Notes, quotes and comment

Thumping on the White Sox -- possessors of the second-worst record in the majors -- is what a team with playoff aspirations should be doing.

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Joe Nathan is going to "retire as a Twin" today Friday. The former bullpen ace never found a new team after the Nationals cut him loose early in the season. He's pushing 43 now and has had two Tommy John surgeries.

I will always respect the stars who try to milk one more year out of their talent, who will play until nobody will give them a uniform even if they are no longer what they once were. That's Nathan right now. He was great a decade ago for the Twins, and I will remember him as one of the best relievers in the game long after I forget his late career wanderings from team to team looking for one more opportunity to pitch.

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If the season ended today, the Twins would be in the playoffs. (And so would each of their minor league affilates, from Triple A to Rookie ball.

There are pros and cons to having all the minor league teams continuing to play. The advantages would include the so-called "culture of winning," which is rather undefinable, and having the continued opportunity to send an injured player on a quick rehab assignment. Also, the owners and managements of minor league affilates like winning and appreciate being with a major league organization that frequently gets them into the playoffs.

But it also makes it a bit touchier to make mass callups for the Sept. 1 roster expansion.

The priority isn't getting Rochester the International League title; it's getting the major league team a wild card berth. But one doesn't want to undermine the affiliates unnecessarily.

Example: With Jason Castro sidelined still by his concussion, the Twins have no reason to feel guilty about having Mitch Garver on their active roster. Cory Provus, the radio play-by-play guy, speculated last night that Anthony Recker, the catcher acquired last month as a throw-in when the Twins traded for Jamie Garcia, might be called up as insurance behind Garver and Chris Gimenez.

Probably won't happen, in part because the Twins would have to open a 40-man roster spot for Recker, in part because they don't need to use him at the major league level at this point, and in part because that would create a roster issue for Rochester -- and promoting a catcher to take Recker's space would have the same effect down the chain.

It's a good problem to have.

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One guy who won't be called up or pitch in the minor league postseason is primo pitching prospect Fernando Romero. Romero has been shut down at Double A Chattanooga after a difficult August (8.38 ERA for the month). He's thrown 125 innings this season after working 102.1 the past two seaons combined because of injuries, including Tommy John surgery.

He's on the 40, so a call-up was to be expected. But he's pretty clearly gassed.

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The Twins this week named four prospects to the Arizona Fall League roster: pitchers Tyler Jay and Tom Hackimer (both relievers), outfielder LaMonte Wade and multi-position guy Chris Paul. Paul and Jay missed considerable time this year with injuries, so the AFL gives them a chance to catch up on innings and at-bats respectively.

They have two roster spots yet to fill. Who gets tabbed may depend on injury status.

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The Houston Astros have been cleared to play in their home city again this weekend, so presumably Minute Maid Park and its supporting services and infrastructure are good to go, or at least will be by Saturday. That's a good sign as the Houston area deals with the aftermath of Harvey.

Ex-Twin watch: Joe Nathan

Never criticize a player for trying to extend his career ...

Joe Nathan, 41, signed a minor league deal Tuesday with the San Francisco Giants. He's pitched a total of 2.1 major league innings the past two years, including three well-spaced appearances for the Chicago Cubs last month before the Cubs, having restocked their bullpen with a series of deadline deals, designated Nathan for assignment in early August.





This brings Nathan back to where his career began, or at least the organization where it began. Presuming he clears the physical, he's to be assigned to the Giants' Double A affiliate, which is in Richmond. Va. (On a side note, it's rare for a West Coast team to have a high minors affiliate that far away.) The idea is that he'll be added to the big club when rosters expand in September, if not sooner.

The Giants, who slipped behind the Dodgers Tuesday night in a tight NL West race, have need for a good bullpen arm. Whether Nathan, eighth on the all-time saves list, meets that description after two Tommy John surgeries is uncertain. I can't imagine that the Giants are going to let that be their biggest relief move this month.

The Cubs bullpen

Aroldis Chapman may have the fastest pitch in
major league history. 

A big deal went down Monday: The Yankees shipped fireballing closer Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for a rather impressive package of prospects. I don't much care for what we know of Chapman the human being, and this piece from the Chicago Tribune's David Haugh defines the uneasiness that should accompany rooting for Chapman. (He only details one incident, but there have been others.)

