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.

A difference of opinion on Jose Mijares

Jose Mjares: Going
to Kansas City

About a week ago, the Twins, who have had the sometimes dubious pleasures of having Jose Mijares on their roster for the past three-plus seasons, non-tendered  the arbitration-eligible lefty specialist  rather than pay him an estimated $750,000 to return in 2012.

On Wednesday, the Kansas City Royals, having scouted Mijares hard in the Venezuelan winter league, signed the portly portsider to a $925,000 contract.

Mijares figures to be the Royals' No. 2 lefty, behind Tim Collins, a diminutive fireballer who has some command issues. In Minnesota, he appeared to be behind not only Glen Perkins but also Brian Duensing, who appears almost certain to shift from the starting rotation to relief work.

Mijares was a very effective LOOGY -- Left-handed One Out GuY -- in 2009 and 2010, much less so in 2011. The Twins hope to have a very left-handed lineup again in 2012 (that would suggest that Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Denard Span are all healthy).  Considering how often the Twins and Royals play, Mijares will get plenty of opportunity to test his LOOGY skills against his old mates.

Say, do you suppose Mauer will be looking for his slider?

At the fringes of the roster

The Twins opened Monday with a full 40-man roster.

They ended it with just 37 players.

Jim Hoey walked 13
and struck out 14
in 24.2 innings.

Gone, in chronological order:

Jim Hoey, right-handed reliever, claimed by Toronto on waivers;
Pedro Florimon, shortstop, outrighted to Rochester;
Jose Mijares, left-handed reliever, non-tendered.

Taking them one at a time:

Hoey, acquired from Baltimore last winter around this time in the J.J. Hardy trade, throws with great velocity but with little command and less movement. The result is too many walks, too many hits, not enough strikeouts and way too many runs. The Jays will now try to find a pitcher in that. Good luck to them.

Florimon was picked up from the Orioles a week ago when they tried to outright him to Triple A. The Twins were able to get him through waivers. My take on all this: He ranks in the Twins system below the four middle infielders who remain on the 40 (Jamey Carroll, Alexi Casilla, Luke Hughes and Tsuyoshi Nishioka), and probably below Brian Dozier (who isn't on the 40 because the Twins didn't need to protect him from the Rule V draft).

Jose Mijares walked 30
and struck out 30
in 49 innings.

Mijares was cut loose on the deadline to offer contracts to arbitration-eligible players. The portly LOOGY has had declining stats every season, and it's a pretty safe assumption that the Twins didn't want to give him the kind of raise the arbitration process would dictate -- especially since he didn't figure to be more than the third lefty in the 2012 bullpen. He and his agent now get to see what the free agent market says about him.

The first pitch of Jose Mijares

Dick-N-Bert were talking during the eighth inning about Jose Mijares' struggles this season, a logical topic since Mijares was pitching that inning. At one point, Dick Bremer said something like: How many batters has he started 1-0?

Jose Mijares threw 22
pitches Thursday --
11 strikes, 11 balls.

Bremer merely wondered. I looked it up.

According to Baseball Reference, Mijares entered Thursday's play having faced exactly 99 hitters on the season.  Ten of those plate appearances ended on the first pitch, with split stats of .000/.200/.000 (he has hit two men with his first pitch). Of the other 89, 52 began 1-0; batters went .350/.500/.525 in those plate appearances. Only 37 started 0-1 (.258/.351/.323).

Mijares faced five men on Thursday. He started two off with Ball One, and he walked both of those hitters. He started three with Strike One, and retired them all (two strikeouts and a popup.) His updated stats by count can be found here; as I write this, B-R hasn't updated with Thursday's numbers, but that will come at some point Friday.

Mijares' ratios are out of whack. For the American League as a whole. there had been 48,173 plate appearances on the season. A bit less than 5,500 ended on the first pitch; more than 23,000 started 0-1; less than 19,800 started 1-0. He's also getting worse than average results when the first pitch is a ball, and not faring much better than average when the first pitch is a strike.

