The Twins’ 2009 rotation: Right here. Right now.
Posted on February 23rd, 2009 – 11:59 PMBy La Velle
A member of the Twins’ coaching staff has confirmed the regular season rotation.
RHP Scott Baker
LHP Francisco Liriano
RHP Kevin Slowey
LHP Glen Perkins
RHP Nick Blackburn
Perk in front of Blackie? Remember that Blackburn had offseason knee surgery. It looks like they want to be careful with him early. Rotations always can change.
Good Night……
Update: I spoke with Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson this morning. The rotation is set up to go R-L-R-L-R, not because of concerns about Blackburn’s recovery from surgery. That is all….
35 Responses to "The Twins’ 2009 rotation: Right here. Right now."
Looks like a winner
WHO is in the rotation matters a whole lot more than WHAT ORDER they pitch.
Gardy said that a while ago too…
but, La Velle, what concerns me is that I did not hear a single thing from Perkins about working in the off-season trying to improve his stuff (which is pretty mediocre by any count). From this far (30,000 feet away) he looks like Buscher who came at the camp with a chip on his shoulder and couldn’t understand why he would not be handed a starting job.
I get that Perk is a local boy who went to the local big U and was drafted in the first round by the home team, but it’s about time that honeymoon is over and he actually gets what is holding him back and works on it.
The problem with Perkins is not what he’s working toward or not, it’s more so his inability to rely on his changeup or curve. He was basically a fastball - slider pitcher last year would leave his fastball up over the plate after the 5th inning. Those first 5 innings were money though! So don’t get too uppity. Perkins is more effective than Blackburn.
z
[…] Twins Insider – […]
Z,
Perkins did not have a slider before last season. Last season he threw it about 7% of the time (and it was bad.) Nothing to rely there. His most effective pitch was his four-seamer and it was effective only when he located it in any place but the middle of the plate. He has to develop those secondary pitches and the fact that he never acknowledged that he worked on anything this off-season (other than partying) bothers me.
I agree that the order of the rotation doesn’t matter that much, but its something to talk about. I’ve read/heard a lot about going RLRLR being the best for the rotation. I’m not sure that I agree. I think when teams have platoons, or just when they like to give certain lefties a day off against a lefty, etc. it can cause more problems to see RRR or LLL than to see them every other. Seeing just two lefties in a row probably won’t cause many problems for teams, but it does make them choose which lefty they’ll sit certain guys against.
Like I said, none of this is really a big deal, but I’d like to hear if people agree that putting the lefties together would be more effective than spreading them out. (Of course I’m ignoring the fact that putting the lefties together would put Perkins up further or liriano back further in the rotation)
What is the status of Ex-Twin pitcher Scott Erickson who supposedly was attempting a comeback with Twin’s down in FLA?? Has anyone seen him there???
Thanks La Velle, I always check your blog first thing in the morning before I go to work. Good morning everyone. Is Blackburn fully recovered?
I think it’s more that they wanted to go R-L-R-L-R
Blackburn and Perkins overachieved last year and it wasn’t that good, they should’ve been dealt this offseason before their value plummets.
I’m going to have to disagree with that Dan. Twins were right not to move any of the young arms THIS off season. They will know more after this season
I played Twins celiberty golf on Thurs.
Great fun and all Twins were a class group. We were fortunate to play with a
very nice young player,Anthony Swarzak.
He seems to have a great attitude, and training practice. The guys I played with were impressed with him, we wish him the best.
The problem is not going to be what kind of off-season Perkins had. It’s what kind of competition for his spot in the rotation do the Twins have? If Perkins isn’t smart enough to figure out that he needs complementary pitches to his fastball, then he will work his way out of the rotation. I’m sure Anderson sat down with him at the end of last season and asked him to work on certain things. If adding a pitch was needed, then it’s Anderson’s job to tell Perkins to do so. If Perkins didn’t do it, then the Twins should have someone wiating in the wings to step in when Perkins fails. I think Duensing, Humber, Mulvey or others should be ready to go if Perkins can’t or doesn’t want to do what’s necessary to succeed at this level.
yup Thrylos98,
you nailed it. Since you haven’t heard anything about me working on my stuff this offseason, I obviously was out partying it up. To tell the truth, I haven’t picked up a baseball since game 163. My only workout plan was 12 oz. curls, aw who am i kidding, 32 oz curls. That’s how sure of myself, you know what a cocky bastard I am. I’m actually upset that I don’t get the opening day start, I mean damn, I was 12-4 last year, who can touch me. I’m gonna be the next Santana by spending the offseason pounding some brews and laying some wood. Oh yeah the Perkmiester is in the House!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MMMmmmm….Forgot about Blackburn’s knee surgery.
Whelp, luckily they got some depth in case he goes down at some point with Humber, Dickey, etc.
