Figures from bullpens past

The sour news Thursday morning for former Twins closer Joe Nathan -- a second round of Tommy John surgery -- made me realize that as difficult as this year has been for the current Twins bullpen, it's been rougher for a lot of former Twins relievers.

A quick accounting:

Nathan has faced one batter, Torii Hunter in the season opener. He struck Hunter out on a disputed call, then went on the disabled. list. On Wednesday Nathan was to throw 30 pitches on a rehab assignment. He got through 10 and walked off the mound holding his elbow. The diagnosis the next day: tears of his ulnar collateral ligament and flexor pronator. He vows to return, but ... this will be his second ligament replacement, and the track record on repeat TJ surgeries is not good. Plus, face it, he's 40.
LaTroy Hawkins is even older (42), and had said this would be his final season. He opened as the closer for Colorado, but was stripped of the job last week. On Thursday he went on the disabled list.

Jose Mijares was released in spring training by Cincinnati. He was released the previous spring by Boston and hasn't pitched in the majors since 2013. And after he was cut by the Reds, he got hit with a 50-game suspension for a "drug of abuse." Mijares is only 30, he's left-handed, and he has a career ERA of 3.23 and a lifetime BA allowed to left-handers of .223, but he's wearing out his welcome very quickly.

Jesse Crain left the Twins after 2010, signed with the White Sox, had a big year by throwing his slider far more often, made the All-Star team in 2013 -- and got hurt before the game was played. He's since bounced from the White Sox to Tampa Bay to Houston and back to the White Sox, where he's in extended spring training.

Matt Capps was in spring training with the Braves, was released, then re-signed by the Braves. If he's still in their organization, he isn't pitching. He has just 12 professional innings in the past  two years. He's only 31, but it's not looking good.

Jared Burton, let go by the Twins, signed a minor-league deal with the Yankees, who released him during spring training, then re-signed him to another minor-league deal. This avoided paying him a retention bonus (which may have been part of the Braves' maneuvering with Capps as well). Still, we're several weeks into the season and Burton hasn't appeared in a game, majors or minors.

That's a full bullpen of former Twins mainstays who are now injured or just hanging on.

It's not all bleak for the ex-Twins. Anthony Swarzak landed with Cleveland; signed to a minor-legue contract after the Twins cut him loose, he made the major league team without benefit of an opt-out clause. But he's been the exception.

Dear Lord, not another reunion tour

Torii Hunter is 39 years old. He played like it this year. 

I've been seeing in recent days tweets and blog posts from people who really ought to know better suggesting that the Twins bring back Torii Hunter (to play left field). Or Jesse Crain (to pitch middle relief).

Dear Lord, no. This year's Reunion Tour (Jason Bartlett, Jason Kubel, Matt Guerrier) was bad enough. Let's not do Reunion Tour II.

There is nothing in the business of signing 30-something free agents in decline that helps the Twins at this stage. This is not a contending team; Hunter and Crain aren't going to help the Twins win a divisional crown. They will get in the way of playing the guys who might someday help the Twins win a divisional crown.

They won't plug holes so much as block roads.

Leadership? I am increasingly convinced that "leadership" as defined by big-city columnists means "accessible, gives good quotes." Hunter is that. As a player, he is emphatically in decline. (A decline, I will concede, that came about five years after I expected.) Baseball Reference's version of WAR puts him at 0.4 in the season just completed; Jordan Schafer, in a fraction of the playing time, was at 0.3 with the Twins. Again: on a per-out basis in the American League, Jordan Schafer was better.

Crain? He hasn't pitched since midseason 2013, and what's more, he hasn't come close to being ready to pitch. He's 33 now, he blew his arm out throwing slider after slider with the White Sox, and the only purpose for a team in the Twins' position to sign him is on the chance that they can flip him for someone useful at the trade deadline. I say that potential benefit is outweighed by the obstacle he'd pose for younger arms.

I do think the Twins need to reconstruct their bullpen. An injury guy in his mid 30s is not the way to do that.

Crain Train to the South Side

Jesse Crain's contract with the Chicago White Sox was finalized Monday — three years, $13 million.