Spin Control: About the Prince Fielder at-bat

Prince Fielder and Joe Mauer react to Fielder"s
game-winning double in the seventh inning Friday.

It was a pretty lousy weekend in Milwaukee for the Twins. They got swept; the offense produced six runs in the three games; it became known that Justin Morneau needs surgery for the pinched nerve in his neck; Delmon Young suffered what appears to be, at the very least, a significant ankle sprain (regard this with all the disrespect my lack of medical training merits, but I will be very surprised if a mere sprain is all he did to his ankle).

And there was a bit of clubhouse backbiting over a failed pitch sequence Friday, the one game of the series the Twins had a legitimate chance to win. That episode was heavily second-guessed immediately after the game and reverberated at least into Sunday's game. It merits further examination.

The setup: Bottom of the seventh inning, Twins lead 3-2. Scott Baker has interspersed two outs with two singles, and Prince Fielder comes up with men on first and third. Ron Gardenhire goes to the bullpen for Jose Mijares.

Question: Why not leave Baker in? My answer: He had thrown 107 pitches, he was laboring a bit, the platoon advantage lay with Fielder in that matchup.


Question: Why Mijares, who has not had a particularly good season? My answer: Mijares has been Gardenhire's primary LOOGY since 2009. He has a good track record against lefties. Glen Perkins is a better pitcher in total, but Mijares is more effective against lefties. And Phil Dumatrait has the same command problems as Mijares does, without a history of success. If you're not letting Baker face Fielder with the game on the line, it's got to be Mijares.

The pitch sequence: Mijares, against left-handed hitters, essentially uses two pitches: A four-seam fastball, which is the high-velocity version of the pitch but with less movement, and a slider. (Much was made this spring of adding a two-seam, or sinking, fastball to his arsenal, but that was always in the context of giving him another weapon against right-handed hitters, against whom the slider is less effective.)

He and catcher Joe Mauer go after Fielder with the traditional approach: Use the fastball to get ahead in the count, then the slider to finish him off.

The problem, of course, is that Mijares doesn't get into a breaking ball count. He misses with three straight fastballs.

Question: Now that he's behind in the count, why not just walk Fielder? (Bert Blyleven, at either 2-0 or 3-0, said something about second base being open, and in the wake of the at-bat confirmed that it was a serious observation.) My answer: Walking people is not the Twins mindset. Walking a left-hander, even one as dangerous as Fielder, ought not be in Mijares' mindset at all. To twist a later Gardenhire comment on the situation, if he wanted Fielder walked, he could have used a right-hander. Mijares is in the game to get a left-hander out.

Plus: Walking Fielder means moving the go-ahead run to second base. With Fielder up, it takes an extra-base hit to put Milwaukee ahead; walk him, and Casey McGehee needs only a single to put the Brewers up.

Finally: Walking Fielder intentionally in such a situation (as was done frequently with Barry Bonds) is an implicit act of surrender. It says We have no idea how to get this guy out. Fielder is a very good hitter, but he can be pitched to.

Jose Mijares' OPS vs.
lefties this season: .608.
For his career: .570.
He's still an effective
Left-handed One Out
GuY (LOOGY).

Back to the sequence: Mauer calls for, and Mijares throws, two more fastballs. Fielder takes both for called strikes, although the second is probably outside. That call, in retrospect, was crucial: One, it meant the already-speedy Nyjer Morgan will be off with the 3-2 pitch; second, it suggests that the umpire is inclined to give Mijares the benefit of an outside pitch.

Mauer calls for a sixth fastball and sets up outside. (Tim McCarver has said it so often that it gets lost in his aural buzz: What you throw on 3-1, you throw on 3-2.) Mijares misses the location and leaves it over the middle of the plate. Fielder slams it down the right-field line for a double and two runs.

