Twins Sign RH RP Tim Wood to Min. Lg Contract

[Seth Stohs]

According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Twins have signed right-handed reliever Tim Wood to a minor league contract.

 

According to Rochester Red Wings announcer Josh Whetzel (via Twitter), the 30-year-old Wood was the International League Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2012. He went 6-6 with 21 saves for Indianapolis. In 70 innings, he walked 23 and struck out 67.

 

Wood pitched in 44 games for the Marlins in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he pitched in 13 games for the Pirates. He spent the entire 2012 season in AAA.

[Brad Swanson]

He throws hard, so that is something. It is certainly better to chances with hard-throwing relievers instead of soft-tossers. His AAA peripherals look pretty decent too. Low risk, so why not?

[Thrylos]

Here is the thing (more than one actually) :

 

a. He throws hard. He is wild. The Twins have had a few of those the last few seasons who they let go (Hoey, Morillo). Not that different than those 2. He is 30/1 (older than the aforementioned, btw)

 

b. if he will get a ST invite ahead of Anthony Slama and Kyle Waldrop I will be p1$$3D

[Danchat]

I think we have a good enough bullpen at the time being. Let's focus on a starting pitcher!

[darin617]

He throws hard, so that is something. It is certainly better to chances with hard-throwing relievers instead of soft-tossers. His AAA peripherals look pretty decent too. Low risk, so why not?

 

So how hard does he throw? Kinda odd to say a guy throws hard and no mention of upper 90's or anything. Throws hard by Twins standards means he can reach low 90's and that is not much to speak of.

[Thrylos]

He throws hard, so that is something. It is certainly better to chances with hard-throwing relievers instead of soft-tossers. His AAA peripherals look pretty decent too. Low risk, so why not?

 

So how hard does he throw? Kinda odd to say a guy throws hard and no mention of upper 90's or anything. Throws hard by Twins standards means he can reach low 90's and that is not much to speak of.

 

98 ish fastball 88-90 slider

[spideyo]

He's clearly doing something well if he was the International League Relief Pitcher of the Year. I doubt his invitation to ST will come at the expense of anyone else's invite. More than likely his agent insisted that an invite to ST was included as a condition of signing.

 

I highly doubt the Twins are going to be stingy about inviting people to ST. We'll probably see a ridiculous number of arms there for the first couple weeks at least.

[spideyo]

Also, on what do you base the claim that he is wild? His SO/BB ratio seems pretty darn good for last year, better than a lot of the pitchers we trotted out. Not saying we're going to hand him a slot in the pen right away, but worth a look at.

[Seth Stohs]

Yeah, they had 66 or so last year at spring training, so having Wood there won't affect the guys they want there. All it is in an accumulation of arms. There's zero risk in minor league deals. Last year, Burton and Fien paid off. So did Deduno. Guys like Perdomo, French, Vasquez filled their roles as terrific performers for the minor leagues.

[nicksaviking]

Just checking the stats, 46 games finished but 70 innings? Was he not a full-time closer or did the team run him out there for two innings of work in over 2/3 of his appearances? It's interesting to see that his K/9 significantly increased last year. In 58 major league innings it was a poor 4.3, and even in 2011, in 49 AAA innings it was only 6.2. Maybe the guy's figured something out. Still, have to wonder why the 2012 International League Reliever of the year didn't get a call up.

[Basher12]

They also signed Eric Fryer, a catcher....I played high school baseball with Fryer...he is about the most hardworking guy I have ever seen and was just a monster at the plate. He struggled some last year, but I believe he can unseat Butera if given the opportunity. He can play catcher, first base, and corner outfield and, except for last year, is not too shabby with the bat.

[John Bonnes]

RE: Wood...what I've seen written up is that he has a big fastball (and seemingly decent control) but not a reliable breaking pitch. So maybe they're bringing him in with the theory that they can develop one. (Maybe Cuellar can team him the Santana changeup. )

[greengoblinrulz]

Yeah, they had 66 or so last year at spring training, so having Wood there won't affect the guys they want there. All it is in an accumulation of arms. There's zero risk in minor league deals. Last year, Burton and Fien paid off. So did Deduno. Guys like Perdomo, French, Vasquez filled their roles as terrific performers for the minor leagues.

