Nick Nelson

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2310[/ATTACH]Ron Gardenhire told reporters over the weekend that he would have "no problem" with Glen Perkins assuming closer duties for his club moving forward. Well, you'd hope not. Since Matt Capps was officially placed on the disabled list on July 17, Perkins has received the lion's share of save chances, converting all seven of his opportunities while registering a 1.74 ERA and holding opponents to a .136 batting average. In 20 2/3 innings during that span, he has posted a stellar 19-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Perkins has backed up his breakout 2011 campaign by posting nearly identical numbers here in 2012. Last year, in 61 2/3 innings, he allowed 17 earned runs (2.48 ERA) on 55 hits while striking out 65 and walking 21. This year, in 60 1/3 innings, he has allowed 17 earned runs (2.54 ERA) on 52 hits while striking out 66 and walking 15. Eerily similar. With that consistency, the lefty has established himself as one of the league's best relievers, and if there truly is some mystical mental trait required to successfully pitch in the ninth inning, he's got it. He has "closer" written all over him. That's great news for the Twins, especially from a financial standpoint. Back in March, they signed Perkins to a three-year, $10.3 million extension with a team option, so they control his rights through 2016. Here's how his salaries would reflect on payroll compared to other designated closers over the past six years: [TABLE] Year Closer Cost 2007 Joe Nathan $5.25M 2008 Joe Nathan $6M 2009 Joe Nathan $11.25M 2010 Jon Rauch & Matt Capps ~$4M + Wilson Ramos 2011 Joe Nathan & Matt Capps $18.4M 2012 Matt Capps $4.75M 2013 Glen Perkins $2.5M 2014 Glen Perkins $3.75M 2015 Glen Perkins $3.75M 2016 Glen Perkins $4.5M [/TABLE] Clearly, the Twins place a premium on the value of the closer role and they've paid handsomely for reliability there over the years. So the idea of Perkins locking up that spot over the next few seasons is exciting. It should be noted that, in his case, the above numbers are slight underestimates (he has performance bonuses built into his contract for games finished that haven't been made public), but nevertheless he'll be the most inexpensive ninth-inning man the Twins have employed for many years. This is as it should be. There's certainly no guarantee that the Twins will be competitive next year, and it makes no sense for a non-competitive team to spend big money for someone to close out wins. The funds saved on a closer can be redirected toward strengthening the bullpen's overall depth (they'll need a new "relief ace" type to fill Perkins' previous role – no small matter) and supplementing other areas of the ballclub. I think it's safe to say nobody has a problem with Perkins taking that closer role and running with it for the next several years.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2283[/ATTACH]Prior to the start of every season, I like to go through the Twins organization and rank my Top 10 prospects, offering a glimpse of the farm system's strength and providing my personal take on the hierarchy of the club's best up-and-coming players. Now that the regular seasons of every minor-league affiliate have come to a close, it seems fitting to look back the this year's Top 10 and see how they all fared. Last year, this was a depressing exercise, as the vast majority of the organization's brightest prospects were plagued by injuries, performance issues, developmental setbacks, or all of the above. This year, you'll find these season recaps (beyond the guys at the back end of the list) to be much, much more positive, which is a big reason that I'm feeling far better about the team's outlook than I was a year ago. ~~~ 10. Brian Dozier, SS AAA: 48 G, .232/.286/.337, 2 HR, 15 R 17 RBI, 3/5 SB MLB: 84 G, .234/.271/.332, 6 HR, 33 R, 33 RBI, 9/11 SB I was reluctant to include Dozier in my Top 10, as I wasn't blown away by his skills or by his solid numbers as a 24-year-old in Single-A and Double-A last year, but I plugged him at No. 10 largely because the Twins seemed so dang high on him. It looks like that was a mistake. After an ordinary start at Triple-A, the shortstop was surprisingly called up to the majors, where he played horribly for three months before being demoted back to Rochester and limping through the final weeks. It's too soon to pass judgment after just half a season in the big leagues, but at the end of the day, Dozier is an unheralded 25-year-old who has posted a 138-to-58 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 210 games above Single-A despite the fact that plate discipline was supposedly one of his principal strengths. It was a disastrous season, and at this point he shouldn't be considered a realistic part of the club's future plans. 