The aftermath: Mijares tells reporters that Mauer only called for fastballs. Mauer says he called for a fastball, but not down the middle. Gardenhire implicitly raps Mauer's pitch selection, saying that if he wanted fastballs thrown to Fielder he could have used a right-hander.

Saturday: Gardenhire holds a clubhouse meeting and revisits the issue with the reporters. He wants no more public backbiting from the players, reserves the right to publicly critique pitch selection to himself, and explicitly says that Mijares bears the ultimate responsibility for which pitch he throws.

Sunday: Mauer doesn't start but catches after pinch-hitting for Drew Butera. Mijares pitches. Fielder comes up. The first pitch is a slider. Fielder singles to center for an RBI.

Gee, do you think he knew it was coming?

My take: I tend to favor the Brad Radke Rule of Pitching: Any pitch will work if you throw it well enough. Gardenhire prefers to see his left-handed relievers "spin it" to left-handed hitters, but I think Mauer was justified in sticking with the fastball when Mijares fell behind.

We'll never know what would have happened had Mijares thrown a slider on 3-2; nor will we know what would have happened if his fastball had been properly located. What happened didn't work for the Twins, but that doesn't mean the thinking was faulty.

A cold afternoon at the ball park

With the confluence Thursday of a furlough day for me, a Twin Cities meeting for my wife and a noon Twins game with available tickets, I went.

Brrr. And. as a Twins fan, Grrr.

Taking the tarp off the
field on a cold, damp day.

I don't mind confessing that I didn't make it though the whole fiasco. For that matter, most of the people in my section -- section 319, with an excellent view down the right field foul line -- didn't make it through all nine innings (although it's quite possible that some of them either took shelter in the nearby Twins Pub or under the radiant heaters).

A few thoughts:

Jim Hoey impressed me more than his line score would suggest. He was lit up for three runs when the Twins tried to get eight outs from him, but he was very good for the first time through the order. (Ben Zobrist's three-run homer was immediately preceeded by a hit-and-run single on which I'm sure Matt Joyce broke his bat.)

Jose Mijares was not good. He got just two outs and needed 37 pitches to do so. (In comparison, Hoey got his eight outs on 44 pitches.) And the less said about Nick Blackburn, the better. Like Liriano the night before, Blackburn couldn't or wouldn't throw strikes.

The Rays abused the battery of Blackburn and Steve Holm on the bases. It's a very fast team -- at least three men in their lineup for the nooner are faster than anybody the Twins have (B.J. Upton, Sam Fuld and Sean Rodriguez) -- and Holm's arm doesn't impress me.

Rene Tosoni was probably the only Twins player who could be happy with that game. Two hits in his major league debut.

Bullpen candidate profile: Jose Mijares

On Sunday I opined here that the serious competition for bullpen jobs this spring boils down to 10 guys.

Later that day the Associated Press moved a story in which general manager Bill Smith named seven pitchers, two of whom weren't on my list. Which may not mean anything. There are still 27 pitchers in camp, and the Twins aren't going to admit that any them are just there as formalities.

Today I'll start a little project: capsule profiles of the bullpen candidates. There's enough of them to take most of training camp.

Jose Mijares appeared
in 47 games in 2010,
just 32.2 innings.

Pitcher: Jose Mijares
Throws: Left
Age: 26
Status: 40-man roster, at least one option remaining. Eligible for arbitration after 2012, for free agency after 2015.
Chance of making roster: Excellent.

Mijares made a major splash in September 2008, emerging in the last few days of the season as the primary eight-inning option in a pennant race, but got himself pigeonholed into the LOOGY role in 2009. He was devastating against lefties that year, but was really no better against lefties than righties in 2010. He had some injury issues in 2010, particularly a knee injury that might be related to his too-high weight, and his workload and effectiveness both diminished.

He's made a habit the past two years of reporting to camp even more out of shape than usual, but the word this spring is that he came in probably a bit lighter than usual.