But as far as the Cubs are concerned, Chapman really only has to behave himself for three months or so. Then he becomes a free agent. The Cubs are willing to overlook his character flaws in pursuit of their first World Series title since 1908 and their first World Series appearance since 1945.

But then there's this:

The Cubs are 55-1 going into the 9th with lead, 53-1 going into 8th, 53-5 into 7th.  The upside for *any* reliever add is limited.

— Dan Szymborski (@DSzymborski) July 25, 2016

The Cubs have fallen off their early-season pace not because of its lack of stars in the bullpen but for other reasons. Example: Ace Jake Arrieta allowed four runs in six innings Monday night; it was the fourth time in five starts he's allowed that many runs. His ERA has risen from 1.74 to 2.76 in that span.

Still, it's the bullpen that the Cubs are aiming to beef up. Chapman is the second lefty reliever the Cubs have traded for -- they got Mike Montgomery from the Mariners for a couple of prospects last week.

And Old Friend Joe Nathan, back from another Tommy John surgery, made his first appearance of the year Sunday and struck out the side against Milwaukee. Nothing's certain about Nathan, of course; he's 41 and there's a lot of mileage on his arm. But if he is sound again ... well, he and Chapman and Hector Rondon (1.95 ERA with 18 saves) look like a pretty darn impressive crew for the late innings.

If Nathan is sound. If Chapman behaves himself, If, if, if.

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.

The Tigers veteran arson squad

Joe Nathan has 27 saves for the Tigers -- and six blown
saves, with an ERA of 5.36. He has one more year
at $10 million left on his contract.

One of my many pet theories is that the bullpen is a measuring stick for an organization's competency. Relief pitching is both fragile and available. Good organizations, my theory holds, are aware of this and constantly re-evaluate their bullpens and seek to rebuild them on the fly. Top-notch managers are usually adept at identifying the failed starters whose strengths lend themselves to relief work and find the proper matchups.

That's the theory, and then there's the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers have dominated the AL Central the past three seasons and remain in the hunt this year, but their bullpens have been more hindrance than help. Given how well general manager Dave Dombrowski has done over the years in other aspects of the roster, that's surprising.

This year's Tigers bullpen is an assemblage of "proven closers" unlike almost any I can remember. Between the 40-man roster and the 60-day disabled list, they have

• Joe Nathan, 368 lifetime saves, six All-Star teams
• Joakim Soria, 177saves, two All-Star teams
• Jim Johnson, 124 saves, one All-Star team
• Joel Hanrahan, 100 saves, two All-Star teams

That's 769 saves and 11 All-Star rosters among the four of them. And we haven't even gotten to Detroit's passel of veteran setup men: Joba Chamberlain (seven saves), Phil Coke (eight saves), Al Alburquerque (one) ...

Nathan's addition (to a two-year, $20 million deal as a free agent) was supposed to put an end to the late-inning collapses, but the former Twins stopper has had a miserable season. Johnson led the majors in saves in 2012 and 2013 with Baltimore; this year he's been released by Oakland and has an ERA of 7.31. He and the currently DL'd Soira, briefly dubbed the "Mexicutioner" in his glory days with the Royals, were midseason additions. Hanrahan hasn't actually thrown a pitch for the Tigers this year and isn't likely to.

All these guys (except Chamberlain and Alburquerque, each 28) are at least 30 years old, and the resulting cluster of aged firemen-turned-arsonists suggests that somebody in the Detroit organization -- perhaps first-year manager Brad Ausmus. perhaps somebody higher in the organization -- is uncomfortable with the idea of identifying the suitable skill set in somebody unproven in the job.

Given the World Series-or-bust mindset in Detroit, that's understandable. It's also an expensive mistake.

Pic of the Week

Joe Nathan during the first day of official spring drills
with the Detroit Tigers.

No, I don't know what Joe Nathan's doing. And no, I don't particularly care for the Tigers' spring training caps. The white Olde English D on navy is about as close to perfection as baseball caps get, and why tinker with it?

But hey, baseball's back, at least the spring training version of it. And after all of Saturday's snow shoveling, even the realization that Nathan's with the Tigers now is a welcome sight.

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The Sunday Funnies are gone for the season — you can view them all here — and the Monday print column resumes ... Monday. Spring is coming. I'm sure of it.

Around the division: Detroit Tigers

Doug Fister was 32-20, 3.29 in two-and-a-half seasons
in the Tigers rotation.

