Berrios, Layne and Murphy

Paul Molitor gets between catcher John Ryan Murphy
and home plate umpire Jerry Layne after Murphy was
ejected for arguing balls and strikes.

The presumption is that Jose (or J.O.) Berrios is in a pitch-off with Alex Meyer and Tyler Duffey, with one of those three going back to Rochester when Ervin Santana comes off the disabled list.

Berrios showed the talent Monday night. The box score line isn't all that impressive -- five walks in 5.1 innings -- but home plate umpire Jerry Layne was not very good.

What's more, I'll bet he knows he had a bad day on balls and strikes, and knew it even before reviewing the daily electronic review of his calls.

The pitch that led to the ejection of catcher John Ryan Murphy -- my guess is that Layne got fooled by the reaction of Jose Altuve, who moved away from the Berrios breaking ball like it was a rattler about to strike. Berrios threw a slightly worse version of the same pitch after the rhubarb, Altuve moved away again, and Layne this time called strike three.

JRM got away in an earlier at-bat with turning around to talk to Layne, and turned his head after the Altuve pitch. The broadcasters suggested Layne was baiting Murphy, but I think Layne was relatively patient with him -- again, because Layne knew he was not doing well. Consider Dallas Kuechel, last year's Cy Young winner, who walked four men in the crucial fourth inning; Layne wasn't squeezing only the rookie.

Meyer goes tonight. His reputation for uncertain command precedes him, and he may need a better umpiring job than Layne provided on Monday. It's a good guess that Murphy will be catching again, based on the apparent back issues Kurt Suzuki caught with after the ejection.

The decaying Twins pitching staff

Jose Berrios was
bypassed for a call-up
as the Twins
shuffle their rotation
this weekend.

Friday was the first day of a makeshift weekend for the Twins pitching staff.

The Twins knew for more than a week that they had a hole to fill this weekend. They had called up Tyler Duffey for a disastrous start against Toronto, then shipped him back to Triple A and used the Monday off day to hide the open slot in the rotation. That slot comes up today.

Then Phil Hughes was sidelined this week with an ailing back.

The curious solution: Trevor May, relegated to the bullpen almost six weeks ago and the apparent No. 2 man in the bullpen behind Glen Perkins, started Friday. Duffey, brought back from Triple A with Hughes going on the disabled list, starts today. And Tommy Milone, whose own stint on the disabled list started this whole sequence, is to start Sunday. (Who loses his roster spot to make room for Milone is unknown.)

That translates to a bullpen game, a second start for a yo-yo'd pitcher, and a return from injury. Oh my aching bullpen.

Two weeks ago the brain trust dismissed the notion of pulling May out of the bullpen in Milone's absence. After a month of one-inning stints, he was deemed unprepared for starts. I figured he was confined to the bullpen for the duration.

And now he starts. And, presumably, will start again in five days.

Curious, I say, especially since premier prospect Jose Berrios was lined up for Friday's start in Triple A. (He threw six no-hit innings for Rochester, then failed to retire anybody in a five-run seventh.)

Duffey is a decent prospect; Berrios is a better one. I'm sure the Twins have reasons to prefer Duffey right now, but I can't identify them.

Meanwhile, saving May for Friday's start created a late-inning hole in the bullpen on Thursday, when Texas scored in the eighth to break a tie and win. No guarantee that May would have held the Rangers down, but we know Casey Fien didn't.

In the abstract, I prefer May as a starter to May as a reliever. In this specific time and place, returning him to the rotation is probably a mistake.

Further depleting the bullpen depth, Blaine Boyer -- whose season has sharply decayed since May -- went on the shelf with an elbow issue. Michael Tonkin was recalled for his fourth stint with the Twins this season. This does not disturb me; I think Tonkin has more to offer than Boyer, Obviously, the people with the responsibility to make those decisions think otherwise. And Tonkin certainly didn't help his cause with his outing Friday.

Santana and Berrios

The Ervin Santana
era is about to begin.

Ervin Santana wrapped up his prep work Tuesday with his third and final start for Triple A Rochester -- eight shutout innings. In 20.2 Triple A innings on this "rehab" assignment, the suspended steroidian compiled a 1.74 ERA. Santana is to start Sunday at Kansas City.

