Twins Win! (Woo) Doumit Goes Down (Boo)

It was only one win. In the grand scheme of things, the Twins are still 11-26, 15 games under .500 and at the bottom of the weakest division in baseball. Big picture, last night’s 11-7 victory of the pre-season favorite Detroit Tigers is little more than a blip on the radar.

With that being said, last night’s win felt great. One day after looking their absolute worst against Cleveland, the Twins turned things around and looked absolutely frightening (offensively) as they hit well with runners in scoring position and even saw some slumping players (Drew Butera, Trevor Plouffe, Jamey Carroll) have very good at bats.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however, as Nick Blackburn gave his shortest outing of the season. Blackburn labored through 2 innings, yielding 6 earned runs, 6 hits, 2 walks and struck out 2. After the game, manager Ron Gardenhire said that Blackburn was fighting through “thigh problems” and that he would be evaluated today. Blackburn claimed that the pain felt like he was “stabbed in the leg with a knife”.

If that’s the case, it’s highly likely Blackburn will need some time on the DL – with the way he has been pitching lately, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Anthony Swarzak could step in from the bullpen to take his starting spot or the Twins could call up Cole Devries from AAA and give yet another young arm a shot at the starting rotation. We’ll likely find out today the severity of Blackburn’s injury, but I’d wager the Twins are going to stay cautious with Blackburn, given his less than stellar performances so far this season.

Doumit Goes Down

In a potential big blow to the Twins offense, their hottest hitter Ryan Doumit left Wednesday’s game with a pulled calf muscle. The Twins immediately placed Doumit on the 15 day DL and called up Ben Revere from AAA Rochester (more on that in a minute).

Doumit started 2012 slow, but over his last 14 days he hit .380 OBP, .600 SLG, with 4 HR and he leads the Twins in RBI. His bat will certainly be missed from the lineup. If early reports from Twins beat writers are to be believed, this could be an injury that sidelines Doumit for much longer than 15 days.

Revere Called Up – What Is The Plan Here?

Let me start this by saying that I think Ben Revere certainly deserved his call-up from AAA. He had been hitting.322 at Rochester and has shown great plate discipline and base running intelligence this season. Revere, although young, does deserve a chance to become an everyday major league player.

Even so…what exactly is the plan here Twins? With the promotion of Revere, the Twins now have Erik Komatsu, Darin Mastroianni, Ben Revere and Denard Span all on the roster. You can only start two of them (Willingham is entrenched in LF) and Span isn’t going to give up CF unless he needs a day off, so three speedy, hit for average batters that play good defense have to sit on the bench.

Komatsu and Mastroianni have played well during their brief time with the Twins. Both have done exactly what the team needed – be a smart batter with solid defense and good speed on the base path. Unless Denard Span is due for the DL (possible, he was a late scratch last night with an undisclosed injury) then carrying Komatsu, Mastroianni and Revere makes little sense – especially given the complete lack of infield depth.

Mastroianni can play 2B and was spending some time at 1B while in AAA, so there is always the possibility that the Twins will play him in the infield more often now that Revere has been promoted.

With the changes, I’d estimate that the day to day starting lineup would look one of two ways:

1)

C: Mauer

1B: Morneau

2B: Casilla

SS: Dozier

3B: Carroll

LF: Komatsu / Revere / Mastroianni

CF: Span

RF: Revere / Komatsu / Mastroianni

DH: Willingham

Bench: Plouffe, Mastroianni, Butera

2)

C: Butera

1B: Mauer / Morneau

2B: Carroll / Mastroianni

SS: Dozier

3B: Plouffe

LF: Willingham

CF: Span

RF: Revere / Komatsu / Mastroianni

DH: Mauer / Morenau

Bench: Casilla, Komatsu, Mastroianni

Defensively, this is not at all a bad roster. Offensively – well… time will tell. Players like Revere, Komatsu, Mauer, Morneau and Mastroianni need to step up and carry the load while Doumit is out.

Future Moves:

With the potential Blackburn injury and Jason Marquis’ inability to find the plate – the Twins may be looking to make a few more pitching related moves over the next week. If Blackburn were to hit the DL for any length of time I would wager the Twins would call up Cole Devries to take over his starting spot. Devries has pitched well in AAA this season and with the success of Scott Diamond and PJ Walters as precedent – the Twins could be willing to let another young arm have a shot at starting.

Jason Marquis is an interesting dilemma. Over the past few days, I’ve heard rumblings from Twins writers regarding a possible ‘change of scenery’ for Marquis. With his poor outings over the last 3 starts, it’s beginning to look like Jason simply doesn’t have elite ‘stuff’ any more. Marquis could be designated for assignment (unlikely given his veteran status) or simply released (more likely). In that case, the Twins would probably call on Anthony Swarzak to move into Marquis’ spot and promote a long reliever from AAA. Either Jeff Manship or Anthony Slama could easily be promoted to the major league roster given their performances this season.

At this point, I’d be happy to see the Twins shakeup their starting pitching as much as possible. I know the Twins are not going to release Pavano, but if I were the Twins front office, I’d be letting the idea of a trade float out there and see what the team could get in return.

As I’ve said many times before, this is a team in transition. It will be getting much younger over the next two seasons, at nearly every position – including starting rotation. With little to play for this season, I’m all for giving the young guys a shot this year to better judge what the roster can and will look like in 2013.