Poll results and other odds and ends

Not a lot of Yankees fans currently following the blog: Fifteen votes on who we want to see win the Series. Fourteen want the Phillies to repeat, one wants the Yankees.

New poll up.

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On Friday, when I outlined the Twins pitching staff, I forgot completely about Bobby Keppel (above).

I wasn't all that impressed by him, and I don't think anybody can argue that he's secure in one of the bullpen jobs, but he does have the one pitch the Twins are most interested in — the two-seam (sinking) fastball. As such, he's got a chance to be around next year in a long man or utility pitcher role..

But that chance, I suspect, hinges on other players — injuries and/or trades. There's no way he can rate ahead of Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Jesse Crain or Jon Rauch if all are healthy. And he doesn't qualify for a LOOGY role.

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I've done some housekeeping on the blogroll.

The Chicago Tribune folded its "Hardball" blog into something called chicagosportsbreakingnews.com; as such, anything posted about the Cubs or White Sox is getting lost in a blizzard of updates on Da Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks. I don't care about the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks, so I've dropped it from the roll. And I decided to take Rany Jazayerli at his word that "Rany on the Royals" is done; should it return in the spring, I'll restore it to the roll.

Losing them really underlines a gap. I have nothing in the roll focused on any of the Twins' AL Central rivals. Everything is now Twins-oriented or very broad. That's a flaw I hope to address by next season.

And I've added "Seth Speaks" — Seth Strohs does a bang-up job on the Twins farm system in particular. I added it, frankly, because I'm a lot more likely to visit the site if it's linked to from my blog.

The other thing I've done is add links to the other Free Press blogs, as much for myself as for you. As with Seth, I'm more likely to visit my colleagues' work if I have them handy at mine.

What a relief(?)

Saturday's game was essentially a bullpen game for the Twins. Brian Duensing wasn't quite as good as his line score suggests — those two HBPs added to the stress — but five innings of two-run ball is good enough for a spot start. (That's two decent spot starts for Duensing, albeit against light-hitting lineups; maybe it's time to put him in the rotation and see what happens.)

But then we saw Bobby Keppel and Jesse Crain, each of whom had trouble throwing strikes. Twelve strikes of 24 pitches for Keppel, eight strikes in 15 pitches for Crain. They combined to pitch one inning of four runs, granting that the runs charged to Crain scored while Jose Mijares got out of the bases-loaded mess Crain left him.

Keppel's ERA in July was 6.75. His ERA in August is also 6.75. There's a trend here. Ron Coomer kept assuring us Saturday that Keppel's two-seam fastball is a "weapon." But if he can't throw strikes with it, it's a gun pointed backwards.

And Crain ... Dick Bremer said he's pitched well since his return from rochester. Then FSN put up the numbers, which showed Crain with a 4.40 ERA since his return, and Bremer started amending his earlier statement.

Crain did enter Saturday's game with an August ERA of 3.00 (nine innings). Now it's 4.82.

Of course, if Gomez catches that popup, only one run gets charged to Crain ... but that would be more a credit to Mijares' work than Crain's.

Two basic conclusions, neither new: 1) The Twins have Matt Guerrier and Jose Mijares in front of Joe Nathan, and everybody else in the bullpen is suspect and

2) The easiest way to win a baseball game is often to let the other team lose it. Both teams tried hard to lose that one, but the Royals are "better" at that.

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Poll results:

Twenty votes in the question of current interest in the Twins:

10 (50 percent) are interested now strictly for Mauer and Morneau; seven (35 percent) are interested in the season to the end no matter what; two (10 percent) still hold out hope for the postseason; and one (5 percent) says bring on football.

Ah, the wonders of a self-selecting audience.

New poll up.

Kubel, Keppel and a win

It's sure nice to have the Twins back after the break, isn't it? And even better to have them return with a win.

