Keppel solid since call to bullpen

Since getting called up to the Minnesota Twins to replace reliever Luis Ayala, Bobby Keppel has been sharp. Razor sharp.

Just a few days ago, Keppel made his Twins debut in a relief appearance after starting pitcher Kevin Slowey lasting just three innings in the mid-90s head. Slowey allowed five earned runs in arguably his worst outing of the year.

In stepped the St. Louis native Keppel, who grew up a Cardinals fan. All he did was pitch four scoreless innings in relief to keep the Twins in the game (they trailed 5-3 when he entered, and that ended up being the final thanks to an anemic Minnesota offense).

Keppel made his second appearance tonight against Kansas City and, while not as impressive as his debut, he threw two scoreless innings, striking out three and giving up just one hit. He came in to pitch the sixth and seventh innings after Twins starter Scott Baker threw 111 pitches in just five.

FSN's Dick Bremer made the comment during tonight's broadcast that Keppel looks like a starter when he pitches. Part of what Bremer was referring to was how Keppel throws from the windup, doing away with the traditional stretch that most relievers choose. But his confidence and the way he handles pressure situations has impressed me as well. Take the Saturday game against St. Louis, for example. Keppel issued a leadoff triple to Joe Thurston on his first pitch as a Twin, and then went on to work around the extra-base hit and escaped the inning without allowing a run.

When the Twins made the decision to call Keppel up from Triple-A Rochester, I spoke with Minnesota GM Bill Smith about the move. He said the time was right to bring Keppel up, as the youngster had made a few starts in the Red Wings rotation, both out of desire to start/pick up more innings and due to a need for starters at Rochester.

The fact that Keppel wanted to start tells me he's a guy who's looking to improve by throwing more innings at the highest level of minor league ball. After all, isn't that what the minors is all about?

Minnesota's bullpen still holds just six relievers (including closer Joe Nathan). Matt Guerrier and Jose Mijares have solidified their spots as go-to guys. Sean Henn remains the one iffy spot in the pen. R.A. Dickey has proven to be the surprising (in a good way) pickup of the offseason, as he can step for 2-3 innings at a time if a starter has a rough outing.

Keppel is already establishing himself in just his second game, and is proving he belongs at the big league level. If things continue at this rate for the Twins pen, I wouldn't anticipate any shuffling of relievers any time soon. But if anyone (Henn seems to be the likely candidate at this point) falters, look for Minnesota to call up Anthony Swarzak, who made a handful of starts with the Twins in place of the injured Glen Perkins. Like Keppel, he possessed big league poise, something you just can't teach.

Oh, and as for Jesse Crain, he's got his work cut out for him if he ever wants to sniff the Twins bullpen again.

Mauer, Morneau best suited 2nd, 3rd in lineup

It's tough to say either Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau is slumping, considering the duo were hitting .394 and .309 entering Monday's game against Kansas City. As of right now (eighth inning), Mauer is 0-4 and Morneau is 1-3 with a home run. That's now two straight games with homers for Justin, but he still seems better suited at third in the Twins lineup.

After missing the entire month of April, Mauer was plugged into the third spot in the batting order, and started with a bang, hitting .397 with a .494 on-base percentage with seven homers in 18 games.

But he was just warming up.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire moved Mauer to the two-hole, and Mauer's numbers jumped: .430 BA, 24 RBIs and seven more homers in 27 games, all but four of those as the No. 2 hitter.

But then Gardy reverted back to a previous lineup, and Mauer made his way back to third in the order. An injury to leadoff hitter Denard Span (inner ear infection) and somewhat of a resurgence by Brendan Harris made for a revamped top of the Twins lineup over the past month or so, thus putting Mauer at No. 3.

Since then, Mauer has hit .240 with just one run batted in heading into Monday's contest in Kansas City. (His average after Monday has dropped to .386.)

After June 23--when Mauer returned to third and Morneau fourth--Justin hit .182 with five strikeouts and four runs batted in before Monday (as mentioned, he went 1-4 with a HR and 2 RBI against the Royals). Still, his numbers were clearly better when Mauer was getting on base ahead of him, and that happened more often when Joe was in the 2-spot.

