Phasing out Blyleven

With the World Series wrapped up, teams are now free to start making moves and announcments.

The Twins had already replaced their manager. They still have a coaching staff to name and a bunch of roster moves to make. And the question of Joe Mauer -- retiring or returning? -- remains unanswered.

But the big news of Monday was about the TV broadcasts. Bert Blyleven is being phased out as the main analyst -- 80 games in 2018, 50 in 2019, 20 in 2020.

That news actually came from the 67-year-old Blyleven, who first tweeted that he's putting his condo in downtown Minneapolis up for sale, then explained that the Twins and Fox Sports North "offered me less games for the next 2 seasons because they said they are going in another direction. I agreed to their request."

I am too old to be part of FSN's target demographic, and a captive audience anyway. Nobody is picking analysts to try to get me to tune in. But as fond as I am of Blyleven the pitcher, I long ago wearied of  his constant complaints about how the game has changed since his day. The same applies to Jack Morris.

I've suggested a few times here that a quality local broadcast reflects the outlook and priorities of the organization. I don't believe the Twins broadcast analysts, TV or radio, have consistently met that standard since the Terry Ryan era ended.

Notes from the weekend

I'm not a neurologist who has examined Joe Mauer. Even if I were a neurologist who has examined Joe Mauer, I doubt I would have a definitive opinion on what the return of "concussion-like symptoms" means for his future.

But clearly this is not a positive development for him, or for the team. He left Friday's game early and went on the disabled list Saturday. (Technical note: He went on the 10-day DL, and I wonder if they abolished the seven-day concussion DL when the 10-day DL came into being.) All we know for sure is he won't play for more than a week.

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The Twins finally played a clean game Sunday. And they won. What a novelty.

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I am amused by the reaction to Tampa Bay's newest pitching innovation: The one-inning starter.

The Ray's rotation had left-hander Ryan Yarbourgh scheduled for Saturday's game at Anaheim, but manager Kevin Cash announced earlier in the week that he would open the game with veteran reliever Sergio Romo, who once closed for a team that won the World Series and had never started a game in his career. The rationale: The Angels don't have a left-handed bat in the top half of their lineup, so the right-handed Romo can deal with the Mike Trouts and Justin Uptons in the first inning and Yarbourgh can have a slightly easier time of it when he came in in the second.

I heard somebody, I'm not sure who, on MLB Radio ranting about this. What sabermetrics, what analytics, tell you that a guy who's never started in his life is a better matchup?

Hey, it's one inning of pitching. One inning at a time is what Romo has done in the majors for 11 years. First inning, sixth inning, ninth inning -- it's all short stints for him.

He struck out the side in the first. Yarbourgh entered to start the second inning and went 6.1 innings, his longest outing of the season. (And got the W.)

And on Sunday, Romo started again. This time Cash stretched him out to 1.1 innings. The Angels won Sunday -- it was Shohei Ohtani's day to pitch, after all -- but Romo gave them another shutout inning at the start of the game.

After which Angels infielder Zach Cozart complained that using Romo this way was "bad for baseball." Seriously.

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Cozart's may not have been the single silliest utterance of the weekend, however. I bow in this regard to the Dutch Master of old-school, Bert Blyleven, who complained mightly during Sunday's telecast about the pulling of Jake Odorizzi in the sixth inning. At one point he declared that Odorizzi is like Justin Verlander and capable of going 120 pitches.

What Odorizzi has in common with Verlander is that they're right-handed and have spent their entire major league careers in the American League. Verlander has 10 seasons with more innings than Odorizzi's career high. Odorizzi has thrown 120 pitches (his career high) exactly once, in 2016.

Odorizzi is a good major league starter. He's not Verlander. It insults the listeners' intelligence to pretend they are equivalent pitchers. We were all better off when Blyleven was on his extended break from the booth.