At the very least, he should open the season as the primary LOOGY (Left-handed One Out GuY); he could, in time, emerge with a bigger role.

A rough draft of the 2011 bullpen

In today's game, calling somebody a "relief pitcher" is akin to calling somebody an infielder. A shortstop is not a first baseman is not a second baseman is not a third baseman, and a lefty specialist (or LOOGY)  is not a closer is not a long man.

So ... let's examine 10 of the various candidates on hand for the Twins bullpen, identify their established roles and ask ourselves what role they can reasonably be expected to fill in 2011. The Bill James Handbook lists seven roles -- closer, set-up, lefty specialist, middle reliever, long man and utility reliever (generally an inexperienced guy who pitches as needed while trying to work into a better role) plus emergency relievers (starting pitchers or position players pressed into relief duty). I'll use the book's determinations.

Joe Nathan: 246 saves with the Twins.

Joe Nathan (injured; closer): The significant questions begin at the very foundation of the bullpen. Nobody knows in the dead of winter what form Nathan's return from ligament replacement surgery will take. Anything is possible, from a Billy Wagner-style complete and immediate return to excellence to a Darren Dreifort-style immediate reinjury.

But Nathan will be paid $12 million next season, and he wants to earn it and the Twins want him to earn it. I expect him to open the season with a significant role; he may pitch his way out of it, but he'll get a clear shot at retaining the ninth inning job. It may well be that he won't be used on consecutive days.

The Outsider's verdict: Co-closer to open the season.

Matt Capps (closer): He had 42 saves last season (split between Washington and Minnesota). In the Twins perfect 2011, he's the top set-up man; things seldom work perfectly.

The Outsider's verdict: Co-closer/primary set-up.

Jose Mijares (LOOGY): When the rotund Venezuelan debuted late in 2008, he was awesome. In the past two seasons he has twice reported to camp out of shape, been optioned to the minors, spent time on the disabled list, moved at least one teammate to the verge of violence and convinced Ron Gardenhire that he can't be trusted against right-handed hitters.

The tools are there to be better. The makeup may not be.

The Outsider's verdict: LOOGY, but if he's matured he could move into a set-up role.

Jim Hoey (minors): Big fastball, questionable control. If he throws strikes, he'll climb the ladder in the 'pen rapidly.

The Outsider's verdict: Utility; he's the best bet for the Greg McMichael Rule to come into play (if you get outs, they'll find a job for you).

Pat Neshek's Twins ERAs:
2.19, 2.94, 4.73. 5.00

Alex Burnett: (utility): Miscast last season in multi-inning stints because that's where the team had its need. His minor league success has come in shorter stints.

The Outsider's verdict: Middle relief.

Pat Neshek (utility): The key is his velocity. If he's in the low 90s, as before his TJ surgery, he's a set-up candidate; if he's in the low-to-mid 80s as he was last year, he cannot pitch in the majors.

The Outsider's verdict: Utility and pitches his way up or out.

Glen Perkins (LOOGY): He's been primarily a starter, but the Twins are now looking at him as a relief pitcher. His track record against lefty hitters is not good. He needs a good breaking ball to do the job, and the idea seems to be that his slider will do the trick. We'll see.

The Outsider's verdict: Utility/secondary LOOGY-- if he makes the team.

Scott Diamond (minors): The Rule 5 pick either sticks or returns to the Atlanta Braves. He's been a starter, but some prospect gurus see him as an effective lefty specialist. Probably competing with Perkins for a job, but there's room for both on the roster if Mijares moves up the ladder.

The Outsider's verdict: Utility/secondary LOOGY-- if he makes the team.

Anthony Slama (utility): Good minor league numbers, but his command is uncertain and his stuff doesn't impress scouts. The Twins have not been eager to give him a shot.

The Outsider's verdict: Utility reliever if he makes the team.