That was too long and too much for the Twins, as was Matt Guerrier's deal (three years, $12 million) with the Dodgers. (For all the talk about the Twins becoming a big-budget team — and their payroll did mushroom with Target Field — they were still outspent by both the Sox and Detroit last season, and the Sox at least appear certain to have a bigger payroll in 2011 as well.)

Jesse Crain with the Twins:
Seven seasons, 376 games, 33-21,
3.42,  72 holds, three saves.

The Sox, like the Twins, are reconstructing their bullpen. Gone are closer Bobby Jenks and right-handed set-up men J.J. Putz and Scott Linebrink. Chris Sale, the lefty rookie who supplanted Jenks in the ninth-inning job down the stretch, might remain in the 'pen, or might be called on to fill out the starting rotation; just as the Twins cannot be certain about Joe Nathan's return, the Sox don't know what Jake Peavy's capable of providing.

Right now, Ozzie Guillen's late inning options feature Matt Thornton, Crain, maybe Sale. Then comes Sergio Santos, the former Twins minor league shortstop who did well last season in his first real season of pitching. (Santos converted to pitching during the 2009 season, in which he worked 28-plus innings on four minor league levels with an ERA above 8.) They have Tony Pena in a long-relief/swingman role.  That's four or five pieces of the puzzle, with two or three to be determined.

Crain's history with the Twins, as we well know, is marked with drastic swings in performance. For example:

In 2009, he got demoted to the minors in mid June; his ERA at the time was 8.15, and he had allowed a run or more in four of his previous six outings. He returned about a month later, spluttered for much of July and August, then got it going in the final month (1.13 ERA in 13 innings).

In 2010, his ERA stood at 7.31 after the game of May 18. After that, he had just two games until September in which he allowed any scores. Then he gave up seven runs in September/October's regular season (almost a fourth of the runs he allowed for the year) and got lit up in his playoff appearance against the Yankees. At one point, his ERA was under 2.50; he finished at 3.04.

The Crain the White Sox are familiar with is the Crain who owns Paul Konerko; they don't know the Crain who got the derisive nickname "Crain Wreck." If the White Sox are serious about using him to close games — and it's not easy for me to imagine Guillen opting for a bullpen by committee approach all season — those lows are going to string.

Crain's 2010 resurgence has been linked to a greater reliance on his slider, which he threw as much as 50 percent of the time. There have been relief pitchers who thrived with that kind of approach, or even greater reliance on the slider — Sparky Lyle, Mike Jackson, Larry Andersen — and maybe Crain can sustain it. Or maybe his late-season fade had something to do with the league realizing that he was "pitching backwards."

The Chicago Tribune piece linked in the first sentence takes the attitude that the departures of Crain and Guerrier are major blows to the Twins. If so, they are blows the Twins expected, even intended, to accept this offseason.

Free agent arbitration: Jesse Crain

2011 age: 29 (turns 30 in July)

Free agent classification: Type B

2010 basic stats: 1-1, 1 save, 3.04 ERA (full stats here)

2010 salary: $2 million

The Outsider's verdict: Yes

---

Jesse Crain has been the very image of inconsistency in his career. In April and May of the past season,he allowed 13 earned runs (and 16 total) in 22 innings -- an ERA of 5.32. He was charged with just 10 earned runs the rest of the season.

Jesse Crain has pitched
in 376 games for
the Twins in his career.

He's done this before. In 2009, he was awful through July (and was briefly shipped to the minors); then he allowed nothing in September (13.1 innings, five hits, no runs). In 2008, he had three good months, three bad months. And so on and so forth.

When he's good he's very good, and when he's bad he's horrid. A radio wit dubbed him "Crain Wreck," and he's had enough disasters for the derisive nickname to stick.

Still, he was Ron Gardenhire's go-to-guy in the 'pen down the stretch. And he's the most likely of the Twins' crop of free agent middle relievers to be offered arbitration.

He's not starting from too high a base; he deserves the raise arbitration is designed to award; and there will be suitors. The risk in offering arbitration is minimal.

He indicated to MLB.com's Kelly Theiser that he's interested in having a chance to close. That probably isn't on the horizon in Minnesota; the Twins went through three closers from the start of spring training and never appeared to consider putting Crain in the ninth inning role.

Closing, of course, is where the money is for a relief pitcher, and this offseason might be Crain's best chance to cash in.

Backwards bullpen thinking

Oh, those Yankee switch-hitters.

