Kenny Powers

I literally made a post about Acton on this site yesterday. His fastball was actually hitting 95 mph pretty consistently in his last outing per the game log stats. They might filter through a dozen bullpen guys this year. I like his chances as good as anyone else at this point. The high K-Rate in the minors makes me hopeful he can carry that over. Regardless, as I wrote in my post yesterday, this was a sneaky good depth signing (that cost them nothing).

Ha - I fixed it. I'm not clever enough for that sort of word play. 😁

Full disclosure - it's too early to get overly excited. But this is an under the radar guy that I'm starting to watch for the following reasons: 1.) Age. He's 27 (soon to be 28). Certainly too old to be a prospect. But it's not like he's one of these guys who's been around forever and has zero upside i.e. Matt Bowman. 2.) Velocity. He was hitting 95 regularly in his last appearance. I realize that's not overly impressive in today's game. But per Fangraph's, his vFA would put him at the top of the current bullpen guys (aside from Morris who was just called up). And again, higher than someone like Bowman or even Topa. 3.) K Rate. Looking at his minor league numbers, he had 287 Ks in 213.2 innings (12.09 K/9). So far he has 5 Ks in 4 innings for us (11.25 K/9) 4.) (Very) Early Returns. 4 innings. 5 Ks. 2.25 ERA and 0.75 WHIP. I hope this post doesn't jinx him, but just maybe we plucked a diamond in the rough. But even if we just ride an unstainable hot streak, it appears to be a good pick up for bullpen depth.

They have some high velo guys in waiting at AAA. But as others have mentioned....velo is only half it. They need to hit spots and mix speeds. Here are some of the high velocity guys I'm referring to in AAA: Kendry Rojas hit 98.5 mph Conner Prielipp hit 98.4 Kyle Bishoff hit 98.2 Trent Baker hit 98.1 D. Altavilla hit 97.9 Marco Raya hit 97.8 Zebby Mathews hit 97.8 Andrew Morris hit 97.7 J Merryweather hit 97.5 John Klien hit 97.3 *MPH data from Spring or regular season games this season via game data.

Looks like Kyle Bischoff hit 97.6 mph against his second batter last night. Worth keeping an eye out on him.

You certainly have a right to your opinion and how you arrive at that opinion. I view things a little differently than you though. I think on every team (sports or corporate) people have a role. Sand's role for this year was not to be the closer or set up guy. He was going to be a low leverage/middle innings reliever and he performed very well in that role. So I don't think his save totals matter much considering his role. But for the record, according to MLB, he saved 4 out of 7 (57%) which was only slightly lower percentage than Jax (62%). So neither guy was great using that measuring stick. And while Theilbar has had success in other years, I'm not sure he was viewed as "trusted" this season...his ERA was over 5. If he wasn't lefthanded, I don't think he would have remained on the roster. I believe there is a lot of value in what Sands brings considering his current salary ($750K). To be able to pull an in-house guy into that role is great for the organization. You wrote "there are quite a few guys around the league" like Sands. That might be true. But the Twins sure can't seem to find them. Think of some of the guys they traded for the last few years...they make Sands look like Rollie Fingers: Justin Topa Steven Okert. Trevor Richards. Jorge Lopez Dylan Floro Michael Fulmer

I think it depends on what measuring stick you use. You keep referring to blown saves. Is that the best? IDK. One could argue that using that is a very small sample (12 "chances" based on what you wrote). Should those 12 chances carry more weight than the total of 71 innings he threw? Not in my book. His 71.1 innings was most among the relievers (just ahead of Jax). Over the 71 innings he had a 3.28 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 10.72 K/9. Those a pretty solid numbers for an old school guy like me.

I'm sure Headrick will get another shot. But he's going to have to show he's healthy (and effective) first. Regarding Theilbar, he actually started pitching well in July: 10 games, 9.2 innings, 11 Ks, 2.79 ERA and 1.14 WHIP. These guys are so streaky...I think they just have to play the hot hands and rotate as necessary. I'd keep throwing Theilbar out there for now until he loses it.

