Butera beats out Ramos — not really

Drew Butera (left) will (unless injury intervenes) open the season as the Twins' backup catcher. Wilson Ramos will marinate in Triple A.

Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Ramos hasn't played Triple A ball; what with injuries, he's had just abut a half season at Double A. He can become a top-flight catcher, but that's less likely to happen sitting five or six days a week in the majors than playing regularly in Rochester.

Ah, but the Twins already have a top-flight catcher, and that's putting it mildly. If Ramos hits .330 with 30 homers in Triple A, he's still not taking the catching job from Joe Mauer.

I think Ron Gardenhire had it right in his comments after Tuesday's game, in which Ramos hit a ball over the 30-foot-high green batter's eye in center field:

Those are all discussions that I'm going to have with the general manager, but we just signed a catcher to eight years. You know what I'm saying? (Ramos is) going to get his games, not a lot of them, but he would give me more of an ability to play him than most other backup catchers. I wouldn't be afraid to give Joe more days off, let's put it that way, because of this kid.

Him and Butera, they're both really good catch-and-throw guys. One can hit a ball over the center-field wall.

Notes, comments and me on the radio

• Francisco Liriano hadn't gone more than four innings in any spring training outing. This afternoon he went six — six innings, three hits, three walks, eight strikeouts, zero runs. Another good sign for him as a member of the rotation vs. closing.
• The Tigers on Tuesday traded Nate Robertson to Florida for a minor league pitcher. This probably means that both Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis will open the season in Detroit's rotation.
• I taped this morning a segment with Pete Steiner for KTOE radio's "Talk of the Town" program. Pete said it will air at 1 p.m. Thursday. I've long said my face was made for radio and my voice for newspapers. Now we'll have evidence of the latter.

Dolenc and other notes

Mark Dolenc, the former MSU player who has been making random appearances in the Twins exhibition games the past few days, started Monday in a game televised by ESPN. He went 0-for-4.

I have my doubts that was the plan. Denard Span was reportedly to start in center field, but it was raining in Jupiter and they switched him to DH with Dolnec playing center.

Which makes sense. The Twins may not be thrilled with their options to fill Joe Nathan's slot, but they're even thinner for center fielders.

In more consequential developments less than a week from Opening Day:

• Joel Zumaya, the oft-injured flamethrowing reliever for Detroit, pitched on back-to-back days Sunday and Monday without immediately reporting for further surgery.
• Fausto Carmona — star in 2007, bum since — is impressing people in Cleveland's camp. This is a guy who has walked more men than he's struck out over the past two seasons, but he's apparently getting strikes with his sinker again.
• Mike Redmond is slated to be Carmona's personal catcher this year. Just speculating: Might this decision be based on the notion that some of the Minnesota strike-throwing magic can be transferred to Carmona through the ex-Twins catcher?
• Former Twins shortstop Cristian Guzman has been bounced as the starter in Washington in favor of rookie Ian Desmond.

The bullpen committee

Ron Gardenhire's endorsement of a closer-by-committee approach to the bullpen is about as irresolute as it can be.

It'll be a committee, unless they make a trade. Or unless they can talk Francisco Liriano into something resembling enthusiasm for the job. Supposedly some of his teammates are working on him.

LaVelle Neal thinks the mix-n-match approach is a mistake. I think it's the most logical tactic — but they need another reliable lefty in the mix, and it shouldn't be Brian Duensing, who (under a Liriano starts scenario) is Plan B for the starting rotation. Duensing should be in Triple A getting starts and being stretched out when the need arises for a starter.

Neal and I took different lessons from the bullpen problems of 2008. He says they went with setup-by-committee, and it didn't work.

As I see it, that's the way set-up works. The real problem in 2008 was that there was no real committee by August:

• Pat Neshek got hurt.
• Jesse Crain, back on the mound after missing most of 2007 with major shoulder surgery, could take only a limited workload.
• Matt Guerrier was overworked and blew up repeatedly in the final months.
• Dennys Reyes was limited to a LOOGY role.
• Boof Bonser, bounced from the rotation, never got it going
• and Gardenhire refused to use Craig Breslow in game situations.

