Call-Ups: Minnesota Twins and Pat Neshek

Once again it is collaborative post time here on Call to the Pen. This month’s topic is September call-ups. To get the ball rolling, I posed the following question to each of our Lead Writers, “Which player do you want your team to call-up in September and why?” It is a simple question but I think you will find the responses to be very diverse.

Taking the path less traveled this month, I decided to post each team’s write-up individually instead of grouping them by league or division as we have done in the past.

Representing the Minnesota Twins and Twinkie Talk is the site’s Lead Writer, Steve Fetch. Check out what he has to say after the jump.

Steve’s Take:

With the Twins 4.0 games up on the White Sox and pretty entrenched in first place in the AL Central, there isn’t an obvious need on the team. Their bats have struggled a bit as of late, but no one in the minors would be able to give any relief there. Their outfield defense struggles at times, but none of their AAA outfielders are on the 40-man.

So instead I’m going to go with Pat Neshek. Neshek hasn’t been great with AAA Rochester (3.67 FIP) but he doesn’t walk a lot of guys and has shown the ability to be a high strikeout guy in the past. Neshek would allow Gardy to be less reliant on Matt Guerrier, who has already appeared in 61 games this year, and appeared in over 150 between 2008 and 2009.

The Twins have a couple other relievers in Alex Burnett and Rob Delaney who could help take some pressure off the current big league relief corps, but Neshek is far and away the best one and should be called up.

Also, I’d like to see the Twins give Glen Perkins some starts in September and roll with a 6 man rotation to give the other 5 guys some nights off. The Central isn’t a done deal, but giving Perkins 3 or 4 starts won’t make them lose the division.