Another One Bites the Dust . . .

It wasn't exactly unexpected, but Dennys Reyes went on the DL today, retroactive to May 21 (which means he'll be eligible to come off on June 5). To replace him in the bullpen, the Twins purchased the contract of lefty Jason Miller. In order to make room for him on the 40-man roster, the Twins transferred Alejandro Machado from the 15-Day DL to the 60-Day DL. If another player needs to be added to the roster anytime soon, Jesse Crain could also be transferred to the 60-Day DL. Before I go on to talk about Miller, let me just run through the list of players who are now with the Twins who started the season with Red Wings:

1 - Scott Baker
2 - Carmen Cali
3 - Julio DePaula
4 - Jason Miller
5 - Glen Perkins (DL)
6 - Josh Rabe (DL)

Chris Heintz is the honorary 7th member of that list, because while he broke camp with the Twins, he was in most respects a AAA guy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time to start the season with the Twins. That's really a remarkable list, because it speaks to just how desperate the Twins have been at times. Of course, this is unlikely to be the end of the call-ups for the season -- and if Jason Bartlett has to go on the DL, there could be another one very soon.

Now, back to Miller. Who is Jason Miller? Well, for starters he's a 24-year-old lefty who is now in his eighth season in the Twins organization. He was drafted out of Sarasota High School in 4th round of the 2000 draft, and has been making his way through the organization ever since. In fact, Miller has never taken a step backwards in the organization: he was with Elizabethton in 2000 and 2001 (except for 2 games in the GCL to start his career in 2000); moved up to Quad Cities in 2002 and the first part of 2003; earned a promotion to Ft. Myers during the 2003 season and stayed there for the first part of 2004; went to New Britain to finish that season and had a great start to 2005 there; and finally moved up in the second half of 2005 to Rochester where he's been ever since.

Miller has, for the most part, been a very solid Minor League ballplayer, putting up identical 3.81 ERA's in his 2 previous years with Rochester (although through many more innings in 2006). This season, he's posted a 2.84 ERA in 25.1 innings over 10 games. Somewhat troubling, however, is his weak 10-9 K-BB. This is somewhat uncharacteristic for Miller, who has a career K-BB split of 507-199; clearly, he's been more than a 1:1 K-BB guy over the course of his career. Hopefully he can get guys out at the big league level despite this troubling development.

I'm excited for Miller's debut, which should come sometime over the weekend. As a minor-league veteran, he has finally made his way onto the 40-man roster and now can concentrate on trying to move forward into the next phase of his career. My expectations for Miller are not high -- but that should make them easy to exceed, and hopefully he will do so. Good luck, Jason!