A little Series off-day Twins news

Pedro Hernandez
was 3-3, 6.83 in
56.2 innings for
the Twins.

The Twins on Tuesday announced that LHP Pedro Hernandez has been outrighted to Triple A, thus removing him from the 40-man roster. The Twins now have 35 players officially on the 40, plus Sam Deduno, who remains on the 60-day disabled list but should soon be reinstated to the roster.

The Hernandez move is hardly a surprise, and — as noted with previous roster-clearing moves — not the last such move to come this offseason. He's left-handed, and he's only 24, but his Triple A numbers weren't particularly appealing and his stats with the Twins are terrible.

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Larry Corrigan, once a significant behind-the-scenes figure in the the Twins baseball operations, is returning to the organization.

He was, at various times, the Twins scouting director, director of minor league instruction and a special assignment scout. He left the Twins within weeks of the ascension of Bill Smith to the general manager's job when Terry Ryan stepped down at the end of the 2007 season; with no evidence other than the timing, I've always figured that Smith's rise prompted Corrigan to depart.

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While the Twins have made no formal announcement about Corrigan and his future role, they did on Tuesday release their plans for TwinsFest, post-Metrodome. I really don't know how well Target Field will work for a late January event like that. but in all honesty, I haven't been to TwinsFest in years. (Driving in a Minnesota winter becomes less appealing as I grow increasingly older.)

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On a purely personal note: Happy birthday, Mom.

The sixth starter

P.J. Walters, having been designated for assignment, is now in baseball limbo. He's not officially in the Twins organization, but if nobody claims him on waivers, he can be outrighted to Triple A.

At the moment, the Twins' rotation features, in alphabetical order, Kevin Correia, Sam Deduno, Scott Diamond, Kyle Gibson and Mike Pelfrey. (It will be interesting to see how Ron Gardenhire lines them up coming out of the All-Star break; my guess is that Gibson will be at the end of the line.)

Considering that there's about half the season yet to play, the odds are that bunch will change. If Walters isn't a candidate to move back into the rotation, who is?

The possibilities include:

Pedro Hernandez

Status: 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: Hernandez has made seven starts in the majors for the Twins (3-1, 5.54) and six for Rochester (2-2, 3.60). If he has a major league career ahead of him, it's probably as a relief pitcher. He'd be a safe place-holder, but that's all.

Cole De Vries was
5-5, 4.11 in his
time with the Twins
in 2012.

Cole De Vries

Status: 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: The Minnesota native would have opened 2013 in the major league rotation but ran into arm issues. He's made nine starts in Rochester and has gone 3-4, 8.16, with just 19 strikeouts in 43 innings. Hard to see him being close to a callup.

Liam Hendriks

Status: 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: The Aussie opened with the big club and went down quickly. He dominated the International League last year but has fallen off this year (1-6, 5.05). His status isn't high.

Vance Worley 

Status: 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: He's 5-3, 3.81 since his demotion, which looks pretty good compared to his fellow 40-man roster mates. But it comes with just 30 strikeouts in 52 innings. I do expect him to return to the major league rotation this year, but that's more because of what the Twins have invested in him than because he's earned it.

Minor league veteran
Andrew Albers pitched
for Team Canada
in the WBC.

Andrew Albers

Status: Not on the 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: Lefty from Canada, he was just named to the IL all-star team (8-3, 3.00 with 86 K in 99 innings). He's 27 and has spent more time in his career in relief than starting, but he's been a fixture in the Red Wings rotation and is having a fine season. I don't see him as a likely long-term rotation candidate.

Logan Darnell

Status: Not on the 40-man roster, pitching in Rochester
Comment: Another lefty, he has made one start for the Red Wings after a strong first half with Double A New Britain (6-6, 2.61). He's 24, and this is by far his best minor league performance. Probably behind Albers in terms of getting a chance.

Nick Blackburn:
Forgot he was still
around, didn't you?

