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.
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