Coming on the heels of 6-1 victory Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays, manager Ron Gardenhire announced that Nick Blackburn will be in the Twins’ starting rotation. Blackburn threw three perfect innings against the Rays and Gardenhire was apparently very impressed. Gardenhire said he likes the way Blackburn is throwing and loves having the sinkerballer in the rotation. This comes are really no surprise to me. I felt all along Blackburn would get into the rotation due to his ability to eat innings and save the bullpen, which might be the biggest concern for the Twins right now. I have no issues with a healthy Nick Blackburn as the fourth or fifth starter in this rotation. I like that he is not afraid to take the ball in a big game situation and I also like his ability to get through more than five innings in games, something Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey struggle with.
That brings me to my next point. What happens from here? There are two spots for one guy and I really don’t see Slowey or Baker in the bullpen. I really think Kevin Slowey gets traded if everyone stays healthy this spring. His name has been floated out there in the past and it would not shock me to see him go. There is depth in the minors to an extent and if Baker can prove to be healthy I think he is the best bet as the fifth member of the rotation. Ever since Slowey’s wrist injury I get nervous about him being the same effective pitcher he was before the injury. I would hate to see Slowey go, but, as we all know, I much prefer to hold on to Scott Baker.
Minnesota Twins Tsuyoshi Nishioka (R) of Japan fields a ball under the watchful eye of manager Ron Gardenhire during the first official workout at the Twins baseball spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida February 23, 2011. REUTERS/Hans Deryk (UNITED STATES – Tags: SPORT BASEBALL)Ron Gardenhire also had some interesting information about the middle infield on Saturday. It appears that Tsuyoshi Nishioka will be the Twins’ second baseman and Alexi Casilla will be playing shortstop. Again, not much of a surprise here to me. Everything I heard and read said that Casilla has the stronger arm and would profile as the better fit at short. Gardenhire cited Nishioka’s comfort at second as the major contributor to his playing there. This is good news, as now the Twins don’t have to worry about finding out who will play where and they can move along and get Casilla and Nishioka reps together in the positions they will be playing once the club goes North. Gardy apparently still has doubts about Casilla’s leadership abilities in the infield, but it seems he’s willing to let Casilla play and work on that, something he wasn’t too keen on with Jason Bartlett a few years back. So, hey, maybe Gardy is evolving?
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