Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Wednesday, October 22, 2014 Molitor Has Third Meeting with Twins. Star Tribune
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Wednesday, October 22, 2014 ➢ Molitor has third meeting with Twins. Star Tribune (Neal) pg. 1 ➢ TwinsCentric: Powering up the bullpen. Star Tribune (Nelson) pg. 1 ➢ Updated Twinsights: Paul Molitor says meeting with Terry Ryan “went fine.” Pioneer Press (Berardino) pg. 3 ➢ Paul Molitor gets second interview as Twins managerial field narrows. CBSsports.com (Heyman) pg. 4 ➢ Mackey: Should Twins consider hiring Torey Lovullo over Paul Molitor? 1500espn.com (Mackey) pg. 5 ➢ Wetmore: The case for and against Molitor, Lovullo and Mientkiewicz. 1500espn.com (Wetmore) pg. 6 Molitor has third meeting with Twins La Velle E. Neal III / Star Tribune – 10/22/14 Paul Molitor met the with the Twins on Tuesday morning to discuss their vacant managerial opening, according to a person with knowledge of the search, but indications are that he was not offered the job. Molitor was spotted at Target Field around 9 a.m. Tuesday. It’s the third time Molitor has spoken with the Twins about the job, but there are not indications he was the front-runner. So the Twins’ search for a replacement for Ron Gardenhire continues, with at least three known serious candidates for the job. According to the Boston Globe, the Twins were given an extension to talk with Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo again. He was known to have interviewed for the job during the weekend of Oct. 11. Former Twins player and current Class A Fort Myers manager Doug Mientkiewicz has interviewed twice for the job, including last week during the club’s organizational meetings. Reports have indicated White Sox third base coach Joe McEwing and Indians bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. have been told they are no longer in the running. The Twins asked for, and received, permission to interview Chip Hale for the position, but Hale, the day he was to travel to the Twin Cities, asked to postpone his trip when Arizona asked him back for a second interview, according to his agent Burton Rocks. Hale ended up getting the Diamondbacks job. The earliest the Twins could introduce a new manager is Thursday, the off day between games two and three of the World Series. The league frowns upon teams making announcements during series but will grant permission to make announcements during off days. TwinsCentric: Powering up the bullpen Nick Nelson / Star Tribune – 10/21/14 There are only so many worthwhile takeaways to be gleaned from an examination of the Kansas City Royals' incredible postseason run up to this point. It's just been one of those miraculous stretches of baseball where everything has kept on clicking. (At least until Game 1 of the World Series.) It is possible that the impact of Kansas City's speed, fundamentals, and maybe even defense, can be overstated. The impact of a lights-out bullpen, however, cannot. During the regular season, the Royals went 64-9 when ahead after the sixth inning, and 65-4 when ahead after the seventh. This relief corps that reliably protected leads during the summer has stepped it up here in October. When Kansas City leads after five, or gains a lead at any point thereafter, the win has been automatic. This was an overlooked calling card in the Twins' wonder years. During Minnesota's division championship seasons of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2010, they ranked 4th, 5th, 5th, 1st, 4th and 4th among AL teams in bullpen ERA. This year, they ranked 10th. So when you look at areas that need to improve, this is a pretty blatant one. A truly great bullpen can be a key difference-maker; many of those division-winning clubs lacked elite lineups or rotations but won games because they consistently could finish the job. Fortunately, the current Twins already have that all-important piece: a shutdown closer. Like Eddie Guardado and Joe Nathan before him, Glen Perkins is an All-Star, ranking among the game's best at slamming the door. Concerns over Perkins' sore forearm and shaky September were quelled after an MRI revealed no UCL damage. But what of the arms leading up to Perkins? Where are those dominant arms that bridge the gap, like Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera have done for the Royals? Casey Fien was far less dominant this year than in 2013, as his strikeouts declined and more hits fell in. Jared Burton struggled too often, and seems unlikely to have his option activated. When minor-leaguers like Michael Tonkin, A.J. Achter and Lester Oliveros got their chances, they delivered mixed results. If