9. Alex Wimmers, SP AA: 4.1 IP, 4.15 ERA, 4.15 ERA, 3/2 K/BB, 1.85 WHIP Like Dozier, Wimmers had a rough season, although in this case health was the entire story. After shaking off extreme control issues and showing some promise late in the 2011 campaign, the former first-round pick made only one start in New Britain, rehabbed for a couple months, came back and tried to make one start in rookie ball (he lasted only six batters) and that was it. He underwent Tommy John surgery in August and won't be back in the picture until 2014. Yet another unfortunate break for the Twins' minor-league pitching corps. 8. Adrian Salcedo, SP A+: 25.1 IP, 6.39 ERA, 14/15 K/BB, 1.90 WHIP Salcedo also had his season ruined by injuries. He suffered a broken nose when he was hit by a comebacker in May, and went on to battle arm problems for the remainder of the season, limiting him to just 30 innings between Ft. Myers and the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Ultimately, it goes down as a lost season of development for the right-hander, who didn't throw a competitive pitch after July 11. On the bright side, he's still only 21 so there's plenty of time to bounce back. 7. Oswaldo Arcia, OF A+: 55 G, .309/.376/.517, 7 HR, 22 R, 31 RBI, 4/9 SB AA: 69 G, .328/.398/.557, 10 HR, 54 R, 67 RBI, 3/5 SB Here's your first bright spot on the list, and it's almost blinding. I wasn't totally sold on Arcia as a top prospect at this time last year but his monstrous 2012 performance has left no doubt. This kid is one of the most promising hitters in all of the minors. He moved up to Double-A after raking in Ft. Myers, and his performance at New Britain was simply transcendent. Although he didn't collect enough at-bats after his promotion to officially qualify for the Eastern League leaderboard, Arcia ranked third in OPS among players with 250-plus plate appearances. That's particularly impressive when you consider that he's 21 and everyone else in the top seven on that list is 24 or above. Arcia hasn't shown spectacular power or plate discipline, but he's a pure hitter. His sweet left-handed swing and his ability to hit for gaudy averages at such a young age are reminiscent of Jason Kubel when he was a prospect. 6. Liam Hendriks, SP AAA: 106.1 IP, 2.20 ERA, 82/28 K/BB, 0.98 WHIP MLB: 56 IP, 6.11 ERA, 36/16 K/BB, 1.64 WHIP If these rankings were made based on statistics alone, Hendriks surely would have been a top five prospect and possibly in the top three. Despite his stellar numbers throughout the minors (a trend that certainly carried over to Triple-A this year), Hendriks lacks dominant stuff and that's been on display during his time in the majors. He's been pummeled for 76 hits – including 11 homers – in 56 innings, and outside of a few quality outings he's given few indications that he belongs in a big-league rotation at this point. Hendriks will turn 24 this offseason, so he's still younger than a lot of rookies. His tumultuous time in the majors will give him some things to focus on during the offseason, and hopefully he'll be able to make the improvements necessary to become a solid mid-rotation option, which the Twins could sorely use. 5. Joe Benson, OF AA: 37 G, .184/.268/.305/, 3 HR, 13 R, 20 RBI, 3/7 SB AAA: 28 G, .179/.269/.316, 2 HR, 30 R, 36 RBI, 4/4 SB Benson may have had the most disappointing season of anyone on this list, and that's saying something after we've looked at Dozier, Wimmers and Salcedo. A supremely athletic center fielder who played well enough last year in New Britain to earn a September call-up and later rank 99th on Baseball America's listing of the game's Top 100 prospects, Benson took massive strides backward in 2012. He started out horribly in Rochester, was demoted to New Britain, broke his wrist and spent the rest of the season rehabbing and struggling. The good news is that the Twins have enough outfield prospects that Benson's development isn't crucial, but of course having a guy drop so far in one year is very unfortunate. His outstanding tools and his youth (still only 24) keep his prospect status intact, but he'll probably drop out of most Top 10s for next year. His lack of strike zone control is a huge red flag. 4. Kyle Gibson, SP A: 7 IP, 2.57 ERA, 7/1 K/BB, 1.00 WHIP AAA: 6.2 IP, 9.45 ERA, 10/1 K/BB. 1.80 WHIP In my eyes, Gibson was the organization's top pitching prospect before succumbing to Tommy John surgery last summer and after. The kid just oozes talent and he showed it this year in limited action upon returning to the field. Between his initial rehab stint in rookie ball and his brief appearances in Single-A and Triple-A, Gibson amassed an impressive 33-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 28 1/3 innings. He'll pitch in the Arizona Fall League and hopefully be on track next spring, ready to contend for a spot in Minnesota's rotation. 