Disagree with the wording.....Deduno didnt pay off. Team was so bad that they kept having to go to minors & he got a huge opportunity that he didnt do enough with to even warrant a 40 man spot. He basically proved why he's not a major league pitcher.

 

No problem with signing Wood, but if he throws as hard as is said, he's never had a Krate of over 1 per inning. Says a lot to me.

Fryer just replaces Rivera/Towles but with him & Hermann in AAA next year.....that means that Butera is already assured a spot on the Twins roster. Figures....both of these signings just shows how TR does not promote from within organization but treats AAA as just a collection of other teams has beens.

[Seth Stohs]

Yeah, they had 66 or so last year at spring training, so having Wood there won't affect the guys they want there. All it is in an accumulation of arms. There's zero risk in minor league deals. Last year, Burton and Fien paid off. So did Deduno. Guys like Perdomo, French, Vasquez filled their roles as terrific performers for the minor leagues.

Disagree with the wording.....Deduno didnt pay off. Team was so bad that they kept having to go to minors & he got a huge opportunity that he didnt do enough with to even warrant a 40 man spot. He basically proved why he's not a major league pitcher.

 

Ummm... OK, I guess... I guess if a minor league free agent signing makes 15 or so starts for the big league club, I would consider that a pretty strong minor league signing.

[Thrylos]

Yeah, they had 66 or so last year at spring training, so having Wood there won't affect the guys they want there. All it is in an accumulation of arms. There's zero risk in minor league deals. Last year, Burton and Fien paid off. So did Deduno. Guys like Perdomo, French, Vasquez filled their roles as terrific performers for the minor leagues.

Disagree with the wording.....Deduno didnt pay off. Team was so bad that they kept having to go to minors & he got a huge opportunity that he didnt do enough with to even warrant a 40 man spot. He basically proved why he's not a major league pitcher.

 

Ummm... OK, I guess... I guess if a minor league free agent signing makes 15 or so starts for the big league club, I would consider that a pretty strong minor league signing.

 

He made those starts in a 96-loss team. Would have he started any games for Detroit/WSux/Rangers/As/Rays/Yankees or any other teams with a winning record? No.

The fact that the Twins were miserable last season and their pitching was so messed up that they had to give starts to Deduno/Vasquez/Walters and the like, speaks more about the Twins' situation than how successful Deduno's signing was. If one expects and applauds mediocrity (or worse), this is all one will get. Ryan had 3 successful signings last season (Willingham, Burton and Doumit, and he decreased the success of the later by keeping Butera in the bigs). All the others were either horrible (Marquis, Capps), mediocre (Carroll) or a bunch of minor leagues who happened to come up because the Twins had no better choices. If Ryan signed better players, instead of the likes of Marquis and the AAAA circus, the Twins would have had a better record because better players than Deduno would have gotten the ball every 5 days.

[greengoblinrulz]

Yeah, they had 66 or so last year at spring training, so having Wood there won't affect the guys they want there. All it is in an accumulation of arms. There's zero risk in minor league deals. Last year, Burton and Fien paid off. So did Deduno. Guys like Perdomo, French, Vasquez filled their roles as terrific performers for the minor leagues.

Disagree with the wording.....Deduno didnt pay off. Team was so bad that they kept having to go to minors & he got a huge opportunity that he didnt do enough with to even warrant a 40 man spot. He basically proved why he's not a major league pitcher.

 

Ummm... OK, I guess... I guess if a minor league free agent signing makes 15 or so starts for the big league club, I would consider that a pretty strong minor league signing.

They may have been a 'good' signing if MN wasnt the worst team in the AL. .450-.500 record, maybe I agree with that but they didnt.

PJ Walters made 12 starts for Twins also....that definately wasnt a successful signing, just a sign of the horrible situation they put themselves in. MN knows how valuable PJ/Sam were by releasing em both (31 teams then passed on em for their 40 man) & resigned em for AAA depth. Casey Fien showed he's a major league reliever....that's a good signing, not those 2 retreads.....again IMO.