Notes, quotes and comment

The MRI on Ricky Nolasco's ailing elbow found no structural damage:

Nolasco's ligament is sound. Had some flexor pronator stiffness on opposite side of elbow . #MNTwins
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) July 8, 2014

So the Twins have put him on the disabled list and called up Chris Herrmann, catcher-outfielder. This gives them an extra bench player for the weekend series in Colorado, where there will be no DH (National League rules). It also thins out the pitching staff for a series in Colorado, where pitchers are known to struggle.

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The debate over whether Nolasco should have told the Twins his elbow hurt or if the team should somehow have been more proactive reminded me of 1988, when Bert Blyleven had a miserable year (10-17, 5.38) and finally went on the disabled list in late July.

The vacationing Blyleven referenced that year, I think, in this tweet:

Sorry to read about Nolasco put on the 15-day DL. I know 1st hand it's not easy to pitch with a sore elbow. Good luck Ricky. Heal quickly!
— Bert Blyleven (@BertBlyleven28) July 8, 2014

I remember thinking in '88 that Blyleven wasn't helping the team by hiding the injury. But, at least from this distance, I'm not sure the alternatives on hand would have been any improvement. The Twins that year got career years from Frank Viola and Allan Anderson; every other starter, including Blyleven, was pretty awful.

This year, the Twins have a very good rotation working in Triple A. The alternatives are better than in '88. And the upside of Nolasco is not comparable to the upside of Blyleven.

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Brian Dozier was named to the AL squad for the Home Run Derby, to be held Monday at Target Field. There's no requirement that a home team guy be in the derby, but you may remember how Robinson Cano was booed a couple years ago in Kansas City for not selecting a Royal (specifically Billy Butler).

Anyway, Dozier will be taking part, and apparently he had already recruited his brother, who pitched in college, to throw to him. I don't know; if by some stroke of luck one of my brothers were in the Derby and asked me to pitch to him, I'd probably accept just to knock him down. But my sibling dynamics may not be normal.

There's one more participant for each league to be named, and the word is that Justin Morneau has told NL captain (and Colorado teammate) Troy Tulowitzki that he won't accept unless he makes the NL All-star team. Right now, he's one of the Final Five candidates, and was reported on Tuesday to be in the lead.

If Morneau is in the Derby, he might get a bigger hand from the Target Field crowd than Dozier.

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In the immediate wake of Miguel Sano's Tommy John surgery, there was speculation that he might be able to DH in the minors in August. That has been ruled out.

Miguel Sano has been ruled out from games until December. Will be in "controlled environment" until then, per Rob Antony.
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) July 8, 2014

So no minor league play for Sano, no Arizona Fall League, maybe winter ball in the Dominican. It's a conservative approach; it may be a wise approach; it is, definitely, a patience-testing approach.

Pic of the Week

Bert Blyleven was 48-37 in five seasons with Cleveland;
Roberto Alomar hit .323 in his three seasons there.

Another moment in the Bert Blyleven Victory Tour, as he and fellow Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Alomar threw first pitches Friday in Cleveland.

The Twins schedule has been kind to Blyleven in that regard. He played in the majors for five teams — Minnesota (twice), Texas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and California/Anaheim — and the Twins have been in each of the American League cities since his induction July 24. (Pittsburgh wasn't part of the interleague draw for the Twins this year.)  So he's gotten pregame attention in four cities the past few weeks.

A reader goes to Cooperstown

In the week leading to Bert Blyleven's Hall of Fame induction, I put out two calls (one in the print column, one in the blog) looking for readers who were going to the ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y., my idea being that I would stitch their tales together for a print column.

The Salge family outside the Hall of Fame entrance.

I heard from two. One was a retired gentleman from Hanska who was talking about making a road trip out there; his plan was sufficiently vague as not to be a plan (he asked me about the hotels in Cooperstown, and I had to tell him there isn't a lot there and what is there was spoken for long ago). If he made it out there, I haven't heard from him.

The other ...