We don't yet know how the Twins will make room for him in their rotation. The choices, broadly speaking:

• Option out Trevor May or Tommy Milone (they are the only members of the current rotation who can be sent to the minors without waivers);
• Trade away somebody;
• Shift somebody, most likely Mike Pelfrey, to the bullpen; or
• Go to a six-man rotation.

The latter two would require a different roster move, presumably involving one of the current relief pitchers.

The Twins aren't tipping their hand on which way they're going. Paul Molitor is clearly cool to the six-man rotation idea, but he hasn't ruled it out either.

Between 2014 and
2015, Jose Berrios
has made 23 starts
in Double A, going
11-7, 3.22 in
131.1 innings.

We do know what the Twins are doing to fill the rotation hole Santana leaves at Triple A Rochester: They're promoting Jose Berrios from Double A Chattanooga.

Berrios entered the season essentially neck-and-neck with Alex Meyer and Kohl Stewart in the organizational prospect rankings. His strong half season in the Southern League (3.08 ERA, 92 strikeouts in 90.2 innings) has established him as the top pitching prospect in the system.

Berrios is to pitch, for the second year in a row, for the World team in the Futures Game. There was an item about him in the current issue of Baseball America, in which Doug Mientkiewicz -- who managed Berrios in the first half last year at High A Fort Myers and again this summer in Chattanooga -- said that last year Berrios was tipping his changeup. The Florida State League hitters couldn't do much with it anyway, but the tell had its effect on Berrios' numbers in the second half, when he moved up to New Britain and even, for one start, Rochester.

This year, the tipoff is gone, according to Mientkiewicz via Baseball America. And Berrios' Double A strikeout rate has risen from 6.2 per nine innings last year to 9.1 this year.

The next step of spring training.

Jose Berrios was among the first cuts the Twins made,
but not because he pitched poorly.

The Twins made one set of camp cuts before Sunday's game and another set after it.

We know that Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Max Kepler were sent to the minor league side. There are conflicting reports on Miguel Sano, who told reporters he had been told he was being sent out but who wasn't on the list issued Sunday afternoon by the Twins.

That sounds like some language barrier at work. My guess is they told Sano he will be sent out soon, and he understood it to be immediately.

The departure of Buxton, Sano and Berrios -- plus Kepler and Jorge Polanco -- removes much of the interest from spring training for me, so it's just as well that this isn't a year for a Fort Myers jaunt for me.

Nor are these early demotions a surprise.

The Twins were never going to seriously consider either Buxton or Sano for the big club this spring, not after their injury-ridden 2014s. And the millions the front office has invested in veteran starting pitchers -- Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco, Mike Pelfrey, Tommy Milone, even Tim Stauffer -- appears to preclude more advanced arms than Berrios (Alex Meyer and Trevor May) from getting April action.

Early demotions for Buxton, Berrios and the others were the plan, and the Twins are sticking with that plan. I'm not endorsing the plan, but I understand it. If Buxton isn't going to be the centerfielder, and he isn't, send him down and free up the playing time for the guys who might be. If Berrios isn't going to be in the April rotation, send him down and open the innings to stretch out the guys who will be.

I say that even though I would much rather watch Berrios and Buxton than Aaron Hicks or Jordan Schafer, or Pelfrey or Stauffer. When we get down to it, the Chattanooga Lookouts figure to be a much more interesting team to watch this year -- Buxton, Sano, Polanco, Kepler, maybe Berrios -- than the big league team will be. That was my expectation coming into spring training, and it's my expectation halfway through spring training.

Minors details

The minor league season is winding down, and for several of the Twins top prospects, that's probably a good thing.

We already know that Byron Buxton won't return to action this month after his frightening outfield collision and concussion. The hope is that he'll pass the concussion protocol to play in the Arizona Fall League.

J.O. Berrios and Kohl Stewart, two of the organization's top three starting prospects (the third being Alex Meyer), each missed time at the end of July with shoulder somethings. Yeah, I'm vague. So were the public reports on their issues. Each has returned to action, but not with complete success.

