Vance Worley adds a much needed, high potential arm to the Twins rotation.
(Photo courtesy of: Matthew Straubmuller/Flickr)
Now that the final page of the 2012 calendar has been flipped and we finally enter into a new year, now is when every baseball writer, columnist and blogger will begin breaking down their team's roster as we head into Spring Training which is at this time a mere month an a half away (joy!). Well I'm not different in this as a baseball writer (and I guess now more blogger than anything now that I'm not writing "professionally" anymore) and I plan on breaking down the Minnesota Twins' roster piece by piece starting with their biggest weakness from a year ago, their starting rotation.
For the first time in a very, very long time, the Minnesota Twins will be heading into a new season with a completely revamped rotation. Sure there aren't any future Cy Young winners being added in, but at least we won't have horrible pitchers like Nick Blackburn shoved down our throats anymore.
The 2013 Twins will still have a similar look to the makeup of their pitchers with that same pitch-to-contact mold that they have become so enamored with over the years. Gone are the Carl Pavanos and Nick Blackburns to make room for a slew of bottom tier free agent starting pitchers that hopefully will yield better results.
While it's hard to get too excited about a few of the names that have been signed, the addition of a couple of low-risk, high-reward guys as well as some fantastic young power arms that give the organization hope beyond the 2013 season as the club gets ready to bring up a very talented group of offensive players (we will discuss these guys as the winter rolls on).
So without further ado, lets take a look at how the 2013 rotation will start off the year...
Scott Diamond | LHP
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| Diamond looks to build on his 2012 success. |
After being called up in May to stay, Diamond went on to pitch 173 innings while posting a sparkling 3.54 ERA and an abysmal 4.68 K/9. As a pitch-to-contact type guy (something the Twins are very familiar with), Diamond will need to continue to keep the ball down in the zone and mix speeds.
While it’s unclear yet if Diamond can repeat his success from a year ago, one concern surrounding the youngster is in regards to his off season surgery to remove a bone chip from his pitching elbow. While the club says he will be ready for Spring Training, there’s no telling how long it will take for his arm to get back to full strength.
Vance Worley | RHP
Speaking of bone chips, by far the best addition of the winter to the Twins’ rotation is a man who also will be returning from a surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow, Vance Worley.
After going 11-3 with a 3.01 ERA and finishing third in the 2011 Rookie of the Year voting, Worley battled through elbow issues throughout 2012 posting a 6-9 record and 4.20 ERA in only 133 innings before being shut down in September for the surgery. The young right-hander looks to bounce back quickly after being part of the (lopsided in favor of the Twins) deal that brought himself and prospect Trevor May to the Twins for speedy centerfielder Ben Revere on the last day of the Winter Meetings.
Worley has show that when healthy that he can be a very dependable pitcher with good strikeout potential. During his phenomenal 2011 rookie year he posted a K/9 rate of 8.13 which is far superior to any other potential Twins starter. He looks like Nolan Ryan by comparison. Of all the Twins starters he is the one I'm most excited about.
Mike Pelfrey | RHP
Now we come to our big low risk, high reward guy in Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey, now 28, was signed to a one-year, $4 million contract with $1.5 million in incentives. Win-win for both sides. The problem stems from the fact that, like Diamond and Worley, Pelfrey too is coming back from surgery on his throwing arm. His of course being a bit more serious as he had Tommy John surgery on May 1 after starting the year off with the Mets with a 2.29 ERA through three starts.
The sinkerballer has produced a few good years for the Mets posting a 3.72 ERA in 200.1 innings in 2008 and 3.66 ERA in 204 innings in 2010. So while he's shown flashes of success in the majors, we need to temper our expectations considering he is coming off a major surgery. Here's hoping to a quick recovery.
Kevin Correia | RHP
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| Correia's 51.2% GB was 7th in the NL in '12. (Photo courtesy: SD Dirk/Flickr) |
The 32-year old brings a 51.2% groundball rate, which was tied for seventh in the National League last season, on his way to a 4.21 ERA and only 89 strikeouts and a fantastic 46 walks in 171 innings. Basically you’re getting yet another pitch-to-contact guy in a rotation full of them.
The only worry is that this is Correia’s first stint in the American League after spending the past 10 seasons in the NL. The bright side of things is that Correia has average 12 wins and a 4.51 ERA and 28 starts over the past four seasons which have been on some pretty bad clubs. I’ll take those numbers for a number four starter.
Rich Harden | RHP
My heart wants to tell me that they will give this spot to Kyle Gibson coming right out of Spring Training but my head tells me that it's Harden's job to lose...if he's healthy. My guess is that if Harden's arm is still attached by the start of the regular season that he will begin the year as Minnesota's fifth starter and will eventually give way to Gibson at some point during the summer. Don't forget, Gibson too is coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Harden on the other hand missed the entire 2012 season due to shoulder surgery to repair his right rotator cuff last January. Yup, you guessed it, the fourth member of the Twins upcoming rotation to have surgery over the past calendar year on their pitching arm. I couldn't even make that up.
When healthy (which hasn't been too often for Harden over his career) he has been one of the better strikeout pitchers in baseball. Since 2003 Harden ranks third in all of baseball with 9.2 K/9 behind only Tim Lincecum (9.76) and Clayton Kershaw (9.26) during that span. Pretty good company to be in.
My guess is other in-house options will include Sam Deduno, Liam Hendricks and Cole De Vries but my guess is they will go with a healthy Harden and bringing Gibson out of the bullpen to ease him back in. Remember what they did with Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano? Hopefully they don't wait quite as long with him.
So that's how I see the 2013 rotation shape up for the Minnesota Twins. Not the most exciting cast of characters that you'll see in the majors this summer but much more interesting than the group they trotted out to the mound in 2012. If everyone can be healthy I could see this being a decent squad that can at least keep them competitive. 2014 will be when things really get interesting when players like Gibson, Trevor May, Alex Meyer and others will begin to ascend on the major league squad.
Then it will be time to "Get To Know 'Em" all over again.