We Twins fans think Terry Ryan's been busy this offseason, signing two new starting pitchers. Ryan's got nothing on his Detroit counterpart, Dave Dombrowski.

As the Winter Meetings — usually the busiest period of the Hot Stove league — gets started, Dombrowski has already:

• Hired a manager to follow the retired Jim Leyland;
• Remade his infield, replacing three of 2013 regulars completely and moving the fourth to a different position;
• Signed a new closer and moved his best setup man to the starting rotation;
• Created a spot in the rotation by trading a very good starter.

It's a rather stunning makeover for a three-time division champ, albeit one that hasn't really met its expectations during the regular seasons.

I wrote at some length last month about the infield revamp; the only new development there is that Dombrowski has now explicitly said that Miguel Cabrera is moving to first base, with Nick Castellanos at third base.

Joe Nathan is chasing
a ring.

The new stuff revolves around the mound.

Begin at the end. Erstwhile Twin Joe Nathan, now 39, got a two-year deal (option for a third year) to close. The Tigers had issues in the back end of the bullpen the past two seasons, and rookie manager Brad Ausmus (assuming Nathan doesn't decline) won't have to do the juggling act Leyland did.

Joaquin Benoit, who finished 2013 as the Tigers closer, is a free agent, and Dombrowski has said he expects Benoit to sign elsewhere as a closer.

Drew Smyly, who went 6-0, 2.37 with two saves and 22 holds in relief last season, will move to the rotation. I had expected the lefty to take a starting job last spring; it will happen in 2014 instead.

And he won't be dislodging Rick Porcello, but Doug Fister.

Fister was traded to Washington for a package of utility man Steve Lombardozzi (son of the same-named second baseman of the 1987 Twins) and left-handed pitching prospects Robbie Ray and Ian Krol. It's an underwhelming return for Fister, who had quietly become one of the top 20 or so starters in baseball.

Dombrowski probably didn't get maximum value for Fister. I doubt that was his goal. His priorities in this trade were almost certainly

• Opening payroll space for Nathan;
• Trading Fister out of the American League;
• Adding left-handed pitching to a thinning farm system.

Dombrowski achieved those things. That the general consensus around the game is that he could have made a better deal probably doesn't cost him any sleep. The "better deals" presumably didn't meet his targeted desires.

The Tigers aren't in a talent-accumulating position. They're in a talent-arranging position. They're out to win now, not to build a base to win from.

Joe Nathan signs with Texas

Joe Nathan had 14 saves and a 4.84 ERA in 2011,
his first season back after ligament replacement surgery.

Adios to No. 36, who has agreed to what is being reported as a two-year deal with a third year option, $14.5 million guaranteed.

The Rangers are reported to have told Neftali Feliz that he's moving to the rotation, taking the spot being vacated by free-agent C.J. Wilson. Nathan inherits the closers job for the team that represented the American League the past two years in the World Series.

I expected Nathan to return, and I'm sorry to see him move on. But I'm not despondent about his departure.

He turns 37 on Tuesday, and even in his much-improved second half he allowed three homers in 23 innings and had an ERA of 3.91. Maybe he can still return to the fabulous level he maintained for his first six years with the Twins, but the odds are against it.

The next question is: How will the Twins rework their bullpen for 2012?

This will be grist for many a future post, but my off-the-top-of-my-head idea is that if the Twins are serious about making Brian Duensing a relief pitcher, they might as well tab Glen Perkins for the closer job. Perkins, Duensing and Jose Mijares would make a very deep lefty bullpen corps, and I don't know that they'd get proper use out of them if they're all strictly LOOGYs.

I'd rather see the Twins put their discretionary payroll money into something other than a "proven closer."

Joe Nathan update

Joe Nathan converted
14 of 17 save
opportunities in 2011.

The Twins this afternoon (Tuesday) announced that they are declining Joe Nathan's $12 million option but are still interested in bringing the closer back.

If they do — and I rather expect they will re-sign him — it will be for less than $10 million.

What $10 million? Because that would be the real cost of exercising the option. By declining the option, the Twins are obligated to pay Nathan a $2 million buyout.

Nathan will turn 37 next month, and 2010 was far and away the worst season of his career. Even in the second half, in which he was much better than before the All-Star break, his ERA was roughly two runs a game higher than we're used to seeing.

