Alexi Casilla Topic Page

The Twins, on Saturday, optioned Matt Tolbert to AAA and informed Jacque Jones that he will not make the opening day roster. That leaves the final bench spot to Alexi Casilla.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise that, despite Casilla's underwhelming spring, he got the final nod. Casilla was out of options, meaning he would have had to clear waivers in order for the Twins to keep him. Jones had a far better spring, but hasn't shown much in recent seasons at the big league level and the Twins could freely send him to Rochester.

Before Wednesday's series opener in Baltimore, the Twins optioned struggling Alexi Casilla to AAA Rochester. Casilla hasn't been able to rebound at the plate since returning from the DL late last year after tearing a tendon in his right thumb. His defensive play has also been spotty, and his costly error in Detroit on Tuesday was probably the last straw.

Matt Tolbert was recalled to replace Casilla on the roster. Tolbert and Brendan Harris are expected to split the time at second base.

The Twins have had a few blowout wins this year, but a majority of the lopsided games this season have come at their expense. On Wednesday night, I was a little worried with Scott Kazmir on the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins usually don't fair well against left-handed pitching, and Kazmir has had success against the Twins in a limited number of past starts.

The Twins came out attacking Kazmir early though, with 4 runs right away in the first inning. They added 1 in the third and 3 more in the fourth, which finally ended a rough night for the starter.

The Twins avoided a 4-game sweep with their 8-4 victory against the Mariner's on Wednesday afternoon. The first inning saw 11 batters come to the plate for the Twins and the 7-run inning was highlighted by Michael Cuddyer's grand slam. Alexi Casilla also tripled in the inning. Jason Kubel added an eighth run in the second inning with an RBI single that drove in Torii Hunter.

The Twins played their 10th 1-run game since the All-Star break (a remarkable 36% of 28 games played since then) on Saturday night and this time the result was another disappointing loss. They're 5-5 in such games, which isn't so horrible, but you can't help but wonder where that record would be with a league-average offense? 7-3? 8-2?

Paul Byrd handed the Twins their 10th shutout of the season and 5th since July 1st. The offense scattered 4 hits with the low point coming in the third when Jason Kubel led off with a double and Brian Buscher, Nick Punto and Jason Tyner all failed to bring him in.

The Twins' 1-0 victory on Sunday over Cleveland put them within 4 1/2 games of the Indians for the AL Central lead and within 4 games of Wild Card leading Detroit. It's the closest they've found themselves to the lead since May and Sports Club Stats gives them an 11.4 14.6% chance of making the playoffs.

The Twins offense is now officially in a slump. They haven't managed to exceed three runs scored in the past three games, all three of which came against poor to average pitchers. On Tuesday night the Twins dropped the second game of the 2 game series against Cleveland despite the fact that they had ace Johan Santana on the mind. The Twins rely heavily on the guys in the middle of the lineup, mainly Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer. Over the past three games the two have combined to go 4 for 24 with just 2 RBIs. This isn't meant as a knock on Morneau and Cuddyer--everyone is entitled to a slump from time-to-time, it's meant to indicate that with guys like Jason Tyner, Nick Punto, Jason Bartlett and Alexi Casilla batting at the ends of the lineup, the offensive relies almost exclusively on the RBI production of Cuddyer, Morneau and Torii Hunter behind Joe Mauer, who is always on base.

The Twins went into extra inning for the first time of the season on Monday night against Cleveland. Carlos Silva held Cleveland scoreless until the fifth, but he managed to rack up a high pitch count before that point. Early in the game Silva was pulling the same stunts as his past three starts--he was stranding base runners. Things finally caught up to him when Victor Martinez came to bat with 2 outs and 2 on in the fifth inning. He hit a no-doubter to give the Indians a 3-run lead. Silva completed five and allowed 7 hits and 2 walks. He did strike out 6.

The Twins picked up Phil Nevin from the Chicago Cubs with just a few hours remaining in the waiver trading deadline. Will Nevin be a difference maker or will he just be another subpar option for the DH spot? Probably a little of both.