Earlier, in Part 1 of this essay, we took a trip down Memory Lane back in to last offseason and through spring training and discussed some of the decisions made by Bill Smith and Ron Gardenhire as they constructed the roster that the Twins would start the season with.
In essence, the Twins started the season with six starting pitchers that they felt pretty good about, a bullpen that was missing its anchor in Joe Nathan, but was otherwise solid, an improved starting line up and a bench with some speed and one very dangerous bat. The decision to start the year with Valencia and Tolbert in Rochester and Casilla with the Twins has resulted in all three of them being available to make significant contributions when the starting infielders went down.
Mean⦠and not altogether accurate. Keep in mind, this is the same Jim Thome that mlb. So, Thome, in the twilight of a career that should land him in the Hall of Fame, will be used mostly as a late-inning pinch-hitter. Or it could be a swan song, his final season. In the second half of the season, Thome has hit for a. So yes, decisions to sign Hudson and Thome and to keep Casilla to start the season have proved to be huge. Yes, the Twins have been without the services of Joe Nathan.
But they have three pitchers who have racked up over 20 saves each this season though obviously not all for the Twins. Jon Rauch did well filling in at the back end of the bullpen during the first half of the season. When he started to show some signs of faltering, the Twins traded for Matt Capps.
Then just for good measure and to have a shut down arm against lefty hitters , Smith went and got Angels closer Brian Fuentes. So the Twins replaced Nathan with three closers⦠and yet none of them has been their best relief pitcher this year. That would have to be Jesse Crain the same Jesse Crain who was rumored to be a non-tender candidate in December , who recovered from a shaky start to the season to become virtually unhittable for the past few months.