3. Eddie Rosario, 2B A-: .296/.345/.490, 12 HR, 60 R, 70 RBI, 11/22 SB Rosario wasn't able to put up the same ridiculous numbers in Beloit this year as he did last year in Elizabethton (21 HR, 1.068 OPS in 67 games) but nobody really expected that. Unlike his teammate on that E-Town club, Miguel Sano, Rosario doesn't profile as a high-end slugger, but he showed plenty of offensive ability in his first season as a second baseman, hitting close to .300 while ripping 32 doubles and 12 homers despite missing significant time after taking a baseball to the face. Defense is going to be the biggest question for Rosario moving forward. If he can stick in the middle infield – or better yet, become an asset there – he's going to have a lot of value, especially to a Twins organization that has really struggled to produce quality infielders. 2. Aaron Hicks, OF AA: 129 G, .286/.384/.460, 13 HR, 100 R, 61 RBI, 32/43 SB After he turned in an underwhelming campaign as a 21-year-old in Ft. Myers last year, many started to lose faith in Hicks. He dropped out of Baseball America's Top 100 (after appearing at No. 19 in 2010 and No. 45 in 2011). Some Twins prospect gurus began to sour on him. Still in love with his outstanding tools, I kept him in the No. 2 spot but noted that if he couldn't turn a corner in 2012, his athletic prowess wouldn't save him from sliding down my rankings. Fortunately, Hicks responded this year in a big way, putting together the kind of season we'd all been hoping for. As a 22-year-old in Double-A (where the average player is about three years older), Hicks set career highs in home runs, RBI, runs scored, stolen bases and pretty much any other statistic you can think of. He ranked fourth among qualifying Eastern League hitters in OPS and crossed the plate 100 times in 129 games. For a player his age to be drawing 80 walks in three straight seasons is pretty amazing. Throw in his exceptional speed and his elite defensive skills, and you've got yourself a hell of a prospect. The great thing about Hicks is that even if a few of his skills don't pan out, he can still be a solid big-league regular. If they all pan out, he's a superstar. 1. Miguel Sano, 3B A-: 129 G, .258/.373/.521, 28 HR, 75 R, 100 RBI, 8/11 SB Sano struck out 144 times in 553 plate appearances and his defense remains extremely suspect as he committed 42 errors in 125 games. The negatives pretty much stop there. His prodigious power produced 28 homers this year (not including last night's three-run moonshot in the playoffs), which is nine more than the next highest finisher in the Midwest League. Did I mention that he is only 19? No other teenager in the league hit more than 12 homers. Assuming his age is legit, Sano is so young that it's difficult to even pay attention to his flaws. All you can do is look at the power numbers posted against much more experienced pitchers and daydream about the way he'll terrorize the league when he's a few years older and playing in the majors.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2257[/ATTACH]With the Twins on pace to lose nearly 100 games for a second straight year, fans have to derive joy from the little things. In a season that was basically lost from the get-go, relative frivolities like the trade deadline, August waiver moves and September call-ups become focal points of interest. Unfortunately, the Twins have been extremely passive on all these fronts, to a degree that is highly disappointing for a rebuilding club. Their deadline activity amounted to trading Francisco Liriano for a pair of marginal prospects. Their most notable move in August involved dumping Danny Valencia for a 21-year-old A-baller. And their final September call-ups, announced earlier this week, were Luis Perdomo and Eduardo Escobar. In isolation, none of these things are necessarily inexcusable, but together they give the air of an organization that isn't very actively pushing toward the future, nor putting in much effort to provide entertainment to the fans who have stuck around through all this losing. I mean, at the end of the day, that's the point, right? Giving the people who buy tickets and tune in their televisions something worth watching? In a meaningless final month, would it really hurt the development of Aaron Hicks or Oswaldo Arcia to come up and take in the atmosphere of an MLB clubhouse, occasionally getting into a game and offering a glimpse of the promising future? Is there any legitimate reason not to take a look at Deolis Guerra, who will be out of options next year and still hasn't faced a major-league hitter? And how can a club that has constantly emphasized a "no scholarships" meritocracy wherein those earn their shot are rewarded possibly justify promoting Luis Perdomo – a 28-year-old journeyman signed during the offseason who issued seven walks in six innings with the Twins earlier this summer – over Anthony Slama, who has come up through Minnesota's