I don't know how much of a market there will be for Nathan this winter. The Twins are betting it will be slow enough that they can retain him at a significantly lower salary.

Eyeing the future: Joe Nathan

Joe Nathan has allowed two earned runs in
12.1 innings since returning from the disabled
list in late June.

It wasn't the prettiest save of Joe Nathan's distinguished career, but he got the job done Tuesday night against the Rangers. It was his 254th save with the Twins, tying the club record (Rick Aguilera).

Nathan has now collected saves in his last five appearances. He's given up a hit in four of those five games, and while he fanned the last two men he faced Tuesday he's still below a strikeout an inning, a figure he used to routinely exceed.

Is he back to where he was before his 2010 Tommy John surgery? My assessment is that he's a bit short of that, but he's plenty good enough.

Plenty good enough to be the current closer. Perhaps good enough, even, for the Twins to seriously consider exercising their 2012 option on his contract.

According to Baseball Reference, Nathan has been paid $11.25 million in each of 2009, '10 and '11. His 2012 option is for $12.5 million, with a $2 million buyout. (There are added clauses increasing the buyout for games finished in 2010 and '11, but he's not reaching those marks.) The Twins are going to pay him $2 million regardless, so if the Twins exercise that option, the true added cost is $10.5 million.

Barring a new injury (always possible), I can easily see the Twins deciding to base their 2012 bullpen on Nathan and Glen Perkins — reason to disregard any notion of moving Nathan this week in a trade deadline deal.

Closer fireworks and the psychology of the bullpen

Matt Capps described
Saturday as the
worst day of his career.

On Saturday, Matt Capps came in to pitch the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up four runs in two-thirds of an inning, and the Twins lost.

On Sunday, Capps came in for the ninth with a two-run lead. Two singles and one out later, he left. Glen Perkins struck out Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee to end it.

For better or worse, bullpen use today is built around roles. Pitchers expect it, even demand it of their managers. A manager who isn't predicable to his charges loses their confidence and eventually their respect, and a manager who loses the confidence and respect of his team loses his job. Managers have the right and obligation to change a pitcher's role for the betterment of the team, but the expectation is that those changes will be clear to the pitchers involved.

And the roles begin at the end, with the ninth-inning closer.

Glen Perkins got his first
major-league save on Sunday.

Capps had been effective entering the weekend. He had given up just one run in 10 outings in June, and pitched well once Ron Gardenhire stopped trying to get four and five-out saves from him. But this was a bad weekend for him, and  now there's speculation -- from both distant bloggers who don't enter the clubhouse and traditional media -- that he may have lost, or be losing, the job.

Gardenhire says Capps is still his closer. And I'm fine with that. I think that it IS important to relief pitchers to to have predictable roles, and I DON'T think it's important that the best relief pitcher be relegated to one-inning save situations. I would rather have the team's more reliable relievers used in the most important situations, and, Saturday's debacle notwithstanding, three-run leads in the ninth are not particularly high leverage.

Last year, in the second half, the most reliable reliever was Jesse Crain, and the Twins thrived on using him to get out of jams in the seventh or eighth innings. Right now -- on the morning of July 4, 2011 -- I believe the two most reliable relievers in the Minnesota bullpen are Glen Perkins and Joe Nathan, and I believe the Twins are better off using them to get to Capps.

But again, the key thing in such decisions is what the clubhouse thinks. Right or wrong, the closer role is seen as the pinnacle of relief pitching. It's where the money is. Nathan and Capps combine to make about $19 million because they have a lot of saves on their stat sheets. Gardenhire is right to want to keep Capps in the role, but another bad outing could force a change, just as it did in April, when Nathan gave way to Capps.

Into the bullpen

Joe Nathan's best stat this season:
17 strikeouts in 17.1 innings.

Brian Duensing left a lot of heavy lifting to the bullpen Tuesday night, and the 'pen came though.

Alex Burnett got four outs. Glen Perkins, with some help from the umpires, got two outs. Joe Nathan was impressive in the eighth, striking out two. Matt Capps wobbled though the ninth.

It totalled four shutout innings, although Perkins didn't legitimately retire any of the three men he faced. I'll forgive him, though, as he's been the best relief pitcher on the staff.

Nathan was the story there. He threw 19 pitches, 12 for strikes, and displayed better command than he had before his DL stint.