Darren Oliver's career got a
second wind when he shifted
to the bullpen in 2004.

Game one, ALDS: The game is tied at 4, and the Yankees have Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixiera due up in the eighth inning — right, switch, switch — followed by Alex Rodriguez, another right-handed hitter. Ron Gardenhire wheels in right-handed Jesse Crain, who gets Jeter but then allows a single to Swisher, a home run to Teixeira and a single to A-Rod before being pulled. That's the game: 6-4, Yankees.

Game one, ALCS: The Rangers have a 5-1 lead in the eighth inning, but Brett Gardner leads off with an infield single and Derek Jeter's liner eludes Michael Young. With Swisher and Teixeira coming up, Ron Washington turns to veteran lefty Darren Oliver — who walks both the switch-hitters and departs. The Yankees score five runs in the eighth. That's the game: 6-5, Yankees.

OK, here's the puzzle: Facing the same two men, one manager turned to a right-handed reliever, the other to a lefty. Why?

My answer: Both Crain and Oliver have histories of being "backwards" — that is, they reverse the platoon advantage, or at least minimize it.

Crain in 2010, for example, held left-handed hitters to a slash stat line of .196/.281/.333, while righties were .228/.304/.331. Over his career, lefties have a slight platoon advantage, but not as much as usual.

Oliver's season stats were more LOOGY than backwards (.200/.234/.295 vs lefties, .281/.344/.421 vs. righties), but he's been backwards repeatedly in previous seasons, and his career splits are pretty even.

Backwards relievers are prized in Strat-O-Matic leagues for just such matchups. Theoretically, they deprive switch-hitters of their platoon edge.

But Swisher and Teixeira are dangerous from either side, and neither Crain nor Oliver made good pitches.

Gardenhire's move was even more defensible because both Swisher and Teixeira are better hitters from the right side of the plate (against lefties) than from the left side. The percentages were with Crain; on that night, his slider wasn't.

Gardenhire's iron men

Day game after a night game, and Drew Butera had caught four in a row. But Joe Mauer's shoulder is still bothering him, and the Tampa Bay Rays run the bases too aggressively for Ron Gardenhire to tolerate having Jose Morales catch, so Butera started Thursday's nooner. (Actually, 11 a.m. in Florida.)

Which fits the ethos of the backup catcher. The criteria of resting the catcher doesn't apply to him. His father, Sal, knew about that. In 1981 the elder Butera caught 25 games in 28 days when the Twins were shorthanded behind the dish. In that span, his only days off came when the team didn't play.

So it wasn't overly surprising that the younger Butera caught Thursday. He even had an RBI double.

What DID surprise me was that Gardy brought in Jesse Crain to pitch for the fourth game in a row. Gardenhire loves to ride hot hands in the bullpen, and annually is at least among the leaders in using pitchers on back-to-back days, but four in a row was pushing it.

He had an almost-equally hot Ron Mahay warming up at the same time but brought in Crain with the bases loaded (two out) to face the switch hitting Willy Aybar. Aybar for his career is better from the left side, so that wasn't the point of bringing the righty.

Crain walked Aybar to force in a run. Then Mahay entered and perhaps demonstrated why Gardenhire has been reluctant to use him in game situations; pinch-hitter Jason Bartlett hit a grand slam to tie the game.

The Twins wound up winning anyway, with a little help from the bizarrities of Tropicana Field.

I will be very surprised if Crain pitches Friday. Or Saturday.

Crain on track

Here are the career numbers of three right-handed relief pitchers (numbers gleaned early Wednesday from Baseball Reference and may not reflect last night's play):

Pitcher A (age 32): 443 innings, 3.70 ERA, 1.0 HR/9. 2.8 BB/9, 7.3K/9

Pitcher B (age 31) 439 IP, 3.36 ERA, 1.1 HR/9, 2.8 BB/9, 6.0 K/9

Pitcher C (age 28): 346.1 IP, 3.56 ERA, 0.8 HR9. 3.3 BB/9, 6.0 K/9

Pretty interchangable, right? Pitcher A has a higher strikeout rate, but his ERA is the worst. Pitcher B has the best ERA, but he's a bit more prone to the gopher ball. Pitcher C walks a few more men than the other two, but he does a better job of keeping the ball in the park. But these are small differences. None is great; all are useful.

