Notes, quotes and comment

Josh Willingham's
final plate appearance
came in the World
Series.

Josh Willingham made it official Monday: He's retiring.

No real surprise there; Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press wrote it about two months ago. He goes out with 195 home runs. His best season was with the Twins in 2011; his worst, at least by OPS+, was also with the Twins in 2012.

He finished with Kansas City, of course, and had just four at-bats in the Royals' postseason run. But the Hammer had a big hit in the wild-card game against Oakland: a leadoff pinch-hit single in the bottom of the ninth that set up the tying run.

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Twins new, if still unofficial, bullpen coach Eddie Guardado is among the 17 newcomers on the Hall of Fame ballot. No, he's not going to get in, or even make it to a second year on the ballot. He'll be one and done.

The big names among the newbies: Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz.

There are a lot of highly-qualified candidates on the writers ballot, and the BBWAA has done a lousy job keeping up with the crowd. But even this crowd will vote in Johnson and Martinez. Maybe they'll get around to Craig Biggio too.

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Berardino reported Saturday that the Twins had placed the high bid for the posting rights to Hyeon-jong Yang, a left-handed pitcher who was voted the top Korean pitcher in the KBO this year. On Sunday another report said the Texas Rangers had placed the high bid.

The winning bidder, whoever it is, won't be officially notified (and the clock started on the negotiations with the pitcher) until the Kia Tigers actually accept the bid, and the word is that the team expected more.

I'll get interested in this one if and when the Twins are confirmed as the rights winners.

Progress on the coaching staff

Eddie Guardado was a fan favorite as a Twins reliever
from 1993-2003 and again in 2008.

The lengthy pause after announcing that Gene Glynn and Rudy Hernandez would join holdover Tom Brunansky on Paul Molitor's debut coaching staff suggested that the remaining four slots would be filled by outsiders, people the Twins would have to pry away from current teams.

But then word leaked Wednesday night that Eddie Guardado will be the bullpen coach. "Everyday Eddie" has been on hand early in spring training the past few years, but hasn't had a fulltime job with any organization.

Bobby Cuellar, the bullpen coach the past two years, told Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press that he was informed two weeks ago he would not be retained. Frank Viola, "Sweet Music" on the 1987 champs and 1988 Cy Young winner and now a pitching coach in the Mets system, said he was interviewed for the pitching coach job but has been told he's not one of the final two candidates.

Carl Willis, dubbed "The Big Train" as the top setup man on the 1991 champs, apparently is one of the finalists. (The other, according to the star Tribune's LaVelle Neal, is Neil Allen, currently the Triple A pitching coach for the Tampa Bay Rays.) Willis has a fairly lengthy coaching resume, largely on the staffs of Eric Wedge, who managed the Cleveland Indians 2003-2009 and Seattle 2011-13. He's currently working in the Indians system.

So, I counted it up and it's actually 12 All-Star seasons by 8 pitchers under Carl Willis: 6 #Indians, 6 #Mariners. http://t.co/zY1k1RWYHj
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) November 19, 2014

Willis has also coached three Cy Young seasons (C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Felix Hernandez).

Which led me to wonder about Rick Anderson. He coached two Cy Youngs (both Johan Santana.) His charges have also had 12 All-Game nods from six pitchers: Joe Nathan four times, Santana three times, Glen Perkins and Guardado twice, Francisco Lirano once. That list is heavy on bullpen guys, which figures. The bullpen was generally a strength of the Gardenhire era.

Matt Guerrier does not equal Eddie Guardado

If the stereotypical closer is Goose Gossage or Lee Smith — hulking flame thrower — the reality is somewhat different.

There have been plenty of successful closers who thrived without intimidating velocity, including Eddie Guardado (right), who picked up 86 saves in his two seasons in the ninth-inning role with the Twins.

Everyday Eddie got it done without a single dominant pitch. He worked with command and attitude.

Which some think makes him a template for Matt Guerrier, who also lacks a dominant pitch but has the command and attitude part.

One big problem with that comparison, however. Eddie G. missed bats. Matty G. does not.

Look at the Baseball Reference link above for Guardado and you'll see excellent K/9 rates until his age 36 season, when his shoulder was giving way. As a setup man, he consistently whiffed more than a batter an inning; as a ninth-inning specialist, just a little under.

Now look at Guerrier's. He doesn't match up. Last year he had the kind of strikeout rate Guardado had in his final season.

It's a significant difference. Strikeouts matter for pitchers. Guardado was — I write of him in the past tense because it appears his career is over; you get released by the Nationals, you probably can't pitch for anybody — a better pitcher than Guerrier is.

Name that Twin, Part 1

The Associated Press this week supplied us with mug shots of pretty much everybody in the Twins training camp — 40-man roster, manager, coaches, non-roster guys. I spent some time this morning downloading, re-sizing in a Web-friendly format and organizing them, on the basis that if the Twins call up Anthony Slama, it will be handy to have an image to post with an explanation of what the hay he's doing here.

There are a lot of faces in that pile you haven't seen. There are faces in that pile you'll never see. Camp is loaded with extra catchers, because somebody's got to catch all those bullpen sessions, and the Twins aren't about to beat Joe Mauer's knees into submission in March.