Tara Salge and her husband grew up in Blue Earth County (one in Mapleton, the other in Good Thunder) and now live in Buffalo, N.Y., where they have apparently managed to resist the proximity of the Toronto Blue Jays and the gravitational pull of the Yankees to remain Twins fans.

Buffalo sounds close to Cooperstown, and it is closer than southern Minnesota, but in truth nothing is really in proximity to Cooperstown. In her first email she said it was a four-hour trip, and they hadn't been to the Hall of Fame before, but Blyleven's induction was the perfect excuse.

From there, I'll let Tara tell it, with a little editing:

I just wanted to touch base with you on our trip to Cooperstown. What a great sight to see! 

Saturday evening there was a parade with some of the past Hall of Fame inductees. Crowds lined Main Street in Cooperstown as the players made their way to the Hall of Fame Museum. Everyone was so excited to see some of their favorite players from the past. There were people of all ages, from all over the U.S. and Canada. I was proud to see such a large number of Twins fans there to cheer on Bert! 

We went into the Hall of Fame museum before the ceremony on Sunday. On our way in a gentleman held the door for us and I realized it was Dick Bremer there with his family. We didn't say anything at the time, but said thank you and went on our way. Once we got to Clarks Sports Complex and settled on a spot to the right of the stage, numerous people were already there with their chairs and blankets set up. It really was just an open field! 

Dick Bremer and Tara Salge

We talked to a man in front of us from San Antonio; he said he used to live in Minneapolis. I told him of our experience that morning with Dick Bremer, expecting him to ask who that was, and he told us that he and Dick are best friends and they were each other's best men in their weddings. He was even Dick's daughter's godfather! Before we knew it, he was on the phone with Dick and he made his way over towards us. So even though we didn't get close to Bert, I got my picture taken with his sidekick, Dick Bremer. He was also so excited to be there sharing the experience with his son. 

Maxwell in his Twins overall.

I found the atmosphere to be so great. There were people wearing shirts with all of the different teams, but there were no rivalries for the weekend. It was full of people who love the game of baseball and came to show support for their favorite team and player! My husband said that even though our son, Maxwell, age 16 months, won't remember the experience, there is something special about sharing the Hall of Fame experience with your son.

In Bert's speech, he said that all of us Twins fans there were hearby circled. I saw some fans had a big sign held up saying "Bert, we now circle you." Congrats to Bert and a great Hall of Fame experience!

TK as a broadcaster

Judging from what I hear, a lot of fans are enjoying Tom Kelly's brief sojourn into the Twins broadcasting booth.

TK in 1987, when the manager
was younger than some
of his players.

I'm among them, although I suspect that a lot of it is Blyleven fatigue. A full season (or more) of Kelly's mumbling would probably grow just as tiresome as Bert's repeated pitch count rants and assertions that "you have to do the little things" "at the major league level" even if you're "the best athlete on the field."

In that sense, just about anybody would do in the booth. ABB -- Anybody But Bert -- would make the broadcasts fresh and different. Whether that's what Fox Sports North, the Twins (who have the final say over the broadcast crew) or the audience want is another matter.

For myself, I want to learn something more about the game, and at risk of bragging, at this stage that's a high bar to set. I can't remember the last truly novel insight to the game I gleaned from Blyleven.

Kelly and his stopwatch (for timing the pitcher's delivery, a means of determining if the base runner can steal) is a dose of real-time scouting in the booth. His thoughts Friday on Gavin Floyd's inconsistent use of the slide step — that Floyd would be better off if he made it his standard stretch delivery — was both common-sensical and delivered with an acknowledgement of the potential trade-off. Kelly's enthusiasm for both Rene Tosoni and Ben Revere belied his reputation as a hard man for young players to please.

