Here we go again, Duensing & Swarzak told to prepare to start...

[Trevor0333]

Duplicate post, didnt see the other containging the same info. plz delete mods

[Shane Wahl]

I don't see the other one . . .

[AllhopeisgoneMNTWINS]

i dont see the other one either...

[Shane Wahl]

Anyway, of course this is terribly stupid. Duensing is done as a starter, and Swarzak should be considered to move back further in the bullpen as an MR and not a damn starter again!

[jokin]

Anyway, of course this is terribly stupid. Duensing is done as a starter, and Swarzak should be considered to move back further in the bullpen as an MR and not a damn starter again!

 

If they were choosing to go this route all along, why not just keep Duke Welker? At least he had a live arm and a K rate suggesting he had at least a shot at a significant bullpen role. Madness.

[Marta Shearing]

And my faith in this organization continues to go down. The patheticness is mind numbing.

[Major League Ready]

Where is the link? Source?

[JB_Iowa]

From Twitter:

 

 

• Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino 12h
  TR says he told Duensing and Swarzak to "be prepared to do both" start and relieve in 2014
   
   
   
  He actually doesn't mention Swarzak and Duensing in his Twins Now Blog - that's more about Kris Johnson:
   
   
  () Ryan said Johnson, a former teammate of Mike Pelfrey’s at Wichita State, throws 90-92 mph with a curve, slider and change.
   
   
  “He’s a little bit of a rich man’s (Scott) Diamond when it comes to stuff,” Ryan said. “He’s a little bit bigger. His stuff is maybe a tick better. Now it’s a matter of whether he’s respond.”
   
   
  Ryan said the hope is that Johnson, 29, will make the Twins’ big-league club in 2014.
   
   
  “Why not?” Ryan said. “We’ve got to try something.”
   
  http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2013/11/20/minnesota-twinsights-terry-ryan-admits-to-issues-with-eddie-rosario/
   
  And from the same post, for your general amusement:
  
• () Ryan was asked about his sales pitch in luring free agents.“We’ve got openings,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys in pencil. We don’t have a lot of guys in ink here.”
  And how is that going?
  “Some people may not want to play in the state of Minnesota,” he said. “Pitchers should want to come here. We all know that. We’ve got some payroll. We’ve also got a pretty good reputation. We’ll take our chances.”
  

 

and:

 

() Perkins said would be more than happy to make recruiting calls for the Twins as they try to rebuild their starting rotation, but added he is kept in the dark just like the rest of us.

“The hardest part is nothing really gets out about who we’re trying to get,” he said. “If somebody asked me to put in a good word, I would. If I was asked to help, I certainly would. They keep things pretty close to the vest. I end up following it like everyone else does. Information is tough to come by.”

[JB_Iowa]

Re: Berardino Tweets.

 

I've been interviewed enough to know that things don't always come out of your mouth exactly the way you want them to. I also know that reporters aren't always precise in what they relate you've said.

 

So I'm pointing this one out primarily for amusement, not criticism:

 

 

• Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino 12h
  TR: "We need to have Willingham and Doumit bounce back for sure. Diamond needs to bounce back. I’m counting on that. You can’t rely on it."
   
   
  How can you count on something but not rely on it?
   
   
  

[gunnarthor]

I guess I don't like the idea, esp of Duensing. I sorta see why they at least want to give Swarzak another crack at it but it probably doesn't end well for him.

 

That said, I don't think this is the end of the world. The GM telling two long arms in the pen to be prepared to both start and relieve isn't that strange. See how the rotation shakes out first.

[Shane Wahl]

Duensing is really not a long arm in the bullpen though. He is basically a LOOGY and that's fine. Swarzak should probably try some more crucial situations later in games and they can move Albers or Hendriks to the long relief role.

[Otto von Ballpark]

To be fair, TR did also say that Duensing is "a possibility" to start in 2014, but "it’s not probable for me."

 

 

Still not even sure why they would consider it at this point -- they absolutely don't need more starters like that. Without Swarzak and Duensing, they've already got 8 guys on the 40-man roster who, at best, should all be competing for the 5th starter spot, or otherwise in the pen/AAA.

 

"We've got to try something" was a disappointing quote. In the sense that we've cycled through AAA pitchers and relievers, we've been trying things for the last two seasons.

[Boom Boom]

[Thrylos]

The real news in this story is that (unlike some potential rumors out there) it sounds like the Twins will offer arbitration to both.

 

As far as starting goes, I think that Duensing needs to stay in the pen, but Swarzak has been spot starting anyways and cannot be any worse than anyone not named Gibson or Correia or Pelfrey from last season's rotation so it would not hurt to give him a few starts at ST to see what he does.

 

Another point of view here is that both of the guys are just entering arbitration and starters make more $ than relievers, so I suspect there is some pressure from the players to start, to which the Twins say, "sure, we don't close the door" in order to be fair to them.

[twinscowboysbulls]

We all assumed we would get 3 starting pitchers this off-season and boy did we get them.

 

Kris Johnson

Brian Duensing

Anthony Swarzak

 

I am fine with the trade for Johnson. Just another AAAA arm at worst. I am fine with telling Duensing and Swarzak to prepare to start, it won't hurt them as relievers next year if that's what they end up doing. I just believe that the information TR is putting out there, saying things like I hope and expect guys like this to make the team/rotation in 2014. This tells me they are not planning to sign many pitchers. If they were planning on signing some FA pitchers, they wouldn't be telling quality relievers w/o options prepare to be starters and implying in the media that Johnson will be in the rotation if he does things the "Twins Way."