Jeff Manship (utility): I don't know why he's not listed as a long man, but he's not. He's probably Plan B for the rotation as of now, meaning he's the guy who'd get the first shot if /when one of the starting rotation guys goes down; that status is likely to fall to Kyle Gibson later in the year. Pitched better with the Twins last season than in Rochester.

The Outsider's verdict: Long man if he makes the team.

That's 10. There are other possibilities, like Carlos Gutierrez and Rob Delaney, but these are the 10 most likely guys right now for the (probably) seven bullpen jobs. There are a lot of open jobs, and just as many questions here. Good organizations can find answers to those questions. And that's the challenge -- maybe the challenge for 2011 --  for the Twins.

How I see it as of today:

Nathan (closer)
Capps (set-up/second closer)
Mijares (LOOGY)
Burnett (middle)
Hoey (utility)
Diamond (utility)
Neshek (utility)

What we knees to know

Twins knees to know: Jose Mijares goes on the 15-day disabled list with his knee injury. I've seen nothing on whether he needs surgery or how long he's expected to be out, but he's clearly not going to pitch for a couple of weeks at least.

Jeff Manship got the callup. What I expect: Manship takes the long-man role. Glen Perkins, who figured to inherit that burden (all this is assuming that Kevin Slowey's elbow is not going to keep him from starting this weekend) will become the second lefty in the bullpen, with Ron Mahay assuming Mijares' spot as the primary LOOGY.

I can hear you groaning about that. But lefties are only hitting .230/.250/.295 against Mahay. The damage has come from right-handed hitters. He's actually been more effective than Mijares against lefties.

And that said, if Mijares is out for the year, I would expect the Twins to scour the waiver wire for a lefty reliever, because off last night, it's difficult to have much faith in Perkins.

Famous knees to know: He hasn't said so explicitly, but I assume that Chipper Jones' playing days came to an end Wednesday night when he blew out his ACL. (Photo above)

Bill James did an elaborate age-to-age comparison between Jones and Eddie Mathews (it's in the 2010 edition of the Bill James Gold Mine) and concluded that Jones was slightly superior to Mathews — who was a great player.

No question in my mind that Chipper's going to the Hall of Fame.

Poll results and other stuff

Here's how the 45 responses to last week's poll — on which current pitcher is most likely to win 300 games — broke down.

The most popular answer was "Nobody": 13 votes, 22 percent. That was followed by CC Sabathia and Felix Hernandez, who each got 10 votes (22 percent). Then Tim Lincecum (seven votes, 15 percent); "Somebody else" (three votes, 6 percent); and Johan Santana (two votes, 4 percent).

---

Regular reader and commenter Chris wonders why the Twins replaced the ailing Jose Mijares with another pitcher (Alex Burnett, above).

One good reason is that, with Pat Neshek sporting a sore finger and Nick Blackburn's elbow barking, the 12-man staff was in danger of becoming a de facto nine-man staff.

Neshek had a cortisone shot Saturday; if he's not ready to go on Tuesday, he may go on the DL as well. The Twins apparently don't think Blackburn's elbow is serious, but his next start may be pushed back.

I suspect, however, that those other ailments are part of why they DL'd Mijares, who had been described as day-to-day. They felt they needed another usable arm, and they made the move with Mijares,who not only can now rehab his stiff elbow but work on his conditioning.

But underlying it all is that the Twins are more comfortable with a 12-man staff. One of the key precepts to their organizational philosophy is "Protect the Pitcher."

They protect the pitcher with pitch counts, with Nick Punto's glove, and with a deep bullpen so that they aren't forced to get extra outs and innings from the guy who's on the mound now.

Hitting homers in Target Field

Last week's print column pondered the playing characteristics of Target Field and warned against jumping to conclusions.

A fresh case in point: The Associated Press on Saturday moved an article on Yankee Stadium, which has already had more homerless games this year than all of last season.

