The Danny Graves option

It's been a long time since Danny Graves was an effective major legue pitcher. He hasn't for example had an ERA under 4.00 since 2004; hasn't really ever recovered from the ill-fated attempt in 2003 to turn him from a 100-innings-a-year relief ace to a starter.

But he's still around, not yet 35, pitching in the Twins farm system after signing a minor-league deal late in spring training.

He started Monday night for the Rochester Red Wings, the Twins' Triple A affiliate, and at least statistically fared well: four shutout innings, two hits allowed, two strikeouts.

It's not that the Twins are seriously looking at him as starter. They wanted to see some innings; they wanted to get a serious evaluation of his stuff.

There is, after all, a serious hole in the Minnesota bullpen now. Pat Neshek in many ways was the most important guy in that pen — the man Ron Gardenhire called on both to get out of late-inning jams (well, Nesek and Dennys Reyes, with Reyes handling the lefties) and his top eighth-inning guy.

That was probably too heavy a workload. In 2006, Gardy used Neshek and Reyes in the middle of innings and relied on Juan Rincon and Jesse Crain to handle the eighth. But last year Rincon was ineffective and Crain blew out his shoulder, and the bulk of the eight-inning work got added to Neshek's duties. Now Neshek's elbow is shot, and the Twins have a problem.

Matt Guerrier doesn't fit the preferred profile of a late-inning reliever; the post-surgical Crain is unlikely to be used in the middle of an inning or on consecutive days; Rincon, despite four shutout innings in the Boston series, hasn't proved that his back to his 2004-06 form, when he was as good an eighth-inning option as there was in the game.

If Graves has any juice left in his arm, there's a job available.

(mankatofreepress.com)