Stewart was pulled from a start Tuesday in the second inning with his velocity, which normally tops out in the mid-90s, lagging in the 88-90 mph range. The Twins called his early departure from that game precautionary, and have said that their exams last month found no structural damage in the shoulder. But ...

Kernels Manager Jake Mauer said injured pitcher Kohl Stewart will see a local orthopedic doctor Thursday about his shoulder. #MnTwins
— Jeffrey Johnson (@jeje66) August 21, 2014

For his part, general manager Terry Ryan sounds relatively unconcerned about Tuesday's brief outing and suggested Wednesday that he expected Stewart to start again. (Cedar Rapids is closing in on a playoff berth, something that seemed highly unlikely when I visited CR in early July, so there's a good chance the Kernels will have plenty of opportunities to pitch Stewart.)

Stewart is not yet 20, and he has 87 innings under his belt this season. That doesn't appear to be a particularly heavy workload, but fatigue may still be a factor.

Berrios spent last season at Cedar Rapids, also at age 19. He pitched 103 innings for the Kernels and did not appear in their postseason. So even if Stewart is done for the season, he's only 16 innings behind Berrios' workload at the same level.

This year Berrios was dominant at high A Fort Myers but less so in seven starts (so far) at New Britain. He started Thursday with mediocre results:

Berrios tonight: 5.2-8-4-3-1-4. Could be "innings-ed out" as Terry Ryan said this week.
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) August 22, 2014

Berrios is now at 131 innings for the year, and has had to make a midseason transition from the six-man rotation the Twins employ on their A-ball teams to the five-man rotation at Double A. I suspect, however, that between off days and the late July shoulder scare that he's made few if any starts on four days rest.

Regardless, Ryan has already declared Berrios off limits for the Arizona Fall League. It's less clear if the Twins will let him pitch winter ball in his native Puerto Rico.

Assuming that there are indeed no true injury issues with these two guys, an offseason of rest sounds like a good idea.

Random comments before the trading deadline

Giving away outs on the basepaths: Sam Fuld is
picked off first base by Danny Duffy in the fourth inning.

Well, that was a pretty ugly loss by the Twins Wednesday night in Kansas City. Two baserunners picked off. Another runner thrown out at the plate by, oh, maybe 15 feet or so.

The moment Brian Dozier took off I was yelling "No no no" at the TV set, and Scott Ullger should have doing the same, because it's possible Dozier could actually hear him. And then I remember the story from the 1975 World Series of Don Zimmer, third base coach for the Red Sox, yelling "No no no" and Denny Doyle hearing it as "Go go go."

Meanwhile, another day slips off the calendar toward the nonwaiver trading deadline, and still no action involving the Twins. I do believe something is going to happen before the deadline this afternoon. But I suspect it won't involve Kurt Suzuki or Josh Willingham. Maybe Kevin Correia (teams are always looking for pitching, although Correia is not a playoff-caliber starter). Most likely, one of the middle relievers -- Brian Duensing, Jared Burton and/or Casey Fien.

But I have a lousy record on guessing trade deadline stuff. Terry Ryan has done deadline deals, but most years he waits until August and the waiver period. That's when Justin Morneau moved last year. So while I expect something to happen today, I recognize that it might not -- and just because it didn't happen in July doesn't mean it won't happen in August.

A few other items:

• The word from the New Britain Rock Cats about J.O. Berrios: He's fine. No discomfort today. Nothing to see here. Alrighty then. Let's see when he starts next, and what happens when he does. I hope that's accurate. 
• Hudson Boyd, a high draft pick in 2011 who hasn't risen above Low A ball and has been relegated to relief work in Cedar Rapids, was suspended indefinitely for unspecified violation of team rules. The Twins had four picks by the end of the second round of that draft: Levi Michael, Boyd, Travis Harrison and Madison Boer. I'm not very optimistic about any of them at this point.
• I've been known, in years past, to hit Davenport, Iowa, to see a Midwest League game (home team: Quad Cities River Bandits). On Wednesday night, their game was interrupted when a possum invaded:

The @QCRiverBandits' game was briefly delayed today when an opossum took the field. Seriously. Photo: @QCBanditPhotog pic.twitter.com/rBlgFnZ8ih
— MiLB.com (@MiLB) July 31, 2014

That might have been more exciting to see than watching the Twins' base running tomfoolery.

