Fix some of the defensive issues, and the bullpen and starters will be better. We need to improve shortstop and  second base defense. Yesterday's bullpen was gonna be Voth get through innings. 

I like the idea. What have we got to lose? Might as well see what some of these young guys can do right? We definitely need an influx of young controllable pitching talent at the trade deadline though. All of our "prospects" are position players and the pitchers that there are, seem to all either be hurt, or getting absolutely shelled this year.

Funderburk and Raya have been called up.
I'm really looking forward to Raya's debut.

You're right, its starting. Raya and Funderburk up. Voth DFA'd. Rojas optioned to St. Paul. My guess is that Rojas went down to build up innings so he can potentially come back as a starter after the ASB for Paredes or even Prielipp, each of whom then goes to the bullpen. Also gives us some more starter depth in case of another injury and gives Rojas a chance to work on his control. This tells us that Abel and Ober are not near returning to the rotation. If they were, we'd keep Rojas in the bullpen. I don't think he went to St. Paul to work on bullpen innings. 

I hope Rickey Castro gets a shot with the Twins this year. He's one of my favorites.

I agree on Rojas working on a build up. Of course, he's also a work in progress in regards to control as well. For NOW, I think they want and need him to fill the role that they were using him, which is long relief or opening starter. And it makes sense. For now. 

It's possible Rojas follows a Santana/Liriano path and grows and develops and moves back to the rotation. But IMO, his future is as a late inning arm that might even have closer potential one day. With a little luck, we might start to see him transition to a later inning role before the season is done. Of course, that means Ober is back not too long from now, and HOPEFULLY Abel can throw in August, or September at the latest.

Despite being older, but considering his MILB track record, and what he's done SO FAR to save the Twins azz, has Paredes thrown his hat in to the ring to be the 8th man in the bullpen? I don't fully buy in to the Twins 4 every 4 days philosophy, even though I see SOME merit in regard to coverage and development. But it would be nice to have a reliable arm that could throw 2-3 IP every 2-3 days as the #8 man in the pen.

Funderburk really shined the last 2 months or so in 2025. And he didn't start out poorly here in 2026. My "hunch" is he was distracted by his wife's condition and the birth of his child and his focus went out the window. I'm not ready to give up on him yet. I still think there's something there. I sure hope he proves me right with his recent promotion.

I'm excited as hell to see Raya really cranking it up to a new found level at St Paul and getting his first ML shot. And I'm fully prepared to see some bad games. But I'd rather see him struggle, gain experience, and get better than watching another 30+yo has been giving up massive runs. I'm just hoping the Twins and Twins fans cut him a little slack.

Orze is nothing great. But he's had solid moments. I think he might have a future as a middle man. I'm not sure if he qualified as a "rookie" for 2026, but he's pretty close. I think he's an easy replacement for someone better, but he's been relatively solid so far. 

I know he didn't pitch much before being injured, but I kinda liked what I saw of Acton initially. But like Orze, he's probably easily replaceable. But depth doesn't stink.

I am SO bummed that Festa has been hurt because I think most of us saw him as a potential late inning STUD that might even be a future closer.

Look, I know I'm rambling, but I'm doing so for a couple of reasons. A] We HAVE seen a few victories in the pen with Gomez and the conversion of Morris. And we can all see the potential of Rojas. B] We also have to accept the fact that PART of building a better pen got screwed up from some injuries. Most importantly, Festa. 

But who is actually NEXT...beyond giving Raya some time, and hoping Funderburk FINALLY takes hold of a job?

Well, the obvious is CJ Culpepper. He's always thrown fairly hard, but I've heard he doesn't always maintain velocity as a SP. That's not a problem as a RP. He has, I believe, 6 pitches that he mixes and matches between RH and LH batters. I've also heard that while none of those pitches are necessarily devastating, they're at least solid. So does he need to tone down his usage of some of them? Or tweak his offerings? Or do they work just fine for 1-2 IP? I really don't know. That's not my job. But his transition to the bullpen is going well. Solid 94-97 velocity and a bag of breaking offerings to frustrate batters. I think he's got real potential. 

Next on my list is Klein. He really frustrates me. He throws 95-97 and would probably throw a little harder if he only threw 1-2 innings. And he's got a couple solid secondary offerings that lead to high K numbers. When I read MILB reports and box scores, usually, I always see him 1-2 IP that are pretty clean. And THEN he offers up a HR or XB hit that allows runs. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of early Varland. The velocity and pure STUFF appears to be there. But I think he's really a 1-2 IP option, and NOT a SP, OR, a successful 4 & 4 guy. Much like Raya and his debut, and Morris fitting in, I'd really like to see Klein get a shot as a high velocity arm, with solid secondary stuff, and previous high K results, who might be good for 1-2 IP.

A really good bullpen SHOULD HAVE a couple of guys who have arms capable of 2 IP every few days, plus the usual 1 IP back of the pen arms. And it would be awesome to have at least ONE GUY who could throw 2-3 IP every 2-3 days. 

Since Funderburk and Raya are now both up, it's CJ and Klein up next. And I'd really like to see that at some point. We NEED to be looking at 2027 and beyond. 

