Trevor May Headed To The Bullpen

I'm ok with it yet not ok with it at the same time if that makes any sense.  As things stand now I believe he is one of the top 5 starters on the team.  He is better than Milone and Nolasco.  HOWEVER, he is also probably much better out of the bullpen than either of those two.  So which makes the team better?  May in the rotation and Milone/Nolasco pitching 4 times a week in setup?  I think May to the pen makes the team better based on how the roster is currently constructed.

The part I'm not OK with is they could have avoided this completely if they would have gone and got a viable late inning arm in free agency.  Then Milone and Nolasco and May could have had a true competition for a spot. 

Do you toss everyone out for their stats the first go around in the big leagues?  Watch out Byron Buxton.....

 

The freaking kid had 25 starts under his belt and was starting to show EXACTLY what you want from a young starter when we flipped him to the bullpen.  It's patently absurd to argue that May's move to the pen had anything to do with his inability to be a starter.  It had much more to do with the team's inability to field a competent bullpen and overspending on mid-tier FA starters.

 

We should be investing in players like Trevor May for the future of this rotation, not using his talents to put a band-aid on roster blunders.

It's patently absurd for you to accuse me of saying that. Could you be more specific on which roster blunders you are speaking of?

Is anybody really surprised? If you raise your hand I have some beachfront land in Alaska to sell you.....

 

Can you see Russia from this property?

Cueto, Ventura, Volquez = Santana, Gibson, Hughes? I'll take that Royals 3... 

 

Kansas City also had an elite defense, the Twins are forcing Sano to RF

The question was about pitching , with that said, Volquez has been a 3-5 his whole career and one team in 2013 thought so little of him he was DFA'd...........Ventura does have 2 upside,but he pitched like a 3 last yr, and Cueto pitch 81 innings with a 4-7, 4.76, 56 K's and a .307 BA against, not exactly ace time with KC.

Santana 7-5, 4.00, 108 IP , 36 W, 82 K, .253 BAA, 1.30 WHIP

vs

Cueto    4-7, 4.76, 81 IP,   17 W, 56 K, .307 BAA, 1.45 WHIP

Gibson   11-11, 3.84, 195 IP, 65 W, 145 K, .252 BAA, 1.29 WHIP

vs

Volquez  13-9, 3.55, 200 IP, 72 W, 155 K, .251 BAA, 1.31 WHIP

Hughes  11-9, 4.40, 155 IP, 16 W, 94 K, .293 BAA, 1.29 WHIP

vs

Ventura 13-8, 4.08, 163 IP, 58 W, 156 K, .248 BAA, 1.30 WHIP

Pretty much a wash 3 on 3...............and yes KC does have a better pen,and defense, and offense,but that wasnt what I was stating, I was stating they didnt have an ace and still won a World Series.

May hasn't been good this spring. He lost the competition to make the rotation. It was either AAA or the bullpen.

If you are saying with a Starting rotation like KC you can win the World Series, you can't ignore with that rotation they coupled an elite defense. That matters.

Maybe it would better to say, you can win the World Series without elite starting pitching if you get timely hitting, elite defense, elite bullpen, etc. 

 

Picking out Cueto's KC only stats is pretty convenient, but you said they did it with a bunch of 3-5's.  He's not a 3-5.  Ventura isn't either

I partly agree, lets take Hughes for example, in 2014 he pitched like a 2, but in reality he is a 3-4, and Ventura was a 3 in 2015, will he take a leap forward this yr? We will find out.........Now the reverse Cueto is a 1-2, but KC he pitched like a 4.............so last yrs stats wise of the 6 guys you mention it was a wash, its not like one set played better than the other, that is all I was saying or trying to convey, because over the long haul I would take Cueto over them all, not sure about Ventura, might depend on his makeup.

Just look at the stats for his first 25 starts. If he couldn't pitch out of the pen, he may not have even made the team. Anyway we can stop overrating board favorites?

You mean Joe Mauer?

May lost a competition with Nolasco this spring?  Really?  He's lost to Duffey so far too?

May had the same odds to make the rotation as Mauer had to be cut

May lost a competition with Nolasco this spring?  Really?  He's lost to Duffey so far too?

I'm not convinced Nolasco has won anything yet but May was bouncing changeups. The coaches are pleased with Duffey so far and he's pretty much got the #4 slot locked up. It is down to Milone v Nolasco for the 5th starter with the loser becoming the long reliever. We all know Berrios is going to start the season in AAA unless two pitchers get hurt in the next two weeks.

I don't care about money for either Berrios or May, all I care about is controlling a good asset for as long as they are useful. Keeping Berrios in the minors an extra couple of weeks and keeping May a starter would seem like the best way to keep them from bolting early.

 

As for the baseball reasons, I'd rather have 180 innings of May and 70 of Burdi/Chargois than 180 innings of Nolasco/Milone and 70 innings of May. Much rather.

I want to point out that we could have easily not tendered Milone and allocated that $4m to a reliever and accomplished this.  May in the rotation and a FA reliever.

Here's my two cents.  I think May is a good reliever, but I think his ceiling as a starter is higher than guys like Nolasco and Milone.  I am OK with him in the pen, but if the FO is making a judgement on him from the small sample sizes he has had as a starter, that is frustrating.  He still has not had a whole year to be in the rotation and learn how to work through his "issues" as they come up.  A lot of guys take a year or two, and we haven't given him any sort of long term chance.  I think Milone is a solide 4, probably 5.  

My issue with all of this is if Nolasco stays up without absolutely earning his spot.  It sets a very bad precedent to send a kid to the pen, who might be part of the future rotation if he can learn his craft, for a guy who is not a team player and is holding a gun to the FO's collective heads.  We are still in a rebuild.  May needs to work through his kinks now, because he will never get the chance if we are in a playoff race.  

If Nolasco ends up throwing a fit and refusing assignments, then I would let that go very public.  He will only be burning any chances he has to earn and be part of a quality club in the future.  

My concern is Duffey and Nolasco.  I'm a bit suprised that they made this decision so quickly given how badly Duffey and Nolasco have pitched so far.  

Don't think for a second too that if Duffey gets off to a slow start that he won't be demoted in favor of Nolasco regardless of how badly he pitches because of the albatross contract.  And like i said before.  Milone is a 4th or 5th starter tops and we saw that against better competition last season.

I don't buy the argument that the Twins saw how the bullpen was shaping up and pulled the panic lever (demoting May to the pen), because of how things were shaping up down there.  I just don't.  Runzler, Abad, Chargois, Kintzler, O'Rourke, Burdi and Reed have all pitched well so far.  A far cry from a desperation situation in the pen.

The Twins are throwing up smoke and mirrors again.  There never was or has been an open competition for rotation spots.     

I think the Twins think that May can start the same way they thought Sano could play 3B.  Just enough to let the guy down slowly over a three year period.

If they simply wanted to narrow it to two starters at this point, why couldn't it be down to May vs. Milone instead?

 

They could have, but if May lost the competition in 2 weeks he would be headed to AAA to start rather than going to the bullpen. I could live with telling Nolasco right now he's headed to the bullpen. I think that may be the only way to salvage some value from Ricky Nolasco.