Wednesday,
December 15, 2010
Carlos Gutierrez Discusses Bullpen
Good morning,
Twins Fans! I was up early this morning and finished up the first draft of my
Twins Prospect article that will be in the Twins 2011 Annual, by the Maple
Street Press and TwinsCentric, which will be
available in newstands and online in February. Today,
I just want to post some Twins notes that I’ve got running through my head.
What Twins topics are on your mind. Feel free to
discuss our favorite team here.
SethSpeaks.net
Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast
On last
night’s Twins podcast, I was joined by two Twins minor league pitching
prospects. Right-hander Carlos Gutierrez and left-hander Tony
Davis joined the podcast, and it was fun to talk to them. Gutierrez
talked about his season, starting and pitching out of the bullpen, the Arizona
Fall League, his pitches and much more. Davis told us about his high school and
college career, getting drafted by the Twins and his development over his two
seasons with the Twins. In the final ten or fifteen minutes, we talked with Fanatic Jack about
some Twins offseason topics. It was a fun show, so hopefully you will listen
and enjoy it. Please also note that I have changed the time of the show to
Tuesday nights at 9:00 central time (instead of 10), so hopefully more people
will be able to listen live and comment or call in.
GUTIERREZ
ON BULLPEN
On the podcast
last night, Carlos Gutierrez and I spent quite a bit of
time discussing his thoughts on pitching in the bullpen, as opposed to
starting. The discussion was really interesting and I would encourage people to
listen to it, in full, as there were several other topics discussed as well.
At the Winter
Meetings, the Star Tribune’s LaVelle E. Neal asked
Twins GM Bill Smith if Gutierrez would stay in the bullpen or still might
start, and of course, Smith said nothing, stating that it was up to the coaches
to determine. I thought it would be interesting to get the opinions of
Gutierrez himself on what he would like to do. Here are some excerpts from the
discussion:
Gutierrez: “after the All Star break, I got moved to the bullpen, and
that’s where I felt at home.”
Gutierrez: “the stuff I was working on as a starter was good, working on
secondary pitches. It’s all going to help me while in the bullpen.”
Gutierrez: “Nobody has actually come out and told me straight to my face
that ‘you’re going to the bullpen for good,” but
that’s what’s going around.”
Gutierrez: “ever since I’ve been drafted, the final product everybody
wanted was in the bullpen.”
Gutierrez: “The bullpen’s worked out pretty good and that’s the way we’re
going now.”
Gutierrez: “Definitely. I’d do anything they want me to do, but that’s
(bullpen) where I had my success in the past and where I had my success this
year. So we’ll see where that takes us.”
Gutierrez: “(as a) reliever, you’ve got to be ready to go out every day. I kind of like that better. You can get roughed up one day
and you get put out there the next day and put the past behind you faster, so
in that sense, I like relieving better, as opposed to starting.”
Gutierrez: “I do like coming into an inning and getting out of somebody
else’s mess.”
Gutierrez: “being a ground ball pitcher, <…>getting a DP (double
play) and getting out of an inning is great.”
Sounds like a
guy who knows what he would like to do, but is willing to continue starting if
that’s what the organization deems appropriate for his development. However,
his future definitely appears to be in the bullpen. These quotes were a small
piece of the interview. We also talked a lot about what he throws, pitching in
the Arizona Fall League, his brother being drafted (twice) and signing with the
Twins, and his plan for getting ready for the 2011 season. To listen to the
whole show, click
here.