Pitcher A is Jon Rauch. Pitcher B is Matt Guerrier. And Pitcher C, as you probably inferred from the blog title, is Jesse Crain.

Every team has players its fans love to hate. Crain is one of those for the Twins.

Crain pitched the eighth inning Tuesday to protect a one-run lead, and the Star Tribune game story noted that his ERA over his past 19 appearances is 1.04. This overstates his effectiveness; on June 10 he allowed three unearned runs — two hits and a walk in two-third of an inning — in a game the Twins lost by one. It helped his ERA, but he didn't get the job done that day.

He has been on most days, however. The fans may not trust him as much as they do Rauch and Guerrier, but that merely illustrates the limits of fan understanding.

---

A belated recap of last week's poll, on predicting Johan Santana's career wins total:

We had 27 responses. One said Santana would win less than 150 games; 13 (48 percent) said 150-199 wins; another 13 said 200-249. Nobody (in this poll) thinks he'll get past 250, and that probably means that nobody voting in this poll thinks he'll get into the Hall of Fame.

Late night: Mariners 4, Twins 1

Box score here. Game story here.

One run per game just doesn't work well in 21st century baseball. And that's the starvation diet the Twins lineup has served up to the pitching staff the past three games.

Not that Carl Pavano was all that wonderful Thursday. He had his habitual problem holding runners on base. Ichiro Suzuki (above) swiped three bases by himself. Seattle stole five bases in the first three innings.

And King Felix reigned over the Twins hitters, striking out four men in the eighth inning (Joe Mauer reached on a third strike that eluded catcher Rob Johnson).

Danny Valencia picked up his first major league hit. The plan for him is to return to Triple A when Michael Cuddyer returns from his bereavement leave on Tuesday.

Jesse Crain had another shutout inning. He has made eight appearances since May 18, allowing one run and four hits in eight innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Ask and ye shall receive (bullpen edition)

Kevin Slowey had another five-and-fly start Monday in Toronto. Four or five weeks ago, this would probably mean Brian Duensing in the sixth; two weeks ago, probably Jesse Crain.

But Duensing is working later in the games now, and Crain has been ineffective. With a three-run lead, Alex Burnett (pictured) got the ball.

It wasn't brilliant — two innings, two hits, one walk, no strikeouts — but he got six outs and allowed no runs. It was his first major league "hold," and may there be many more.

Burnett reminds me of Juan Rincon, who had a nice little run as a top-grade set-up man for the Twins: Short righty (Burnett is listed at 6-feet, Rincon at 5-11) with a low-90s fastball and a good slider.

Burnett was followed in the eighth by Matt Guerrier with a five-run lead. I assume this was because when he started warming up it was still a "save situation" — Justin Morneau's two-run homer came with two outs. He was warmed, so they used him.

And Crain did get an inning, the ninth, with a comfy five-run cushion.

So Burnett appears to be ahead of Crain in the bullpen pecking order right now. But this can change. The discontent Ron Gardenhire voiced about Crain during the weekend was couched in terms of needing him turned around. Given that neither Pat Neshek nor Clay Condrey appear to have begun pitching in rehab assignments, Crain may be a long way from exhausting his chances.

---

My silly little TV poll Monday got the results I expected: 13 responses, 11 of who said they'd watch the Twins-Jays, one the NBA and one a dark screen.

Me? Twins-Jays, mostly, with occasional look-ins at Mythbusters (hey, I like watching Jamie and Adam blow stuff up). A bit of time pulling dandelions in the backyard with the radio (I decided to stick with it through the end of the top of the fourth; the Jays killed a lot of dandelions with their sloppy play). And after the Twins game ended, I saw the last two or three innings of the four-hour Yankees-Red Sox game.

Twins still riding the Crain train

The Associated Press today reported that the Twins are tendering contracts to all their arbitration-eligible players. (This is deadline day to tender contracts; those not getting formal offers become free agents.)

The only one there was any doubt about was Jesse Crain.

This pushes the projected payroll to about $90 million, and that in turn casts doubt on the notion that a major free-agent infield signing is in the works. 