Talking minor league pitchers

Jose (or J.O.) Berrios in the Futures Game. 

As we wait for the Twins to make what seems an inevitable trade or trades by Thursday's nonwaiver deadline, a few notes about some prominent Twins minor league pitchers:

* J.O. Berrios, who we saw starting the Futures Game in Target Field, started Tuesday night in Trenton, New Jersey,his fourth start in Double A. Keith Law of ESPN was there:

Jose Berrios 94-96 for @RockCats in the first, got out of a small jam by getting Pete O'Brien to hit into a 6-4-3
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 29, 2014

Berrios giving up some hard contact tonight - lack of downhill plane or FB life really hurts him
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 29, 2014

Berrios coming out after 1.2 innings due to an apparent injury. #Twins
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) July 29, 2014

Law has not been as impressed with Barrios as other observers, citing Barrios' relative lack of height (listed at 6 feet). Anyway, the word on Barrios is shoulder discomfort of some sort:

Source tells me it was indeed shoulder tightness that forced RHP J.O. Berrios from tonight's start after 48 pitches.
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) July 30, 2014

We'll see what further evaluation holds for him. But reports that his velocity dropped sharply his last three pitches hint that this may be more than a minor glitch.

* When Kohl Stewart went on the disabled list, his shoulder stiffness was deem so minor that no tests were going to be done, and I figured that it was just an excuse to skip a start or two for the 19-year-old. Well, the Twins did bring him to Minneapolis for an MRI and exam by the team physician, and nothing was found, or so the Twins say.

There's a bit more than a month to the Cedar Rapids season, and Stewart has topped 80 innings. Last year Berrios threw 103 there (and 13 in Elizabethton) as a 19-year-old, so assuming Stewart gets back in action soon, he will be on track to match that workload.

* Let's have some good news of a sort: The Twins just signed an "out of nowhere" guy who throws 100 mph by has somehow eluded scouts for years. Brandon Poulson is 24, which is pretty old for somebody going to Elizabethton. If he's going to make it, he's going to have to climb the ladder quickly.

Mid season prospect rankings

Jose Berrios or J.O. Berrios: By either name,
his stock has risen this season.

I'm a few days late to this party, but Baseball America this week released its midseason Top 50 prospects list. (Keith Law of ESPN is to publish his list after the All-Star break, and I suppose there will be others.)

Even though Byron Buxton had played just five games this year at the time the list was drawn up, he remains the top guy on the list. Even though Miguel Sano hadn't played at all, he's still in the top 10.

And this should not be any surprise whatsoever. Baseball America doesn't include the guys on major league rosters for the midseason list; that takes out the likes of Xander Bogearts, Gregory Polanco and Oscar Traveras. They also skip the 2014 draft picks. Carlos Correa has a broken leg, so if you want to downgrade Buxton and Sano for injury, you have to downgrade Correa also. Basically, the prospects who could arguably be ranked ahead of Buxton are either already in the majors or themselves injured.

BA listed five Twins prospects, Buxton (No. 1), Sano (9), Jose (or J.O.) Berrios (27), Kohl Stewart (30) and Alex Meyer (32).

It's the order of the three right-handed pitchers that intrigues me. The wintertime lists typically had Meyer ahead of Stewart with Berrios trailing not only those two but, in some cases, Eddie Rosario and/or Josmil Pinto.

Berrios was outstanding in high A ball; now the 2012 supplemental round pick gets to test his skill against Double A hitters. Stewart is holding his own, or a bit better, in low A. Meyer has been up and down at Triple A, and I infer that he's slipped behind Berrios and Stewart on the continuing question of the quality of his command.

Ranking Meyer 32nd is hardly dissing him. He was raked No. 45 by BA over the winter, after all. I'm more inclined to view the reordered ranking of the three pitchers as a good sign regarding Berrios than as a red flag on Meyer.

(This might be a good place to note that the Star Tribune's LaVelle Neal tweeted Tuesday that Meyer appears unlikely to get any major league time this year. The Twins are being careful about his innings after he missed a couple months last year.)

