And Then There Were Three

With the release of Darrell May, the battle for the two openings in the Twins bullpen narrows to three players.


Francisco Liriano, the young phenom, Santana Jr., he who shall lead us to our rightful championship...someday. On the spring, he is 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA in 4 innings of work.

Denys Reyes, the veteran, the man who's seen it all and (let's be honest) given up hits to most of it. And yet he's 0-0 with a 0.00 ERA in 3.2 innings of spring training.

Willie Eyre, the rookie, scourge of batters across AAA and Venezuela. He's 0-0, 2.03 on the spring in 13 1/3 innings.


For my money, I'll take Eyre. He's young and promising, and has more than proven himself in the upper minors and in winter ball. I'm concerned that Liriano is being rushed, and while Reyes is a known quantity, he's not exactly impressive in the normal course of things.

Mind you, the Twins will no doubt take Liriano because everyone is salivating for him (and yours truly does love to watch him pitch) and Reyes precisely because he's a known quantity. Which, should things fall out that way, would really suck for Eyre, who deserves this chance.