson
Oliveros
Diamond
A. Thompson
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2 comments:
This is kind of fun. Usually there isn't this much competition and most tend to eliminate themselves, so that often at this point it becomes fairly obvious who is going to make the team.
I expect you were right in your last post and there should be a major cut tomorrow or possibly Tuesday. I am not as sure as you seem to be about Burnett. I think the Twins are very high on him, but I could see them having Burnett close at Rochester. He hasn't been all that consistent.
There should be around half of the remaining guys (17 I think not counting Hendriks, the starters, and the 4 locks for the bullpen) cut. I believe Guttierez will go down in the next cut as well.
I believe Maloney is still in line to be the 3rd lefty. I would think that anybody left on the 40 man roster who isn't going to make the team, will be sent down or sent through waivers(Gray?).
Some of the guys haven't pitched all that much. I don't know if they have been hurt or what, but I think most of them will be sent down. Maybe some of them have used more in the B games.
Jim -
The decisions they need to make now aren't who will make the team, but who won't. I don't think they are ready to say that about Burnett. They have two weeks left, but at some point I would think they need to start using people every other day to get them ready for the season. That's tough with this many pitchers still around.
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