The good, the bad and the Nolasco

Ricky Nolasco might be the
worst starter in the American
League this season.

It seemed pretty obvious Sunday from Ron Gardenhire's postgame comments that Ricky Nolasco is coming out of the starting rotation.

This can't be much of a surprise to anybody. Nolasco's ERA, after surrendering six runs in two innings Sunday, is now an ugly 5.90, and he leads the league in hits allowed and runs allowed.

The Twins have made a heavy investment in him -- four years, $49 million -- and it is not paying off.

The manager couched a bullpen assignment in terms of something that will be discussed, and that how most of the beat writers were putting it in their tweets. But I agree with LaVelle Neal, who has covered the Twins since before Gardy became manager (and, I dare say, longer than all the rest of them put together:

Sometimes when Gardenhire makes statements like that, the decision has already been made.
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) July 6, 2014

So why not just say he's pulling Nolasco? Probably because there are discussions to be had -- not about if to do it, but how. Gardenhire would want to talk to Nolasco about it before telling reporters. He'd likely want to talk with Terry Ryan, and certainly with pitching coach Rick Anderson, about rotation alternatives. Shift Deduno to the rotation? OK, how does that affect the bullpen, especially after a pair of two-inning starts this weekend? Do the Twins need another arm?

Gardenhire denied Sunday that there are any physical issues with Nolasco, but I'm not completely buying that. Dan Gladden was talking on the radio about Nolasco's fastball velocity being down. Ron Darling and Cal Ripken, calling the game on TBS, speculated that Nolasco is injured based on the paucity of breaking balls.

Remember, as I wrote last winter after the Twins signed Nolasco, he doesn't throw his fastball nearly as often as most major league starters. If he's now relying heavily on the fastball -- and the fastball is of lower velocity than usual -- it does suggest that something is wrong physically.

---

OK, on to the good news.

*Byron Buxton played Sunday for the Fort Myers Miracle, going 0-for-2 and making, according to the Miracle's radio announcer's Twitter feed, a spectacular catch. He was only in the game for three innings, which was the plan.

* Kurt Suzuki and Glen Perkins were named to the American League All-Star team. Former Twin Carlos Gomez will start for the National League, and ex-Twin reliever and Minnesota native Pat Neshek, having a huge year with St. Louis, was named to the pitching staff.

* Justin Morneau is one of the "Final Five" up for a online fan vote between now and Thursday. Details at mlb.com. I normally don't care too much about such things, but I would love to hear the Target Field reaction to Morneau coming to the plate in the All-Star Game.

* J.O. Berrios, who has dominated the high A Florida State League, has been promoted to Double A New Britain. Berrios is to pitch for the World Team in the Futures Game at Target Field on July 11.

---

File this under the "bad": Neal also tweeted this Sunday:

And the Twins might have to pull Trevor May from the Futures Game because his right calf strain is not healing as hoped.
— LaVelle E. Neal III (@LaVelleNeal) July 6, 2014

Sigh.

Into the futures

Kennys Vargas has hit
14 homers in Double A —
and cut down his
strikeout rate.

You really know you're a prospect nerd if you're more interested in the Futures Game than in the All-Star Game.

In which case, I am very much a prospect nerd.

The Futures Game -- an annual USA-vs.-World contest that kicks off the All-Star festivities on Sunday -- will be July 13 at Target Field. When I ordered my tickets last winter, I was figuring that the Twins's two representatives would probably be Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, just as they were in 2013.

But both sustained significant injuries during spring training, and it's been obvious for some time that neither would be involved in this year's game.

The Twins' contingent instead will be J.O Berrios, right-handed pitcher for the Fort Myers Miracle (High A ball) and Kennys Vargas, a switch-hitting "first baseman" for the New Britain Rock Cats (Double A).

J.O. Berrios — or Jose—pitched for Puerto
Rico in the World Baseball Classic
when he was still just 18.

They're both having marvelous seasons, and Berrios in particular has been a highly regarded prospect from the time the Twins drafted him. The two Puerto Ricans are legitimate selections for the World team, even if they aren't Buxton and Sano.

