Earlier this week, Jesse Crain signed a three-year, $13 million contract with the Chicago White Sox.
As I mentioned in a previous article, the Twins are going to really need to bolster their bullpen in order to three-peat as Central Division champions.
But is losing Crain such a bad thing? Let’s examine this question.
First, Crain had a tough start to the 2010 season, and it can be said he would have had a tougher finish if it weren’t for his talk with Jon Rauch. Rauch gave him some mechanical as well as pitch selection advice, and Crain took off in early summer and continued through the final days of the regular season.
He was almost unhittable in August and September but again fizzled out during the playoffs (the bomb hit by Mark Teixeira comes to mind).
Second, Crain is a one-pitch pitcher. He has fallen in love with the slider, and anytime you fall in love with a pitch that takes that much physical toll on your body, you are asking for arm problems. Crain has had surgery already in his brief career, and throwing the slider as your primary pitch doesn’t help things. Yes, it is a strikeout pitch, but you don’t want to rely solely on one pitch, which Crain had certainly done.
Third, Crain wanted to close. Even if Joe Nathan comes back at 80 to 90 percent of what he was prior to the Tommy John surgery, he’s better than Crain. Throw in Matt Capps and Crain wouldn’t have closed anyway. He has stated numerous times that he wants to close, and being in the situation that he was in, it wasn’t going to work out for him.
Which leads me to the last point: Did Jesse Crain really want to be a Twin anyway?
Looking into his quotes from his press conference, my thoughts are he couldn’t get out of here quick enough. “I’m not sure what they are doing” comes to mind when asked what he thought the Twins were doing by not re-signing him. That quote alone makes me wonder, do we want you in a Twins uniform anyway? Just because you aren’t closing, don’t throw your former team under the bus.
Judging on past performances, the Twins will be licking their chops to get a look at No. 26 this year.
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