The committee failed because there weren't enough members. It was three guys —Guerrier, Crain and Reyes — one of whom they didn't want to use on consecutive days and another who they didn't trust against right-handed hitters.

This staff is different. Jose Mijares has the Reyes role, and is talented enough to do more than that. Guerrier and Crain are sound again, and Neshek may be. Plus there's Jon Rauch. If Ron Mahay can be ready soon, there are enough capable bodies to have a quorum.

And all that said, it probably doesn't matter. The Twins will either trade for somebody (and overpay in the process), try to force Liriano into the role (a riskier move than the committee would be) or effectively declare one of the committee members the chairman — and de facto closer.

Joba Chamberlain and Francisco Liriano

The Monday print column is about Francisco Liriano and the continuing question: Should he be a starter or a reliever?

A similar long-running dispute exists with the New York Yankees and Joba Chamberlain (left).

Should he be a starter or a reliever?

As with Liriano, Chamberlain has a history of arm issues. Injuries caused him to drop into the supplemental round of the 2006 draft.

The Yankees have bounced him between bullpen work and the rotation and limited his innings as a starter in an explicit effort to protect his arm.

The Yankees had one rotation slot open this spring; Phil Hughes is emerging with that job. Chamberlain is back in the bullpen, and while general manager Brian Cashman says Chamberlain is a starter without a starting job, there are others in the organization who say Chamberlain should be a relief pitcher, period.

Two significant differences between the two situations:

• The Yankees don't have a closer vacancy staring them in the face;
• Chamberlain not only has bullpen experience, he has better MLB numbers as a reliever than as a starter.

The Yankees have taken a great deal of Internet (and broadcaster) criticism for their handling of Chamberlain. Some of that criticism comes from old-school types who pretend young pitchers aren't particularly vulnerable to overwork. (Bert Blyleven isn't the only such dude with a mic in front of his face.)

Some of it, oddly enough, comes from the same people who rip Dusty Baker for savaging young starters. And we've seen this before with Liriano; in 2006, there were voices complaining that the Twins should have opened the season with Liriano in the rotation.

The man pitched 120 innings and blew out his elbow. Starting him in April wasn't going to keep him healthy either.

There's no obvious answer to the conundrum. A pitcher is only useful if he pitches; and if he pitches too much, he's likely to get hurt, and then he won't be useful.

Poll results

Last week's poll was about the battle for the final roster spot.

We had 46 votes. Twenty-one (45 percent) picked Alexi Casilla; 18 (39 percent) Jacque Jones; 7 (15 percent) Matt Tolbert.

The new poll is up.

The roster takes shape

The "battle" for the 25th spot on the roster has been decided, barring a last-week injury or trade.

Alexi Casilla (left) stays. Matt Tolbert has been optioned to Triple A, and Jacque Jones has been told that he's going to be assigned to Triple A as well, but gets to make the trip north for the exhibition games next weekend at Target Field.

The decisive aspect, as suggested here last week, appears to be roster status. Casilla is out of options and would have to clear waivers to be sent down, and the organization didn't dare risk losing his .259 slugging percentage. (Note: that last clause was sarcasm.) Tolbert has options left, and Jones— who had the best spring of the three, for as little as that's worth — isn't even on the 40 man roster.

This is in keeping with recent tradition of carrying a player who has no real purpose.

Assuming — risky business — that Dan Gladden's broadcasting accurately reflects the thinking of Ron Gardenhire and Co., the Casilla-in-the-outfield trials this spring were found wanting.

Which means the alternative center fielder is Michael Cuddyer, and playing him in CF means moving him from right and putting the regular DH, Jason Kubel, in right.

This presents problems as an in-game move — if Denard Span sprains an ankle in the third inning, do you really want to go without the DH the rest of the way? — and problems defensively, as an outfield of Delmon Young, Cuddyer and Kubel might be as slow as any you've ever seen.

The only real decision pending on position players now is the backup catcher. Drew Butera is deemed the favorite for the job, although I'm rooting for Wilson Ramos to get it.