Nick Blackburn

Status: Not on the 40-man roster; on rehab assignment in the Gulf Coast League
Comment: He makes the list only because he's getting $5.5 million this year, which I believe makes him the Twins' highest-paid pitcher. He's gotta do something in the minors before the Twins will consider letting him try to earn some of his pay in the majors, and I don't think it's real likely. No future benefit from his return; the Twins won't exercise his $8 million option for 2014.

Alex Meyer

Status: Not on the 40; currently on disabled list
Comment: Was shut down with a shoulder issue last month; the Twins say there's no structural damage, but caution is being exercised anyway. Probably the best pitching prospect in the organization, he's 3-3, 3.69 in Double A New Britain with 73 strikeouts in 61 innings. Won't get a callup this year. (Came to Twins in the Denard Span trade.)

Trevor May came
to the Twins in the
Ben Revere trade.

Trevor May

Status: On the 40, pitching in New Britain
Comment: Some good signs from May as he repeats Double A (6-5, 3.98 with 93 K in 95 innings). The control is improving, although his season walk rate (3.9 BB/9) is still too high. He might be a September callup, since he's already on the 40, but he's not going to be yo-yo'd up and down. Expect patience with him. 

Sunday roster shuffle

The Twins were moving players around like checkers Sunday. And they got a win out of it.

Pedro Hernandez walked six men in his
five innings of work Sunday, but Cleveland
got only two runs against him.

Mike Pelfrey to the disabled list; Pedro Hernandez recalled

The movement started quietly on Saturday, when it was determined that Pelfrey — who had apparently had his back go out on him — was a bad bet for Sunday. (Maybe Ron Gardenhire would have taken the veteran up on his offer to try to pitch if P.J. Walters hadn't blown up the bullpen with a dreadful start Saturday, but there was no way Gardy was going to risk a repeat.)

That it was Hernandez who got the call for the emergency start caused some consternation on Twitter among people who wanted Kyle Gibson (who had started Thursday and thus was not an option for Sunday) or Trevor May (who is on the 40-man roster, who was slated to start Sunday anyway for New Britain and was in Akron, Ohio, some 44 miles from the Cleveland ballpark).

May's been pitching well for the RockCats, but I think the Twins did right by him to avoid a frenzied call-up for his debut. He's made progress battling his control issues, and there's no point in jeopardizing his comfort level.

Pelfrey's been effective enough of late that he had begun to pop up in July trade rumors. Specifically, the MLB.com reporter for the Baltimore Orioles had listed him among starting pitchers the O's are looking at as possible trade targets. This DL stint will cool that kind of talk.

Hernandez demoted, Gibson to be activated

Hernandez was with the Rochester team in Louisville, Ky. He drove all night to get to Cleveland — supposedly he arrived at 4:30 a.m. — started at 1 p.m., provided five innings of two-run ball (on three days rest and presumably almost zero sleep) and was demoted again by 5 p.m. He probably spent more time driving than he did on the major league roster; I hope the Twins at least popped for a hotel room so he could get some shuteye before returning to the Red Wings.

Kyle Gibson in
Rochester: 7-5,
3.01in 92.2 innings.

Gibson is to be activated Tuesday (off day today) but won't pitch until Saturday.

Presumably the Twins intend to keep Gibson in the rotation the rest of his season (Gibson's season is expected to end somewhere around 130 to 140 innings, and he's already worked 99.2 for Rochester). Assuming that Pelfrey's DL stint is the 15-day minimum, he'll be eligible to return July 4, and we'll see who gives way in the rotation then. I would think Walters is the one on the thinnest ice.

Byron Buxton moves up

If you put off making the road trip to see the phenom play in Iowa, you've missed your chance. Buxton was promoted Sunday to high-A Fort Myers, having spent less time with the Cedar Rapids Kernels than Mike Trout did in 2010 (68 games for Buxton, 81 for Trout).

