Jose Berrios Flashes Something Special

That 'slurve' was filthy, as appeared to be his 2-seam fastball.  And in fairly cold weather, nonetheless.  I don't remember Berrios throwing a breaking ball like that before.  The slider he threw during the WBC looked much more traditional.  If he can keep locating pitches, he could be fantastic this year.

That 'slurve' was filthy, as appeared to be his 2-seam fastball.  And in fairly cold weather, nonetheless.  I don't remember Berrios throwing a breaking ball like that before.  The slider he threw during the WBC looked much more traditional.  If he can keep locating pitches, he could be fantastic this year.

I was thinking the same thing. It seemed like there was an extra inch or two on the breaking ball and it broke later than usual. I went back and watched highlights from last year and it seemed to be a sweeping curve and last night it started straight with a hard late break. I was at the game when Johan struck out 20 Rangers and last night brought a lot of those memories back. 

Not many. The Twins gave three starts to Mejia, which objectively was not a terrible call. They gave a single start to Tepesch, which probably was.

 

Berrios wasn't ready for Opening Day after spending a bunch of time on the bench in the WBC. He was absolutely terrible last season and the front office obviously needed a better look at him in person before promoting him to Minnesota. They didn't get that in Spring Training so their next option was Rochester (never mind that Mejia had a strong ST and earned his spot, as much as a player can/should earn a spot out of Spring Training).

 

The Twins gave just one start to their fifth starter between April 23rd and the day Berrios was called up.

 

One of the stranger talking points running around this board is the implication the Twins sat on their hands for weeks while Berrios was dominating. The guy was called up and started the team's 33rd game, which is just a hair over 20% of the season. And the Twins used a fifth starter just once after their 17th game of the season (just a hair over 10% of the season).

 

So, in essence, I guess we could lament that single Tepesch start but that seems somewhat silly to me. Gibson was going to have an opportunity to get his feet under him and he last pitched May 4th, the team's 26th game of the season. He was yanked from the rotation after six starts, which is pretty close to the minimum a team will give a struggling starter. So, if we really want to pick nits, I guess you could toss one Gibson start in there, suggesting the Twins should have pulled him after five games.

 

So... two games? It still seems silly when framed that way.

And the way it ended up shaking out with lack of need on both ends of the start, even the Tepesch start was somewhat defensible, keeping everyone else on a regular schedule.

Santana, Santiago and Hughes weren't going to skip a start for Berrios this early, and Gibson after 6 starts is a pretty quick hook.

Right now, Berrios is pitching behind Santana and ahead of Santiago and Hughes in the rotation. One could argue that he is the team's number 2 pitcher – in more ways than one.

I hope Santiago and Hughes get back on track. It's hard to get anywhere in the playoffs with just two decent pitchers. 

(Yeah, I'm thinking playoffs. I know there's a lot of baseball to be played yet, but hey – the Twins are in first place!)

I don't think its strange at all....

 

Santiago threw 8.2 innings and Berrios threw 6.2. If Hector can be ready in time to slot into the 2 spot I'm sure Jose could've made it work as the 5. Had the Twins wanted Berrios in the rotation to start the season they certainly could have made that happen. They had 0 interest in that option.

 

They didn't have to skip the 5 spot in the rotation, the Twins chose to do that so they wouldn't have to bring him up.

 

The Tepesch start was just the cherry on top.

There was no reason the Twins should have forced him into the opening day rotation. Good move by the front office.

Let's also add the fact he barely pitched during the spring.

And that he was terrible in the bigs the year before. It's really not unreasonable for the front office to want to get a good look at him and make sure he was in a position to succeed.

They might have waited too long, but opening day was unrealistic.

2 fewer innings than Santiago? It certainly wasn't an issue of "getting stretched out," which was what we were told.

 

Everybody rails against using ST as a metric for measuring regular season success (likely the rational thing to do) but the second a player misses some time there it's a disqualification from the 25 man? In every other scenario ST is considered a SSS against lesser competition, so why is it now so important?

 

If the argument is the Twins weren't able to see as much of him I would remind you that it's basically the same group of people who drafted him and brought him up through the minors. If anything they were much more familiar with Berrios than Mejia.

Santiago had little to do with Berrios, he was in his 7th year, not trying to establish himself after a terrible debut.

The Twins front office rightly gave the veteran more trust in preparation.

It's relevant when they pitch the same amount of innings and we're told one can't be in the rotation because it would take too long to get stretched out. That obviously wasn't the case as Hector had no problem getting ready to start the second game of the season.

 

If it's familiarity or the need to see him pitch I already pointed out that this is essentially the same FO that has watched Berrios the past few seasons. I've already touched on the ST aspect.

 

If lack of MLB success/experience was the determining factor then why was Mejia the 5th starter? He had basically no MLB experience and the few innings he threw didn't go well last season.

 

Obviously I wanted him to start the season with the Twins. It was disappointing that he didn't but I was a little excited to see Mejia as well. Honestly, I don't think Mejia was given enough rope but they made the call to send him down. From that point on, the 4 man rotation and the Tepesch start were just asinine.

I think all your points answer themselves.

It's not basically the same front office, Santiago and Berrios have significantly different experience which matters a ton, and Mejia got the call because he was there all spring and did what he had to do.

I imagine Berrios would have had a decent shot to make the opening day rotation once May went down if he had been there all spring and took care of business. He sealed his own fate. Seems to have worked out though.

It's relevant when they pitch the same amount of innings and we're told one can't be in the rotation because it would take too long to get stretched out. That obviously wasn't the case as Hector had no problem getting ready to start the second game of the season. 

 

If it's familiarity or the need to see him pitch I already pointed out that this is essentially the same FO that has watched Berrios the past few seasons. I've already touched on the ST aspect. 

 

If lack of MLB success/experience was the determining factor then why was Mejia the 5th starter? He had basically no MLB experience and the few innings he threw didn't go well last season. 

 

Obviously I wanted him to start the season with the Twins. It was disappointing that he didn't but I was a little excited to see Mejia as well. Honestly, I don't think Mejia was given enough rope but they made the call to send him down. From that point on, the 4 man rotation and the Tepesch start were just asinine.

You can't compare Santiago and Berrios. For one thing, Santiago pitched well in the WBC and Berrios got lit up. For another, Santiago has been through 8 or 9 spring trainings, he knows how to get his body right. Berrios doesn't. And finally, if Santiago is pushed too hard, the Twins don't care that much, he isn't an integral part of the future like Berrios. 

The lack of big league success is not the factor either. Otherwise Vogelsong would have had the job. Mejia's path also isn't the same as Berrios' path. He was there the entire spring and won the job fair and square. He ramped up the way the Twins want a younger guy to do and he really earned that spot. Berrios would have been getting the spot based on reputation and placating fans. No way he should start the season in the rotation. Spring training stats don't matter that much but the spring training process is vital, particularly for young pitchers.

I also disagree with the "4 starters is stupid." There's a value to giving guys the ball every 5th day. Yeah you want to sprinkle in some days of extra rest but you also want guys to have a rhythm. You would have gotten less Ervin starts to begin the year, not sure how that would help.

The only start that was dumb was the Tepesch one. But even that may not have been that dumb - I'm glad that Berrios got to debut against the Indians on the road instead of the Red Sox at home. That Red Sox lineup is fierce and if Berrios had a hiccup his first time out, I can see not wanting him to get booed by the home fans (if he'd been knocked out early, Twins fans would have booed him). He's young and an emotional guy, they gave him a chance to breath if he had a bad first game. It's not like he has a home in the Twin Cities, he's essentially on the road either way.