So to get some use out of today's work, I herewith begin the "Name that Twin" contest. Each day I'll post the mug of an obscure player (or coach), and y'all can guess his identity in the comments. I'll name him the next day and post the next one. I'll do this until either (a) I get tired of doing it, (b) I run out of faces I don't recognize or (c) it becomes obvious that nobody else cares.

Winner gets free access to Baseball Outsider. Second place gets 50 percent off.

First photo is above.

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Before I head off for what figures to be a difficult work shift, a few quick comments:

* The Washington Nationals today released old fave Eddie Guardado. I have to admit, for just a moment the notion of Everyday Eddie succeeding his successor as Twins closer crossed my mind. But that train left the station long ago.

* Jim Souhan is rapidly approaching Sid Hartman status — as in, any time spent reading him is lost forever. I'm not going to link to Souhan's latest moronity, but I will say I wish he'd been in one of my fantasy leagues over the years. Trade Mauer for a relief pitcher!

* A commenter on the Jamie Hoffmann post below points out that the player in the photo throws with his left arm, and Hoffmann is right-handed. D-oh! I should have noticed that myself.

AP identified the player in the image as Hoffmann, and I went with it. I have no idea who is shown, and I have trashed the image from my library. My apologies.

Losing two-hitters and Eddie G.

The tragic number remains at eight. Tigers lose, Twins win, and Detroit now leads by two games with nine to play.

Normally it's a good thing for a starting pitcher to allow just two hits. Not in these games.

Robinson Tejada allowed the Twins just two hits, but one of them was a homer, and the hard-throwing righty walked seven while getting just 13 outs. He threw 82 pitches, and 40 of them were balls. One of them was a wild pitch that scored Nick Punto from second base (photo above).

And for Detroit, Eddie Bonine gave up two hits in 6 2/3 innings, but one of them was a homer that followed an error — and his mound opponent, Jake Peavy, showed what all the midseason fuss was about with seven shutout innings. The White Sox bullpen — now without closer Bobby Jenks — added two more shutout innings, and Chicago wins 2-0 with just two hits for the entire game.

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One of my favorite Twins is hanging 'em up after the season — Eddie Guardado, Everyday Eddie. A great first name. And a pretty good pitcher.

He was around for the lean years in the 1990s and he played a big role in turning the franchise around in the early part of this decade. He's bounced around since leaving the Twins for a big free-agent deal, and he's pitched for years with his throwing shoulder hanging by a thread.

Tom Kelly persisted in viewing him as strictly a LOOGY. One of the first things Ron Gardenhire did when he took over was declare Guardado his closer. It seemed odd, as he didn't have "closer stuff." But he was more effective in that role than he had been as a specialist.

He had command of his fast ball, a good palm ball, and never seemed afraid of anything out there. That was enough.

He is, at the moment, tied with Cy Young in career appearances. With more than a week to go, he should be able to get into at least one more game.

And anybody beating old Cy in any career category was doing something right.

The Twins and the circle change

A digression from Monday's print column:

The Twins have had no shortage of success with pitchers relying on the circle change (seen above).

Frank Viola won the World Series MVP in 1987 and the Cy Young in 1988 with the circle change as his out pitch. Johan Santana won two Cy Young awards, in 2004 and 2006, with the circle change as his out pitch. (Should have won the Cy in 2005 as well.) Brad Radke never got a Cy Young (nor did he deserve to), but his 148 career wins are third most for a Twins pitcher.

Combined, those three went 353-276 as Twins.

That kind of success breeds imitators. The Twins are known today for a pitching staff modeled on Radke: unimpressive fastballs, but good to great command of that pitch — and the willingness to change speeds on it. And the first change up the minor leaguers are taught is almost certainly the circle change.

It has certain advantages over other change ups. Perhaps most important, it has a reverse curve break. (As mentioned in the Monday print column, Warren Spahn's "screwball" was probably the circle change.) So it not only messes with the hitter's timing, it's moving on multiple planes as well.

Not that it works for everybody. Eddie Guardado, for example, uses a palmball, or four-finger change. It was a very good change up, strong enough to make a top-flight closer out of a guy with subpar fastball velocity.

Carlos Silva tried a number of different change ups and, by the end of his Twins career, appeared to have settled on a splitter/forkball.

Silva's pitch went through a variety of names. When he broke it out in training camp 2007, he was calling it a split-fingered fastball. Then it became a forkball, then simply a change. I suspect that was because the Twins organization frowns on the splitter, fearing elbow injuries, and didn't want minor league pitchers arguing Silva throws it, why can't I. (It's worth noting, too, that Silva, who had been quite durable with the Twins, has broken down physically each of the last two seasons since adding the splitter.)

Almost all change up grips start with the idea of holding the ball deeper in the hand. Fastballs and curves are gripped between the thumb and the first two fingers, with the ring and little fingers tucked out of the way. Whether the change is a circle change, a palmball, a forkball or some other variation, it's held deeper, and often brings a third or fourth finger into play.

There have been a number of legendary change-up artists — guys who threw almost nothing but change ups, guys known for changing speeds on their change ups. Jean Dubuc. Eddie Lopat. Stu Miller. Doug Jones. Allan Anderson, who won the AL ERA title with the Twins in 1988 and followed with a 17-10 season the next year. Jamie Moyer. I suspect a number of them mastered multiple change ups. A circle change here, a palmball there, maybe Paul Richards' "slip pitch" — a variation of the palmball — and suddenly one has an entire repertoire of pitches not thrown hard enough to bruise a peach.