Pitching Perspectives (4/27-5/3)
By Wally Fish
The Twins finished the week with a 3-3 record putting them at 12-13 on the season. They remain in 4th place in the division.
Minnesota
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
PC
ERA
WHIP
Scott Baker
6.0
6
4
4
1
7
0
99
6.0
5
5
5
1
4
1
104
6.75
1.08
Francisco Liriano
6.2
7
2
2
2
3
0
96
2.70
1.35
Nick Blackburn
7.0
8
2
2
1
3
0
104
2.57
1.29
Kevin Slowey
5.0
8
5
5
0
4
0
76
9.00
1.60
Glen Perkins
6.0
10
5
5
0
4
1
84
7.50
1.67
Totals:
36.2
44
23
23
5
25
2
5.64
1.34
Rotation Assessment:
Week 1: 5.40 ERA and 1.34 WHIP
Week 2: 4.23 ERA and 1.32 WHIP
Week 3: 5.96 ERA and 1.46 WHIP
The good news is that the Twins rotation only walked 5 batters in 36.2 innings. The bad news is they allowed more than a hit per inning. Baker looks like he is slowly working back into form and is surrendering far fewer long balls than he did his 1st two starts of the season. Liriano also looks like he is starting to get things straightened out, but the strikeouts are still missing from his game. Blackburn had his 2nd good start in a row, but figures to be up and down all season since he pitches to contact and lacks strikeout stuff. Slowey followed up his 2 solid starts with another clunker, while Glen Perkins has his 2nd straight clunker after 3 solid outings.
Three out of four weeks the rotation’s ERA has been well above 5.00. Maybe I am overly optimistic about their capabilities as a group, but I am still confident they will begin stringing together quality starts in bunches. What the bullpen does in those games is an entirely different matter. The entire team isn’t clicking yet, but they will. Fortunately it looks like they will be able to stay within a few games of 1st place just by playing 0.500 baseball.
The Bullpen:
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
HR
ERA
WHIP
Luis Ayala (R)
3.1
5
3
2
1
1
0
5.41
1.80
Craig Breslow (L)
1.1
1
3
3
4
1
0
20.30
3.76
R.A. Dickey (R)
4.2
7
4
4
4
2
1
7.71
2.36
Matt Guerrier (R)
3.1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0.00
0.30
Jose Mijares (L)
2.2
1
0
0
1
6
0
0.00
0.75
Juan Morillo (R)
1.0
1
1
1
0
0
1
9.00
1.00
Joe Nathan (R)
3.0
4
1
1
1
1
1
3.00
1.67
Totals:
19.1
19
12
11
12
11
3
5.12
1.60
Week 1: 4.66 ERA and 1.24 WHIP
Week 2: 9.30 ERA and 2.07 WHIP
Week 3: 3.08 ERA and 1.29 WHIP
Guerrier, Mijares and Nathan are the only 3 reliable options in the bullpen. Mijares is currently the only effective strikeout reliever. Jesse Crain returned from the DL yesterday which should help things if he really is healthy and ready to go. The starting rotation needs to start pitching deeper into games to lessen the workload of the bullpen and limit the appearances of Ayala, Breslow and Dickey. Issuing 5.59 BB/9 is a recipe for disaster and a long summer regardless of what the rotation and offense ends up doing. There are a lot of issues to resolve with this group and I don’t know if guys like Ayala and Dickey are capable of significant improvement.