Keeping Crain, as noted a couple days ago, sets up a potential log jam in the bullpen, with as many as four veteran right-handed set-up men in front of Joe Nathan (Crain, Matt Guerrier, Jon Rauch and Pat Neshek). But Neshek will have to prove first that he is indeed back from his injury, and if he is, the Twins may have a useful trade chip during spring training.

Snowstorm brainstorms

Things I think about while shoveling snow (so that I'm not thinking about shoveling snow):

*Right now, the Twins appear to have a surplus of veteran right-handed short relievers: Joe Nathan, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Jon Rauch, perhaps Pat Neshek.

But that surplus can easily revert to the shortage that plagued the Twins in the second half of 2008 and for much of 2009. If they do indeed nontender Crain (to avoid paying him approximately $3 million) and the rehabbing Neshek isn't good to go, they're suddenly down to Guerrier and Rauch to set up Nathan — and Bobby Keppel figures to get more game-critical outings than is good for the team.

Two RH set-up men are too few; four is too many.

* The Twins are understandably vague about their payroll budget, but they have often operated as if whatever their upper limit is may not be breached at any point, even during the offseason when they aren't paying players.

If this is the case, and if the upper limit for 2010 is $90 million, it's really difficult for the Twins to add an established infielder without dumping salary before or during the transaction. Which is where the pressure to nontender Crain comes in.

Clearing Crain (and Boof Bonser) from the books takes the Twins down to something in the vicinity of $86 million. Is that low enough to fit a Mark DeRosa into a $90 million budget? My guess is not.

* The deadline to tender contracts is 11 p.m. CST Saturday.

* Trading Bonser is a theoretical possibility but unlikely. A team acquiring him in trade would inherit his arbitration eligibility, and I doubt anybody's eager to take a seven-figure hit on a pitcher with a 5.12 career ERA coming off shoulder surgery.

* The Twins' 40-man roster was full as of Tuesday, so it appears they won't be active in the Rule 5 draft on Wednesday. It would be the first time in years they haven't taken somebody in Rule 5.

Bonser, Granderson and Crain

As noted yesterday, Boof Bonser (above) was the loser when Carl Pavano accepted arbitration.

He's arbitration eligible — players get credited for service time when on the disabled list, which was at the heart of Glen Perkins' beef with the Twins in September — and figured to get a $1 million contract. Instead, he'll likely get a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. Quite the comedown.

We Twins fans will remember him for his name, of course, but we should also remember his fine pitching down the stretch in 2006, his rookie season — 4-1 in September-October with a 2.63 ERA. That was a promising beginning, but it turned out to be his best season with the Twins.

It said here Tuesday that something had to give in the Twins pitching logjam. Bonser was the first. Perkins may well be next — and LaVelle Neal suggested that the Twins may cut Jesse Crain loose before Saturday's deadline to tender contracts. Crain projects to get $3 million because he's arbitration eligible. If that seems like a lot for a middle reliever who had a 4.70 ERA, you're right. But he had a 2.20 ERA from August on.

Here's the thing: As documented by Joe Christensen, the Twins' projected payroll for 2010 is bumping the $90 million mark. If they're serious about adding a veteran infielder such as Mark DeRosa, they're likely to wind to cut somewhere else.

---

Former Mankato Masher Curtis Granderson is by all accounts about to become a New York Yankee once a complex three-team trade is finalized — which is pending medical reviews.

Granderson is an eminently likable fellow and a player of talent and flaws. He can't hit lefties, he strikes out a lot and his numbers have declined the past two seasons. His departure is being mourned in the Tigers blogs I keep an eye on — he's the kind of guy fans easily make emotional investments in — but I think the organization is making a good baseball move here. At lot depends on Austin Jackson, the much-touted outfielder Detroit is getting from the Yankees.

What Arizona is thinking, that's another matter. I think Max Scherzer is a more valuable talent than Edwin Jackson, and Daniel Schlereth is a more valuable talent than Ian Kennedy, so what's the point?

Seven out and sinking

The Twins tragic number — the total of Minnesota losses and Detroit wins needed to eliminate the Twins from the AL Central title — as of Monday morning: 20.

---

A couple of items worthy of comment:

*Ron Gardenhire, at least for public consumption, has been critical of Jose Morales' receiving skills. But the manager did have something good to say about his pitch calling.

