Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

The Minnesota Twins officially declined RHP Scott Baker‘s club option.  The deadline for option decisions is three days after the World Series, and no one is surprised the move was made relatively quickly.  Baker and Twins GM Terry Ryan have expressed mutual interest in Baker returning to the Twins, so it seems that terms will be the biggest question.  Baker was set to undergo tendon surgery in early April, and woke up to find out the surgery was season-ending Tommy John surgery.  While his injury history means the Twins are unlikely to offer Baker big money up front, a more modest salary with significant bonuses and incentives for performance is a more realistic offer.  Drafted by the Twins in 2003, it’s the only organization the pitcher has known, and he may appreciate the comfort of the familiar as he tests out his post-surgery arm.

Recently, the news broke that RHP P.J. Walters elected free agency after the Twins outrighted him to the Rochester Redwings last week.  In a late breaking report, the Twins and Walters have agreed to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to spring training in 2013:

The #MNTwins agreed to terms with P.J. Walters on a minor league deal with a major league invite.

— Dustin Morse (@Twins_morsecode) October 29, 2012

With only Scott Diamond a lock in the 2013 rotation, Walters has another shot at joining the big club next year.  The 27-year-old posted a 5.69 ERA in 61.2 IP in 12 games last year.  He has 37 major league appearances in his career, and he has played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays in since his debut in 2009.

Nick Blackburn, who is signed with the Twins through 2013, struggled this year.  He ended the season with a 7.39 ERA and a 4-9 record.  He is certainly hoping that some bone chips contributed to his struggles.

Also, #MNTwins RH Nick Blackburn had arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow last Thursday. Team expects him 100% by spring training.

— JoeChristensen (@JoeCStrib) October 29, 2012

The RH pitcher has never ended a season with an ERA below 4.0 or a won more games than he lost.  Blackburn is not currently on the Twins 40-man Roster, but will certainly be pitching for a chance to return as a starter, if his recovery proceeds as expected.  Whether the Twins should add him to the roster as 2013 rolls around is certainly a debatable point.  If Baker, Blackburn, or Walters end up in the rotation, fans might legitimately question whether the Twins are making changes that will have an impact in 2013 or if the team is simply rearranging the furniture.

Deduno dedevastated the Seattle lineup last night. Photo by Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

Samuel Deduno pitched incredibly well last night. He dealt seven spectacular innings against the Mariners en route to a 10-0 Twins victory. It was exactly the kind of starting pitching effort that the Twins have cried out for all year long. Unlike a typical Twins’ start, Deduno’s did not result in a large number of runs being scored or an even higher number of hits. In fact, Deduno allowed a grand total of zero runs, and only two Mariners recorded hits. He also struck out nine batters and, even more surprisingly, walked none. We’ve seen flashes of brilliant “stuff” from Deduno before, but this is the first time that his fluttery fastball and evil curveball have actually produced swings and misses on a regular basis.

With his sixth quality start out of 10, Deduno has officially proven that he deserves at least a shot to compete for a rotation spot next year. That said, we shouldn’t get too excited; he was, after all, facing the Mariners. Yes, the M’s have been playing well lately, but they are still a truly terrible hitting club. It’ll be interesting to see if Deduno can follow this start up with another good one.

In other news, Twins owner Jim Pohlad gave an interview to ESPN 1500 last week, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, it’s worth doing so. Pohlad addressed quite a few big picture issues, including how he plans to keep the Twins out of a permanent spiral of losing and his desire to keep Terry Ryan around. But the most interesting tidbit as far as I’m concerned is his comment about manager Ron Gardenhire’s future. When asked if Gardenhire’s job is in jeopardy:

“Pohlad said he “can’t foresee” a managerial change at this particular moment, but he also acknowledged he couldn’t foresee Smith losing his job at this time last year.”

If you take him at his word, it sounds positive for Gardenhire, but I think it’s actually a pretty tepid defense of the Twins’ manager. For one thing, general managers and owners almost never say right out that they plan to fire their manager during the season (for good reason; it would create an awful distraction, and the manager would have very little incentive to want to manage the rest of the season). For another thing, his phrasing was quite vague, and comparing Gardenhire’s situation to Smith’s is ominous at best. As I noted last week, I think a managerial change would be good for this club. Replacing Gardenhire probably would not have the slightest effect on the team’s win-loss record, but it would signal a desire for change, and it could give fans a much needed incentive to buy tickets.