Some people have been grousing for a month about Buxton not moving up already, but this is the fast track indeed. The Twins rarely promote in midseason from low A. Even Joe Mauer spent a full season in the Midwest League. Ben Revere spent a full season flirting with .400 without getting moved up the ladder.

Rehab assignments

Aaron Hicks will test his hamstring in Fort Myers this week; if all goes well, the rookie centerfielder may be back with the Twins by Thursday, when they return home to face Kansas City. I'll probably post in the coming days about the outfield glut and the lineup with Hicks.

The word is less bright for Wilkin Ramirez, who dove for a ball the other day on his rehab assignment and started getting concussion symptoms again. Not good. Concussion recovery is not predictable, but the Twins recent experiences with them suggest that Ramirez may not be back this year.

Plenty of roster moves, with more coming

Vance Worley leaves the field Wednesday — and heads
to Triple A Rochester.

I've spent the last few days writing about the talent on the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and it's certainly been more fun thinking about that team (hey, Byron Buxton hit a triple Wednesday!) than about the Twins.

Monday's post, written in a Cedar Rapids hotel room after an afternoon spent driving and listening to the Sunday game/rain delay, anticipated a coming roster shuffle.

Changes have come, and more will, because the active roster is a starting pitcher short.

Follow the bouncing changeup:

Pedro Hernandez demoted, Caleb Thielbar promoted. Fifth starter out, eighth reliever in. I've always expected the Twins to shuffle through fifth starters in search of somebody who might emerge; I didn't expect Hernandez to get his opportunity as early as he did. Thielbar quickly joined the ranks of overused mop-up men in the bullpen.

Trevor Plouffe took Dan Uggla's shin in the temple
Tuesday night while breaking up a double play.

Trevor Plouffe put on concussion list; Darin Mastroianni put on 60-day disabled list; Chris Colabello put on 40-man roster and on the 25-man roster. The Twins' recent history with concussions — Justin Morneau and Denard Span — has not been a happy one, and the sight of Plouffe taking a shin to the temple raised too many bad memories for Twins fans. Nobody really knows what to expect from concussions, so there's no point in me speculating about how long Plouffe may be out.

Colabello gives the Twins right-handed power, but he's a first baseman-DH, and as such an ill fit on the major league roster as constituted. If he remains, Chris Parmelee or Oswaldo Arcia are likely to get shipped back to Triple A. Third base figures to be handled by a combination of Jamey Carroll and Eduardo Escobar, neither of whom offers Plouffe's pop. I wrote about Mastroianni's status in the Monday post.

Vance Worley demoted, Sam Deduno to be promoted. Worley has gone from Opening Day starter to Triple A in less than two months, which is what a 7.21 ERA can do to a fellow. "The Vanimal" has been the biggest disappointment in a rotation that has been almost completely disappointing.

Deduno has been slated all week to fill Hernandez' rotation slot but hasn't been officially added to the roster yet. One aspect here is that the Twins need another spot on the 40-man roster as well. This may well be found by moving Tim Wood to the 60-day disabled list.

All this still leaves the Twins a starter short. Somebody has to take the ball in four days, when Worley's turn comes around again. My guess: Kyle Gibson. It might have been Gibson for Friday's game except that they don't want to debut him against Detroit.

Fifth-starter starts

Pedro Hernandez gestures to the heavens at the start
of his outing at Boston May 8 in an apparent gesture
to his recently deceased cousin. He went just two innings.

Pedro Hernandez is pretty clearly the Twins' fifth starter. Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey are veterans with multi-million dollar salaries; Scott Diamond and Vance Worley aren't as well paid as Correia and Pelfrey, but they are more-or-less established rotation arms. Hernandez is a relatively unheralded rookie with mediocre velocity and low expectations.

Low expectations — that's an important factor with fifth starters. Hernandez on Monday went 5.1 innings — 16 outs — while allowing three runs. Not a quality start, but (a) he left with the lead and (b) most managers will take that from their fifth guy.