I really dislike trading for relief pitching. It seems to cost too much and relief pitchers are so up and down, you never really know what you are getting. Often times, what you have at home is better (and free). Funderburk has nothing left to prove at AAA. He looked great last year (albeit small sample). I assume scouting caught up to him to start this year. But now it's time for he (and coaching staff) to make adjustments. I think he'll be just as good as some of the LH pitchers mentioned in the article. Theilbar is having a rough go. I think they should either DL him or option him to AAA to get his groove back. The velocity seems fine, so not sure if there is anything going on health wise or not? Also, I have not heard any recent updates on Headrick. But he would be another guy I'd like to see more of once he's healthy. I would assume he's getting close to throwing again - but again - I have not seen any recent news or reports. Down the road, I could see Jaylen Nowlin as another LH bullpen option. But with our limited Starting Pitching depth, they will certainly keep him as a starter as long as possible. Try our guys first - they might surprise us.

The bullpen has actually been a very nice surprise. We've made it through some injuries already and continue to rank towards the top of MLB in several noteworthy categories including: #3 (tied) in saves with 14 #2 in K/9 with 10.38 #2 in Holds with 33 #4 in LOB % with 76.0 #12 in ERA with 3.64 #10 in FIP with 3.68 #5 in xFIP with 3.66 #10 (tied) in WHIP with 1.24 And really, much of that was put together by not even their best options. Duran has missed time, Brock Stewart has been out...they lost Duarte who was looking solid - etc. Sands has really stepped up and filled the Pagan role. They seem to have a lot of options at AAA to rotate as needed. I think we might possibly have more complaints about how the bullpen is used this year vs. the actual players themselves. Lots of good arms in the system.

Personally, I would not be in any hurry to demote anyone for Topa (I see others have already mentioned this). I tend to look at Topa's season last year as an outlier. I don't see anything in his career (MLB or Minors) that would indicate he's anything special. It's only been two appearances at St. Paul. He has an ERA of 9.00 and a WHIP of 2.00. But even more concerning (to me anyway) is that his velocity looks like it's stuck in the low 90's. Last season he was averaging over 95. From glancing at pitch logs, he's struggling to hit 93 right now. I think there are better options than him right now. Why demote guys who are getting it done to make room for Topa?

A lot more fun to watch these guys lately. Martin did fine in his first taste of MLB. Now he needs to go back and dominate AAA. He'll be back. But hopefully we can keep this momentum going and get on a little run now with guys finally getting healthy.

I think the other guy hit on it. We've created athletic freaks of nature that are bigger/faster than ever so it would make sense that it leads to more injuries. Example: 24 year old Royce Lewis blowing out his quad just running the bases. I'm 100% confident that I (a middle aged man in slightly above average shape) could run the bases without blowing out anything. But I couldn't do as fast he does - that's for sure. It's become a trade off. But where the advancements come in is when you think of the surgeries and recoveries now. Example, Adrian Peterson blew out his knee and was back running for 1,000 yards the next season. Back in the 70/80's those injuries were career ending. Same with Tommy John surgery. It's like getting your tonsils taken out now - no big deal. Most guys come back better than ever where as before they'd be washed up. It's amazing.

This is where my head is at. Ideally, you'd have an established pecking order of guys in reserve (like we had last season). But we don't have anything close to that right now (aside from SWR). So you just have to run with whomever is throwing it best at the moment. It shouldn't be hard to improve upon what we've gotten from Varland so far this season as a starter. You have to have accountability. If a guy isn't getting it done - give someone else a shot.

I personally think it's time to move on from Santana. But the problem lies in who do you replace him with? We just don't have a ton of guys earning more ABs in the system right now. Most likely as guys start coming back from injury - Santana will be gone (barring an unforeseen turnaround in his hitting).