Random Stuff From The Weekend In Milwaukee

You’d sure like to see your team hold a 4-0 lead, particularly since the Twins have had so few early leads of late. And, yeah, Dennys Reyes is the lefthanded specialist out of the bullpen –or was– but he hasn’t done much of anything to justify that position thus far in ’07, and his stellar 2006 is looking more and more like an aberration. It was supposedly a big surprise that his shoulder was bothering him even before he entered yesterday’s game with the score tied at five, but why was it such a surprise?

The Reyes situation is pretty much Jesse Crain all over again. Both guys signed extensions in the off-season, sucked early on, were sidelined with ‘tenderness’ but somehow managed to avoid the DL, and came back only to endure more suckiness, this suckiness apparently attributable to injuries, the severity of which went unrecognized by the team’s medical staff.

I don’t quite understand how a guy whose arm was aching a few weeks ago is supposed to get better by pitching to Major League hitters, but what the hell do I know?

It also seems to me that the Twins have had a number of eerily similar situations in recent years (Liriano last season, for example), situations where the team’s doctors clearly failed to recognize the severity of a pitcher’s injury until it was too late.

The loss of Reyes and Crain does put a strain on the Twins’ bullpen, but at this point, considering the way they’ve pitched, it’s sort of a case of addition by subtraction. Given Minnesota’s history of nurturing reliable and unsung middle relievers –there’s a long list by now, the most recent examples being Matt Guerrier and Pat Neshek– you always kind of figure they’ll find a way to patch something together. The way things have been going, though, this season figures to be a test of the club’s scouting and coaching resources.

Is Ramon Ortiz headed the way of Sidney Ponson? How much rope do the Twins give him with Garza and Slowey waiting for a shot at Rochester? Consider that Ortiz was 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA on April 27. Here’s his ERA after his last four starts: 3.23, 3.80. 4.89, 5.36. I’m guessing that impressive start is going to give him a considerably longer leash than Ponson had, especially given that the Twins are on the hook for his $3.1 million salary.

How much have the Twins missed Joe Mauer? They’d started their slide before he went on the DL –they were 15-14 at the time– but they’ve gone 5-9 without him in the lineup.

Scott Baker’s quotes following his Saturday start in Milwaukee were even more refreshing than his performance. It’s hard to root against a guy who says stuff like this: “It’s supposed to be fun. If it’s not fun, why are we doing this? I think a lot of times we’re too result oriented and this game is such a result oriented, stat game. There’s too much emphasis on that. It’s about the process, it’s about enjoying this time.”