So July 13 figures to be their first taste of Target Field, and maybe their last for the year. Vargas is already on the 40-man roster, but I don't know how likely he is to be called up this year. Joe Mauer is at first base, and Kendrys Morales is the DH, they're the two highest-paid players on the team, and where would Vargas get at-bats? Outfield is NOT an option for him; he's listed at 275 pounds, and that may be an understatement.

Barrios isn't on the 40 and he's in A ball, so he's not coming up this year. Indeed, I doubt he's going to move up to Double A. He turned 20 a month ago, and the Twins are using him in a six-man rotation (that's their policy in A ball and lower). Move him up to New Britain, and he'll have to jump into a five-man rotation. I don't think the Twins are going to subject his arm to that. As it is, he's one of the youngest pitchers in the Florida State League.

Andrew Albers and pitching depth

Andrew Albers had a sensational first two
starts with the Twins last year.

Terry Ryan acknowledged during Thursday night's Diamond Awards that Andrew Albers, who was the Twins' minor league pitcher of the year, won't be in the organization much longer. The lefty has a deal to pitch in South Korea, and the Twins will accommodate him.

As I said the other day, it's a good deal for Albers, who will get more money for one year in Korea than he has in his entire pro career so far. While Ryan doesn't sound enthused about losing the 28-year-old, Albers obviously isn't prominent in Minnesota's pitching plans. They're not losing that much.

Still, pitching is always in shorter supply than we think in January. There aren't a lot of achy elbows and sore shoulders right now. A month from now, when spring training bullpen sessions are under way, there will be.

Half of Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects for the Twins are pitchers: Alex Meyer, Kohl Stewart, J.O. Berrios, Lewis Thorpe, Trevor May. It's easy to look at such a list and say, That will someday be the Twins' rotation, and maybe it will. But the odds are against it.

One can pick that list apart too. Meyer missed a good chuck of 2013. Stewart is just 18 and a Type One diabetic who barely pitched in rookie ball. Berrios is a short righty without a lot of projection who has yet to pitch above High A ball. Thorpe is even younger than Stewart. May repeated the Eastern League last year and led the league in walks allowed.

These are the most promising hurlers in what may be the most loaded minor league system in the game, but none is a sure thing. "There's no such thing as a pitching prospect" is more cynical than I care to accept, but there's truth behind it.

Which is why, even though Albers doesn't offer much upside, and even though the Twins appear to have plenty of alternatives both for the major league and Triple A rotations, there is reason for them to be reluctant to let him go.

A game in Cedar Rapids: J.O. Berrios

Jose Berrios delivers what appears from
his grip to be a change-up.
(Photo by Linda Vanderwerf)

My wife and I are in Cedar Rapids, where we saw the Kernels pull out a 3-2 win Sunday. We plan also to see the same two teams tonight. (Another guy who was there: Twins general manager Terry Ryan, who sat behind home plate taking copious notes)

We got to see Jose (or J.O.) Berrios, generally regarded as one of the Twins' top pitching prospects, on Sunday. Berrios turned 19 in May; he was taken in the supplemental round in the 2012 draft and utterly dominated the rookie leagues in the 30 or so innings he got to pitch. He was effective enough in winter ball that he was selected to pitch for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, although his innings were limited.

Things have been a bit more difficult for him in the Midwest League. Not that he has pitched poorly, but he's been challenged.

On Sunday, Berrios worked six innings of one-run ball. That sounds better than it was; he allowed five hits (all singles), walked five, committed an error on a pickoff throw, and got just three strikeouts. Pitching coach Gary Lucas had to visit him in the first and fourth innings.

Berrios was in and out of jams in the first four innings, including two with the bases loaded, and didn't have a 1-2-3 inning until his final frame. He didn't record a strikeout until the fifth.

What I saw: Fastball in the low 90s, a breaking ball (I assume a slider) in the mid 80s, and a change in the mid 70s. (Those velocities come off the stadium scoreboard, and Cedar Rapids regular Jim Crikket tells me it's a slow gun). Berrios' command Sunday was inconsistent, obviously.

