Ex-Twins watch: Bullpen guys

When the Nationals decided that Brandon Kintzler was a snitch and had to be eradicated from their "dysfunctional" clubhouse (see my overly-long Tuesday post) , they traded the right-hander to a better situation. He's now with the Chicago Cubs.

Where, in his first six games, he has pitched four innings and walked five hitters.  OK, one was intentional and four innings is a small sample size, but still ... that's not good. It's also not the Brandon Kintzler we saw with the Twins. I think he's going to be fine.

The Cubs made room for Kintzler on their roster by demoting another former Twin, Randy Rosario. The young lefty has an ERA of 3.00, but he too has had trouble with the free pass, with 19 walks in 33 innings. One might want to rap the Cubs for demoting that ERA, but all those walks are a problem. He's also allowed five homes in those 33 innings, so the ERA is pretty much a mirage.

The Cubs picked up Rosario on a waiver claim during the winter, the Twins having decided that they didn't have room on their 40-man roster for him. Similarly, the Twins lost J.T. Chagrois on waivers to the Dodgers early in spring training.

Chagrois was been up and down with the Dodgers -- 37 K's in 30.1 innings and an ERA of 3.56. The Dodgers bullpen is a mess right now; closer Kenley Jansen is out after another bout of irregular heartbeat (this seems to come when he pitches in Colorado), and nothing is working out there for Dave Roberts.

The Dodgers lost Tuesday's game on a ninth-inning homer. It was their fourth straight game in which the bullpen gave up the winning run in the final inning, fifth straight game in which the bullpen took the loss. Chagrois has been part of that problem.

Rethinking Randy Rosario

Randy Rosario's promotion to the majors was warmly greeted in this corner of the internet. It was also warmly greeted, it appears, by American League hitters.

Rosario's ERA after his outing Tuesday (0.1 inning, 4 hits, 5 runs) is 30.86. The decimal is not misplaced.

Despite Bert Blyleven's commentary, Rosario's fastball-slider combo is adequate for relief work. That's what Glen Perkins threw in his glory days; changeup not required.

The problem is less what Rosario throws than where he throws it. On Tuesday night in Seattle, he had no command. Perkins the All-Star threw quality strikes; Rosario is not there yet.

It won't be a surprise if Rosario gets shipped back to the minors soon. Doing so may be a reflexive reaction, but so is pulling your hand from a hot stove. On the other hand, what's the alternative? A fourth call-up for Drew Rucinski? I'll pass on that.

I'd still rather see somebody with Rosario's talent struggle in the majors than somebody with lesser talent struggle in the majors. One question is what best helps the major league team; I'm not sure replacing Rosario with a body from Triple A does that. The other is what best develops Rosario. He's certainly getting more of a challenge in the majors than he has in Double A.

A reliever with upside

Another game against the Houston Astros, another bullpen meltdown, and another round of musical chairs on the roster.

But there's a subtle difference in the moves this time.

Gone are Ryan Pressly (optioned) and Jason Wheeler (designated for assignment). Pressly's struggles -- he carries a 9.50 ERA to Rochester -- probably deserve a deeper examination than I care to attempt this morning. He was expected to be a key piece of the bullpen this year, and he undoubtably failed, and yet there are some markers in his 2017 stats that are actually positive.

Randy Rosario has
a 2.66 ERA in
Double A Chattanooga
this season.

As for Wheeler -- I doubt anybody's going to claim him on waivers. But he's been outrighted before, and as I understand the rules, he'll have the right to take free agency rather than report to Rochester if he clears waivers. I doubt the Twins are worried about losing him.

Added to the battered bullpen corps are Alex Wimmers and Randy Rosario. Wimmers we saw last year;  he is, like Drew Rucinski and Matt Belisle and Buddy Boshers and Wheeler and seemingly everybody the Twins have cycled through their bullpen this season, a replacement level arm best suited to mop-up duties. He's not a solution.

Randy Rosario (no relation to outfielder Eddie Rosario)  is different. R. Rosario is -- finally --  one of the higher octane arms the Twins have been hoarding in their farm system. Left-handed, turned 23 about two weeks ago, survivor of Tommy John surgery. I saw him pitch in Cedar Rapids in 2015 and posted this report. The Twins moved him to the bullpen late last summer after trying to develop him as a started.