The velocity really isn't any better than it was, and I don't expect to see the old mid-90s Nathan again. If he does recover his old velocity, it certainly won't be this year.  But low 90s is sufficient if it comes with command and movement. On Tuesday, he had the command and the movement.

Tuesday's use suggests that Nathan returned to a more prominent role than I expected. I thought Burnett would remain the top right-handed set-up man, but he entered in the sixth inning, while Nathan got the eighth. I still rate Perkins ahead of Nathan in the pecking order, however:

Closer: Capps
Setup 1: Perkins
LOOGY 1: Jose Mijares
Set-up2/MR 1: Nathan
MR2: Burnett
LOOGY 2: Phil Dumatrait
Long man: Anthony Swarzak

Dumatrait has allowed six runs in his last 3.1 innings, which has taken his ERA from 2.00 to 5.84. (It's only 12.1 innings). I'm not sure why he's been ahead of Chuck James this season — he was called up before James, he was kept up when James was optioned back out, he was used in higher leverage situations when they were both on the roster — but he's got to be the bullpener on the thinnest ice right now.

Expecting reinforcements

Even before the Twins took the field on Wednesday, it was made known that Joe Nathan and Jim Thome will rejoin the team Friday in Milwaukee.

Joe Nathan: Opened
as the closer, now not
even the best set-up
man in the bullpen.

Watching Ron Gardenhire reach into his bench for pinch-hitters Wednesday night and finding nobody with a 2011 batting average above .200 makes re-activating Thome, even without the DH rule in effect this weekend, a pretty easy call.

I would expect one of the catchers not named Joe Mauer to be shipped back to Rochester to make room for Thome. Assuming that Seth Stohs is correct in saying that Rene Rivera has an option left, it could be either; if the Twins have expose Rivera to waivers to send him out, Drew Butera should be the one sent down. Really, they're pretty interchangeable talents. (Rivera started Thursday's day-game-after-a-night game).

Nathan is another matter. He is said to have hit 93 on the radar guns in his rehab outings; I'm not impressed. We've heard inflated gun numbers from Triple A in the past. But he's getting $12 million plus; he's going to pitch if healthy.

I don't expect him to rank ahead of Matt Capps or Glen Perkins in the bullpen hierarchy, and I'm not sure he deserves to rank ahead of Alex Burnett right now either.

I would think Jim Hoey will be the demotee on this move. Anthony Swarzak has a well-defined role (long man) for which he is uniquely qualified among the current bullpenners, and I don't think Hoey has made himself more reliable in a leverage role than Phil Dumatrait.

Reasons to drag out the rehab process

As I suggested earlier Wednesday, Tsuyoshi Nishioka came off the DL to replace Justin Morneau on the active roster, and Dusty Hughes was outrighted to Rochester, which takes him off the 40-man roster (creating room for Nishioka there).

It is, apparently, all systems go for reactivating Joe Mauer on Friday. LaVelle Neal has, in that link, this comment:

(Reporter's note: What the heck is up with the different standards? Nishi and Nathan have to go to Rochester and Mauer doesn't? Who needs it more?)

It's fairly obvious, really. Mauer will be displacing one of two catchers, Rene Rivera or Drew Butera, who are doing a good job behind the plate but are collectively hitting under .200. Mauer is certainly going to be an immediate upgrade over either.


Nishioka and Nathan, on the other hand, aren't fixing something that's broken.

Alexi Casilla, in particular, is playing very well at short, and now he's going to shift to second to make room for Nishi.. Matt Tolbert, who will be displaced at second by Casilla, isn't hitting as well as Casilla, but the infield turned four double plays Wednesday night.

Matt Tolbert, who is about
to lose playing time, is hitting
under .200 this season

Is Nishioka going to make the team better? It's debatable.

Same with Nathan. He says he's ready to return, but (a) he wasn't pitching well before going on the DL and (b) the bullpen has stabilized in his absence. I figure Jim Hoey will be the guy to lose his spot when Nathan returns, and again, I'm not sure the 2011 version of Joe Nathan improves the team.

It gets tricky. Nathan has a distinguished track record, a big contract and diminished skills. Nathan probably has his idea of how and when he should be used, and his abilities right now may not match that idea.

Alex Burnett has been handling the primary set-up role fairly well -- I say "fairly" because he's been protected. The starters are going deeper into games than we're accustomed to seeing, and Burnett is not facing many left-handed hitters or crossing innings. When Glen Perkins is activated (which may be today), Perkins figures to become the primary set-up guy. He had earned the role before his oblique injury, and he doesn't need the protection.