But the opponent -- a good Quad Cities (Astros) team featuring Carlos Correa, who is probably the best player in the Midwest League now that Bryon Buxton is in Fort Myers -- really didn't square up many balls. Several of the hits were grounders that found a  hole. Berrios got 18 outs; only four were outfield flies. He threw two double play balls, and got 10 outs on grounders.

Berrios is, by the standards of pitching prospects, short (6 feet); he is "non-projectable", a scouting term that means that physically, he's as good as he's going to get.

What I saw suggested that he has the arm and the moxie to pitch in the majors, but not the command to succeed. Which makes sense, since (Bert Blyleven notwithstanding),19-year-olds who are ready to succeed in the majors are exceedingly rare.

Mike Pelfrey and the Potential Replacements

Mike Pelfrey struck out seven batters
Sunday, doubling his season total.

Mike Pelfrey had his best start of the still-young season Sunday, and he did so against a Cleveland team that is producing runs with anybody in the league.

He needed that strong outing. He entered the game with an ERA of 7.66, and pitchers with that kind of stat tend to lose their jobs. Even his six-inning, one-run Sunday left him with a 6.35 ERA, and that's not good either.

Pelfrey's potentially shaky status made all the more intriguing the list of starters working Sunday in the Twins minor league system:

• For Triple A Rochester, the starter was Sam Deduno, hero of the World Baseball Classic. 
• For Double A New Britain, it was Alex Meyer, the return in the Denard Span trade and generally regarded as the Twins top pitching prospect
• For high A Fort Myers, it was Cole De Vries, who figured to be in the opening rotation before being injured at the end of spring training. (De Vries is on a rehab assignment.)
• For low A Cedar Rapids, it was J.O. Berrios, the Puerto Rican teenager who is close to Meyer in status.

Berrios isn't going to pitch in the majors this year, but the other three all are real possibilities ... and having them aligned with Pelfrey makes it theoretically easy to flip any of them into his place if and when the Twins pull the plug on the veteran.

For the record:

• Deduno went five innings, allowing one run. Four walks, four strikeouts, 89 pitches, 51 strikes. 
• Meyer was knocked out of the box in the fifth inning, allowing five runs in 4.2 innings.
• De Vires, making his first start since training camp, went just four innings. He allowed six hits and one run and was reportedly hit hard in the final inning.
• Berrios went six innings, allowing two runs and striking out eight (no walks).

Even if the Twins were ready to pull the plug on Pelfrey, none of these guys are ready to step in right now. In a couple of weeks, it will be another story.

The Twins and the WBC

J.O. Berrios —
or is it Jose?

Today's print column was a general look at the World Baseball Classic, but it hardly exhausts the topic.

The Twins had 13 players — from former MVPs to teenagers — in the WBC. No organization provided more participants. Here's a few comments:

* How raw is J.O. Berrios? So raw there's no consensus on what he's to be called. The Star Tribune is going with Jose on first reference; Baseball America uses the initials; Baseball Reference at one point used the initials and now has gone with the first name. So far I've gone with the initials.

Berrios (and fellow Puerto Rican Eddie Rosario) was in the Twins major-league camp before the WBC only because of the event; both prospects took advantage of the opportunity to catch the attention, and imagination, of the big-leauge staff. 

Rosario got a lot of playing time in the early exhibitions, Berrios did not. But Berrios pitched Sunday in relief against the Dominican Republic in a game aired by ESPN. (The broadcast was in Spanish, which means I understood only occasional words of the commentary, such as beisbol; this was a vast improvement over the likes of Rick Sutcliffe and John Kruk.) 

Deolis Guerra pitches for
his homeland.

Berrios had a rough outing — two runs, both earned, in 1.2 innings, and he was charged with the loss — but it was still easy to be impressed. The kid (still only 18) blew a high fastball past Robinson Cano for strike three. He throws from a lower arm angle than I had expected to see, and the motion looks easy.

He needs, obviously, experience and good health. That's not an easy combination to achieve. But he can be a good one.  

* Deolis Guerra was pitching for Venezuela but left in mid-round with what was initially described as a pectoral injury. It turned out to be a blood clot in his shoulder. He's to have part of a rib removed to free up space.

This was a potentially serious development, but since it's been caught it's not a career-threatening one. There's no reason Guerra shouldn't be able to pitch again. Still, it's a blow; most of this season is lost for him.