system and dominated every level, including Triple-A this season where his 13.8 K/9 rate leads all of his International League peers? Perhaps the Twins have their developmental reasons for holding off on the likes of Hicks, Arcia and Guerra, but leaving Slama buried despite his phenomenal success defies reason. The organization has to be aware that fans are clamoring for the right-hander, and yet here in this joke of a season they won't let him throw a single pitch. When reporters ask about him all they can get are vague, anonyymous quotes about how Slama "does not have good enough stuff to dominate in the big leagues." (As opposed to guys like Jim Hoey, Dusty Hughes and Jeff Gray, who were given plenty of leash in the majors despite their predictable struggles.) Unlike many fans, I'm not angry at the team for being in its current state. All franchises go through ups and downs, and the Twins were about due for a valley after a decade of winning and mostly favorable breaks. What really bothers me is that this organization can't back up its own rhetoric about earned opportunities, continues to weigh the opinions of its scouts too heavily against objective results, and – worst of all – won't level with the fans about questionable decision-making. We deserve better than that. Especially in a time like this.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2229[/ATTACH]Last week, Denard Span finally landed on the disabled list one day before rosters expanded and 18 days after initially suffering a shoulder injury back in early August. Not the medical staff's finest hour, probably, but the uproar I saw amongst casual fans and hardcores alike sort of left me dumbfounded. My Twitter timeline exploded with rants against the team doctors. Commenters here at Twins Daily vented in similar fashion. Clearly folks are fed up with the strange injury situations that continue to arise with this club. That's understandable. Still, I'm wondering if we haven't reached a point where people are jumping the gun a bit to crucify the medical staff for every mishap. Here's a fact: medicine is an inexact science. Here's another: the members of the Twins' medical staff are highly trained experts who have reached an elite level in their profession. Most of them have been around for more than the past two years, yet the implication seems to be that since the start of 2011 they've just forgotten how to properly diagnose injuries. The truth is that this staff made mistakes before 2011 – as does every other staff in the league – and they went largely unnoticed because the Twins weren't one of the worst teams in baseball. My sense is that the higher incidence of injuries in the past two years and the club's struggles overall are causing a lot of people to exaggerate the role of the medical staff in lingering ailments and goofy DL management. It wouldn't be a unique case. As an example, let's look at this latest situation with Span. The fact that it took the doctors so long to properly diagnose his sprained sternoclavicular joint is concerning, but the outfielder didn't make their jobs easier by backing out of an MRI due to claustrophobia. Additionally, we simply don't know whether the Twins would have shown the same patience and deference to Span if the games actually mattered and they were legitimately hurting themselves by tying up that 25th roster spot. They weren't. Sure, there have been examples where the team's medical staff has pretty clearly erred. Those extend back past 2011. Like I said, it's an inexact science. But frustration seems to have some people believing that we're dealing with a bunch of quacks who have completely lost the ability to competently do their jobs, all while the numerous execs running the organization have failed to notice or care. Pretty ridiculous notion born out of a scapegoat mentality, if you ask me. To be clear, I'm not saying that the Twins' medical staff compares well to the rest of the league. They might even be among the worst. But I don't believe we have the evidence to make that assessment. Judging a doctor's performance isn't like judging a pitcher, or hitter, or manager, or GM. Each situation is unique and there are lot more factors in play than some would assume. Maybe after this season ends the front office will clear out the entire medical staff and bring in new faces across the board. I'd say that's unlikely, and I doubt it would meaningfully resolve any of the real problems plaguing this organization.