Bullpen candidate profile: Chuck James

Chuck James struck out
65 batters in 60
minor-league innings
in 2010.

Pitcher: Chuck James
Throws: Left
Age: 29
Roster status: Non-roster invitee
Chance of making team: Not for Opening Day.

Chuck James spent about a year and a half in the Atlanta Braves starting rotation, 2006-07, and appeared at that point to be a passable back-of-the-rotation guy. He had a decent strikeout rate and an acceptable BB/K ratio but gave up a lot of home runs.

Things fell apart completely in 2008, and he had significant shoulder injuries. He hasn't been back in the majors since. He missed all of 2009 and spent last season in the Nationals system, splitting time between Triple A and Double A.

Like yesterday's subjects, Yorman Bazado and Phil Dumatrait, he was signed primarily with Triple A roster depth in mind. The fact that he's had some form of success in the majors probably puts him ahead of Dumatrait on the list of potential lefty relievers, and the fact that he's not on the 40 puts him behind Jose Mijares, Glen Perkins, Scott Diamond and Dusty Hughes.

Which doesn't slam the door on James for the full season. Perkins and Diamond would have to clear waivers to be sent down, so if either of them doesn't make the team for Opening Day, they are likely to be lost for good. James may be number 5 on the LOOGY depth chart right now, but could be as high as number 3 by April 1.

The middle infield alignment is set

Ron Gardenhire said today that Tsuyoshi Nishioka will be the second baseman, which makes Alexi Casilla the shortstop.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka: No. 1 on his uniform,
No. 2 in the lineup,
No. 4 in scoring parlance.

Nishioka and Casilla have been linked together this spring; they start games together and they sit out games together. They did two games with Casilla at shortstop and Nishioka at second, then two games with Nishioka at short and Casilla at second.

This was foreseeable. Nishioka had a throwing error at short, and his throwing arm is said to be clearly weaker than Casilla's. Gardenhire has said in the past that he thinks Casilla is better suited for short than for second.

Gardy, quoted in Joe Christensen's blog:

"I just wanted to see [Nishioka] out there moving around, and I wanted to see his arm strength," Gardenhire said. "It’s not like I said, 'He can’t throw from [shortstop].' 

"I talked to Nishioka and got him to admit that he’s more comfortable at second, and that pretty much told me what I needed. More than any of the drills, I wanted him to say something to me, and I knew it would take time. He always says, 'Whatever you want me to do.'"

One aspect: It appears to foreclose on Luke Hughes' chances to find a lineup spot. Hughes is limited to playing third base or second base, and those spots are spoken for. If Casilla flops as a shortstop and Gardenhire wants to keep Nishioka locked in at second, the primary in-house option figures to be Trevor Plouffe.

Bullpen candidate profiles: Yorman Bazardo and Phil Dumatrait

Yorman Bazardo
pitched in 2006-07
for the Tigers.

Phil Dumatrait was
a first-round draft pick
by Boston in 2000.

Pitcher: Yorman Bazardo
Throws: Right
Age: 26
Roster status: Non-roster invitee
Chance of making team: Nil

Pitcher: Phil Dumatrait
Throws: Left
Age: 29
Roster status: Non-roster invitee
Chance of making team: Nil

Behold two examples of the "Quadruple A" pitcher: Good enough to put up decent numbers in Triple A, not good enough to make it in the majors.

Not that either man has gotten a truly clean shot at the bigs. Dumatrait -- the radio boys the other day were pronouncing it "Du-ma-trey" -- has all of 109 major league innings (and a 7.09 ERA); Bazardo just 60.1 innings (6.86).

Odds are that neither is truly that bad, but the initial results were lousy, and they aren't going to be first in line anywhere to get another chance.

The Twins signed both as minor league free agents to deepen the staff at Rochester. They're in major league camp because a non-roster invitation is a common sweetener for a minor league veteran, and they'll probably hang around longer than the younger guys who are on the 40-man roster but are clearly not making the 25-man roster (such as David Bromberg).

That doesn't mean either is a serious contender to come north. I've seen both mentioned as bullpen possibilities, but the Twins will not, and should not, bypass candidates on the 40-man roster for either.

Bullpen candidate profile: Pat Neshek

Pat Neshek's fastball
was stuck in the mid-80s
in 2010.

Pitcher: Pat Neshek
Throws: Right
Age: 30
Roster status: 40-man roster; at least one option left out of options one option left (note to self: Don't trust John Gordon's take on such things).

Chance of making team: He'd have to pitch his way off the roster.

It's rather startling to realize how long it's been since Pat Neshek was an effective major league reliever -- 2007.

It's testimony to how devastating his quirky sidearm delivery was on right-handers in his first 90 or so games that he is generally reckoned to be a favorite to make the 25-man roster.

But his recovery from Tommy John surgery has not been as smooth as that of Joe Nathan. When I saw him pitch in September in Target Field against the Kansas City Royals, he had nothing. His fastball was in the mid 80s, and that's not enough velocity.

A good rule of thumb with him: If his fastball is around 90 mph, he'll be effective. Around 85, not.