The problem for the Twins is that they're getting that kind of start not only from Hernandez but from the rest of the rotation as well.

The Twins have had six starts of seven innings or longer this season, four from Correia and one each from Diamond and Worley (and Correia's last two starts were five and 5.1 respectively.) Pelfrey has two six inning starts, Hernandez has topped out at 5.1 innings and Liam Hendriks, the only other man to get a start so far, at five innings.

The bullpen has made up for some of the ineffective starts. Anthony Swarzak, the primary long man, already has 22 innings (ERA 3.22), and Josh Roenicke (3.00) and Ryan Pressly (1.62) have 18 and 16.2 innings respectively. (And one of Hernandez's better games was a long relief stint during a lull between starts.)

But those guys are long men for a reason. The starters need to eat more innings. Only Correia is averaging more than six innings a start, and he's showing signs of receding to his usual level. And to eat more innings, they'll have to pitch better. Worley's ERA is 7.15; Pelfrey's is 6.03. They're making Hernandez' 5.79 look good.

Grading the Twins rotation

Scott Diamond shone once more in a day game; for his
short career, his day ERA is 3.32, his night ERA 4.27.

Scott Diamond had his third straight quality start Wednesday, but it was the first time this season he was truly the ground-ball machine of 2012. According to Baseball Reference, he had 13 ground balls and five fly balls Wednesday, bringing him to a 40/35 split for the season.

Diamond's breakout 2012 was all about avoiding walks and getting grounders, so Wednesday was a welcome sign. I'll pick a nit and say I'd like to see him break past six innings next time out; while the bullpen has been very good, the rotation needs to eat more outs.

The Twins have used six starters so far. Vance Worley's had six starts, Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey five each, Diamond four, Liam Hendriks and Pedro Hernandez two each.

I classify the starters into three camps:

1) Semi-established: Diamond and Worley. These are the guys I can envision being part of the rotation for the next contending Twins team. Worley's had a difficult go of things so far: 0-4, 7.22 with less than 29 innings in the six starts, and his strikeout rate is down almost two per nine innings.

Indications are that Worley's leash is long, and it ought to be. But he's not doing well.

I'll give Diamond a C for the season so far. Worley has to be earning an F.

2) The disposable veterans: Correia and Pelfrey, the veterans brought in a free agents. I can't argue with Correia's results, even if I doubt he can sustain them. Pelfrey's been brutal. An A for Correia, another F for Pelfrey.

3) The fifth starters: Hendriks and Hernandez. I fully expect the Twins to cycle a number of pitchers through the rotation looking for someone to break through as Diamond did in 2012. Hendriks got the first shot and was quickly supplanted by Hernandez.

I'll give Hendriks a D; he wasn't all that awful in his two starts, but he did get sent down, and unlike last year, he hasn't dominated Triple A upon his return. If and when the Twins swap out another rotation piece, it probably won't be Hendriks getting the call. Cole De Vries and Sam Deduno are more likely (not that either is ready yet).

The left-handed Hernandez has split time between the rotation and long relief since his return, a pattern imposed by the offdays and weather problems, and has put up an ERA of 2.35, which is not to be sneered at. I'll give him a B, but, as with Correia, I don't really expect him to continue at that level.

Here's a key difference between Diamond and Hernandez, at least as far as one can judge Hernandez off 15.1 innings: Hernandez does not appear to be a worm killer. Baseball Reference has him at 20 grounders and 30 fly balls so far.

Innings, innings

Lefty Pedro Hernandez
gave up a grand slam
to the first batter he
faced Friday, then
threw more than
four shutout innings.

The best that can be said for the Twins about Friday's frigidity was that nobody got hurt.

Which may not be true, come to think of it; Pedro Hernandez left after more than four innings of relief work with a strained calf. He was described post-game as "day-to-day;" in recent seasons that has frequently meant he'll be idle but on the active roster for a week, then go to the disabled list for a month.