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2196[/ATTACH]Ask yourself this question, and be honest in your reply: If Joe Mauer were becoming a free agent this offseason, is there any chance – ANY chance, whatsoever – that he would fetch a six-year, $138 million contract? I think the answer is pretty clearly no. That's the prorated remaining portion of the eight-year contract Mauer signed with the Twins after a 2009 season in which he was arguably baseball's best player. He was 26, he was one of the game's most popular players and he was as healthy as he'd ever been. That was then, and this is now. In three seasons since, Mauer has hit .311/.393/.429 – impressive numbers but nowhere near the otherworldly stats he compiled in his MVP campaign. He has been besieged by injuries, missing a quarter of his team's games. And as he prepares to enter his 30s, he has already begun to transition away from catcher. Mauer is a great player and a tremendous asset. But any way you slice it, his value has declined pretty sharply over the past three seasons, which is largely a testament to how insanely high it was at the time he re-upped with the Twins. My point in all this is to say that no baseball team is going to give up quality prospects for the right to absorb Mauer's enormous and substantially risky contract. For all the hubbub about the catcher being put through waivers earlier this week – an extremely routine and procedural move that probably shouldn't have been reported in such provocative terms – the truth is that Terry Ryan would have been a fool not to expose Mauer to the league. He said as much himself. If some team were to go crazy like the Dodgers and offer up good young players to take on more than $100 million in salary commitments (extraordinarily unlikely since that bonanza was basically unprecedented), shouldn't the Twins at least hear them out? There is no downside to testing the waters, and certainly no player should be considered flat-out untradable by anyone when it comes to a rebuilding team. As you'd expect, Ryan got no bites. Because no team is in position to do what Los Angeles did. Had that wacky trade not gone down so recently, this "story" would have been a passing note rather than a daylong talking point. Mauer's oversized contract and full no-trade clause make it extremely improbable that he'll be moved, now or in the future. I mean extremely improbable – like Jim Carrey so-you're-telling-me-there's-a-chance improbable. It might be fun to daydream about what kind of impact such an outlandish move might have, but at the end of the day such thoughts are nothing more.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2170[/ATTACH]On the surface, this 2012 Twins campaign seems painfully similar to last season's train wreck. On this date a year ago, the Twins sat with a 56-77 record, which sadly compares favorably to their current 52-77 mark. Both seasons were marked by abysmal starts, midsummer rebounds and late implosions (at least the current squad is headed that way, with an 8-17 record since the start of August). Yet, looking beyond the similarly horrible results, this season has provided Twins fans with much more in the way of long-term reasons for hope. Last year, aside from the brutal on-field results, you had a front office that appeared lost, numerous injuries that placed the future outlooks of key players in doubt, and setbacks striking high-profile prospects throughout the organization. Here are some of the developments that have me feeling much better about the franchise's future than I did a year ago, even as the Twins continue to maintain their label as one of the worst teams in baseball. 1. Health This is big. Injuries were the No. 1 storyline in 2011 as the roster was ravaged by bad break after bad break. Seemingly minor ailments kept players on the shelf for weeks, team doctors conjured up bizarre diagnoses, and we began to wonder whether franchise cornerstones Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau were permanently damaged goods. Both those players have stayed on the field and produced this year, along with most of their teammates. In fact, free agent acquisitions Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit have enjoyed unprecedented health. Clearly, the pendulum has swung in the other direction. One can certainly make the case that the team's awful performance in spite of many players avoiding injury is a bad thing, but there's no denying that team-wide good health is a positive harbinger for the future. 2. Chris Parmelee A person could hardly be blamed for not being sold on Parmelee's "breakout" last year, which involved a fairly solid second half in Rochester and a great final month with the Twins. The first baseman showed some nice signs, but not enough to overshadow four years of unspectacular performance in the minors, especially after he looked overwhelmed during an early stint with the Twins this year. Nevertheless, you simply can't overlook what the guy is doing in Triple-A right now. His .341/.460/.655 line with 17 homers (already a career high) is nothing short of jaw-dropping. His plate discipline has been superb and his power legit. Parmelee suddenly looks like a building block – one that gives the Twins a fair amount of flexibility going forward. 