There are times when Kelly doesn't go far enough, when he softens or blurs his point, I assume to avoid criticizing somebody. Example: On Thursday, Ron Gardenhire had Jason Repko pinch-hit for Tosoni, and Dick "Richard" Bremer asked Kelly if it might not be wiser to keep Repko available, since the Twins had the lead. Kelly's response focused on the immediate opportunity to add runs against a left-handed pitcher, and didn't mention that the change would also strengthen the outfield defense. (To be fair, Repko went out on the first pitch to end the inning, so Kelly may not have had time to get to the defensive gain from the switch.)

Bremer is clearly amused by Kelly's sarcastic digs at one of  Blyleven's favorite chestnuts, that "best athlete on the field" line. I don't know that he's so amused by Kelly calling him "Richard" all the time. (I had theorized that TK simply doesn't want to say "Dick" on the air, especially when he initially identified 1970s White Sox slugger Dick Allen as "Richard Allen," but then a bit later Kelly called the old player "Dick.")

TK in the booth is clearly not going to be a long-term thing. I'm pretty sure he prefers his scouting/teaching/evaluating role. But I do wonder if the positive reaction to his stint in the booth might lead the organization to ponder the possibility of replacing Blyleven.

The unwatchable Francisco Liriano

Another lousy start for the Twins most talented starter.

Remember the furor just before spring training when the Twins and Liriano did a one-year contract and there was suddenly chatter about trading the left-hander?

I think the market would be considerably lower today.

Wednesday was Liriano's fifth start, and really, none of them have been effective. He's 1-4 with a 9.13 ERA , and the one win came in a game in which he allowed five hits and five walks in 6.1 innings.

In 23.2 innings — less than five innings per start — Liriano has 18 walks, 18 strikeouts and, it appears, no clue.

I have no idea how he can turn this season around. I do know that it is going to beastly difficult for the Twins to do much in 2011 if he's going to pitch as if it were 2009 again.

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A small piece of broadcast idiocy last night: The Rays had a 7-1 lead and put a runner in motion, and Bert Blyleven started complaining about them stealing bases with a six-run lead. (Let the record show that the only actual steal attempt by the Rays came in the first inning; my issues isn't with what the Rays did, but with what Blyleven said.)

The "unwritten rule" is that you don't steal bases with a big lead, and there are good reasons to follow that rule, not the least of which is the enhanced possibility of injury.

But ... hey, are the Twins giving up? Are they going to stop trying to score runs? No. Then why should the Rays stop playing their game? Teams have overcome six-run deficits in the past, and the Rays have a bullpen in which Kyle Farnsworth plays a key role. If I were Joe Maddon, I'd not treat a 7-1 lead as sufficient either.

It's the major leagues, and if the Twins share Blyleven's consternation about the Rays trying to tack on runs, they know what to do about it: Stop walking people and start holding some runners on.

They said, I say

Twins nuggets in the news and my reaction:

* Joe Nathan, preparing to test his reconstructed pitching elbow in spring training, invites manager Ron Gardenhire to step into the batter's box during a throwing session and says: "I wasn't afraid to come inside and brush him back a couple times."

Autograph time at Twins fest for Ron Gardenhire and
Joe Nathan, presumably after Nathan's throwing session.

I say: Pitchers coming back from ligament replacement surgery frequently find that command is an issue. This story implies that Nathan is comfortable enough with his command — the ability to locate the pitch where he wants it — to buzz his fastball off the plate inside on his manager. (It also implies that it matters to Nathan that he not hit his manager; I suspect there are pitchers who would privately love to bury a fastball in their boss' ribcage.)

* LaVelle Neal's blog has commentary on new lefty reliever Dusty Hughes from anonymous team officials:

... they really think Hughes can help. Hughes throws four pitchers — fastball, curve, slider and change — and they think he can be more than a specialty lefty.

``He's Craig Breslow, with crisper stuff,'' one said of Hughes.

I say: I'd be more impressed with this if the Twins had attached any real value to Breslow when they had him. Perhaps it was just Gardy who didn't think much of Breslow, but Breslow was seldom used in game situations and jettisoned rapidly when he hit a rough patch; since the Twins waived him, Breslow has pitched 130 innings with a 2.84 ERA and 115 strikeouts.

