Welcome to Twinkie Town, Craig Breslow
by Jon Marthaler
on May 29, 2008 4:15 PM EDT
in News
8 comments
From the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Joe Christensen:
KANSAS CITY, MO. — The Twins have claimed lefthanded pitcher Craig Breslow off waivers from the Cleveland Indians, and he will join his new team in time for Friday’s game against the Yankees, the Twins announced today.
...To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred Pat Neshek (strained elbow) to the 60-day disabled list. They need to make another roster move to make room on the 25-man roster, which will likely involve sending a reliever back to Class AAA Rochester.
Breslow's stats (with Cleveland this year):
Other notes:
- Breslow will turn 28 in August.
- Breslow is almost certainly now the smartest member of the Twins, given that he has a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale.
- The scouting report says his fastball is in the high 80s, with an above-average curve and an average changeup.
- He's not exactly hard on lefties; they have a .746 OPS against him over his career (compared to .705 for righties).
- Before pitching in Cleveland, he appeared for San Diego in 2005 and Boston in 2006.
- He spent all of last season pitching for Pawtucket in Triple-A, where he was 2-3 with a 4.06 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP, and struck out 73 in 68.2 innings.
It remains to be seen who the demoted / released reliever will be. Korecky? Rincon? Bass?
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i say send Bonser Down but thats just me, Dont be surprised to see either rincon or Bass go down, wouldnt surprise me to see the Twins Send down a position player like Howie Clark, who doesnt play at all or Matt Macri.
by Tony_O on
May 29, 2008 4:34 PM EDT
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I thought Bonser was out of options.
Which means he’d have to clear waivers…and I don’t see the Twins taking that chance. I’d wager Bass or Korecky.
by Jesse on
May 29, 2008 5:36 PM EDT
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I hope it's not Korecky
That guy’s played his guts out up here and deserved a couple more weeks in the show.
I’m hoping this means they will release Rincon.
by Neil on
May 29, 2008 4:54 PM EDT
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+1
I think every reliever the Twins have is solid, but I think Korecky is just more trustworthy in pressure situations than anyone else they have besides Nathan. He’s been groomed as a closer and as his confidence grows, he should be the guy to have the ball in the 8th inning sooner or later. He better not be the one to go.
by TMW on
May 29, 2008 5:21 PM EDT
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I hope its Reyes
but its not. Still, I think he’s the weak link in our bullpen. He pitches to one or two batters, usually allows someone on base. I’ve been comfortable with Bass and Korecky, Crain looks good again, Guerrier looks ok and has a track record. Rincon and Reyes just don’t provide me with much confidence that they are helping us win.
by snolls on
May 29, 2008 6:23 PM EDT
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I'm going to defend Reyes
if only because he’s rarely facing more than a batter or two. He doesn’t necessarily have great stuff, but he’s been effective in his role. He still gets a lot of ground balls (although not as many as in years past), hasn’t allowed a home run all year (killer on relief pitchers especially), still doesn’t walk many people (2.4 BB/9) and is stranding more than 76% of his base runners (6% higher than his career average).
If we were forced to start using him to get five, six, seven guys in a row, I’d be less apologetic for him, but that’s not his role. He’s been effective in how he’s been used, even if he doesn’t give us that warm fuzzy feeling we prefer from guys like Nathan or Neshek.
by Jesse on
May 29, 2008 6:53 PM EDT
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I would guess you send down the guy--
—who has allowed 10 earned runs over his last 6 appearances covering 9 1/3 innings.
by Johnny Safron on
May 29, 2008 7:51 PM EDT
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Troubled
Somewhat troubled with all this. The Twins have two real stiffs in the bullpen. Juan Rincon, not worth his millions. And soon to be Boof, who will become the 11th (okay 12th) guy, probably mop-up longman.
Now we have Breslow. I wonder how Marianno Gomez, who ahs been pitching well for Rochester in a simialr role, feels.
Looks like the Twins will have to send down Korecky, who has shown he can stay with the Twins fer sure.
Sadly, the Twins will be forced to cut ties with brian Bass, who just may be picked up by another team for the mop-up role. If not, it just suddenly gets crowded at Rochester (and thusly New Britain). Who disappears at Rochester…Totten? Maybe Gomez has an out if not called up? And who gets pushed back at New Britain…..
I would ratehr see Korecky. The Twins could send Rincon out there and see if anyone grabs him and his salary, If not, you keep him rather than release him and some team picks him for the major league minimum. Gad, the rules.
On the fielding front…Punto comes back and more than likely Macri goes down,a s he has options. If the Twins send down Clark, he might be grabbed by someone else, thus furtehr weakening Rochester for the moment.
Hopefully Casilla stays in the regualr mode at short or second. Rotate Punto/Harris elsewhere.
Sadly, I don’t see Everett coming back until August.
The joys of shuffling players. Boof is still too valuable to release. Rincon is too expensive to trade or release. Bass is a ncie guy who got his break but, seriously, you could replace him with another body easily (and it will probably be Boof).
Korekcy got his big break and now is sent back because of just numbers. Arrgh!
Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!
by rosterman on
May 29, 2008 7:55 PM EDT
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