3. The Stacked Outfield Heading into the offseason, the outfield picture looked a little shaky. Denard Span had missed a sizable chunk of the season due to a concussion, while Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer were both likely to depart in free agency. As it turns out, Span has been healthy this year and the Twins have found two other guys who figure to be entrenched for the next few years in Josh Willingham and Ben Revere. On top of that, Darin Mastroianni has emerged as a great asset as a fourth outfielder. With all these players under control through at least 2014, the Twins are set in the outfield for several years, and that's not even mentioning top prospects like Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia who are rapidly rising. We're looking at a potential embarrassment of riches in the not-too-distant future. That's much different than any kind of embarrassment we were talking about last year. 4. Scott Diamond In a season where so much as gone wrong with the starting staff, it's easy to overlook just how impressive Diamond has been. Despite one of the league's worst strikeout rates, he continues to turn in strong outing after strong outing and he's not really slowing down – he'd notched five consecutive quality starts before being ejected in Texas last week, though he experienced another hiccup against the M's on Tuesday. I'll admit I'm somewhat skeptical that the lefty can maintain his minuscule walk rate going forward, but he's definitely a strike-thrower and his 55.3 percent grounder rate – seventh-highest in the majors – is no fluke. It's a good recipe for success even without the strikeouts; a recipe that should make Diamond a quality, inexpensive mid-rotation piece for many years. 5. Glen Perkins and Jared Burton Building a bullpen from the ground up can be a challenge, as the Twins learned last year. Building a bullpen around a couple of established, reliable late-inning arms is a different story, which is why it's hugely encouraging that Perkins has maintained – and perhaps even elevated – his brilliance from last year while Burton has emerged as an excellent righty setup man. These two look like a solid back-end core for Terry Ryan to build around, negating the need to overspend on an established "closer" while focusing on identifying hidden gems like Burton. 6. Trevor Plouffe Plenty of people are getting down on Plouffe now that he's slumping badly since coming off the disabled list, but I'm pretty bullish on him at this point. He's probably not the elite slugger that he resembled earlier this summer, but the comparisons to Danny Valencia are premature and misguided. Plouffe's offensive outburst was not totally isolated – he's been building up to this point for several years, showing steady improvement in the minors and majors as he's inched toward his physical prime. Now, at age 26, Plouffe is entering that prime and regardless of his current cold spell he looks like a player who can respectably hold down the hot corner for several years. The Twins have been in desperate need of such a player for a long time.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2117[/ATTACH]The Twins have been taxing their bullpen lately and are amidst a stretch of 20 games without a day off, so it makes sense that they decided to send down Matt Carson – who became the fifth outfielder after Denard Span returned Thursday – in exchange for relief help. The pitcher they called upon is Kyle Waldrop. This is his second time getting the nod this year, and he only missed a spot on the Opening Day roster because of an injury. It seems clear that the Twins are very high on him, but it's not very clear why. Standing 6'5", Waldrop gets a nice downward plane on his pitches and induces a lot of ground balls. In that sense, he's got some potential. At the same time, he doesn't miss any bats. For his career in the minors, Waldrop has averaged 5.7 K/9; for comparison, Nick Blackburn posted a 5.5 mark in his minor-league career. It's certainly possible for a reliever with a substandard strikeout rate to be effective if he limits walks and keeps the ball down, but Waldrop's K-rate is beyond substandard. Given that he's averaged 5.7 whiffs per nine innings (including 5.2 above Single-A) there's a good chance he'll rank among the most contact-heavy relief pitchers in the majors. Currently only two MLB relievers have a K/9 mark below 5.0 – two of them are on the Twins (Alex Burnett and Jeff Gray). Do they really intend to move forward with a bullpen filled with guys that can't come in and get a strikeout? At this point, the Twins' sole focus should be evaluating players for next year and beyond. In order to give Waldrop another look, they bypassed players like Anthony Slama – who is healthy again and back to putting up cartoonish numbers in Triple-A – and Deolis