Searching Far and Wide for Late-Season Twins Bullpen Reinforcements

[chpettit19]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

A)  I was just picken.

B)  Bert all the way up to .678 third time.   

 

Yeah, you were "just picken" Hall of Famers. Barry Bonds had a 195 wRC+ vs lefties. Ricky Henderson stole over 1400 bases. Tony Gwynn struck out in 4.2% of his PAs. Should we use those as the baseline for what MLB players should be expected to do? "Well Hall of Famers didn't have the same struggles" is a pointless argument. That's why they're Hall of Famers! They shouldn't be used to discuss the general baseball world. They're outliers and not useful comparison points. Want to "just pick" a few random starters instead of HoFers and see if they jump up higher than .678 the third time? I bet they do. Since, you know, they're not the best of the best.

[Sjoski]

https://evanalytics.com/mlb/leaderboards/team-bullpen-rankings

 Twins pen is medicore at best. Very little chance they get past the first round in the playoffs, if they even get in.

 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

Yeah, you were "just picken" Hall of Famers. Barry Bonds had a 195 wRC+ vs lefties. Ricky Henderson stole over 1400 bases. Tony Gwynn struck out in 4.2% of his PAs. Should we use those as the baseline for what MLB players should be expected to do? "Well Hall of Famers didn't have the same struggles" is a pointless argument. That's why they're Hall of Famers! They shouldn't be used to discuss the general baseball world. They're outliers and not useful comparison points. Want to "just pick" a few random starters instead of HoFers and see if they jump up higher than .678 the third time? I bet they do. Since, you know, they're not the best of the best.

Frank Tananna. Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez.  

[chpettit19]

48 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Frank Tananna. Ron Darling. Sid Fernandez.  

Tanana: .670-.715-.724-.734
Darling: .698-.715-.730-.712
Fernandez: .588-.618-.693-.850

So if Darling could get to a 4th time through the order he came back down a little. And he did so in 175 of 364 career starts. But even 3 time All-Star Tanana, 1 time All-Star Darling, and 2 time All-Star Fernandez got worse the more times they went through the order. Fernandez significantly so. For context, that's Tanana going from giving up an 85ish OPS+ to a 105ish OPS+. Darling a 90ish to a 99ish (.712) or 110ish (.730). And Fernandez a 60ish to a 140ish OPS+. So those are some pretty decent size changes for at least 2 of them.

Teams didn't just start making stuff up. They studied this stuff once all the data was collected. It also simply makes logical sense. The more you see a guy that day the better feel you get against them and the less they can trick you. Now you add in today's technology with tablets in the dugouts giving the hitters a head start to begin with and pitch to pitch real time data and it shouldn't surprise anyone that it's even harder now for pitchers to get through a lineup 3+ times.

 

[Doctor Wu]

It would be a gambit, but from my point of view, nothing should be off the table right now. 

I agree, Some sort of unconventional move might end up being the best thing they can do. 

[LambchoP]

If only we could have picked up a couple arms at the deadline, like a starter and one or two relief arms....oh how fun it would be to have a team that ownership wants to win with. I guess it's only a pipe dream here in MN for the next few years.

[TopGunn#22]

Varland is the easy answer.  The sooner the better.  Why wait until mid-September when a playoff spot is on the line.  Do. It. Now.

Winder is a viable candidate.  Paddack a little more iffy, but if he's healthy and his velo is good he makes a good candidate.  Joe Ryan was a little surprising to see.  I just assumed he would be shut down for the season.  

Festa would be my next favorite after Varland but I wouldn't worry about getting him "ready" for a bullpen role.  He's needed in our rotation now thru the end of the regular season.  I don't agree that you need to "prepare" a guy to LIGHTEN his load.  Rocco would never use him in back to back games in the post season anyway.  I love Festa's stuff.  And in the sprint that is the playoffs as opposed to the marathon of the regular season, he could transition smoothly to a bullpen role.  The Dodgers never had to "prepare" Kenta Maeda to swing from the rotation to the bullpen come the playoffs.  

I'm not ready to give up on Kody Funderburk.  He's a lefty with some nasty stuff who seems like he's been battling one nagging injury after another since spring training.  I remember how good he was last year and if his stuff is what it should be, HE would be the guy to replace Okert.

Not sure at all about Tonkin or Raya but appreciated seeing their names included as options.  

Finally, I echo the previous question about Matt Canterino.  WHERE IS HE?!?!?!??  I've been looking for some kind of mention all year in the minor league reports (which I appreciate and are always interesting) but where is he?  Has he even thrown 20 innings this year?  Canterino has the "stuff" to be a real difference maker but he's invisible.  Can someone give us a report on the entirety of his season?  This was supposed to be kind of a make it or break it year for him.  

 

[blindeke]

Drew Smyly was just put on waivers.

[chpettit19]

28 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

Varland is the easy answer.  The sooner the better.  Why wait until mid-September when a playoff spot is on the line.  Do. It. Now.

Winder is a viable candidate.  Paddack a little more iffy, but if he's healthy and his velo is good he makes a good candidate.  Joe Ryan was a little surprising to see.  I just assumed he would be shut down for the season.  

Festa would be my next favorite after Varland but I wouldn't worry about getting him "ready" for a bullpen role.  He's needed in our rotation now thru the end of the regular season.  I don't agree that you need to "prepare" a guy to LIGHTEN his load.  Rocco would never use him in back to back games in the post season anyway.  I love Festa's stuff.  And in the sprint that is the playoffs as opposed to the marathon of the regular season, he could transition smoothly to a bullpen role.  The Dodgers never had to "prepare" Kenta Maeda to swing from the rotation to the bullpen come the playoffs.  

I'm not ready to give up on Kody Funderburk.  He's a lefty with some nasty stuff who seems like he's been battling one nagging injury after another since spring training.  I remember how good he was last year and if his stuff is what it should be, HE would be the guy to replace Okert.

Not sure at all about Tonkin or Raya but appreciated seeing their names included as options.  

Finally, I echo the previous question about Matt Canterino.  WHERE IS HE?!?!?!??  I've been looking for some kind of mention all year in the minor league reports (which I appreciate and are always interesting) but where is he?  Has he even thrown 20 innings this year?  Canterino has the "stuff" to be a real difference maker but he's invisible.  Can someone give us a report on the entirety of his season?  This was supposed to be kind of a make it or break it year for him.  

 

Matt Canterino hasn't thrown a pitch in a game since spring. I believe it was a strained rotator cuff that took him out in March and they shut him down from his bullpens again in June when he'd been trying to work his way back to St Paul's pitching staff. Looks like another completely missed season for him.

[AKTwinsFan]

Ronny Henriquez has good stuff to become either a leverage arm or possible starter to test out. He's got a good starting pitching arsenal.

[thelanges5]

Old friend Michael Tonkin signed again with moves coming before tonight’s game. 

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, thelanges5 said:

Old friend Michael Tonkin signed again with moves coming before tonight’s game. 

-.8 WPA and .3 fWAR!