Of all Gardenhire's curious managing decisions--the continuing use of Nick Punto at second base, Delmon Young in left, and (until recently) reliever Jesse Crain in close-game situations--the moving of Mauer and Morneau down a spot in the lineup doesn't add up.

The old, overused adage reminds to not fix things which aren't broken. The M&M Boys were just fine hitting second and third. For a team that hasn't climbed more than a game over .500 all season, it might be best to go back to what works.

Stadium comparisons

So on a recent road trip to Milwaukee (Miller Park) and St. Louis (Busch Stadium) to watch the Twins play, I came up with an analogy of the three teams' stadiums that I particularly like. Feel free to use it.

If the Metrodome is like a 1982 sedan,


...and Busch Stadium is like a brand-new convertible (with the top permanently down, as a friend noted)...

...then Miller Park is like a 2001 Hummer with a sunroof...

If you haven't been to Busch Stadium yet, check it out. It's a pretty nice park, and the fans their are equally friendly. Of the parks I've seen (it's a small list, but slowly growing), I'd rank it second behind Petco Park in San Diego. Miller Park, on the other hand, is just OK in my book. Sure, it's an "outdoor" stadium. But even with the roof and windows both open, the rest of the park is so big and overwhelming, you never feel truly outdoors.

Seeing more outdoor baseball made me even more excited for the opening of Target Field next year. From what I saw last month, it's shaping up nicely and is over 75% completed. It's going to be a very intimate park, as there wasn't a whole lot of space to fit it in on the site. But all the amenities and attention to detail should make for one of the best parks in all of baseball.

Mauer's SI story

Here it is.

For most Twins fans, not much in the article is groundbreaking. Still, nice to see Mauer get some national publicity.

I did find some of the comments from his teammates--Brendan Harris and Delmon Young--pretty interesting. Check it out for yourself and tell me what you think.

Mauer to grace SI cover...again

When Sports Illustrated hits news stands tomorrow, Twins fans will likely snatch them all up, as catcher Joe Mauer will be the cover boy for this week's issue.

Mauer was on the cover once before, so any talks of an SI cover jinx seem a bit silly, since he won two batting titles after that.

SI's Tom Verducci wrote the story. (I'm kind of surprised SI didn't contact me to write the story...) Saw him at the Dome for the Twins' first two games against the Pirates last week. He's one of the best baseball writers out there, so this should be a pretty nice story on Mr. Mauer.

From what I've heard, it sounds like a portion of the story will revolve around whether or not Mauer can hit .400 this season. The first game Verducci was there for against Pittsburgh, Joe went 4-for-4 with three singles and a double. Certainly didn't hurt his case to be on the cover.

It's a bit weird to see Mauer already grabbing his second cover, since he's the type of player (along with friend and teammate Justin Morneau) that try to stay as low-key as possible and never really clamor for the attention. But when you're as good as Mauer is, you can't help but find yourself surrounded by the hype.

Twins still look for June run

Seems like every year, the Twins put something together in June, right?

Not so much this year.

Read about it here or check it out at twinsbaseball.com.

Preview: Life of a beat writer

I've been meaning to do a post (before I started this blog) on the ins and outs of being a baseball beat writer (although I'm not technically a beat writer). Stay tuned for such a post within the next few days. In the mean time, if you have something you've always been wondering about the life of a beat writer, let me know and I'll try to include it in the post.

Twins recall Keppel, designate Ayala for assignment

Check out the original story here.

Ayala and Sean Henn were the two likely candidates to get sent down or DFA, as both have struggled recently in the bullpen. The Twins decided to move Ayala, although by no means does that mean Henn's job is safe either.

Some people have been calling for Anthony Swarzak to get called back up. Swarzak had a brief stint in the Majors earlier this year when starter Glen Perkins went on the DL. Swarzak pitched, decent but not great during that time, but has been mentioned by Twins manager Ron Gardenhire as a potential arm in the bullpen if need be.

Your thoughts?

Welcome

Hey everyone. My name is Tyler and I'm an associate reporter (aka intern) with MLB.com, covering the Minnesota Twins. I've decided to start a blog to report on Twins news and notes, and provide links to my stories on twinsbaseball.com.

If you have a question about the Twins you'd like me to answer, or have a topic for discussion, please feel free to e-mail me at tylerjmason@gmail.com.

You can also follow me on Twitter @tylermlb, where I also post Twins news.