A couple of points:

1) Jason Kubel (above) had a home run and a single, and he's now bopping along with a .926 OPS. That's ninth best in the American League, but only third best among left-handed hitters on his own team (Joe Mauer's at 1.060, Justin Morneau's at .972).

Kubel probably would have been at their level earlier had he not blown out his knee back in the fall of 2004. It's taken a long time for his legs to get sound again.

But in one important way, he's not at the Mauer-Morenau level. He's still weak against his fellow southpaws. His slash stats: .356/.409/.663 vs. right-handed pitchers, .194/.256/.250 vs lefties.

2) Bobby Keppel had another strong outing: Six batters faced, six batters retired, three strikeouts. He now has an ERA of 0.63, and while that's obviously unsustainable, he's doing it with lots of ground balls (a GB/FB ratio of 1.86).

We have seen the Twins lean heavily in the past on right-handed pitchers (starters and relievers) who were said to rely on their sinker: Joe Mays and Carlos Silva, Luis Ayala and Brian Bass, to name four. None of them ever got this many ground balls.

It's a thin sample size. He hasn't fully converted me. But he's sure getting the job done.

Keppel in the pen

Yes, I said this in the previous post about Bobby Keppel: He hasn't earned key spots yet, and probably never will.

So naturally Ron Gardenhire wheeled him into a 2-1 game in for seven outs Tuesday. He now has pitched 6 1/3 innings since his call-up without allowing a run, he's struck out six men and the stadium radar gun in Kansas City reportedly clocked his velocity at 94 mph.

I've been calling for a while for power arms for the bullpen. What's not to like here?

Four walks is something not to like. And his minor league record is that of a sinker-slider guy who doesn't miss a lot of bats. He's got more than 1,000 innings of professional experience that say he can't strike out enough hitters to succeed in the majors.

Now, maybe there's truly something different about him now — a better delivery, a new pitch, the elimination of a poor secondary pitch. But he was only striking out 4.5 men per nine innings in Rochester before his call up.

The Greg McMichael Rule still applies. He's getting outs, and he'll keep getting the ball as long as he does.

But I wouldn't count on it lasting.

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Speaking of power arms: Pittsburgh and Washington made a trade Wednesday, and the headline tells who were the centerpieces of the swap — a couple of outfielders.

But the guy in the deal who interests me is Joel Hanrahan, a hard-throwing relief pitcher who really hasn't had much go right for him this year. He was on Team USA during the World Baseball Classic, and I tried to make a point of watching him, because he was expected to be Washington's closer this year and I was curious about the fantasy-game possibilities.

That didn't work, but the talent remains. I doubt the Pirates are going to try to flip him immediately — but a bit more than a week ago I had Matt Capps prominent on a list of relief pitchers who might be available in trade. Hanrahan might make Capps more available.

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It does not speak well of the Twins offense that they have scored two runs in two games against Luke Hochever (career ERA 5.15) and Brian Bannister (career ERA 4.70). And on Wednesday they not only face a quality pitcher in Gil Meche, they do so in the daytime, when they really haven't hit much at all.

Bullpen shuffle

Word out of Rochester is that the Twins have called up pitcher Bobby Keppel. (You have to read to the bottom of the story to find it out.)

No word yet on who is being taken off the 25-man roster; they don't have to do anything until Tuesday, since today's an off day. The two obvious targets are Sean Henn and Luis Ayala; Henn's pitching worse, but he's left-handed, and swapping him out for Keppel would leave just one lefty in the pen, Jose Mijares.

I doubt it will be Jose Morales, the No. 3 catcher; the relief corps right now isn't being overworked, and the Twins will spend the rest of this week on the road in NL parks, so can use an extra pinch hitter. When Denard Span returns, which is supposed to be a bit later this week, it will probably be Jason Pridie who goes back down.

Update: Luis Ayala has been designated for assignment.

Keppel has had a good season in Rochester, but his (very limited) major league track record doesn't suggest he's an eight-inning option. I wouldn't be surprised if R.A. Dickey began to get significant late innings.