A post at MLBTR this morning inspired me to examine what has surprised me the most about the Twins this season, the things I wouldn't have predicted in the offseason.

1. Drew Butera being the backup C all year.  In April, because of injury (Jose Morales) and needed seasoning (Wilson Ramos) and Bad Twins Management!1! (Red Dog!) , Butera "won" the backup catcher position (and by won I mean, "by default").  His previous 2 years in the minors were nothing to write home about (~.215/.288/..325).  As a matter of fact, they were pretty bad, hitting wise.  And so we expected Butters to maybe be one of the worst hitters in baseball in a presumed short time in the big leagues.  He hasn't disappointed as his slash of .194/.226/.306 is bottom 10 in the AL. 

But the Twins have this crazy idea that catchers should actually be able to catch.  You know, play defense and call games and stuff.  And by all indications, Butera seems to be excellent in that department.  He's 3rd in the league in Caught Stealing % at 38.7 and he has become the bondservant to the Cy Pavstache.  His exuberance and joy is a beautiful thing to behold.  Surprised he's here, yeah.  But, glad he's here too.

2. Carl Pavano.  The Pavstache has been in the bigs since 1998.  He had one great year in 2004 with the Marlins.  Otherwise, he's had a fairly mediocre MLB career.  I'd hope he'd have a solid year for us, but he's exceeded that expectation and he's been outstanding.  He's 2nd in the AL in wins, 5th in WAR for pitchers, and is 3rd in innings pitched.  His 2 month stretch where he went 10-1 with 4 CG's and 2 Shutouts led us to where we are now. 

3. HR's at cavernous Target Field.  I didn't see this coming.  We play in the bloody Grand Canyon!  Fair, unfair, good, bad...whatever.  Surprising is all.  Our new home is Petco North.

4. Bullpen additions.  You realize we have 79 saves sitting out there in the bullpen?   Yeah, I could see us adding a guy like Flores.  But Capps and Fuentes?  Didn't see that coming.  We got 3 closers and 2 setup guys now.  And really, we needed something more in other departments, like a starting pitcher or a position player to fit somewhere.  But, we got bullpen and more bullpen   At least we've turned games into 4 inning affairs.  Get the starter through 4, then setup setup closer closer closer, Twins win.

5. Jesse Crain.  Sometime in June, Jesse flipped a switch.  He got off the roller coaster of potential and hopped on the teacup ride of awesomeness.  He just started throwing breaking balls first, second and third, and relegated his 95mph fastball to an afterthought.  He comes in, and I'm just surprised it's him doing this.  Guerrier I could see doing this.  Crain, yeah maybe for 10 days, but then he'd have the Crainwreck: 4 batters faced, 4 batters reached, 3 runs scored scoreline and we'd say 'Oh, Jesse' and wonder what might ever be if he figured things out.  Well, he's figured things out, folks.  Woot.

Honorable Mentions: Blackburn demoted, DannyV's year, Jim Thome's year.

Things that haven't surprised me: Twins in first, Span's blahhhh-iness, Delmon's impactfulness, Duensing's year, Rauch losing the closer job, Punto's injuries, Ullger's ineptedness.

On May 3, Michael Cuddyer hit a 3-run HR helping the Twins defeat DET 10-4.

Since then, Cuddyer's come up with runners in scoring position 33 times.  How many run producing hits does he have in those 33 plate appearances?

One.

(Pause for effect) (further pause)

Yes, that's one RBI hit in 33 PA's.  That's a bit of a slump.

Now, I have added some creative license to make it look worse than it is.  One RBI hit in 33 PA's is horrible, but the full breakdown of those PA's probably rise his RISP performance to the level of awful.  Here's the breakdown:

• 33 Plate Appearances with runners in scoring position
• 23 straight up Epic Fails (with 5 K's and 2 GIDP's)
• 1 RBI Double
• 1 bases loaded walk, rbi
• 2 infield groundouts with runner on third, 2 rbi
• 3 walks, no rbi
• 1 intentional walk, no rbi
• 2 singles, no rbi
Sooooo, it's not all horrible. He's had a few "productive" at bats in this stretch, making him 3 for 28 (.107) with 4 RBI.  He's been dropped to 6th in the order with Thome hitting in the 5 spot the last two games.  Hopefully that experiment will continue until he breaks out of it.  And hopefully, Delmon Young won't be the auto-sit when Thome plays as Cuddyer deserves a few of those days off.

I saw the other day that the Braves have decided to retire the number of Tom Glavine.  Good for him and good for them.  The last time the Twins retired a number was in 1997 for Kirby Puckett.  In our history, we've retired the number of 5 players.  In addition to Puckett, we've retired the numbers of Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek.

Let's speculate on who we think will be the next Twin to have their number retired.

Joe Mauer-Well, I don't think it's too early to say that this is probably going to happen, heh.  It won't happen for 15 years or so though, so, who's got a shot before him.

Torii Hunter-doubtful

Brad Radke-Nice career, but not a retired number career.

Tom Kelly-You'd think they would have done it already if they were gonna.

Justin Morneau-Sadly, the last portion of his career will probably be outside MN. 

Ron Gardenhire-Yeah, yeah.  I'll let others elaborate.

OTHER-(insert your speculation here) 

What say you Twinkie Town?