Or you can take the Dick Bremer analysis. Bremer on Saturday opined that Target Field looks like a much better home run park in the day than at night.

Let's see ... The Twins have played one official night game at home so far. There's been a lot of talk about the gaps playing long at Target Field — both Mike Cameron and David Ortiz hit balls that they thought "should" have gone out —and those came in day games.

Yeah, Rick Ankiel (above) hit two homers Saturday. So far, I've noticed one cheap-looking homer at the new park — a Michael Cuddyer flyball down the left field line that just got over the fence. I've seen a lot more drives to the power alleys that died before reaching the wall.

But Bremer sees a four-homer day game and decides the park is homer-friendly in the daytime.

Maybe it will work out that way over time. We don't really know yet.

And Bremer shouldn't pretend that we do. He certainly ought to know that almost all that we've seen of Target Field — including the Cameron and Ortiz drives that died—has come in the daytime.

Late night: Twins 10, Angels 1

Game story here

Box score here

The power is most definitely on.

Two-run homer for Brendan Harris. Three-run shot by Jim Thome. Three-run bomb from Delmon Young (pictured).

And a game that was a close 3-1 Twins lead after seven ends as a 10-1 romp.

You gotta love FSN. Young had entered the game the inning before as a defensive sub for Jason Kubel. As he rounded the bases after his ninth-inning dinger, FSN's graphic identified him as Kubel. It's really kind of difficult to confuse the two, but ... they're up to the challenge.

Kevin Slowey wasn't real effective Thursday— he allowed nine baserunners in 5.1 innings — but a parade of relievers allowed just one more baserunner in the final 11 outs.

Most impressive, or perhaps merely the most important, was the perfect seventh authored by Jose Mijares, who retired Erick Aybar, Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter, two of them on strikes. Seventeen pitches for Mijares, 14 of them strikes.

Not sure what to make of Pat Neshek's outing. He faced two men, threw ball one to each, then got an outfield fly and a ground out to strand two inherited runners. Four pitches, two outs, but — and I admit I'm probably being overly picky — it just didn't bolster my confidence in him.

Game 4: Angry Young man

Tragic number: Still 2. The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die ... for at least another day.

A weird game indeed Thursday, starting with the pregame flap over the video supposedly showing Joe Mauer stealing signs and relaying them to Jason Kubel. If he wasn't, it won't hurt in in the long run if other teams think he does; if he was, shame on Gerald Laird for using such transparent signals that Mauer can pick them up immediately.

Or perhaps, as I told a Detroit fan who happens to be my supervisor, he can't use camouflaged signs with Justin Verlander pitching lest he confuse Verlander.

Anyway, on with the weirdness. Marcus Thames got hit by a hanging breaking ball from Scott Baker; Thames took offense and retaliated with a cheap shot slide far from second base with an elbow aimed at Orlando Cabrera's crotch. The umpire at second, Lance Barksdale, could have — should have — ruled it a double play. He didn't, so tensions got to mount a bit there.

Then Jose Mijares had some sort of brain cramp. Apparently he was peeved because the Tigers were taking bases through defensive indifference. (Note to Mijares — if your manager doesn't care if they take second base, you shouldn't care either). So he threw a pitch behind Adam Everett. Had he buzzed Thames, I think people would have understood. This one was just stupid. So the umps warned both benches, and Jim Leyland got ejected on the same principle that frequently gets Ron Gardenhire ejected: Their guy throws at us, and you're going to eject our guy if we retaliate? That's stupid.

So then Jeremy Bonderman threw behind Delmon Young and nailed him in the back knee, and Young knew who to blame. Mijares. We had the odd spectacle of a hit batter about to charge his own dugout. (Photo above).

Menawhile, Bonderman and Laird got ejected, Bonderman for throwing at Young — which everybody knew was coming — and Laird for telling the umpire how stupid it was to throw out Bonderman. Which it was. The guy who should have been ejected was Mijares.

