Luis Ayala Topic Page

The Twins opened 2009 with a payroll of slightly over $65 million. They are currently in a position to open 2010 with a payroll around $90 million. Since the J.J. Hardy for Carlos Gomez trade, this offseason has been void of any big moves. With so little activity, clearly the payroll increase came by way of raises to existing players. Here's how it breaks down:

The Twins on Monday designated RHP Luis Ayala for assignment and called up 27 year-old RHP Bobby Keppel from AAA Rochester. In the grand scheme of things, the move is probably pointless. They've basically swapped one bad pitcher for another one. Still, the move raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm not sure what the Twins were expecting when they signed Ayala to a 1-year $1.3 million contract in the offseason. His numbers this year have been almost perfectly in line with his career marks, but apparently Bill Smith and Company have decided that's not what they're looking for. If they expected the 31-year old to somehow defy numbers posted in over 350 career big league innings, they're absolutely insane.

The Pittsburgh Pirates turned the tables on the Twins Wednesday night. One night after they lost 8-2, they beat the Twins by the same score. 5 of their 8 runs came by way of the homerun. For a team that entered the game tied for last in baseball in home runs (37), getting 3 in one night is an unusual accomplishment.

Francisco Liriano allowed 2 of the home runs and took his eighth loss of the season. However, there were some encouraging signs from the start. Liriano had allowed 34 walks in his 13 previous starts this season, which is above his career average. On Tuesday he allowed just 1 walk and didn't get deep into counts with as many hitters. In fact, he was able to get through 7 innings of pitching for just the 3rd time all season, and first time sine May 4th.

Monday night may have been Anthony Swarzak's last start for a while anyway, but his 4th inning meltdown against the Oakland Athletics probably sealed the deal. Glen Perkins is scheduled to pitch his second rehab start tonight and would be eligible to return to the team this weekend againt the Cubs.

In the 4th inning Swarzak couldn't get a ball over the plate. He walked the first two batters of the inning on 8 straight balls. Brendan Harris made a diving stop and threw out Matt Holliday at 3rd, which was a huge play at the time. Unfortunately Swarzak hit the next batter, Aaron Cunningham in the side of the helmet, knocking him out of the game. Swarzak allowed a double, retired a second batter and then walked another before Luis Ayala was called upon to relieve him.

The Cleveland Indians entered the weekend series with the 3rd highest scoring offense in baseball. The Twins entered the series having allowed the 5th most runs in baseball. So far through two games, things have gone exactly opposite of what those numbers indicate.

The Twins have held the Indians to just 1 run in each of the last two games while taking advantage of poor pitching from Fausto Carmona and Carl Pavano. Kevin Slowey nearly pitched a complete game shutout, but ran into trouble in the ninth on Saturday and had to be bailed out by Luis Ayala. Nick Blackburn turned in his best start of the season, allowing just a run in 7 innings.

The Twins were looking to Scott Baker to help them out of their early season pitching slump, but didn't quite get what they were looking for in Wednesday night's Baker debut.

Although Baker allowed "just" 5 hits and 2 walks in his four innings, the Blue Jays were mightily efficient in scoring runs. Baker surrendered 4 home runs to Blue Jay Hitters.

Things were looking good when the Twins got to Blue Jay starter Jesse Litsch early. They knocked him out of the game in the fourth inning after scoring 4 runs, and then added a couple more runs in the fifth.

Although Kevin Slowey left the game in the sixth inning with the lead, he got roughed up for 13 hits and 5 runs in his second consecutive bad outing. Slowey has allowed 4 deep balls and 22 hits through 2 starts--in other words, he's been throwing batting practice. Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn't hold the lead that the offense created, and the Twins lost by a score of 8-6. It's the team's 3rd straight loss and drops them to a record of 3-5.

It was the eighth inning before a Twins' baserunner reached second base, and that was the only time it happened in the game. The Twins managed just 5 hits, and fell to the Mariners by a score of 2-0, resulting in a series split.

It's a shame, because Glen Perkins gave the Twins their best start of the season, pitching 8 innings and allowing just 1 run on 5 hits. Luis Ayala allowed the 2nd Mariner run in the 9th inning.

The Twins will host the Seattle Mariners tonight for the final season opener at the Metrodome in front of a sold out crowd. The Twins enter the season as the picks by many to win the AL Central, largely because division is relatively weak again this year.

The Twins have just a handful of players to cut prior to heading north for the start of the season (one week from tomorrow), so there's a pretty clear picture of what the roster will look like when the Twins host Seattle on April 6th.

The currrent roster is as follows:

Pitchers