GUILTY PLEASURE: I still have a hunch that Cory Lewis, currently healthy again and pitching for AA Wichita, could really surprise. Maybe not this season, since he's missed so much time, but he was the Twins MILB pitcher of the year a couple seasons ago before he just "lost it" at AAA and then got hurt. But throwing as hard as he can, mixing in some decent breaking or off speed stuff here and there, and then throwing his CRAZY high velocity knuckleball NOONE has seen before, I REALLY think he has a chance to surprise. I just don't know if there's enough time here in this season for him to debut. He's still ramping up. But late this season or sometime in 2027, I think he might debut as a middle guy unicorn that just baffles batters for a couple of innings. 

Now, here's something interesting. SWR just got DFA's by Toronto. Should we grab him back on waivers and move him to the Bullpen?

16 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I agree on Rojas working on a build up. Of course, he's also a work in progress in regards to control as well. For NOW, I think they want and need him to fill the role that they were using him, which is long relief or opening starter. And it makes sense. For now. 

It's possible Rojas follows a Santana/Liriano path and grows and develops and moves back to the rotation. But IMO, his future is as a late inning arm that might even have closer potential one day. With a little luck, we might start to see him transition to a later inning role before the season is done. Of course, that means Ober is back not too long from now, and HOPEFULLY Abel can throw in August, or September at the latest.

Despite being older, but considering his MILB track record, and what he's done SO FAR to save the Twins azz, has Paredes thrown his hat in to the ring to be the 8th man in the bullpen? I don't fully buy in to the Twins 4 every 4 days philosophy, even though I see SOME merit in regard to coverage and development. But it would be nice to have a reliable arm that could throw 2-3 IP every 2-3 days as the #8 man in the pen.

Funderburk really shined the last 2 months or so in 2025. And he didn't start out poorly here in 2026. My "hunch" is he was distracted by his wife's condition and the birth of his child and his focus went out the window. I'm not ready to give up on him yet. I still think there's something there. I sure hope he proves me right with his recent promotion.

I'm excited as hell to see Raya really cranking it up to a new found level at St Paul and getting his first ML shot. And I'm fully prepared to see some bad games. But I'd rather see him struggle, gain experience, and get better than watching another 30+yo has been giving up massive runs. I'm just hoping the Twins and Twins fans cut him a little slack.

Orze is nothing great. But he's had solid moments. I think he might have a future as a middle man. I'm not sure if he qualified as a "rookie" for 2026, but he's pretty close. I think he's an easy replacement for someone better, but he's been relatively solid so far. 

I know he didn't pitch much before being injured, but I kinda liked what I saw of Acton initially. But like Orze, he's probably easily replaceable. But depth doesn't stink.

I am SO bummed that Festa has been hurt because I think most of us saw him as a potential late inning STUD that might even be a future closer.

Look, I know I'm rambling, but I'm doing so for a couple of reasons. A] We HAVE seen a few victories in the pen with Gomez and the conversion of Morris. And we can all see the potential of Rojas. B] We also have to accept the fact that PART of building a better pen got screwed up from some injuries. Most importantly, Festa. 

But who is actually NEXT...beyond giving Raya some time, and hoping Funderburk FINALLY takes hold of a job?

Well, the obvious is CJ Culpepper. He's always thrown fairly hard, but I've heard he doesn't always maintain velocity as a SP. That's not a problem as a RP. He has, I believe, 6 pitches that he mixes and matches between RH and LH batters. I've also heard that while none of those pitches are necessarily devastating, they're at least solid. So does he need to tone down his usage of some of them? Or tweak his offerings? Or do they work just fine for 1-2 IP? I really don't know. That's not my job. But his transition to the bullpen is going well. Solid 94-97 velocity and a bag of breaking offerings to frustrate batters. I think he's got real potential. 

Next on my list is Klein. He really frustrates me. He throws 95-97 and would probably throw a little harder if he only threw 1-2 innings. And he's got a couple solid secondary offerings that lead to high K numbers. When I read MILB reports and box scores, usually, I always see him 1-2 IP that are pretty clean. And THEN he offers up a HR or XB hit that allows runs. Honestly, he reminds me a lot of early Varland. The velocity and pure STUFF appears to be there. But I think he's really a 1-2 IP option, and NOT a SP, OR, a successful 4 & 4 guy. Much like Raya and his debut, and Morris fitting in, I'd really like to see Klein get a shot as a high velocity arm, with solid secondary stuff, and previous high K results, who might be good for 1-2 IP.

A really good bullpen SHOULD HAVE a couple of guys who have arms capable of 2 IP every few days, plus the usual 1 IP back of the pen arms. And it would be awesome to have at least ONE GUY who could throw 2-3 IP every 2-3 days. 

Since Funderburk and Raya are now both up, it's CJ and Klein up next. And I'd really like to see that at some point. We NEED to be looking at 2027 and beyond. 

GUILTY PLEASURE: I still have a hunch that Cory Lewis, currently healthy again and pitching for AA Wichita, could really surprise. Maybe not this season, since he's missed so much time, but he was the Twins MILB pitcher of the year a couple seasons ago before he just "lost it" at AAA and then got hurt. But throwing as hard as he can, mixing in some decent breaking or off speed stuff here and there, and then throwing his CRAZY high velocity knuckleball NOONE has seen before, I REALLY think he has a chance to surprise. I just don't know if there's enough time here in this season for him to debut. He's still ramping up. But late this season or sometime in 2027, I think he might debut as a middle guy unicorn that just baffles batters for a couple of innings. 

I'm pulling for Ricky Castro to get a look in the majors this year. He has moved up steadily by striking out more than 1 per inning consistently. He has struck out 30 in 20 innings so far this year at AAA after being promoted from AA. this year. His ERA is high and he walks too many, but he is a bulldog.