Call this game a monument to stupidity and leave it at that.

Long loss; Slowey to DL

A colleague speculated during Friday night's game that Kevin Slowey (left) must be hurt. And sure enough, the Twins put him on the disabled list after the 16-inning marathon.

It was Slowey's second straight lousy start, but he says the wrist only started hurting Friday. His belief is that it's related to the line drive that hit him in his final start of 2008.

So Anthony Swarzak gets the callup. Since the Twins have another off day coming up between the Tigers and Yankees, he'll serve as bullpen reinforcement first, then slide into Slowey's rotation slot.

One thing this does, at least for a bit, is dampen speculation that the Twins could trade Swarzak or another starter for a relief pitcher or middle infielder.

* I like this year's red "flag cap" more than last year's blue. But lordy, the red one and the blue uniform top don't work together. And I'm not all that likely to spend $35 for any cap these days.

* Jose Mijares, whose struggles versus righties appeared to have pushed him into a LOOGY role, had a strong two-inning stint Friday. No hits, no walks, three strikeouts, five first-pitch strikes to seven hitters, 24 strikes total to just eight balls. The only baserunner struck out. He even got five right-handers out.

* Happy Fourth of July, dear readers.

Henn down, Duensing up

The Twins today swapped out lefty relievers, recalling Brian Duensing (left) from Rochester and outrighting Sean Henn. Duensing opened the season with the Twins but didn't stick very long.

Two points.

1) The decision to waive Craig Breslow back in May looks worse and worse. Breslow, since joining Oakland, has an ERA of 2.30. More impressive, he has allowed 15 baserunners in 15 2/3 innings and struck out 14. In short, he's pitched the way he did last season with the Twins.

Henn offered more of a power arm, but little real idea of how to use it. Eight walks in 11 1.3 IP ?

Now Duensing gets his second chance to be the second lefty. Or something. Which leads me to point ...

2) Breslow, fairly or not, has gotten the LOOGY label. His numbers — last season and this — suggest he is capable of more than that, but both Ron Gardenhire and his manager in Oakland, Bob Geren, have used him as a specialist. (Thirteen of Breslow's 21 appearances for the A's have been for less than three outs.)

Jose Mijares, in contrast, is earning that label. His platoon splits this season are incredible. Left-handed hitters are helpless and right-handers are Cooperstown material. Last September he was a dominant arm; this year, a specialist.

Which makes him less of an eighth-inning option. He had just two outings in June in which he got three outs. Gardenhire now uses him as a LOOGY, to piece together innings.

Which, coming into the season, was Breslow's role. Which was supposed to be inherited by Henn.

My guess is that Duensing — who has been starting in Rochester without notable success— is not ticketed for a LOOGY role. I think he'll get the long relief/mop-up job that was first R.A. Dickey's and, for the past week or so, Bob Keppel's. If Matt Guerrier and Mijares are eight inning options A and A1, Dickey and Keppel are the choices for the sixth and seventh.

This isn't ideal. But impatience with Breslow, coupled with Mijares' inability to deal with right-handers, have put the Twins in this bind.

Those things, plus their inability/unwillingness to bring in a reliable reliever from outside the organization.

Quotes, notes and comments

* That was the very definition of pitching efficiency Friday from Jose Mijares: One pitch, two outs.

Mijares hadn't pitched in a week. On July 19, his previous outing, he faced three hitters and didn't throw a first-pitch strike to any of them (and gave up a homer to Jeff Keppinger in the process). His appearance before that, June 16, he pitched on inning, giving up two hits and a walk but no runs. And that outing followed a spell in which he was used five times in eight days.

Sometimes Ron Gardenhire's bullpen usage seems to follow this pattern — use a guy hard, then ease off when he shows signs of breaking down. The problem comes when the easing off comes too late, as with Matt Guerrier last season.

