Case Solved: Why the Twins released Jose Mijares

Apparently the Twins released Jose Mijares not to save $200K a year, but to make room in their roster and locker room for Todd Coffey (yes, the Todd Coffey who pitches in capris) :

Pitching Checkpoint

This off day I was planning or writing something about the catching situation, but since there were a few new developments on the pitching side, I decided not to ignore those. Since it looks like there will be a rain out tomorrow, I will discuss catching tomorrow.

It is old news by now, but Jesse Crain has been placed at the 15-day DL retroactive to a couple days ago and Jose Mijares has been called up from Rochester to replace him. LEN3 was the first to break that story. Mijares after an awful spring when he showed up in camp looking like Pat Williams and pitching in a way that made Kevin Frederick look like a Cy Young candidate, seems to have found parts of his last September in Rocherster, where in five games he amassed these numbers: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 K, 0 ER (0.00 ERA, 0.47 WHIP.) Crain did get overused so far this season. It was inexcusable for Gardy to put him in the 9th inning to close a blow out game. That is done, it cannot be corrected, but I hope that Gardenhire realizes his mistake and does not repeat it. Speaking of repeating mistakes, when Gardenhire was asked about who the set up man will be now, he answered that everyone who is rested except Morillo who is still "a project". Wrong answer. He should select one (even pull names off a a hat) and go with him. The worse thing about a reliever is not knowing what his role is. Pitchers need to get ready to pitch. I hope that Crain gets healthy soon and that he returns effective because he showed signs of brilliance so far this season.

A lot of people are climbing on Glen Perkins' bandwagon this season and with a good reason: he has been the most effective starter on the staff. Yesterday in the Angels series' review I wrote the following about Perkins:

The Perkins of 2009 so far is different than the Perkins of 2008: He apparently worked on his change up and slider this off-season and unlike last year, he has complimentary pitches to his fastball. His slider still needs work, but his change up is very effective. And when he is down on the count he does not throw fastballs in the middle of the plate like he did in 2008. This allows him to get through innings with fewer pitches and pitch deeper into the games



And because a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, I will save myself two thousand and present you with these two from one of the great baseball sites out there, Brooksbaseball.net, to illustrate my previous point.

Exhibit A:



This is a graph of pitch number on the X axis and pitch velocity on the Y axis. This is Perkins pitching in yesterday's game against the Angels. As you can see, it is rare that he is throwing more than 2 fastballs in a row and there is a great mix between fastballs and off-speed pitches.

Exhibit B:



This is from a typical Perkins' outing in 2008. The 8/14 game in Seattle: He throwed a series of only fastballs four times (red circles-me-Bert), very few off-speed pitches, and when he got in trouble towards the end of his outing he threw 10 straight fastballs. This was not the way to pitch successfully and I had indicated ad noseum last season, that if this continues, Perkins does not belong in a major league rotation.

I am very happy that this has change and I hope that Glen keeps it up and when in trouble does not revert to bad habits.

The general opinion is that the Twins' starters have struggled last season:

here is a little known fact: The Twins (co-lead the majors) with 9 starters going more than six innings. I hope this makes the Twins' fans feel a little better.

One spring training position battle was won today; and another round of cuts.

José Morales was told today, according to La Velle Neal III, that he will make the 25-man roster and will be Mauer's temporary replacement. La Velle, in his article indicated that it was a hard decision for the Twins. Drew Butera had a better offensive spring and is regarded as a better defensive catcher, but the facts that Morales: a. is a switch hitter and has been better offensively b. has more experience in higher levels of the organization that Butera and c. at some point in his career caught all the Twins' starters regularly, weighted on his favor. I was not surprised by the move, regardless the buzz that Butera might be the choice. I actually had Butera starting the season in Rochester, when I posted my take on the Rochester Red Wings roster last week. The fact that it was a difficult decision is a good problems for the Twins to have. It seems that Jeff Christy will still stick around the major league camp until it breaks, while Drew Butera was optioned to Rochester.

José Mijares, in an anticipated move, was optioned to Rochester and Alejandro Machado was reassigned to the minor league camp. There were indications that the bullpen battle for the last 2 spots will be settled by today, but this does not appear to be the case. Also the last position player spot on the bench will be settle no earlier than the end of the week.

The fist cuts

Today was the announcement of the first cuts of spring training. The names were made public first, not by the conventional media and the beat writers who follow the Twins, but by Seth Stohs of Sethspeaks.net. Here is the list:

These 5 players are in the 40-man roster, so they were "optioned" to the minor league camp. Once a player is added to the 40-man roster, his 3 year option clock starts :

Armando Gabino
Trevor Plouffe
Deibinson Romero
Anthony Swarzak
Steve Tolleson


These 6 players were "non-roster invitees" (i.e. not on the 40-man roster) and were "reassigned" to the minor league camp:

Rob Delaney
Toby Gardenhire
Ben Julianel
Danny Lehmann
Dustin Martin
Danny Valencia


Surprises? Yes,actually quite a few:

• Jose Mijares is still in the big club camp. After he showed up overweight and out of shape, and pitched fairly erratically, the consensus feeling was that he will be one of the first cuts. At this point, he probably belongs more here, than in a major league club. I am not sure that the remaining of the ST for him should not be of the drop 25 lbs in 2 weeks variety.


• Kevin Mulvey and Brian Duensing are still in the camp. They have low chances of making the 25-man roster and as 2009 starters with Rochester, they would have benefited by more innings of work at the minor league camp


• Jeff Christie has not been cut. I know that there is need for catchers to catcher bullpens and workouts, but the Twins could have gotten college kids to do than, instead of keeping a guy who was in Rochester last year from getting game work this spring. Christie had all of 2 AB this spring


• Dustin Martin was cut. Dustin Martin was one of the best performers the first 3 weeks of the spring and outplayed Luis Matos, Jason Pridie and David Winfree. I would have thought that he would have been ahead of all 3 in the Twins' depth chart. For some reason, Gardenhire does not think so


• Luis Matos is still with the club. After hitting .158/.158/.211 in 19 AB, taking awful routes at the outfield and having balls sail over his head in multiple occasions, I would have thought that the fate of the 30 year old who hit .250/.323/.352 in AAA in 2008 was all but sealed. Martin's great Arizona League performance and great Spring Training performance as well as the signing of 26 year old Justin Huber of Team Australia fame, who is a legitimate power threat from the right side of the plate, would have been the last nails in Matos' coffin. What do I know what is in Gardy's mind?


• Steven Tolleson was cut. Steven was unlucky. He was out nursing injuries for a week and a half. He got all in all 11 unproductive at bats, putting zeros across the board (he had a double in the exhibition against team Netherlands.) Being part of the 40-man roster and having a great Arizona League performance to follow an excellent performance in the minors in 2008, in addition to the fact that he is a very good defender both in 2B and in SS, I thought that he had an outside chance to make the 25-man roster as a utility infielder. Gardy apparently did not think so.

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Goodbye Bobby Korecky

Bobby Korecky was claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks today, when he was removed off the 40-man roster to open a spot for Luis Ayala. He will have a chance to win a spot in Arizona's pen and the Twins would have a change to showcase Delaney (or Mijares if he does not make the 25-man roster) as the closer in Rochester. Korecky will be 29 this season, and would have a better opportunity to stick with the Diamondbacks than he would have had with the Twins. Good luck in Arizona, Bobby.