That seldom helps the ball club, and the way the starters have been going, the Twins can't afford an idle hand on deck. Earlier this week I remarked about the length of Josh Roenicke's relief outing on Saturday (three innings); since then Anthony Swarzak has had a four-inning relief job and Hernandez his 4.1-inning job.

That's a lot of long relief work. The starters just aren't carrying their share of the load. Vance Worley's one-plus inning Friday means he's averaging four innings a start. Mike Pelfrey is averaging 3.6 innings. Liam Hendriks is averaging just under five innings. Kevin Correia is the only starter  ding his job in the first two turns through the rotation; as a group through 10 games, the Twins are under five innings a start.

Scott Diamond returns to the rotation tonight from his surgical rehab, presumably replacing either Hendriks or Hernandez. The bullpen could really use a lengthy start from him.

Notes from the weekend

Pedro Hernandez went five innings Sunday in his first
appearance with the Twins. He was acquired from
the White Sox in the Francisco Liriano trade last summer.

The Twins pitching staff always figured to be a work in progress this season, and the shuffling began this weekend -- not a week since Opening Day.

Tyler Robertson was optioned out a day after he threw a get-me-over fastball on the first pitch to Chris Davis (who hit it out of the park). Cole De Vries was put on the disabled list. Pedro Hernandez was called up from Triple A to make Sunday's start in De Vries' stead, and Anthony Swarzak came off the disabled list (and got the win Sunday in relief).

More shuffling awaits. Scott Diamond made what is intended to be his final rehab start Sunday; he's scheduled to start Friday when the Twins return to Target Field.

The Twins play in Kansas City today, Tuesday and Wednesday, with Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey and Liam Hendriks lined up. Hendriks really needs a good start Wednesday; as matters stand, he's the most likely guy to be sent out to make room for Diamond.

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Josh Roenicke gave the Twins a very solid three-inning relief outing Saturday. That's got to be one of the longer outings for a Twins reliever under Ron Gardenhire, maybe the longest in a non-extra-inning game.

That was essentially the way the Rockies used Roenicke last season, as what they called a "piggyback" reliever, and last season was by far his most successful in the majors. The chatter this spring about him has been that the Twins had shorter outings in mind for him, but -- for what little it's worth -- he wasn't impressive in his two short relief games against the Tigers.

Having two long relievers -- Swarzak and Roenicke -- might not be a bad idea for the Twins, who don't figure to get a lot of seven- and eight-inning starts.

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Aaron Hicks had a single Sunday. It was his second hit of the young season and lifted his average all the way to .077. Two-for-26, with 11 strikeouts.

That's a slow start. It's hardly unprecedented, however. Willie Mays famously began his career 0-for-26, and he turned out OK. (His 27th at-bat was a homer off the great Warren Spahn, who for years joked: I blame myself for Mays. If I'd gotten him out, maybe they'd have gotten rid of him.) Not that Hicks is Willie Mays, mind you, but if Mays can go 0-for-26, anybody can. Josh Hamilton came into Sunday night's game 1-for-20 with 10 strikeouts.

There wasn't good reason to expect Hicks to hit as well as he did in spring training (.370/.407/.644), and there is no good reason to believe Hicks is as bad as his numbers in the first week of play suggest. The Twins should stick with him, and I expect them to do so.

The end of a Matthew LeCroy Memorial Pick

Danny 'Bam Bam' Rams
was regarded as one
of the best power bats
in the 2007 draft. 

Friday's demotion of  Joe Benson was far from the only move the Twins made that day.

In a handful of minor league releases, two names stood out: Cole Nelson, a LHP and Minnesota native acquired in the Delmon Young trade, and Danny Rams, a second round pick in 2007. Both men ran aground in high A ball.