On the lighter side, I invite you to take a look at Nick Blackburn‘s Wikipedia page. Most of it is standard Wikipedia stuff, and pretty accurate. You get a quick description of his early life and college pitching, and a season-by-season summary of Blackburn’s career with the Twins. And then there’s the last section of the page, which talks about Blackburn’s pitching style. That’s where I found this gem that nearly made me spit out my coffee:

“When pitching at his best, he can locate all five of his pitches for strikes, which can make him nearly unhittable”

Nearly unhittable? You really have to wonder if the person who wrote that has ever seen Blackburn pitch. Either that, or none of us have seen Blackburn’s best before, which makes me a little sad. I’m sorry we missed out on the unhittable Blackburn all these years. As it is, Blackburn’s best year in MLB was 2009, when he posted a respectable 4.03 ERA and won 11 games. He was a perfectly serviceable starter, but still completely hittable, allowing an AL-high 240 hits. Blackburn at his best got a ton of groundball outs and a few timely double plays, but even then his style led to a fair number of hits.

If any of you reading this have some extra time on your hands, you should try to see what other completely made-up Twins-related information you can get past the Wikipedia folks. Perhaps someone can add a blurb about Drew Butera‘s quest for the AL Batting Title or former Twin Delmon Young‘s charity work to support religious tolerance.

All things considered, Nick Blackburn has had a pretty good career. Photo by Steven Bisig-US PRESSWIRE

The Minnesota Twins have outrighted Nick Blackburn to Rochester, meaning that he is no longer on the team’s 40 man roster and thus unlikely to return to Minnesota this season. Though Blackburn is signed through 2013, this development also casts doubt on whether he’ll pitch for the Twins next year. This is definitely the correct move for the team.

Computer savvy Twins fans reacted the way you’d expect if the internet had existed the day Hitler died. “It’s a glorious day in Twins Territory!” was one such comment on the Star Tribune’s story. Many Twitter users expressed a similar degree of enthusiasm. It’s hard to blame any Twins fan for applauding this move. As I noted a few weeks ago, Blackburn’s stats reveal him to be one of the worst pitchers in Major League Baseball over the last few seasons, and this year his 7.39 ERA ties him with Jim Deshaies for the worst single-season ERA by any Twins starter (minimum 90 innings pitched).

Still, I cannot bring myself to share in the joy. The Twins made the right baseball move; if anything, they should have cut ties with Blackburn two months (or two years) ago. But I’m also saddened to see Blackburn dropped because I respect what he accomplished as a player.

Nick Blackburn was never blessed with extraordinary pitching talent, at least not compared to other Major Leaguers. His fastball was never particularly fast, and his secondary pitches have never been deceptive enough to make hitters swing and miss. He has relied on sheer hard work and tenacity his whole career. On draft day in 2001, the Twins waited until the 29^th Round to select Blackburn – exactly 28 rounds after Joe Mauer got the call. 856 other men were drafted before Blackburn, but unlike the vast majority of them, Blackburn made it to the Show. It took him six years, but he got there.

Once he did, Blackburn actually put together a couple of solid seasons. Between 2008 and 2009, Blackburn was an important anchor in the Twins’ starting rotation. He won 11 games each year and posted a 4.05 and a 4.03 ERA, which was slightly above the league average. His FIP numbers were 4.40 and 4.37 respectively, hardly Cy Young material, but far better than you’d expect from a 29^th round pick.

And who can forget the AL Central tie-breaker in ’08? To use the Twins vernacular, Blackburn “battled his tail off” against the White Sox. He was essentially a rookie pitcher thrust into the biggest game of his life, and the only run he allowed was a solo shot to guaranteed future Hall of Famer Jim Thome. Already by that time, Blackburn had contributed to the team far more than the Twins could ever have expected from him. An afterthought draft pick became a solid #4 starter with flashes of dominance.

Of course, after his solid 2009 campaign, things went downhill. Even though Blackburn had all of his arbitration years remaining, the Twins decided to offer him a long term contract. We shouldn’t be upset that Blackburn signed that deal (only a fool would have turned it down); instead, we should hold it against the Twins for making that foolish business decision. If Blackburn hadn’t been signed to such a lengthy deal, perhaps the Twins would have released him long ago instead of cruelly continuing to put him on the mound every fifth day to give up more hits.

In short, let’s not be mad at Blackburn. Let’s instead celebrate his early successes and blame the Twins for allowing three years of horror to obscure them.