Bullpen Sleeper?

[Tom Froemming]

LaTroy Hawkins on Jorge Alcala: "He's defintely close. I don't know if he's going to break with us, I don't get to make those decisions, but ... He's definitely having a very good showing."

 

[DocBauer]

As I stated in another thread, I think Poppen is overlooked and probably the first in line to help in the pen. But I am very excited about Alcala and think he has a great ceiling! And I trust Hawk's opinion 100%.

 

But there was one comment Hawkins made that caught me off guard. Paraphrasing, "He has a great changeup". I thought the problem with Alcala staying in the rotation was lack of a 3rd offering. Am I wrong? Is it just control, which could be mitigated by only pitching an inning or two? Or is he finding a better change now?

 

If he bad ANY sort of 3rd pitch to throw, at least on occasion, I would think he has the potential to dominate in the pen.

 

Thank you for the video feed!

[dbminn]

Alcala looks light-years better than he did in late 2018. Kudos to the Twins pitching coaches. 

[AceWrigley]

Nice music intro 

[Doctor Gast]

I think we have plenty of BP arms, our focus should be to groom him to start. I didn`t like how they took potential starters & threw them into the BP but thats not to say later in the season to give him some MLB exposure. I think that`s what you meant

[Tom Froemming]

 

As I stated in another thread, I think Poppen is overlooked and probably the first in line to help in the pen. But I am very excited about Alcala and think he has a great ceiling! And I trust Hawk's opinion 100%.

But there was one comment Hawkins made that caught me off guard. Paraphrasing, "He has a great changeup". I thought the problem with Alcala staying in the rotation was lack of a 3rd offering. Am I wrong? Is it just control, which could be mitigated by only pitching an inning or two? Or is he finding a better change now?

If he bad ANY sort of 3rd pitch to throw, at least on occasion, I would think he has the potential to dominate in the pen.

Thank you for the video feed!

Command and consistency are definitely Alcala's biggest concerns. I can't comment on the chageup specifically, but he has enough else to work on that I suspect he may be better off simplifying some other things while addressing those other items.

 

Alcala started off last year great, only walking 6.2% of the batters he faced in April. Over May and June, that jumped all the way up to 10.3%. While he threw more strikes again in July, he was also hammered, giving up a .998 OPS that month. He was just kinda all over the place as a starter last year

 

 

I think we have plenty of BP arms, our focus should be to groom him to start. I didn`t like how they took potential starters & threw them into the BP but thats not to say later in the season to give him some MLB exposure. I think that`s what you meant

I'm usually the one also beating this drum -- I think it's a shame we're not going to see Brusdar Graterol get a chance to prove himself as a starting pitcher, and still believe Zack Littell could have been a solid starter -- but I'm comfortable closing that door for Alcala. He's going to turn 25 in a few days, is already on the 40-man roster and had a 5.86 ERA as a starting pitcher last season. I'm OK with them turning the page and seeing what he can do in relief. 

[AceWrigley]

 

Nice music intro 

I want this for my doorbell chime!!!

[Shaitan]

How does service time (i.e. Super Two) work this year? 

 

In a normal year, I'd say he sounds primed for a May call-up.

[Linus]

He can’t throw it over the plate. Until he gets that fixed he won’t make it in the bigs

[Otto von Ballpark]

We could get Edward Mujica back out of retirement — he was the ultimate bullpen “sleeper”:

 

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_901616