Comments on: With Nathan struggling, Twins name Matt Capps new closer

By: akismet-e94e2dd5b966290bc3e91dd6e183caeb

akismet-e94e2dd5b966290bc3e91dd6e183caeb — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:55:07 +0000

“Dude hasn’t pitched in a long time,” which is exactly why he shouldn’t be pitching in high leverage situations. But of course, if you take Nathan out of the high leverage situations, who do you use? Perkins? Huey? Not too appetizing. The nice side effect of Nathan in the closer role is that it allowed Gardy to use Capps more appropriately–bringing him in the 7th, more than 3 outs, etc. Now that Capps is the “closer” he will be limited to starting the 9th, but only in save situations. I’m all for allowing Nathan to work himself back into form (and his command certainly has been lacking), but the bullpen sets up so much better with Nathan in the 9th inning slot.

By: BC

BC — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 13:27:03 +0000

Unless his velocity is way down, why not give him a little more of a chance? Dude hasn’t pitched in a long time. Conversely, if he’s laboring to get the ball to the plate, then its the right move.

By: dfensfelix

dfensfelix — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:35:37 +0000

This is, without a doubt, the right move. Nathan’s been serving meatloaf at every early opportunity, and Capps proved himself more than worthy of the closer role last season. I hope I’m wrong about this (I’m not), but I don’t see Joe ever making it back to All-Star form from TJ surgery at 36 (he’ll be 37 in November). Capps has to be considered the closer of the Twins’ forseeable future.

By: JBerardi

JBerardi — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 19:20:03 +0000

“The offense is missing “something”

By “something” I assume you mean “more than two guys who’s names I can remember”.

By: tomemos

tomemos — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:54:50 +0000

Would Chris Fiorentino prefer to have Matt Capps over Matt Cain, now? Or is he sticking with Nathan?

By: kander013

kander013 — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:42:46 +0000

You’re right because you can win the division in April. What do you want them to do at this point? They’ve played 14 games out of a 162 game season-tell me what changes they should make.

By: nostrallamas

nostrallamas — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 16:15:08 +0000

Sounds like your one of the Twins faithful who is satisfied winning the division, making the playoffs, and getting bounced in the first round.

By: kander013

kander013 — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:33:53 +0000

A pessimistic Twins fan? Weird. Look, we’re about 15 games into the year and it hasn’t gone well-and there aren’t many positives to look at (umm, Blackburn? maybe). But if you look at the teams we’ve played, these are AL East teams that normally under Gardy the team hasn’t done well so let’s not freak out yet.

We’re halfway through month one of a 6 month season, some how I believe there is time to turn it around. Yea, Bill Smith had an awful off-season, but who do you pick up? Yes, depth is an issue right now and I wish we would have kept Hardy, but he’s hurt right now.

And the low blow to Valencia? What don’t you like about him? What other choice would you like playing 3rd? Last time I checked, the last decent 3rd baseman we had was Koskie, so again-let’s give it some time.

By: Jeremiah Graves

Jeremiah Graves — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:23:25 +0000

As a Twins fan who was a tad pessimistic coming into the season, this move to “improve” isn’t going to change my mood much.

Bill Smith had a piss-poor offseason. He gutted the middle infield. He made no legit moves to shore up the bullpen. The rotation has too many arms, but not enough that I’d be comfortable running out every five days. The offense is missing “something” and we’re relying very, very heavily on a bunch of guys with recent injury problems to be healthy and productive.

…also, I don’t like Danny Valencia.

By: sknut

sknut — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 15:21:17 +0000

this is the right decision. it sucks the twins got 15 innings of one run ball from Pavanno and Baker with nothing to show for it. I am glad gardy pulled the trigger early.