the Twins want to be proactive in addressing the bullpen, they might want to seek alternatives to their present options. That could mean looking to free agency, where some intriguing names are covered in the Offseason Handbook. But it also might mean getting creative and trying out some different things. One such idea is shifting Mike Pelfrey into a relief role, where I believe he could transform from a liability to an asset. And here's another idea I'm starting to like: Alex Meyer in the bullpen to start the season. He already has a full year at Triple-A under his belt and he'll turn 25 in January. He needs to be in the majors. But the Twins seem to have lingering doubts about his ability to pitch deep into games, and that's warranted. He completed six innings just once in his last seven starts at Rochester. There might not be room for him in the rotation from the outset, if the Twins sign a pitcher or want to give Tommy Milone a look. So why not let Meyer start out in a relief role, where he can gain confidence pitching in short stints while blowing big-league hitters away with his elite stuff? The Twins brought Francisco Liriano along in this manner in 2006. He dominated pitching a couple innings at a time as a potent weapon out of the bullpen during the first six weeks, and was already rolling by the time he hit the rotation in mid-May. Since Meyer only pitched 130 innings last year and ended on an injury scare, the Twins will want to manage his workload. Serving as a reliever those first few weeks or months will allow him to pitch deeper into the season without vastly exceeding his inning total from 2014. Ideally, he'll pitch well in this role, refine his control, and be ready to stretch out and step in as a starter when help is inevitably needed. Or else the Twins could let him work as a reliever the entire season. The Cardinals did so with Adam Wainwright his rookie year, and he turned out alright. 2 Whichever route they choose to go, Minnesota must find a way to harness Meyer's overpowering arm. It makes little sense to send him back to the minors. Updated Twinsights: Paul Molitor says meeting with Terry Ryan “went fine” Mike Berardino / Pioneer Press – 10/21/14 Paul Molitor had his second full-length meeting with Twins general manager Terry Ryan on Tuesday regarding the team’s open manager position, and the hall of famer apparently came away encouraged by the discussion. “I think it went fine,” Molitor told the Pioneer Press in a text message. No job offer was extended, Molitor said, but the incumbent Twins infield coach remains the apparent frontrunner to replace Ron Gardenhire, fired Sept. 29 after 13 seasons. It’s unknown exactly who remains in the running besides Molitor, but the Boston Globe reported Tuesday that Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo is “very much” still a candidate. Class A Fort Myers manager Doug Mientkiewicz also is believed to still be under consideration. A native of St. Paul, Molitor, 58, has spent all but three of the past 19 seasons in the Twins organization since signing a free-agent deal with his hometown team before the 1996 season. That included two seasons as the bench coach (2000-01) under former Twins manager Tom Kelly. Considering Molitor left Tuesday’s meeting without a job offer, it seems possible, if not likely, that the Twins will hold a second round of talks with Lovullo. Mientkiewicz, reached Tuesday evening by phone in Fort Myers, said he already had his second interview with Twins officials on Oct. 13, the first full day of the organization meetings. Molitor did not attend the annual meetings, which concluded last Thursday. “It’s been great. It’s been enlightening,” Mientkiewicz said of the interview process. “They’ve known me for a long time. They kind of watched me grow up. It was definitely a learning experience for everybody involved.” How did he think his interviews went? “It went pretty good,” he said. “It felt good. I told them the truth. We’ll see what happens.” Mientkiewicz, 40, led the Miracle to its first Florida State League in 22 years as a Twins affiliate. The fiery former first baseman also spent a decade in the organization as a player, rising from a fifth-round draft choice out of Florida State in 1995 to Twins minor league player of the year (1998) and later was named the big-league club’s most valuable player (2001). “I think they all understand what I bring,” he said. What tops that list of attributes? “Energy,” he said. “I think I’ve proven wherever I’ve gone I’ve won. That’s pretty much why I got a chance to interview for this thing. I’ve worked with every player that’s going to turn this thing around for us the last two years.