He had a very good inning Wednesday against Pittsburgh -- two weak groundball outs from left-handed hitters followed by a strikeout of a right-handed hitter.

That's a positive, although hardly decisive. More important to me will be what the radar guns tell us near the end of camp.

Bullpen candidate profile: Jim Hoey

Jim Hoey last pitched
in the majors in 2007.
Since then, it's been
injury, surgery, rehab.

Pitcher: Jim Hoey
Throws: Right
Age: 28
Roster status: 40-man roster; option status unclear.
Chance of making team: Good to fair.

When I said in Wednesday's post about Anthony Slama that he may have to wait for somebody more obviously talented to fail before he gets a clean shot at a Twins bullpen job, this was the guy I had in mind.

Slama has average velocity; Hoey routinely throws in the upper 90s. Slama was drafted in the 39th round, which means the Twins have a minimal investment in him; Hoey came in December's J.J. Hardy trade, which makes him third-generation fruit of the Johan Santana trade (Santana for Gomez for Hardy for Hoey).

Like Slama, Hoey pitched in Monday's exhibition game; like Slama, he gave up two runs in one inning. His two came on a single followed by a home run by Josh Reddick.

Ron Gardenhire, quoted on the StarTribune website:

Even the pitch [Reddick] went deep on was not a bad pitch. It was down, with an angle and good velocity. I like to see that velocity. ... You can be successful with a fastball down, too, and [Hoey] looked like he made a great effort to throw the ball down.

As I said of Slama, two runs in a Feb. 28 game shouldn't matter much. But Hoey's going to get more chances to fail. That's partly for the velocity, partly for the investment.

---

No matter how hard a pitcher throws, a second pitch is valuable. Hoey's No.2 pitch is now a splitter, which intrigues me because the Twins have long downplayed/discouraged the pitch in their organization. They prefer to see their prospects learn the circle change, which is far less stressful on the forearm.

Before Carlos Silva's final season in Minnesota, he came to camp talking about his new split-fingered fastball. Within a couple of days, they were calling it a forkball, and by the time the season started, it was a change-up. I doubt anything about the pitch itself changed; I think they simply didn't want to have the minor leaguers saying, Hey, he's throwing it, let me try it.

Hoey's 28, and he's pretty close to make-it-or-break-it status, so I suspect they'll let him throw what he wants. But if somebody like Dakota Watts (a hard-throwing kid in their low minors) wants to add it, they'll probably resist.

The Duensing decision

Ron Gardenhire's declaration Wednesday that Brian Duensing would be in the starting rotation has implications not only for the beginning of ball games but for the makeup of the bullpen crew.

Brian Duensing: A
third starter determined.

Barring trade or disabling injury (one of which is completely in the control of management, the other largely out of their control), there was always going to be a putative starter shunted to the 'pen. We now know it will be a right-hander with little relief experience. I expect it to be Kevin Slowey, but even if it's Scott Baker or Nick Blackburn, the displaced starter is not likely to be fit into a short relief role.

This essentially forecloses the long man job for the bullpen candidates, and that probably hurts Jeff Manship most of all.

It also narrows the bullpen competition down to a second lefty and two middle relief spots, with at least one of those middle relief jobs going to a right-hander. It's possible for two of the trio of Scott Diamond, Dusty Hughes and Glen Perkins to win jobs, but not all three. 

The way the bullpen shapes up:

Closer: Joe Nathan

Set-up 1: Matt Capps

Primary LOOGY: Jose Mijares

Setup 2/Middle 1: open. (Pat Neshek, Jim Hoey, Anthony Slama ...)

Second lefty: open (Perkins, Hughes, Diamond)

Middle 2: open (the six above and more)

Long man: the displaced starter

Deciding now that Duensing will be in the rotation simplifies the bullpen decisions in this way: Gardenhire and Rick Anderson have just one puzzle to put together, not two.

And we'll resume our regularly scheduled bullpen candidate later today ...

On Brian Harper and catcher defense

As part of his annual offseason series of the 40 greatest Twins, Aaron Gleeman today has a post on Brian Harper, No. 25 on his list. Harper, for a generation of Twins fans too young to recall the 1991 World Series team, was the Minnesota catcher for a few years in the late 1980s and early 90s.

Brian Harper's Start-O-Matic card from the 1990 season,
when he hit .294. It was his lowest batting average in six
seasons with the Twins.

In discussing Harper's reputation as a poor defensive catcher, Gleeman focuses on Harper's caught stealing rate, which, as he points out, wasn't all that bad. He wasn't Pudge Rodriguez, but he wasn't Jorge Posada (circa 2010) throwing either.

But in truth, that was only part of the story. Harper's bad defense rap was largely because he was very poor at receiving pitches. He dropped a lot of balls that hit him in the mitt. Junior Ortiz was Scott Erickson's personal catcher because Harper simply couldn't handle Erickson's sinker.

On the other hand, when Harper and Laudner were splitting the job, Laudner caught the guys who didn't need help (mainly Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven), and Harper caught the rookies and projects. Tom Kelly trusted Harper's pitch calling more.

This is all part of why catcher defense is so difficult to quantify. All defense is, really, but catcher defense particularly so.