Caleb Thielbar opened his career with 19 scoreless innings and was hard to hit two years ago. He came back down to earth last season and now can't even make the team out of camp. Given the lack of lefthanded relievers in the system, Thielbar can easily pitch his way back to the majors if he works on his control and sharpens his pitches. Other in-house options remain Aaron Thompson and Ryan O'Rourke. All could pitch in the majors this season.
Quick story about O'Rourke: he's a character. He was charting pitches on one of the back fields a couple weeks ago as Glen Perkins pitched. I walked over to check the radar gun. "What's Perk hitting on the gun,'' I asked. O'Rourke said: "I'll tell you if you answer a question for me.''
I agree, then he says, "How do you think you made me feel when YOU didn't vote for Pedro Martinez? I was in my room crying.''
Just my luck, a Red Sox fan as a youth. O'Rourke is from Worcester, Mass., and was about 11 when all that went down, so yeah, I believed him. He laughed and said he couldn't resist.
Twins Insider: startribune.com/twins