He has all of 14 games above A ball on his resume, and I presume that the Twins were reluctant to expose him to the majors with so little experience. But unlike Wimmers -- or Rucinski and the rest of the recycles -- there's an obvious out pitch in Rosario, there's some velocity, there's the makings of swing-and-miss stuff.

I won't guarantee it will work any better with Rosario than with the others, but it might. And at least it's something different. I would have expected Mason Melotakis over Rosario on the basis of experience, but I'm not complaining.

Guess Who, part five

Guess Who No. 5a

Guess Who No. 5b

Yesterday's mystery face is Randy Rosario, left-handed pitcher who is, to borrow a phrase from some of the Baseball America writers, a "personal cheeseball" -- a prospect I like more than I logically should.

I wrote in 2015 about watching a Rosario start in Cedar Rapids, and that winter, after the Twins put him on their 40-man roster, suggested that Rosario was destined for the bullpen.

And indeed, that's what happened late in the 2016 season, when Rosario was pitching for Fort Myers in High-A. Rosario struck out 6.5 batters per nine innings for the season as a whole, but in his final nine outings, all in relief, his K-rate was over 15 per nine.

He got a taste of Double A last year, and that's where he should open 2017. But if that strikeout rate is real, he'll get to Minnesota soon.

The AFL selections

Catching up on "old" news: The initial rosters for the Arizona Fall League were issued Wednesday.

This year the Twins prospects will play for the Surprise Saguaros, Five of the six were identified Wednesday: catcher Mitch Garver, outfielder Tanner English, left-handed pitchers Mason Melotakis and Randy Rosario, and right-handed pitcher John Curtiss.

The Twins are to supply one more pitcher to the Saguaros, and presumably they are hoping Nick Burdi, who has missed almost the entire season with a bruised humerus bone, will be ready to get some innings. 

The most interesting of these guys for immediate purposes is Garver. He's a bat-first catcher who has reached Triple A and might possibly get a September call-up, although the Twins would have to open a spot on the 40 for him. Supposedly he has improved his defensive skills since I saw him play in Cedar Rapids a couple years ago, and he might figure in the Twins catching plans for 2017. 

Even without Burdi, the pitchers assigned to the AFL are a collection of rehab projects. Melotakis and Rosario are on the 40-man roster, but each is in their first full season after Tommy John surgery. Melotakis will end the Double A season with less than 40 innings worked, all out of the bullpen; Rosario is approaching 100 innings combined between High A Fort Myers and Double A Chattanooga. Curtiss split the season between Low A Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers and has 50-some innings, all out of the bullpen, after a 2015 marred by repeated injury issues.

I had had some hope during the offseason and spring training that Melotakis might be a factor in the major league bullpen this year. The Twins obviously took a more cautious approach, made easier by the fact that they weren't in contention. Rosario was a couple levels behind Melotakis and was never really a consideration.

English I don't take particularly seriously as a prospect. He had limited playing time this year, presumably because of injury. (The Twins moved him up to Triple A Rochester from High A Fort Myers last week, presumably to meet AFL requirements minimizing the assignment of A-ball players.)

Contemplating Randy Rosario

Pat Reusse has a column today on Randy Rosario, left-handed prospect (and project) pitcher. I saw Rosario last August in Cedar Rapids and wrote this.

Reusse quotes Rosario on his pitches: A high velocity but straight fastball and a wipeout slider. That matches what I saw in August.

The Twins want to develop Rosario as a starter, and that's both sensible and understandable. There's more value in a starter than in a reliever, and even if he winds up in the bullpen, he'll get more innings, more chances to develop his pitches, as a starter. He hasn't pitched above the Midwest League yet.

But ... we have an injury history, we have a (at this point) limited set of pitches, and we have an option clock that will start clicking this spring. My guess is that he's destined for the bullpen, and I really wouldn't be dismayed if it happens sooner rather than later.

Setting the stage for Rule 5

Friday was the deadline for teams to protect their current minor leaguers from the Rule 5 draft by putting them on the 40-man major league roster. The Twins elevated seven prospects -- and lost two players with some major league time, catcher Josmil Pinto and right-hander A.J. Achter, on waivers, Pinto to the Padres and Achter to the Phillies.