I’m kinda intrigued by what Humber can do and what his role will be. I hope it’s not a situation where they simply let him go to get snatched up by someone else.
A lot of you folks are out of you mind. Blackburn has some really nasty sh**, and i think he proved himself in game 163 just how effective he can be. Perkins strikeout pitch is a low and away change. He has also shown what he can do if he keeps his stamina high. I think, barring injuries, we have an amazing season to look forward to. With the run support we have added, I think we could see a couple 20 game winners with the others not far behind.
Hey Ross,
Did Swarzak smoke you up?
t98,
“I did not hear a single thing from Perkins about working in the off-season”
I guess they forgot to notify all the insignificant lackeys about what the players were doing in the off season.
You were left off the distribution list for that memo, because you serve no useful purpose to the Twins, their fans, or their blog.
I hope that explains your lack of notification.
I’m not worried about Blackburn for this season unless his knee gives him some trouble. I do have concerns with Perkins, eventhough I love that he isn’t afraid to pitch inside. That being said he has to be able to switch up his pitches and move his location in order to be effective after 5 innings. In how many games last year did he get smacked after the 5th - quite a few.
Regardless of Blackburn’s health, the rotation will be changed as the season goes on. Off days alone will end up getting things shuffled around a bit.
“I get that Perk is a local boy who went to the local big U and was drafted in the first round by the home team”
Not a big issue because he went out-of-state (Harvard) to get his PHD.
But, nice job attacking Perkins’ character, when your’s is in question.
it can cause more problems to see RRR or LLL than to see them every other.
Somebody explained this a while back…I wish I could remember who to give credit, but I’ll do my best to paraphrase.
1) Team’s take batting practice before games, and likely do certain changes in their practices to adjust to who’s going to be on the mound.
2) If two similiar types of pitchers are on the mound in a row, they have a chance to get extra “warmup” against the pitcher the night before. Then they go into the next game comfortable with the approach against that type of pitcher. (Example: Facing strikeout type pitchers such as Santana/Liriano b2b in 06)
3) By switching up the types of pitchers night to night, you force the opposing team to have to adust their approach on a nightly basis…and thus have less of a chance to get comfortable in any one set up.
As far as thrylos’s comments regarding Perk:
Weren’t you just a week or so ago calling out Vavra for not catching the “changes” that Young made to his swing during the offseason?
Well gee whiz, maybe you should be calling out Anderson for not getting on Perkins in the offseason to work on some new stuff?
Same thing right? The coach isn’t monitoring his player 24/7…
T,
“Somebody explained this a while back…I wish I could remember who to give credit, but I’ll do my best to paraphrase.”
I may be the un-named.
The paraphrasing was excellent.
If you face two identical SP’s on consecutive days, all the preparation on a pitcher-specific hitting approach against pitcher#1 is useable the next day against pitcher #2.
This includes all the repetitions, muscle memory and lessons learned from the first game.
And all that is all still fresh in the hitters’ minds.
What am I missing about alternating righty-lefty? If you have 3 R and 2 L, you are going to have back-to-back R-R any way you cut it. All this rotation does is move the R-R from games 3-4 to games 5-6. Seems obvious.
The only way it makes sense is early in the year when you are skipping the 5th starter.
Klawitter, the goal is to minimize repetition. The very nature of odd numbers dictates you won’t be able to alternate perfectly.
OK, when you have a 5 man rotation that goes RLRLR you are going to have righties back to back with your 5th and 1st starter. If you put Blackburn 4th and Perkins 5th (RLRRL) you are going to have righties back to back with your 3rd and 4th starter. So either way you are going to have righties back to back. If they feel Blackburn is their better starter, he should be 4th and Perkins 5th.
Maybe it’s set up for revenge. 5th game of the season is at Chicago.
Order does matter…to the players and their agents…when they try to market themselves in free agency.
Perkins is another guy coming off a major injury in 2007, and I think he wore down at the end of 2008, with no experience with the number of major league innings that he threw last year. I think Perkins, Liriano, and Crain will all be better this year, with a full season in 2008 and a normal offseason. As for the rotation, the numbers only matter once, with this group where there is not a lot of difference in performance from 1-5, unless Liriano jumps way out. I don’t see anyone in that rotation that is likely to be skipped with off days, so whatever pitcher is up that day is the new number one guy.
Did Blackout have surgery on the same knee he hurt a couple years ago?
Klawitter,
You’re not the Tom Klawitter who went to Spring Training with the Twins in the mid-eighties are you?
I’m confused. What is the difference between R-L-R-L-R and R-L-R-R-L? If the rotation is a continuous loop, both of them have two righties in a row once per loop.
Blackburn is a sinkerball pitcher who needs an above-average infield in order to be effective. Guess what we have this year that wasn’t there last year?