The Twins catching hierarchy is fairly obvious: Joe Mauer catches as many games as he can. If the Twins are carrying two catchers, Mike Redmond is the wise choice as the number 2 guy because A) he has an extensive track record that says he can handle the job and B) the Twins can't send him to the minors without exposing his to waivers. Jose Morales has options, so the Twins could (and did) demote him while retaining him.

But it is becoming increasingly certain that Morales is now a better player than Redmond. With September's wins and losses becoming meaningless in terms of making the playoffs, Gardenhire is likely to continue to uphold the fiction that Redmond's the No. 2 and Morales the No 3, but the reality is the reality.

* Glen Perkins apparently won't be recalled this month. Leaving him in the minors is likely to cost him arbitration eligibility, which has led to talk of him filing a grievance.

Perkins has an ERA this season of 5.89 and an career ERA of 4.93. He's been on the disabled list twice, this after a 2007 that saw him spend most of the season idle with a shoulder injury that supposedly would take a couple of weeks to heal.

Perkins' major league future may now hinge less on his potential than on his price tag. He has a real chance of pricing himself out of the game. Pushing for super two status would be a mistake.

* Jesse Crain has shaved 2.33 runs off his ERA since returning from the minor leagues in late July. It's still an ugly ERA — 5.82 — but he's re-establishing himself as a relief option.

Which would give the Twins four usable arms in front of Joe Nathan: Matt Guerrier, Jose Mijares, Jon Rauch and Crain. If Pat Nesheck can come back next year, they figure to have real depth in the pen in 2010 for the first time since the 2006 season.

If they hadn't bungled the Craig Breslow situation this spring ...

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.

--

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.

A Buehrle imitation

When he's on — and he has been of late — Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox makes pitching look easy.

Move the ball in and out, up and down. Change speeds. Work fast.

He's a pitching coach's mantra come to life.

I sat the the outfield cheap seats Wednesday night watch Brian Duensing, an emergency fill-in starter for Francisco Liriano, do a passable Buerhle imitation.

He threw just nine pitches in the first inning. Every one of them was a strike. He threw 16 pitches in the second inning; 12 strikes, four balls. Two of those balls were to Alexi Ramirez, who is well-known to have little regard for the strike zone, so I assume Duensing was trying to miss the zone with those pitches.

For the game, Duensing threw 64 pitches: 48 strikes, 16 balls, a very impressive 3-to-1 ratio. I doubt we'll ever see Liriano display that kind of control.

It wasn't a flawless performance. He did give up a couple of homers. I doubt that he convinced anybody that if one of the current starters got hurt he'd be no major downgrade.

But for one night, he got the job done.

---

Two other keys to that game were players who have had bad seasons so far.

Jesse Crain picked up the "W" with two scoreless innings. He allowed leadoff hits in both frames, then induced around-the-horn double plays from right-handed sluggers (Paul Konerko in the sixth, Carlos Quentin in the seventh).

And Alexi Casilla had a pair of RBI hits, one of them a double, and stole a base — and in the field was the pivot man on both of Crain's DPs.

We can file this game under "blind pigs find acorns," or we can hope this is a sign that what was expected from them might still be forthcoming.

The Twins' crumbling pitching

Facing the worst offense in the American League, the Twins allowed 14 runs on Monday, 16 on Wednesday.

And to think I denegrated Anthony Swarzak's work on Tuesday. At least he got outs.

Glen Perkins (right) got only three outs on Wednesday, then reported some shoulder problems. He downplayed them to the media, but he's going to see a noted specialist on Thursday (as will third baseman Joe Crede, something to be discussed on another day).

The Twins being the Twins, Perkins is unlikely to make his next start (Monday) no matter what the specialist says. Which raises the question: Then who will?

My guess is either R.A Dickey or Brian Duensing, both of whom pitched Wednesday, both long enough that they won't be used Thursday.

Dickey threw 86 pitches, easily what I call the moral equivalent of a start — meaning he ought not be used again until Monday anyway. On that basis, I think Dickey's the guy to start on Monday. But he may be in Ron Gardenhire's doghouse after his fastball to Ian Kinsler on Sunday, plus his ERA has gone from 2.37 on July 1 to 3.62 now.