I'll probably write something in more detail about the Pinto move next week. Achter is a marginal reliever who had another good season in Triple A last year -- he has a 2.69 ERA in 99 Triple A appearances -- who might be able to wander into a decent major league season if given a chance, but lacks the dominant pitch to force a career. Good luck to both of them.

The seven additions include several pitchers who emphatically have that dominant pitch. I see four categories in the seven:

Hard-throwing right-handed relievers: J.T. Chargois and Yorman Landa.

Left-handed Triple A starters: Pat Dean and Taylor Rogers.

Left-handers with Tommy John surgery: Mason Melotakis and Randy Rosario.

Outfielder: Adam Brett Walker.

Landa and Rosario spent 2015 at low A Cedar Rapids, and I saw both pitch during my handful of Kernels games last August, Rosario as a starter and Landa as a reliever. I didn't write about Landa, but he did show some serious velocity; I wrote instead about Luke Bard, who wasn't put on the 40 and is eligible for Rule 5. Anyway -- while Landa and Rosario will be in major league camp, I don't think the Twins will elevate either to the majors this year.

Dean and Rogers are slightly surprising protects to me. I don't see either as a particularly likely candidate to ever be starters for the Twins. There are certainly a lot of rotation guys ahead of them.

Walker's protection illustrates the importance of the power tool. ABW has serious power -- and, like Oswaldo Arcia, little else to recommend him. I'm not particularly enthused about Walker's chances.

Melotakis missed 2015 with Tommy John surgery while Chargois returned from two years on the shelf. These two guys each have pitched in Double A and have realistic chances to be part of the reconstructed 2016 bullpen, although I doubt the Twins would graduate Melotakis in particular to the majors out of spring training.

The Twins now have 38 player on their 40-man roster. One of the open slots is slated for Byung Ho Park; the other may well go to a Rule 5 selection.

A trip to Cedar Rapids: Randy Rosario

Randy Rosario cracked a few Twins prospects lists after compiling a 2.82 ERA in 44.2 innings for Elizabethton in 2013. He opened 2014 in Cedar Rapids, making three starts with a 5,56 ERA before having Tommy John surgery. Friday night was his sixth start of the season for the Kernels.

Rosario is a 21-year-old lefty out of the Dominican. His windup motion is at least vaguely reminiscent of Frank Viola's, and he appears to have more lower-body involvement in his delivery than does Felix Jose.

I was seated right behind two Kernels pitchers, Randy LeBlanc and Sam Gibbons, who were charting pitches, and could see their radar gun, which was giving higher velocities than the scoreboard listing. Rosario threw a few mid-90s heaters but sat considerably lower than that, 88 to 90 mph.

What he really had going was movement. He had a pitch, either a sinking fastball or a hard slider, that moved sharply to his glove side (down and in to a right handed hitter). He struck out five men in his 5.2 innings Friday; one of them reached first when the pitch eluded catcher Brian Navarreto, and Navarreto had to throw to first to complete two others.

Rosario and his teammates had an ugly first inning, with three infield errors resulting in two unearned runs. Rosario himself was involved in the ugliness. He fielded a comebacker that should have been turned into a double play but threw low and behind the second baseman covering the bag. The error was charged to the second baseman, but it was still a suboptimal throw from Rosario.

The lefty got through the fifth without allowing another run, but was clearly laboring in the sixth, with more effort showing in his delivery. After getting the first batter out, he allowed a double, wild pitch, single and double before getting a fly ball and then issuing his first walk of the game, at which point manager Jake Mauer pulled him. The reliever, Jared Wilson, issued his own walk to load the bases and then gave up a three-run double.

So Rosario's line for the game: 5.2 innings, nine hits, six runs, four earned, one walk and five strikeouts. It was a better outing than that stat line suggests.

Rosario is young -- a year younger than the Midwest League average -- and he seems to be bouncing back from the ligament replacement surgery well. I think he has a major league future ahead of him, most likely as a reliever, but good health is obviously a necessity for that to happen.

---

I commented Friday morning on Navarreto. On Friday evening he went 0-for-5 but gunned out two more would-be basestealers. That makes him 5-for-5 in the three games I've seen. Again, I don't know about his bat, but the catcher can throw,