So reports Le Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
There should be no surprise that Duensing was optioned to AAA, since he was essentially the only bullpen guy with options left. I'm also not terribly convinced he's any better than replacement level.
Viewing tip: If you're trying to spot Baker on the field tonight, he'll be wearing number 42.
Most enlightening paragraph of LEN3's report:
To make room, the Twins optioned lefthander Brian Duensing to Class AAA Rochester. The Twins will go with Craig Breslow as their only lefty reliever for now. Manager Ron Gardenhire said knuckleballer R.A. Dickey could be used against righthanded and lefthanded batters.
Really? I mean, really? You can use a righthanded pitcher against both righthanded and lefthanded batters? Amazing! It's good to know that we have two relief pitchers who can be used against lefthanded batters. I guess if we use both of them up and a lefthanded batter comes to the plate we just forfeit.
Don't forget that they have one position player, Denard Span, who throws with his left arm. Clearly that would be a better option than forfeiting or allowing a righthanded pitcher to face a lefthanded batter. As a bonus, it would also help alleviate the logjam in the OF.
I thought the same thing, except regarding a first baseman.
Sadly, Morneau just bats left, he's not a true lefty (ditto for the catcher extraordinare)
Well, that explains why I thought the same thing, but didn't say it.
how many pitchers have we carried in the past few years only because they've been out of options? i'm not saying get rid of humber, but it's a silly to base our decisions on that than say, merit.
I understand what you're saying, but at the same time, you do have to take the options into consideration. It's basically short-term versus long-term benefit. You'd hate to lose the next Johan Santana just because you wanted to keep Luis Ayala around for a few months, for example. That's not to say Humber is going to be Johan Santana, just that you do have to look at the future, rather than just who you think is better right now.
i completely agree, however, if you think about the past few years, there's always been one, sometimes two guys in the bullpen that are there specifically because they're out of options. doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
I guess it goes to show that the options thing works. The idea is that teams aren't able to stash guys at AAA for added depth without having to pay them and/or give them their shot at showing they can play at the big league level.
Right now we're talking about Duensing vs. Humber. Is there really a difference? At least Gardy won't be tempted to put Duensing out there in a higher leverage situation just because he's left-handed.
I think part of that is organizational philosophy. The Twins tend to keep pitchers in the minors longer than some clubs. They want to make sure they are as ready as they can get before bringing them up to the bigs, and that often means using up their options.
None of the pitchers in AAA are better options than the pitchers currently on the MLB roster. In this case, the options issue just makes for a convenient way to sort through a bunch of equivalent pitchers.
Manager Ron Gardenhire said knuckleballer R.A. Dickey could be used against righthanded and lefthanded batters.
aaaaand that makes him too valuable to start, right?
The season is young, but already we are building an impressive new list of snark catch phrases. Too bad we are living in a <2008>post-snark world</2008>.
Gardenhire has a surprisingly stringent idea of what he "can" and "can't" do in his job. I wonder if he realizes his speech displays very little confidence in the versatility of his players.