* What a surprise: Milton Bradley had a temper tantrum Friday. What a secondary surprise: Lou Piniella reacted:

"I told him to take his uniform off. He threw his helmet and smashed a water cooler, water flying all over. I just told him to take his uniform off and go home. I followed him up into the clubhouse, and we exchanged some words."

Bradley (above) is not the only Cub to bash water coolers; Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster have too. Piniella — notorious for his short fuse — doesn't really seem the guy to calm things down, and there've been times this season when he's joked about it.

* Alex Rodriguez is being described as a shell of the player he once was. How much of it is the hip — remember, the surgery this spring was not a complete correction of the problem, but an attempt to get him back on the field for this season, with another surgery to come — and how much is the fact that he's about to turn 34 (and may be off the juice) is a matter of conjecture.

His OBP (.389) and SLUG (.487) aren't nearly as bad as his batting average (.227), and since the Yankees started making an effort to give him days off and started enforcing limits on his batting practice, his numbers have picked up (.333 BA over his past 10 games. Of course, he's been facing National League pitching, and that's probably had something to do with his surge.

Still: The Yankees have 10 more years to go on that contract.

*David Ortiz's stat line for the season remains ugly, but his baseball obituary appears to have been premature. His slash line for June: .311/.386/.705. Again, however: NL pitching.

Meanhile, teammate Mike Lowell — who had the same hip problem as A-Rod — is also running into problems, and the attempted solutions include an injection of an artifical lubricant and a reduction in his playing time.

Rising role for R.A. Dickey

The Greg McMichael rule lives, and R.A. Dickey (left) is abiding by it.

The McMichael rule — dubbed for the pitcher who, in 1993, rose from minor league free agent to closer for the Atlanta Braves — holds that, if you get people out, they'll find a role for you. The Braves of the 1990s had one of the greatest pitching staffs ever assembled, but they found room for McMichael.

Dickey, like McMichael, was a minor league signing. He was supposed to be the long man, the mop-up man, a guy who sucked up innings so more valuable pitchers didn't have to.

In April that's what he looked like. His ERA that month (11 innings): 5.73. Nothing great there.

In May, he started getting outs: 1.86 ERA (19.3 innings).

June has been even better: No earned runs so far (11.1 innings). Just four hits and one walk this month.

So on Thursday afternoon, with the Twins holding a 6-3 lead, it was Dickey who got the seventh inning. Not Sean Henn, not the departed Luis Ayala, not the demoted Jesse Crain. He faced three men, none of whom got it out of the infield, and collected his first hold of the season. He threw 10 pitches, seven of them strikes.

Dickey has earned this bigger role. His emergence may slightly diminish the burden on Matt Guerrier (who surrendered a home run in the eighth inning Thursday) and Jose Mijares, but that's OK. The Twins have been aching for somebody to do just that.

Beautiful bunts

A Jim Souhan column in Friday's Minneapolis paper bemoaned the lack of small-ball from the Twins, and cited as evidence that this is a problem this set of won-loss stats — the Twins are 24-16 when they hit a homer, 10-18 when they don't.

Make that 11-18 now, after Friday's win — a win with plenty of small ball. The Twins had three sac bunts and a bunt single. Two of the sac bunts came back to back, the last a beautiful suicide squeeze by Nick Punto.

* Matt Guerrier has been in danger of being overworked. And suddenly he was in danger of disappearing altogether before he pitched the seventh inning Friday.

He had pitched five times in six days after last Saturday's game. He hadn't pitched since. Sunday was the Jesse Crain debacle, Monday an off day, Tuesday's win was largely mopped up by R.A. Dickey, Wednesday's loss turned into a blowout by Sean Henn and Luis Ayala, and Thursday was Blackburn's complete game.

For that matter, Jose Mijares, the other primary setup man, made only his second appearance of the past week Friday.

The Twins have both cut their bullpen from seven to six and gotten their main setup arms some days off.