The four pitches thing is intriguing, though. It implies that Hughes has a starter's repertoire. That sounds better than it is for a reliever; a starter with four average major league pitches can work with that, but a reliever is better off with one or two quality offerings. Still, it worked for Matt Guerrier.

The trees behind the wall?
Going, gong ...

* The Twins will retire Bert Blyleven's Number 28 this summer, about a week before he is inducted into the Hall of Fame.

I say: No surprise there. I've figured for years that he needed to get into the Hall for his number to be retired. Unlike non-Cooperstown honorees Kent Hrbek and Tony Oliva, Blyleven spent a good portion of his career with other teams.

* The spruce trees behind Target Field's center field fence are to be removed because hitters found the movement of branches in the breeze and the shadows distracting.

I say: As a fan, I liked the trees, but if there were legitimate concerns about visibility, they had to go.

Circle me, Cooperstown: Blyleven is finally in

Bert Blyleven in the 1987 World Series. His postseason
record—5-1, 2.47 — came in three seasons, well spaced:
1970, 1979 and 1987.

The news this afternoon that Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar were elected to the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers is no real surprise; they each fell just a handful of votes shy last winter, and their ascension into baseball immortality this time around was expected.

Blyleven's case is particularly noteworthy because when he first hit the ballot 14 years ago, there appeared to be no way that the writers were ever going to elect him -- no matter the win totals, no matter the strikeout totals, no matter the postseason record, no matter the legendary curveball.

And now Blyleven's in. He's in because of the sabermetric crowd. He's in because the more people like Bill James and Rich Lederer and Rob Neyer (and others) dug into the numbers, the more they put Blyleven's career into context, the more he stood out. These nonvoters' research informed such writers as Joe Posnanski, Peter Gammons and Jayson Stark, who took up the cause as well.

Lederer in particular beat the Blyleven drum, with no fewer than 29 entries in his "Bert Blyleven series" at the Baseball Analysts web site. Some tout Blyleven's qualifications; others tear down the arguments of those who vote against him.

There's some irony here, since Blyleven himself last season used some of the same arguments used against him by the Flat Earth Society portion of the electorate to argue against giving the Cy Young award to Felix Hernandez.

Blyleven belongs. The only problem with his selection is that it took 14 years.

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I assume that now the Twins will retire Blyleven's No. 28 (with Jesse Crain's departure, the number is vacant). I doubt, however, that they'll blow a hole in the wall of Target Field to get a Gate 28 in his honor.

Luis Tiant, Graig Nettles and Bert Blyleven

Chris Jaffe -- yeah, you've seen his name here a few times lately -- posted an item Tuesday about a big trade the Twins made 15,000 days earlier.

The Twins got Luis Tiant and Stan Williams; in return, they shipped off to Cleveland Bob Miller, Ted Uhlaender, Dean Chance and a young guy they couldn't fit into their lineup named Graig Nettles.

Graig Nettles hit 390 homers
in 22 major league seasons.
Twelve of those homers
came for the Twins.

These were name players. Chance had won a Cy Young; Tiant was one season removed from a 1.60 ERA and 22 wins. Williams and Miller were veteran swingmen; Uhlaender had been the Twins regular center fielder.

In retrospect, we Twins fans would probably like to have Nettles back. But the trade made sense at the time, and in the short term, it wasn't a disaster.Chance, Uhlaender and Miller didn't do much when they left the Twins. Nettles had a stellar career. As for Tiant and Williams ...

I had a post back in September about the 1970 Twins staff. Williams had a big year in relief -- 10-1 with 15 saves and a 1.99 ERA in 113-plus innings. He and Ron Perranoski (7-8, 34 saves, 2.43 ERA 111 innings) were a devastating right-left bullpen combo. They were also 33 and 34 years old respectively, and both men's performance fell off the cliff in 1971.

