The second round of cuts

Alex Meyer's spring
ERA was 5.79 in
four outings.

The Twins moved nine more players out of major league camp Friday.

Reassigned: catchers Mitch Garver and Stuart Turner; outfielder Joe Benson; righties Jose Berrios and Nick Burdi; and lefty Aaron Thompson.

Optioned: infielder Jorge Polanco, first baseman Kennys Vargas and righty Alex Meyer.

A few recognizable names there, including (depending on who's doing the rankings) at least three Top 10 prospects, but nobody who was particularly likely to make the opening day roster barring injury.

A reader who emails me far more often than I reply has complained to me that for all the talk of the hard throwing kids in the system, the Twins continue to value command over velocity in the bullpen. The demotions of Burdi and Meyer will probably reinforce that complaint. (His argument is overly selective; he doesn't count Trevor May as a hard-throwing reliever because he's only in the 'pen because of the glut of starters. But he is a hard thrower as a reliever, and the Twins do value that.)

I am curious about the chatter today about whether Meyer will start or relieve in Rochester. Paul Molitor sees Meyer as a reliever, but there are apparently voices in the organization that want him starting again. And that might be part of that Terry Ryan quote from Thursday about more starters than slots in Rochester.

My notion on this: Meyer may need to start for a while in order to get enough innings and repetitions get iron out his wonky mechanics. He has the stuff, but he has issues throwing quality strikes. He may need to start to get a chance to be effective in relief.