Guerra, who will be out of options next year. Guerra has a bloated ERA in Rochester right now thanks to a home run spike, but his 50-to-21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 51 innings is far superior to Waldrop's horrible 16-to-13 in 39 innings. Given his previous ranking as a top prospect and his general success since converting to relief duties, you'd have to think that Guerra is more likely to be a long-term bullpen asset than Waldrop. Speaking of long-term bullpen assets, Gray very obviously is not one. Why is he still on the roster and holding some of these other guys back? Not only has he been one of the least effective relief pitchers in the game this year, he's 30 with a terrible track record and virtually no upside. His future with the organization won't last past this year (you'd hope) so why do the Twins continue to give him innings while missing an opportunity to work with younger arms that they need to make decisions on, such as Guerra and Slama? It's been one of the most befuddling aspects of this season, but hopefully it will cease to be an issue when rosters expand in a week.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2084[/ATTACH]The status and outlook of the rotation is bound to be the biggest storyline for the Twins down the stretch and into the offseason. Clearly, there is no unit on this roster in a greater state of flux. As a new feature here on Twins Daily, we thought we'd start taking periodic glances at the starting pitching depth chart to provide a big-picture look at what the club currently has and what's in the pipeline. We'll post updates every few weeks, adjusting for performance swings, injuries and roster additions/subtractions. The top five guys are the ones currently in the Twins' rotation. After that, it gets a little subjective, but this is the pecking order as we see it. Feel free to voice your own opinion on these rankings, and on how far the team is from fielding a respectable rotation in 2013. 1. Scott Diamond. The surprise of the year continues to excel. He's turned in five straight quality starts and posted a 2.95 ERA overall in 128 innings. How long can he sustain his success with one of the league's lowest strikeout rates? 2. Sam Deduno. His "effectively wild" approach has held up thus far, as he's managed a 4-1 record and 3.33 ERA despite tallying more walks than strikeouts. Hard to expect that to continue, but right now he's got a pretty airtight case as the team's second-best starter. 3. Brian Duensing. His extreme vulnerability against right-handed hitters makes him a far better option in the bullpen, but Duensing is a solid pitcher and he has quietly turned in a 3.77 ERA in four starts since rejoining the rotation at the end of July. 4. Cole De Vries. A recent "sad but true" tweet from Patrick Reusse: "Every time Cole De Vries retires a big-league hitter I'm surprised." In spite of his lackluster stuff, the righty has decent peripherals and continues to squeak by. He turned in a solid outing against the punchless A's last night. 5. Liam Hendriks. The rookie returns to the rotation on Wednesday night after Nick Blackburn's surprising DFA earlier this week. Hendriks hardly could have been worse during a couple earlier stints with the Twins, but has been nearly untouchable in Triple-A with 76 hits allowed in 106 innings. It will be interesting to see how he performs in this low-pressure late-season audition; he could rise fast on this list. --- 6. Anthony Swarzak. He's clearly better suited for his current relief role, but I have to believe Swarzak would be the first guy Ron Gardenhire would call upon if he needed another starter at this moment. 7. Esmerling Vasquez. Like Deduno, Vasquez is an erratic right-hander in his late 20s who limits hits but hands out tons of walks. He probably deserves a chance but it's not clear the Twins are willing to deal with two such pitchers in the their rotation at once. 8. Nick Blackburn. The club's decision to remove him not only from the 25-man roster but the 40-man roster is a sign that they've soured on him badly. Still, he's under contract for $5 million next year so if he shows signs of life in Triple-A he'll probably get another chance. 9. Kyle Gibson. Recovering from Tommy John surgery, the former first-round pick has looked very sharp in 11 rehab outings between rookie ball and Single-A. He'll need to carry that to the upper levels before he's viewed as a legitimate option for the big-league rotation, but so far all signs are positive. 10. Pedro Hernandez. Acquired in the Francisco Liriano trade, Hernandez is a classic Twins pitch-to-contact type and thus far he's allowed 23 hits in 15 innings for Rochester since coming over. He might get a glance in September just because, but he's got much to prove before entering the mix for next year. Plus, he left last night's game in Triple-A with an injury.