Remembering my Top-5 Minnesota Twins moments for 2018
By Nate Palmer
No. 2 Nailing the Oliver Drake take
I am about a year and a half into this regular blogging adventure. While I hope that I have come a long way in not only my writing but also my ability to form baseball opinions I still look to others with great hope that I will someday evaluate the game as well as they do. With that said, part of my 2018 greatest moments includes a chance for me to just give myself a bit of an “atta boy!”
When the Twins claimed Oliver Drake this past summer it just seemed like a strange move at first. The Twins were losing a lot of games and it wasn’t like a sneaky veteran waiver wire claim was going to push them into the playoffs. The Twins also had plenty of young bullpen arms that needed a look in the minors, namely Alan Busenitz.
After the announcement was made I turned to write up the move and was completely ready to begin blasting the Twins front office for a meaningless move. But then I began to dig into Drake’s Baseball Reference page and saw some encouraging signs and thought maybe this just might work. From that research, I wrote this.
While Drake has continued to bounce on and off of rosters this offseason, he proved he can hold his own in an MLB bullpen. Drake logged 20.1 innings, a 2.21 ERA, and a 9.7 K/9 with his funky straight over the top delivery. Hopefully, he can catch on somewhere this offseason.