In figuring out the end of the Twins bullpen, some people think  that Philip Humber has the inside track mostly because he is out of options and would have to clear waivers before being sent back to the minors. Of course, this was the prevailing wisdom a couple of years back when J.D. Durbin was in such a battle and ended up getting cut, claimed and sent on an unfortunate walkabout before ending up in the Phillies organization. (For those of you who think the Twins should have been more patient with Durbin, he spent a big chunk of ‘08 at Philadelphia’s Class AAA team, where he managed an 0-7 record and 9.75 ERA. Another lesson: Be careful when you anoint your bad self “The Real Deal.”)

The Humber thing comes up because in Thursday’s 10-4 victory over the Reds, Cincinnati scored all of its runs in the one inning when Humber pitched. He allowed four hits and hit a batter nefore escaping. Now one bad performance does not ruin a spring, of course, but the notion of the Twins keeping Humber on the roster over R.A. Dickey, Jose Mijares or anyone else simply because of the option situation seems silly and short-sighted.

(Time out: If talk about options makes you feel knowledge weak, here’s a primer that can help decipher the subject and put you on equal footing with your baseball geeky friends.)

Yes, the front office would like Humber to step up because he was one of the pitchers it acquired in the Santana deal. But does management really want to put the Twins in a lesser position on the field out of that kind of vanity. I don’t think so. The option situation would be one factor but would only come into play in an “all thing being equal” scenario. Carlos Gomez isn’t going to get 500 at-bats in an outfield with four potential starters simply because he was part of the haul. In fact, if you read the transcript of Joe C.’s live chat from Thursday, he’s currently betting on a Young-Span-Cuddyer starting outfield.

The tease on Dickey, I suspect, is his performance in relief last year. Despite his weak overall numbers, he had a 2.00 ERA in 36 innings of relief, during which he allowed only 40 runners to reach base.  The idea of a knuckleballer bridging the gap between a starter and the hard-throwing bullpen crew, as pointed out by commenters here, holds intrigue.

Whatever the case, I’d advise against getting hugely hung up on options as spring training plays out and decisions are made.

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Two notes I pass on without  with minimal comment:

1. Telly Hughes is going to Milwaukee. Good luck with that, Brewers.

2. Johan Santana is missing his start today with a tender elbow. Good luck with that, Mets.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:18 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.