Rams was what I have come to think of as a Matthew LeCroy Memorial Pick -- a high draft pick whose primary, perhap only, tool was power. Like LeCroy, Rams was drafted as a catcher amid doubts that he could remain a catcher. (Other Twins draftees I view as part of this line, with various levels of justification: Henry Sanchez, Parmelee, Adam Brett Walker).

As it turned out, Rams didn't develop the catching skills he needed to remain behind the plate, and he didn't hit enough (including the power) to justify playing him at another position.

On the major league side, also optioned out Friday was LHP Pedro Hernandez, who threw 11 scoreless innings this spring but seldom was used against established major leaguers. It's not clear to me if the Twins view him as a potential starter or bullpen guy, but he certainly never got a genuine opportunity to compete for the fifth starter slot.

Third baseman Delbinson Romero, who remains stuck in visa limbo in the Dominican Republic, was offically reassigned to minor league camp Friday, as was RHP Luis Perdomo, who ended the 2012 season in the Twins bullpen. None of the three were real threats to make the 25-man roster.

Further thoughts on the Liriano trade

Francisco Liriano and
pitching coach Rick Anderson
in 2011.

My Monday print column on the Francisco Liriano trade of Saturday night can be found here. It's short, deliberately so; it was a tight sports section, and between Vikings training camp and the Olympics, there was plenty of other things to fit into the limited space.

So I'll expound further here.

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The wonders of social media reveals that a vocal number of Twins fans believe the Twins didn't get enough for Liriano. They expected more than a couple of Grade C minor leaguers.

Chalk this reaction up to what I think of as "Dick Bremer Disease" — the tendency many, if not all, of us have of taking a player's best short-term performance and holding that as the yardstick of his talent.

I saddle Bremer with the name, perhaps unfairly, because back in 2002, Torii Hunter hit .371 in the first month of the season, and Bremer latched onto that performance as a legitimate measure of Hunter's ability. It took years before Bremer stopped talking about Hunter as a guy who could hit for a high average.

Hunter wasn't a legitimate .300 hitter, of course. He just had a particularly good month.

Twins fans latched onto Liriano's periodic strong stretches and held those times to be who he is. About a half season of 2006; the last two months of 2008; most of 2010; his recent stretch of good starts this year. All told, a bit more than two seasons worth of quality pitching.

Two seasons — over a seven-year period.

Yes, Liriano was brilliant in 2006 until he got hurt. That isn't how the rest of baseball sees him, because he has too many other stretches in which he was awful, injured or both.

We may value Liriano as the wunderkind of '06. The rest of the world doesn't.

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You may have seen elsewhere that Baseball America this winter ranked Eduardo Escobar, the shortstop the Twins got in Saturday's trade, as the White Sox' No. 10 prospect. The value of that ranking is somewhat diminished by the fact that BA regarded the Sox system as the weakest in the game.

Pedro Hernandez wasn't to be found the BA rankings for the Sox, but that's because he was included in the San Diego system; he came to the White Sox in the Carlos Quintin trade in late December. He was No. 23 on the Padres list.

Hernandez, as I indicated in the print column, is the acquisition I have the most hope for. The scouting reports I've seen on him say he has command, he has a quality change, and he has gained velocity in the past couple of years, from 87 mph or so to 90-92 mph.

Jeff Manship was
6-2, 2.35 in
Rochester this year.

What isn't clear is the quality of his breaking ball, and whether he can develop a usable one may determine his future as a major league pitcher.

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Escobar and Hernandez are now on the Twins' 40-man roster; they cleared a spot by putting P.J. Walters on the 60-day disabled list, as they did last week with Carl Pavano. Walters last pitched on June 13, so he can't be reactived until sometime in mid-August — and as far as I know he won't be ready before then anyway. 

Jeff Manship got the call to replace Liriano on the 25-man roster. He may get to start; while Brian Duensing had a successful outing Sunday filling in for Liriano, the Indians are particularly vulnerable to lefties. It will be interesting to see which way Ron Gardenhire goes with this one.