Kevin Slowey, still on the disabled list, has gone to Rochester for a rehab assignment. The idea is for him to make one start, maybe two, to test his wrist. At best, he'll be pitching with discomfort with surgery after the season. At worse, he'll need the surgery sooner. He's to pitch Saturday; even if that start goes well, he won't be an option Monday against the White Sox.

Kevin Mulvey, who relieved Perkins in the second inning and had an ugly line of his own, was shipped out after the game and Jesse Crain recalled. His ERA while in the minors was good, but the word was that his fastball command was still lacking.

—

Perkins' line from Wednesday is quite remarkable. One inning, six hits, three walks, eight runs, and a throwing error. He threw first-pitch strikes to nine of his 12 hitters, which is a good rate, but only 22 of his 41 pitches were strikes.

He says his shoulder doesn't hinder his pitching. Something sure was.

Crain demoted

The move to make room for Glen Perkins: The demotion of Jesse Crain.

This is a surprise in the sense that I didn't think he had options left. Also in the sense that he makes $1.7 million, and I doubt that at this point he was on a split contract. That they got him off the roster, at this point, is hardly shocking. That happens to pitchers with ERAs in the eights.

So ... Now the Twins have 11 pitchers, six of them in the bullpen (Joe Nathan, Jose Mijares, Matt Guerrier, Luis Ayala, Sean Henn, R.A Dickey). Even with seven relievers, Ron Gardenhire was piling up the appearances for Guerrier, Mijares and Henn. Crain's ineffectiveness had made him unusable, so in a sense dropping to six doesn't change anything.

But something has to. The Guerrier overuse, in particular, mirrors last season and threatens to fulfill a definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

One of two things has to happen: A) a seventh (reliable) reliever is added, or B) Gardenhire stops using two or three relief pitchers to pitch two innings and goes to using one set-up man a day. I wrote several weeks ago about the now-bygone technique of a relief rotation.

There are some obvious parallels between the people in this bullpen and the core of the 1987 pen.

Nathan equals Jeff Reardon. Mijares is a lefty version of Juan Berenguer — chubby power arm. Ayala and Guerrier are somewhat comparable to George Frazier and Keith Atherton. Then there's Henn to provide a lefty fill-in and Dickey for the long man role.

This can work. But it would be a real shift in the way Gardenhire and pitching Rick Anderson have handled dividing the bullpen workload, and I don't really expect them to try it.

The Crain train detrailed

The moment I saw Jesse Crain warming up Sunday, I knew the Twins were in trouble.

And sure enough, four of the five men he faced in the bottom of the ninth reached safely, which was more than enough for the Cubs to break the 2-2 tie.

Crain this month has faced 17 batters, eight of whom have either gotten a hit or walk.

The telling quote from Ron Gardenhire after the game: "You try to find the right situation to put him in ballgames, but when you get to this point there is no right situation."

I have some sympathy for Gardy on this one: Matt Guerrier had pitched on June 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 — five times in six days. Granted, most of those outings were brief — he totaled eight outs in those five games — but that's still excessive use. Luis Ayala had pitched the eighth — more on that later. And the Cubs had a string of right-handed hitters up, so it's understandable that he wanted to avoid calling on Sean Henn or Jose Mijares.

Which left Joe Nathan, Crain or R.A. Dickey. Nathan had pitched four times in five days himself, so he wasn't going to be asked to pitch multiple innings. And Dickey ...

Well, frankly, why not Dickey? I know: He's the long man. Well, guess what? He's been far more effective than Crain — his ERA since April is 1.52 — he's right-handed, and if the game goes extra innings, he's equipped to soak up the extra work. And he hadn't pitched in a week.

The underlying issue here remains bullpen depth. Guerrier has been far better than I could have hoped; Mijares has bounced back from his spring training disaster; Henn and Ayala are contributing in limited fashion; and Dickey has been marvelous in the long role.

Crain's supposed to be the eighth-inning right-handed power arm. And he's been useless.

The Gardenhire quote above sounds like he's running out of patience with Crain. A lot of fans reached that point a few weeks ago.

---

Ayala had a perfect eighth inning Sunday — three up-three down, three first-pitch strikes, even a strikeout.

And somehow it took him 22 pitches to accomplish it, because there were 10 foul balls. The man just cannot miss bats.

Which is why I say he's useful in a limited fashion.