So: Perkins in the eighth, Burnett and Jose Mijares getting outs in the seventh as needed ... where's the late inning role for Nathan? How does swapping Hoey out for Nathan make the team better?

If you think this team can still win the division title -- and I would expect the manager still has that as his primary goal -- it's difficult to justify replacing parts that are working for other parts that are uncertain. If you think 2012 and beyond is a more reasonable concern, trying Nishioka at short makes sense. Nathan, I fear, doesn't really fit either goal.

Duh. Winning.

A bonehead play from a player with a record for
making bonehead plays.

Assorted notes and comments from a modest three-game winning streak (may it grow longer):

* Alexi Casilla should have been wearing a dunce cap rather than a batting helmet when he got thrown out at home in the third inning Sunday. There's a base coach out there for a reason, kid. Use him. (On the other hand, Steve Liddle's indecisive and late stop sign for Justin Morneau later in the inning wasn't great either.)

*Joe Nathan had a solid 1-2-3 inning to wrap up Saturday's blowout win, complete with two strikeouts and what at least one observer called his best slider of the season for the final pitch.

Somebody asked Ron Gardenhire if sending Nathan to the minors is a possibility, and Gardy said no, Nathan will have to get his innings in the majors.

I'm not sure if the roster rules would allow a demotion. It will be interesting to see how Nathan gets work, though. There's an obvious (and merited) reluctance to use him in game situations, but if he's going to be of use this year he's got to get a regular diet of work.

* Michael Cuddyer is apparently to get fairly regular work at second base for a while. Such an arrangement does make it easier to get Jim Thome in the lineup, and Cuddyer probably isn't a lot worse at the keystone than Luke Hughes, but it's difficult to imagine Gardenhire being happy with what it does to the defense. Of course, since Jim Thome won't play more than three games in a row, Hughes and Matt Tolbert are going to get some action.

* Jason Kubel's game-winning double Sunday came off a left-hander. Let the record show that at this point he has had 28 plate appearances against southpaws, 26 official at-bars, with slash stats of .269/.321/346, which isn't Jacque Jones helpless but still isn't good. Those numbers aren't far off from his career slash stats against lefties (.237/.313/.352).

* A Twins blog griped that Glen Perkins "almost blew" Sunday's game. That's an overly harsh assessment, and I think it stems from a continued fan base mistrust of Perkins. True, the four-pitch walk to Carlos Santana wasn't ideal,  but the following single was a mere popup that Jason Repko lost in the sun. That should have been the second out. It really wasn't a bad outing for Perkins.

What next for Joe Nathan?

Joe Nathan blew two
save opportunities in
three days last week
and is no longer the
Twins closer.

If there was any doubt concerning the wisdom of pulling Joe Nathan from the closer's role, Nathan removed it with his performance Tuesday night.

Called upon to mop up an already lost game, he worked one inning, allowing three runs on two hits, one walk. He faced six batters and threw a first-pitch strike to five of them, but still was only 50-50 balls and strikes (11 strikes, 11 balls).

Which tells us that (a) he could get ahead of hitters but (b) could not put them away.

That his fastball in generally clocked at 90-92 mph these days rather than the 94-96 of his heyday is only part of the problem. Pitchers can be effective with that velocity, or even with less. It's the command, or lack of it.

And it's the all-too-similar velocities of the fastball and slider — the MLB.com feed had his slider consistently at 88 mph, the fastball at 90.

I don't know where the Twins go from here with Nathan. Clearly they cannot use him in game situations, and just as clearly he has to pitch if he's going to regain enough ability to help the team. The optimism that accompanied his three straight shutout appearances is gone. The reality — that this is still a rehab season for him — is setting in.

The Twins have to pay him for this season no matter what. After Tuesday's game, it seems possible they will be better off eating the contract, cutting him loose and turning to somebody else.

That decision, if it comes, is unlikely to come quickly or easily.

Joe Nathan and the "90 mph changeup"

The Twins fans without TV access to last night's game wound up missing a pretty good conclusion – a four-run eighth against Rafael Soriano to tie the game, a 10th-inning run to put the Twins ahead, and (perhaps most encouraging of all) a clean inning from Joe Nathan to wrap it up.