 

Here is an up to date list of our starting pitching prospects for the 2014 season:

Kevin Corriea*

Scott Diamond

Vance Worley

Sam Deduno*

Kyle Gibson

Alex Meyer

Kris Johnson

Brian Duensing

Anthony Swarzak

Andrew Albers

Trevor May

Logan Darnell

Liam Hendriks

 

*Almost definitely in 5 man rotation already for 2014.

 

This list contains 13 starting pitchers. There are only so many starting spots between MLB/AAA rosters. If they are planning on these guys all being starters, it really makes it look like we are only going to add one quality(hopefully) SP.

 

MLB:

Corriea

FA Signing

Deduno

Gibson

Diamond

 

RP: Duensing, Swarzak- not sure how we could keep them both as starters if they don't make MLB rotation.

 

AAA:

Meyer

May

Darnell

Albers

Johnson

Hendriks?

 

This is scary 3.0 folks.

[gunnarthor]

Well there are a few decent FA starters that we could add but it's a lot like last year's class - a lot of meh. I'm hoping Ryan can add another young starter through a trade like he did last year and a college arm like Hoffman (unlikely) or Beede falls to us in the draft. That's the future. It really doesn't matter who starts this year so long as they don't block Gibson, Meyer or May.

 

Ryan's been linked to Arroyo and Nolasco already. So he clearly knows he needs to get more innings from his starters. Let's see what happens.

[Winston Smith]

() Ryan was asked about his sales pitch in luring free agents.“We’ve got openings,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of guys in pencil. We don’t have a lot of guys in ink here.”

And how is that going?

“Some people may not want to play in the state of Minnesota,” he said. “Pitchers should want to come here. We all know that. We’ve got some payroll. We’ve also got a pretty good reputation. We’ll take our chances.”

 

 

This doesn't really come off as a great sales pitch. In the end I think it's more how much he'll pay and not where they play.

[nicksaviking]

Can we stop "trying" something and start "doing" something? If you're "trying" Kris Johnson, it means you're pretty unsure. Why don't you go "do" something that is more likely to succeed.

 

I don't get the extreme level of cloak and dagger stuff. I would think letting it slip that you're interested in specific free agents would seem to only encourage more free agents to be interested in you. That stuff is leaking this year from the Twins more than usual and at least in the case of Garza and Arroyo, they have said interest is mutual.

 

Why wouldn't you let your best players help in recruiting? It just seems like another instance where the Twins don't use a free resource available to them. Hell, Perkins could call up Garza and say "Hey buddy, I know we both had beef with this club back in the day but things are different and I love it here, come get on the ground floor of this thing." The Tigers don't seem to have a problem with Torii Hunter recruiting Joe Nathan. The Tigers were still able to keep the huge Fielder/Kinsler trade on the QT.

[twinsnorth49]

I can only hope TR considers this plan "D" and is making advance preparations for it, in case it becomes plan "A".........which the thought of makes me physically ill.

[Boom Boom]

Telling Swarzak and Duensing to be ready to start implies that one or more of the 5 rotation spots may be filled with starters worse than those two.

[twinscowboysbulls]

Truly, the only way we will be blocking our developing prospect pitchers is if we sign 4 quality pitchers long term.

 

Corriea is off the books after 2014. I'm counting on Gibson to turn it around and for Meyer and May to make the rotation and stay in it during the next 12 months. This leaves 2 open spots in 2015. I'm praying we are adding a couple good FA pitchers on multi-year contracts to fill those holes next year as well as this year.

[Shane Wahl]

The 2015 rotation could be:

 

Meyer

Kazmir

Gibson

Hughes

May

 

Can you imagine that possibility? I can. The Twins can't.

[gunnarthor]

Haven't really heard much about Hughes anywhere yet. I like him at TF a lot. Not really a big Kazmir fan, think he's a big risk and overrated b/c of his strike outs. Rather they got a guy like Nolasco or Arroyo than Kazmir. But yeah, the future is the young guys.

[TheLeviathan]

Our ever expanding pile of guys who can start games is becoming an embarrassment of riches.

[Nick Nelson]

 

• Ryan said the hope is that Johnson, 29, will make the Twins’ big-league club in 2014.
   
   
  “Why not?” Ryan said. “We’ve got to try something.”

Quotes like this are what disturb me about the move. If Johnson was picked up simply for minor-league depth, or to add another emergency reinforcement to the mix, fine. But to actually few him as a viable contender for an MLB rotation spot? Yikes.

[ashbury]

But to actually few him as a viable contender for an MLB rotation spot? Yikes.

 

Why not? They've got to try something.

[Alex]

A concerning undertone is that it seems to mean that they aren't going to get a decent free agent, but I hope it's a "just in case."

 

The guys they've "penciled in" are likely Correia, Gibson, Diamond, Deduno, Johnson/Swarzack/Worley/Duensing.

[Marta Shearing]

I absolutely love when Ryan goes out of his way to say nobody wants to play here. Don't they consider themselves the model organization? They have a beautiful ballpark. April is cold. Big deal. Players dont want to come here for ONE reason. The Twins NEVER make the highest offer. PERIOD.

[Guest USAFChief]

If either Duensing or Swarzak start a game for the 2014 Twins, Ryan has failed. Period.

[Otto von Ballpark]

If either Duensing or Swarzak start a game for the 2014 Twins, Ryan has failed. Period.

 

Once again, the Chief so effortlessly expresses, in one line, what countless others have felt in their rambling and redundant threads and posts.