TWINS SIGN MORE
MINOR LEAGUE VETERANS
On Monday, the
Twins and Rochester Red Wings announced six more minor league signings. I
actually tweeted this on Monday afternoon. (For those of you
who aren’t following me on
Twitter, consider it. I post there more often just because
it’s easy. News like this is easy to tweet in 15 seconds and then blog when I
have time. To follow me on Twitter, click here.) This has
definitely been a theme this offseason. The Twins are trying to give the fans
in Rochester a winning product, something that they didn’t do last year. They
previously had signed the likes of Jeff Bailey, Chase Lambin
and Yorman Bazardo. Here
are some quick blurbs on the six guys that the Twins signed (or at least
announced signing) this week:
Rochester and
New Britain were really bad last year. The Twins clearly have made an attempt
to improve those rosters. I also think it is an indictment on some of the Twins
prospects at those levels. Maybe they didn’t advance as quickly or as well as
the Twins had hoped. Signing veterans is a good way to keep your prospects from
being pushed too quickly as well. Guys like Kyle Gibson and David Bromberg and
Ben Revere’s careers and path won’t be affected by these signings. Last year, Deolis Guerra was pitching really well for the New Britain Rockcats. Unfortunately, he needed to be promoted to
Rochester for a few starts. It went poorly and when he returned to Double-A, he
never regained his stuff. Signing veterans keeps that from happening. None of
these six players will likely contribute much to the Twins, if anything at all,
but they can help the affiliates and help the prospects from moving too
quickly.
PAVANO WATCH
Now that Cliff
Lee is signed, I would imagine that Carl Pavano will
want to sign relatively quickly. Obviously a team like the Rangers who went
all-in on Lee and lost could now turn to Pavano. My
guess is that Pavano will have some official offers
within the next two or three days, and hopefully he will make a decision by the
end of the week, or at least before Christmas.
Pavano was held up by Cliff Lee’s decision. The Twins have been held up to some
degree by Carl Pavano’s decision. I sense, maybe
fear, that the Twins will be the team that Pavano
signs with in the end. That isn’t to say that I think signing Pavano is a bad thing. I’ve said since the middle of the
summer that I would offer him a 2 year, $18 million contract, and include an
option if needed. My fear is that what he did in 2010 is his peak. He had a
great year. It would be hard to replace his 221 innings last year. I’d love to
get draft picks, but if Pavano is brought back at a reasonable
contract (length and years), I won’t be upset.
THOME TALK
There are some
rumors that Thome is looking for a two-year contract,
as he should be. And the Twins have given no doubt that they would love to have
him back. I know some people want to combine the two topics and say that the
Twins and Thome are close to a two-year deal. I have
not heard that at all. As for my thoughts on Thome,
sure, I’d like to see him come back (for one year). Great
guy. Great clubhouse presence. Great power hitter. Approaching 600 home
runs. I would be concerned if the dollars are too high though. If Justin
Morneau is back and healthy, and Jason Kubel and Michael Cuddyer play
like they can, Thome will be on the bench, in the
role he was signed for last year. If that’s the case, I think a right-handed
bat might make more sense. Of course, the Twins could trade someone like Kubel if they decide to bring back Thome,
I guess. I wouldn’t. The Twins bench right now would be Drew Butera, Jason Repko, Matt Tolbert
and one more spot. I like Thome, but the bench has
not improved.
TWINS
TALK
And that’s my
biggest point on resigning Pavano and/or Thome. We want the team to be better, and signing them does
not make them better. It makes them the same, assuming they play like they did last
year, which I think is a stretch. To this point, the Twins have added Nishioka and a bunch of minor league veterans while losing
JJ Hardy, Orlando Hudson and most of their bullpen.
My biggest point
is that there are still two months until pitchers and catchers report, and we
don’t know how all of this will play out. Pavano’s
decision is really the first step to all of that. What will happen after that
decision, none of us know. But as of right now, it’s hard for the most
optimistic of Twins bloggers to be to
excited about the Twins offseason. If the Twins sign Jose Veras
and Hideki Okajima in the next week, maybe they are
able to bring back Matt Guerrier, I’ll be happy. I
would never advocate making a move just to make a move. That’s worse than not
making a move at all. The Twins have a very good team as is, but there are
areas that can certainly be improved.
Finally, I
really believe it is a matter of when the Twins sign Tsuyoshi Nishioka. They have until December 26 and negotiations
hardly seem contentious.
So there you
have it, a lot of Twins information and thoughts. I’d be happy to hear your
thoughts, opinions or ideas for the Twins. Thanks for reading!
Please feel free to Comment
in the Comment section.