Joe Nathan said after Wednesday's game
that it was so cold and dry in
Yankee Stadium "it was like
throwing ice cubes."

I was among those without a view of the game, but I did have something (perhaps) a bit more descriptive of the action than Gordo and Gladden — MLB.com's "At Bat 11" app on my iPad. It provides pitch-by-pitch details of the game, including pitch speeds, type and location. (There are readers here who think I'm overly harsh on the Twins' main radio guys, but even John Gordon's most loyal followers cannot believe they're getting every pitch from him.)

I assume the pitch data that shows up on my iPad comes from the "Pitch f/x" system, a computerized, multi-camera system that purports to chart in detail every major league pitch — not just velocity and location but movement and release point and a truly bewildering mass of information.

Anyway, something odd kept popping up on my feed in the 10th inning: Nathan was throwing fastballs consistently clocked at 90 to 91 mph. He was also mixing in what the feed called changeups clocked at the same velocity.

Huh?

Inasmuch as the point of the changeup is that it's a slower pitch, that's nonsensical. Stephen Strasburg, before his injury last summer, was showing a 90-mph change, but he also was touching 100 mph with the fastball.

One glitch, OK; multiple readings with the same error suggest something's faulty in the system. Perhaps the system is categorizing the pitch as a changeup based not on velocity but movement, in which case it may be that Nathan has a fastball that sinks and moves in on a right-handed hitter. Maybe the velocity readings were flawed for reasons I don't understand.

And maybe the only thing that really matters is that on a chilly night in Yankee Stadium, Nathan was much, much sharper than he was two nights earlier in Toronto.

Nathan's outing

Four batters, one walk, two fly ball outs and a grounder. 

Another step forward.

Bullpen candidate profile: Joe Nathan

 Joe Nathan's comeback
is one of the major
stories of this year's
Twins spring training.

Pitcher: Joe Nathan
Throws: Right
Age: 36
Roster status: 40-man roster; last year of contract
Chance of making team: Excellent

I assume everybody reading a Twins blog knows the backdrop on Joe Nathan: Four-time All-Star, missed last season for Tommy John surgery, no setbacks in recovery.

Nathan is scheduled to make his exhibition debut today, and the aforementioned backdrop will make today's tilt a rather high-profile game for March 1. (Slip Justin Morneau into the starting lineup too, and practically every baseball writer in Florida would feel compelled to be in Fort Myers -- not that Morneau will be deemed ready to play.)

One brief outing on March 1 isn't going to determine the trajectory of Nathan's season. But the Twins, and their fans, are understandably eager to see this next step in his return.

No matter the injury, there are two general areas of concern for a recovering pitcher: Command and velocity. Velocity is the easiest to measure with today's radar guns, and I expect that the gun reading will get prominence in the game stories.

I won't be concerned if Nathan's fastball is merely in the upper 80s today. He has a well-chronicled history of gaining velocity as spring training, and even the first month of the regular season, progresses. He's been clocked around 90 entering camp, which is normal for him.

No, today we should be looking at his command. Are the pitches going where he wants them to go? If he misses his spot, is the miss a hittable one over the plate, or an unhittable one well off the plate?

So far, so good for Joe Nathan

Joe Nathan leaves the mound after his elbow injury
in a March exhibition game last year.

The Twins have yet to officially open spring training. Today is the reporting date for more than two dozen pitchers and a clutch of catchers; the first official workout is Friday.

But there have been players at the facility in Fort Myers for some time now, and pitching coach Rick Anderson was there to watch Joe Nathan throw a 50-pitch bullpen session Wednesday.

Anderson pronounced himself impressed:

"I told Joe, 'That's the most free and easy I have seen your arm.' He looked nice and loose with everything, and that is what you look for.''

My immediate reaction to that quote was skepticism. Anderson hasn't seen Nathan throw in almost a year. Granted, he's seen Nathan throw a lot over the years, but does he really know how today's motion compared to how Nathan threw in 2009, or 2005?

Then I realized: Video. It's likely —probable, even — that Anderson has studied some old video of Nathan to refresh his memory of what Nathan looked like pre-injury. Considering how important Nathan is to the team's plans and ambitions, it would be surprising if Anderson hadn't prepped himself for this.

A mid-February bullpen session proves little, of course. It merely establishes that Nathan's ligament replacement wasn't a disaster. Which is another step forward.