Twins trail 4-2 in the bottom of the 6th.  Slowey just got pulled.  We needs be having a rally.

Let us go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go  go 

My biggest issue with Ron Gardenhire is how he uses his bullpen.  Yes, even more than his love affairs with light hitting utility infielders.  In my opinion, he mismanages it.  Often. 

For some reason, I love the bullpen.  And I love analyzing the decisions made in employing the bullpen.  So, instead of employing selective memory later in the season, here's a real-time effort at dissecting Gardy's use of the Twins 'pen in our quest for World Series excellence.  I'll give a grade, not based on the pitcher's results, but the managerial decision.

Our bullpen to start the season:

Rauch, Guerrier, Mijares, Crain, Neshek, Deunsing, Burnett.

After the jump, game by game...

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In 2004, Johan Santana was the last pitcher to win 20 games for the Twins.  Since 1980, Brad Radke, Scott Erickson and Frankie Viola also hit that magic number.    That's 4 guys in 30 years so we're about due for another one soon.  Do you think any of our current staff will ever win 20 for the club?  Anyone in the minors that you have your eye on?  Or would your answer be Other: currently not in the system.  What say you people?

NYY lead our Boys 6-2 after 5 innings.  Time for the patented 6th inning Twins rally!  We know we're gonna have to outscore 'em, so let's get the train moving.

Duensing is out, Frankie is in.  And CC is still throwing junk for teh Yankees.

Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins Let's go Twins

Let us gogogogogogo

Teams can expand their active rosters today, but the Twins have no immediate plans to promote anyone from Class AAA Rochester.

Infielders Matt Tolbert (knee) and Brian Buscher (thumb) are battling injuries, and Anthony Swarzak gave up eight hits in just 2 1/3 innings Sunday, leaving him with an 10.80 ERA in his two starts since being demoted.

"So really there's no options right now," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Trib

Well that's just silly.  We're fighting for the playoffs here.  Get everybody up  that can help us win games.  None of these guys would be starting or anything; but they would make more bench moves possible.  Callups we can do now:

1. Jason Pridie OF:  We call him up for pinch running.  And as an extra OF glove in case we want to PH for Gomez.  It's a no-brainer.

2. Drew Butera C: Gardy is averse to using Jose Morales in about any situation.  With that 4th string catcher sitting on the bench, that'll allow Morales to get some AB's.  I would expect Butera to get only emergency action in Sept.  But that's Morales' role now and Morales can actually hit.  So get him up here to free up Morales.

3. Steve Tolleson IF: With Buscher and Tolbert hurt and Valencia not yet on the 40-man, bring up Tolleson to allow for more ph'ing for Punto and Casilla.  It also gives him a taste of the bigs.  Hughes or Plouffe would also be a possibility, but get at least one guy up here.

4. Anthony Swarzak P: Call him up.  Put him in the long long man role in the bullpen, pitching innings to save the arms of the other guys if we happen to be in a blowout.  It's crucial we get 1-2 pitchers up for this role. 

5. Others:  Danny Valencia IF--  If he's coming up in later Sept anyway, get him up here now.  40-man adjustment would be needed for him to come up.  Pitcher--wouldn't mind seeing another arm up too.  Perkins got sent to AAA today.  He or Mulvey would be the two possibilities.  Gabino probably has to wait about a week before he can be recalled.

Alot of us are hoping the Twins do something to improve the team before the trade deadline.  Let us look back in Twins history to see what midseason trades we've made.  I'll only list the pre-trade deadline moves, June-July, similar to the period we are in now.

2008: no moves made

2007: traded Luis Castillo to the NYM for Drew Butera and Dustin Martin.

7 games out of first with a record of 54-51, we were sellers here, trading our starting 2B for two minor leaguers who are currently at AAA in the MN system.  OF Martin may develop into an avg OF for MN, whereas Butera's ceiling appears to be a backup MLB catcher, or perpetual AAA'er. We finished 2003 17 games out of first at 79-83.

2006: traded Juan Castro to CIN for Brandon Roberts; traded Kyle Lohse to CIN for Zach Ward.

Again, we were sellers.  Trading a few square pegs for minor leaguers who are still in our system.  OF Roberts is currently looking average at AA for the Twins.  Relief pitcher Ward is in his second season at AA and appears to be struggling.

2005: traded cash to SEA for Bret Boone.

Boone lasted 14 games with MN and was released.

2004: As part of the 4-team Nomar Garciaparra trade, the Twins traded Doug Mientkiewicz away and received Justin Jones from the Cubs.

Again, sellers.  Jones pitched until 2006 in the Twins system before moving on to other teams.

2003: traded Bobby Kielty to TOR for Shannon Stewart and Dave Gassner.

Here's the last trade we've made where we were buyers trying to improve the current team.  We traded a potential piece of the future for an established veteran.  This trade was made at the all-star break with the Twins sitting 4 games under .500 at 44-49, 7.5 games out of first place.  We finished that season 90-72, winning the division before falling to the Yankees in the playoffs.

So you can see that we have to go back to 2003 to find a move made by the Twins intended to improve the team in it's current season.   Otherwise we've been sellers.  No player we've aquired has made it to the big club yet, with only one looking like he has any kind of MLB potential.