Twins send another S.O.S. for pitching help
Posted on August 1st, 2009 – 11:21 PMBy Joe Christensen
All I could think about tonight was how much the Twins need pitching reinforcements. They can’t stick with this rotation — Blackburn, Swarzak, Perkins, Baker, Liriano — and expect the sort of consistency it takes to make the playoffs.
There are going to be some serious ups and downs, as Swarzak gave them in these last two starts against the Angels. And if the fourth best relief options are Bobby Keppel or this version of Jesse Crain, the Twins are in for a long two months.
Besides trading for shortstop Orlando Cabrera, the Twins spent much of their pre-July 31 efforts trying to land a pitcher — starter or relief.
“There were very few relievers who got traded this week,” GM Bill Smith noted. “I won’t claim this, I read this the other day: Every team with a reliever was trying to turn a Larry Anderson into a Jeff Bagwell.”
The Twins remain optimistic they can land a pitcher this month. Players must be placed on waivers to get traded, but several teams are crunched financially, and many expect the high-salary, lower-yield performers to get through. Roy Halladay won’t clear, for example, but countless others will.
Two names to think about include Arizona’s Jon Garland and Doug Davis. Others include San Diego’s Kevin Correia and Seattle’s Miguel Batista. It doesn’t have to be a sexy addition, just an experienced pitcher who can give the Twins more consistency and depth.
There are other teams that needed pitching this week and didn’t get it. The Tigers and White Sox got it, but the Yankees and Angels didn’t.
The Angels pursued Roy Halladay and Heath Bell, and came up empty. Their manager, Mike Scioscia, gave a telling quote: “The bottom line out of all of this is that as an organization if you aren’t developing your own pitching, you’re in trouble. Whether it’s starting pitching or relief pitching, it’s a precious commodity.”
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