Jaffe dismisses Tiant's contribution to the 1970 Twins, but he was doing what the Twins were looking for -- 6-0, 3.12 -- before suffering an arm injury in late May that derailed his career for a few years.

People are all agog about the current Phillies rotation, but consider the Twins rotation entering 1970:

• Jim Perry (age 34) had won 20 games in 1969 with a 2.82 ERA.
• Dave Boswell (age 24) was also coming off a 20-win season and had four straight double-digit win years on his resume.
• Jim Kaat (age 31) was one of the better lefties in the league.
• Tiant (29) had had a poor 1969 season, but had been marvelous in 1968 and was clearly a talented pitcher.

Perry won 24 games and the Cy Young in 1970, and Kaat was his usual effective self (14-10, 3.56). But Boswell's career cratered and never recovered, and, as noted already, Tiant got hurt.

Tiant's injury (and Boswell's ineffectiveness) opened holes in the Twins rotation. One of those holes was plugged by a 19-year-old named Bert Blyleven.

Tiant and Kaat both have Hall of Fame cases. Today should be the day Blyleven's case is finally accepted.

Today is Blyleven Day (or it should be)

Today the BBWAA announces who got elected to the Hall of Fame, and unless everybody's crystal ball is getting static, Bert Blyleven will be in.

Fox Sports North plans live coverage from Blyleven's Fort Myers. Fla., home. The announcement is expected at 1 p.m.

Robin Roberts, Bert Blyleven and the Hall of Fame

Bert Blyleven has 287 wins to his credit -- 287 regular season wins, and five more in the postseason.

Robin Roberts, who died Thursday at age 83, had 286 wins and a goose egg in the World Series, which was the only postseason of his time.

Blyleven was charged with 250 losses; Roberts with 245. Blyleven's career ERA was 3.31; Roberts', 3.41.

Robin Roberts is in the Hall of Fame, and deservedly so. Bert Blyleven is not but ought to be.

The similarities in their career totals -- and their mutual penchant for the gopher ball (Roberts holds the career record for home runs allowed, Blyleven the single-season record) -- aside, they are not really comparable pitchers.

Roberts relied on his fastball movement and control. The obituaries claim his velocity reached 100 mph; I wasn't there, but you can't see that in his strikeouts. A power pitcher, yes; a fly ball pitcher, most definitely, probably the most pronounced fly ball pitcher ever. Richie Ashburn, his center fielder during his salad days in Philadelphia, holds all kinds of putout records.

Blyleven had a good fastball, but his best pitch was his curve.

Roberts' career high in walks was 77 — and that was in an era when 100-plus walk seasons were fairly common for pitchers. Blyleven bested that figure four times. Roberts never stuck out 200 men in a season; Blyleven did so eight times.

The reason Roberts is in and Blyleven out: Roberts won 20 games six straight years, with a high of 28, and was widely considered the best pitcher of the early 1950s. Blyleven won 20 games once.

Big seasons. The Hall of Fame voters love big seasons from pitchers and career numbers from hitters.

The BBWAA chokes. Again.

Bert Blyleven (above) fell five votes short of Hall of Fame induction in the results announced Wednesday.

Roberto Alomar — who I reckon was one of the ten greatest second baseman in history — didn't make it either. Nor did Barry Larkin — one of the 10 best shortstops in history.

Andre Dawson did. The Hawk was a good player. He wasn't anywhere near as good as Tim Raines, but why vote for the second greatest leadoff hitter in history when you can induct somebody whose career on-base percentage is 20 points lower than the previous worst among HOF outfielders?

Dawson isn't quite as bad a joke as last winter's selection of Jim Rice, but it's close.

It used to be that almost all the mistake inductions into the Hall came from the various Veterans Committees. After Jim Bunning, Tony Perez, Rice and Dawson, it's becoming increasingly common for the writers to boff it.