Twins bullpen?

Question

After Nathan, Rincon, Reyes, Crain, Neshek, Guerrier, I figure there is MAYBE only one open spot in the pen to be fought over by Perkins, Choate, Venafro, and any starters who don't make thr rotation. Will any of these guys catch on in the pen?
They probably don't wanna go w/ just one lefty again...

Answer 1

I'm going to say Perkins, but the team keeps saying they want him to start 2007 in AAA. It seems the team doesn't want to mess around using him as a reliever anymore, b/c they know that he is one of their frontline starters of the future. Personally, if they're not going to start him outright...I'd love to see him coming out of the 'pen with that nasty lefty stuff of his.

There are still some other free-agent options out there that I wish the Twins would at least take a peek at, but I suppose Baker has shown he's ready to pitch at the big league level, but he can't seem to hold down the starter roll, maybe it's his turn to make the transition?

It's a very tough call and although I'm all about adding another lefty to the 'pen...the team did manage pretty well with just Reyes last season.

I love all these Twins questions!

Answer 2

I don't think they would put Perkins in the pen, they would prefer him to go straight from starting in triple A to starting in the bigs (which will be necessary in about May after the Ponson/Ortiz experiments fail). They have some decent pitchers in triple A, I want to see Slowey get a shot but they will probably be patient with him this year. It seems unlikely that they will go out and get a lefthanded arm, but I trust Reyes to get the job done. I would actually prefer them to just keep 11 pitchers, the bullpen was great last year.

Answer 3

If any of those guys makes it it will be Perkins cause he's a lefty and he did well in his short stint last year, actually made the postseason roster! He is from MN and was a Gopher, he'll be there sooner or later, then eventually start.