No one wants a 13 man pitching staff. The Twins did that earlier in the year out of necessity. It's not like the team does a lot of pinch hitting, and frankly, with the state of the team's starting staff, I think it makes a lot of sense to do again right now.
Here are the Twins starters this coming week:
Sunday - PJ Walters
Monday - Scott Diamond
Tuesday - Cole De Vries (Nick Blackburn making first of probably two rehab starts)
Wednesday - Francisco Liriano
Thursday - Day Off
Friday - Carl Pavano
(Rinse and Repeat)
Swarzak will be able to work long relief against by Tuesday or Wednesday, but how much confidence should we have in this group.
Right now the Twins bench consists of Ryan Doumit (or Drew Butera), Erik Komatsu, Darin Mastroianni, and Trevor Plouffe (or Ben Revere). Mastroianni and Komatsu don't play much. Komatsu should be kept around because he's a Rule 5 guy, but Mastroianni could be sent down to Rochester to bring up a reliever. Because there are 39 on the 40 man roster, the call-up could be anyone. It would be good to get someone who could eat a few innings. Jeff Manship is scheduled to start for the Red Wings on Sunday. Anthony Slama could come up but he's a one-inning guy. Deolis Guerra has thrown as many as 3 innings.
Thoughts?

