Twins Territory - Making the Team Week Two: Pitchers

This is the second week of Making the Team for the pitchers, and the list has seen some changes. There have been some players removed after being sent to minor league camp, and all players have new comments with some players getting new ratings as well.

The players that are no longer on the list include Brian Duensing and Zach Day.

Name	Chance	Note
Scott Baker		Baker is a lock for the rotation, and has looked magnificent thus far. The lone question remaining for him is whether he’s number one or two in the rotation.
Kevin Slowey		Slowey has had a few poor outings so far, but can still be considered the favorite to land the spot with not much competition.
Boof Bonser		Bonser will almost certainly be in the rotation, and has pitched pretty well in his early outings. He’ll be pitching for the third or fourth spot in the rotation.
Glen Perkins		Perkins has pitched very well so far including his start at the end of this past week. He has a good chance to be the long reliever, but don’t count him out for the rotation spot.
Nick Blackburn		Blackburn has pitched pretty well so far, and if he continues, he could make the rotation competition pretty interesting.
Brian Bass		Bass has looked pretty good in his few outings, but its still hard for me to see him making the team out of camp.
Philip Humber		Humber had a poor first outing, but since has not allowed a run. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets added into the rotation mix, and its definitely possible if he continues to pitch well.
Kevin Mulvey		Mulvey has pitched well in all of his outings, and after making it through the first cut, it may mean that the Twins would seriously consider him for a roster spot.
Jason Miller		Miller hasn’t seen a lot of innings so far, and with other guys getting a lot more time, its hard to see him in the bullpen on Opening Day.
Bobby Korecky		Korecky has pitched pretty decent, but there are so many guys that seem to have a better chance at this point.
Julio DePaula		DePaula’s chance has risen with a few good outings. While the Twins don’t necessarily need a setup-man or middle reliever, DePaula has been in the Bigs before and can definitely be considered for a roster spot.
Carmen Cali		Cali, like Miller, hasn’t seen a lot of time thus far. Its hard seeing him making the team unless his innings increase.
Ricky Barrett		Barrett has been shaky so far, and I was a little surprised he didn’t get sent to minor league camp. His chance of making the team is very small.
Randy Keisler		Keisler has made one start, and it wasn’t very good. He’ll likely start the season in Rochester or become a free agent.
Casey Daigle		Daigle hasn’t pitched very bad, but its hard to see the Twins giving him a spot over Perkins, Slowey or other young guns.

With two pitching spots still open (one starting rotation and one bullpen), it’ll be interesting to see how the competitions unfold. Slowey will need to step up to secure his rotation spot, and others will need to pitch well to unseat Perkins from the bullpen.

Comments (3) Add Comment

Baker, Bonser, Perkins, etc.
written by MorneauMVP, March 10, 2008

We all know that Baker and Bonser are going to make the rotation...Perkins or Blackburn, if they continue to throw well, they will probably get a call up, although as what? Rotation man or Bullpen man?

DePaula, I am not sold on yet. I like him, but I think he needs to begin in AAA and if continues to rack up wins down there, go ahead and bring him up.

Slowey? Tough to say. His spot is in jeopardy since his last outing. He must throw better and I hope he makes it.

Hernandez will make it since he is an innings eater and veteran.

Slowey
written by Twins Territory, March 10, 2008

Slowey pitched well today, and he controls his destination. I think he'll ultimatley get the roation spot and Perkins the bullpen spot.

The big battles are CF and the bench. Ruiz has looked sharp, and that is heating up.

Slowey
written by BGunnz, March 10, 2008

I don't see how Slowey makes the rotation and I think he's a AAA hero, the pitching version of Crash Davis. Slowey doesn't have a big leage pitch. Everyone compares him to Radke, but Radke had a ridiculous curveball and when he was in his prime, he could wratchet it up to 93-94. Slowey has great control, but he's not going to get the calls that he got in the minors and he certainly won't be getting those calls when he facing Jim Thome, Travis Haffner, Gary Sheffield, etc. He continues to leave his pitches up and he looked terrible in his call up last year. I hope I'm wrong, but when you don't have a legitimate pitch to fall back on, you're not going to be successful. Having said all of that, I'd like to see Perkins make the rotation because it's fools gold to bank on Liriano being ready at the start of the season and if you can mix in a left hander when you have 3-4 game series it helps a lot.

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