It seems like we've been waiting for him forever; he was the high-ceiling piece of the Johan Santana trade, made just before spring training in 2008. He'll never be the stud starter envisioned at the time, but he's still only 23.

* It's easy to criticize the game strategy Team USA manager Joe Torre employed in the first round. 

Sam Deduno struck out five and walked
none in his start against Spain.

The Americans attempted four sacrifice bunts Sunday against Canada. Now, I love the bunting game, but I love it in its place. Torre has a lineup filled with legitimate All-Stars, and — no offense to the Team Canada pitchers — they're facing moundsmen of much lesser accomplishment. Giving away outs with guys like Adam Jones and Ben Zobrist is just silly.

But in another light, Torre is in a unique situation. He's got a roster of All-Stars, players who left their jobs to play for this team, and none of them came to park their butts on the bench. Torre made a point of getting everybody some playing time in the pool games. Ego massage comes with the territory, and perhaps all the bunting is a way of reminding them that the ego massage only goes so far. 

*Sam Deduno was a late addition to the Dominican roster, and when he opted to pitch in the WBC I saw some muttering from the metro media that he was hurting his chances of making the Twins rotation and wasn't likely to pitch for D.R. anyway.

He started the second game of pool play for the Dominican — four shutout innings against Spain for the win. Yeah, it was Spain, the weak sister of the San Juan pool (Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Spain), but Deduno did pitch. 

And, realistically, he wasn't making the Twins rotation out of camp even had he stayed. Do the math: There's Scott Diamond, Vance Worley, Mike Pelfrey and Kevin Correia, all of whom will either be in the rotation or on the DL. Then there's the contenders on the 40-man roster — Kyle Gibson, Cole DeVries, Liam Hendriks — all of whom rank ahead of Deduno. 

Draft day, day 2: Morning edition

Having taken a high school outfielder with the second overall pick, the Twins turned to pitchers with their two supplemental picks Monday.

J.O. Berrios, a high school right-hander from Puerto Rico, was 49th on Baseball America's list, but the Twins clearly ranked him higher than that on their board. They took him with the 32nd pick.

BA on him:

Berrios worked with a conditioning coach this fall and spring and added 20-25 pounds to his frame since the summer and now has a muscular, athletic 6-foot-1, 180-pound physique. The added muscle has allowed him to smooth things out and has boosted his fastball velocity. His fastball now sits in the 93-95 mph range and some scouts have seen him touch 98. He throws his fastball down in the zone, mixes in a sharp, 80-81 mph slider and shows the makings of a solid changeup with fading action.

Six-one is short for a RHP, and he's not what scouts call "projectable" — meaning that there's not much chance that he's going to develop further physically. But the fastball's there, the breaking ball is good, and he might move faster through the system than most teens would.

Luke Bard, college righty from Georgia Tech, went with the 42nd pick. He's the brother of Boston's Daniel Bard, a power pitcher who did well as a set up man last year and struggled this season as a starter.  Luke Bard relies on a power sinker and hard slider and is seen by Baseball America as a likely bullpen arm. Bard is No. 93 on the BA list, and he missed much of this season with a torn lat muscle.

This pick reminds me of the selection in 2008 of Carlos Guterriez, who was, like Bard, a college reliever who relies on a heavy sinker. The Twins took Guterriez late in the first round and used him as a starter in the minors for a few years, partly to get him innings and partly in hopes that he'd master some secondary pitches and be a starting option.

That didn't take. Guterriez is now relegated to the bullpen, and he's had some injury issues the past two years. He's appeared in just five games this season for Rochester.

The Twins will apparently try the same approach with Bard -- use him as a starter and see if he sticks in the rotation.

Missing from Monday's draft list, of course, is Mitch Brown, the Rochester Century pitcher who has drawn obvious interest from the Twins (Terry Ryan has been seen at several of his starts, including one last weekend). Brown, listed at No. 44 by Baseball America, didn't go in the first 60 picks, and remains available as the second round awaits today.

The Twins have the third pick in the second round, and I will be surprised if they don't use it on Brown. But then, I was surprised they didn't use one of their supplemental picks on him.