Facing Bomba Squad benefits Twins' arms

MINNEAPOLIS -- Well, it can only get easier from here for the Twins' pitching staff, right?

Summer Camp at Target Field is over now that the Twins have departed for their season-opening series in Chicago. That's good news for baseball fans, for whom Opening Day is only three days away. That's probably also a welcome change for the pitchers who will no longer need to face one of the best lineups in baseball every day.

"The biggest thing is when a guy gives up a couple of hits to Nelson Cruz, it's OK," pitching coach Wes Johnson said. "He's good. He's really good. But let's pull back and talk about, 'What can we learn from that? Could we have done some different sequencing?'"

The pitching staff didn't actually fare all too badly against "Bomba Squad 2.0" during Summer Camp. Twins hurlers appeared to have the upper hand in three of the four "real" intrasquad scrimmages contested at the end of the training period, and a trio of young pitchers almost threw a combined seven-inning no-hitter in one of those games.

Frankly, it has been a real advantage for all of those pitchers to have the knowledge and talent of the Twins' record-breaking lineup at their disposal throughout this process. Cruz, Jake Cave, José Berríos and Josh Donaldson, among others, have all talked about the immediate feedback that occurs between pitchers and hitters during and after at-bats, in which the two sides have dialogue in regards to mindset, approach and observations that could help one another.

Johnson added that Cruz and Donaldson, in particular, have been instrumental in helping him coach up his pitching staff during camp. Every day, the veteran hitters will seek out Johnson following their at-bats and fill in the pitching coach on what they were expecting to see at the plate and how the pitchers' offerings matched up. They would also double back to break things down with the pitchers, as well.

"It's like in football back in the day, when you get tired of scrimmaging," Johnson said. "Your team's got a really good defense, a really good offense, and you're on the opposite side and you've been scrimmaging them forever. You're ready to see somebody else. That's what we are. I can't say enough -- I continue to talk about how good our offense is and what it's done to help our pitchers develop."

The added challenge of facing the row of sluggers also helped pitchers lock in while on the mound, particularly in the odd environment of facing one's own teammates without fans in the stands.

"It honestly makes these sim games -- whatever you want to call them -- it makes them a lot easier to get kind of amped up for," reliever Tyler Duffey said. "Even the young guys who are here helping us out, coming back and forth from St. Paul, they're our top prospect guys. They're here to play. They're trying to make a team, too."

"The competitiveness of the at-bats we've seen throughout our games is very apparent to anybody that's watching," manager Rocco Baldelli said.

It also adds some fun and extra motivation when there are bragging rights on the line among teammates -- especially when Donaldson is in the batter's box. He'll let you hear it.

"I’m not much of a trash talker," Randy Dobnak said. "I kind of just let whatever happens out on the field just happen. I don’t really think I’m in a position to have a lot of trash talking going yet. But yeah, Donaldson, he gives it to you. That part of the game is really awesome, just for everybody involved -- the players and the fans hearing it and stuff like that. It sparks the fire and the competitiveness and just makes it fun."

There are also a few drawbacks to all of this, of course. Imagine being a pitcher who accidentally injures a teammate with an errant pitch. (Kenta Maeda grimaced and said he thought it was the "end of the world" when he accidentally hit Donaldson on Monday.)

It also induces a slight change in mindset and approach among some pitchers, as in the case of Berríos, who said that he was more hesitant to attack the inner half at times with his teammates in the batter's box.

"I was talking with my teammates in the dugout after I finished, [saying,] 'I don't have that instinct to kill you guys,'" Berríos said. "You know what I mean? That's the instinct that I have when I pitch against another team. ... That's why I say that, right now, we don't have that instinct to kill the hitters, but we have to practice."

But as a whole, it all seemed like quite the positive experience for most on the roster, and Donaldson wouldn't mind seeing more of it in the years to come.

"I think it’s actually good for both sides, really," Donaldson said. "I would say I wouldn’t be surprised if, moving forward after this, going into Spring Training and such after [the pandemic], that we’ll probably see some changes to how Spring Training is done for that."

Up next
Homer Bailey will be the first of the Twins' pitchers to finally get a crack at a lineup that isn't the vaunted "Bomba Squad 2.0" when he toes the rubber for Wednesday night's 6:05 p.m. CT exhibition against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Though Bailey posted a 4.57 ERA across 31 starts last season, Minnesota continues to expect that the veteran right-hander will improve on the adjustments that led to some success with Oakland in the second half. This appearance will likely line him up to pitch against the Cardinals at home in his first regular-season start.