AaronGleeman.com

This season has been a much different story, as the Twins rank just sixth in bunt hits and are on pace to finish with fewer than half as many as they had last year. Much of the decrease in bunt hits comes from Gomez being relegated to the bench for 32 of 77 games after starting 143 times last season and Casilla playing his way back to Triple-A, because they obviously can't rack up bunt hits from the dugout or Rochester. With that said, bunting less often even when they're in the lineup has also been a factor.

Gomez laid down a bunt in 11 percent of his plate appearances last year, reaching safely 45.5 percent of the time to become just the fifth player since 1959 to bunt for at least 30 hits in a season. This year Gomez has bunted in just six percent of his plate appearances while reaching safely 27.3 percent of the time. In other words, he's bunted about half as often and done so about half as successfully. Much has been made of Gomez's decline at the plate, but bunting accounts for nearly the entire change.

Gomez is hitting just .225 with a .358 slugging percentage on non-bunts this year, which while terrible is no worse than last season when he hit .233 with a .348 slugging percentage on non-bunts. In terms of actual hitting he hasn't changed at all, but the difference is that bunts accounted for over 20 percent of his hits last year and Gomez batted .455 when he laid one down. This year bunts have accounted for just eight percent of Gomez's hits and he's batted just .273 when he lays one down.

Twins fans have heard all about Gomez's supposed potential offensively since the team acquired him as the centerpiece of last offseason's Johan Santana trade, but through over 900 plate appearances in the majors he's hit .227 with a .337 slugging percentage when not bunting. Those are putrid numbers and cast serious doubt on Gomez's ability to develop into an impact hitter, but the good news is that he remains one of the game's fastest players and is a career .433 hitter when dropping a bunt down.

Because of his great glove in center field Gomez will always have value regardless of how poorly he's doing at the plate, but given his success bunting and how horrible he's been when swinging away it makes no sense for him to be laying one down half as often this year. Joe Vavra and company surely have him focusing on putting together better at-bats and taking the ball the other way, which have the potential to make him a competent hitter, but in the meantime his only real weapon has gone missing.

Casilla bunted almost as often as Gomez last year, laying one down in nine percent of his trips to the plate, and was nearly as successful by reaching safely on 43 percent of his attempts. In addition to the bunting Casilla was also more successful than Gomez on non-bunts, hitting .265 with a .368 slugging percentage. Those non-bunt numbers still weren't good, but they're positively Mauer-esque compared to Casilla hitting .162 with a .210 slugging percentage on non-bunts this season.

As a team the Twins have gone from bunting once every 36 plate appearances and reaching safely 40 percent of the time in 2008 to bunting once every 51 plate appearances and reaching safely 28 percent of the time this year. That might not seem like a huge difference and certainly the lineup's dramatically increased power is a much more important change overall, but when it comes to the light-hitting speed guys like Gomez, Casilla, Tolbert, and Punto all struggling the lack of bunts is definitely curious.

With that said, Ty Lawson is another in that handful and the Wolves sadly teased me by selecting him only to swap him for a future first-round pick. Obviously keeping Lawson after taking Rubio and Flynn would've been miles beyond overkill, but he was great value at No. 18 and I'm convinced that he'll have a strong career. Taking his North Carolina teammate, Wayne Ellington, was a good fit at No. 28 given the roster's complete lack of shooters and if nothing else he'll be a nice long-term bench scorer.

David Kahn's assurances that Rubio and Flynn will work in tandem are intriguing and drafting two point guards isn't so crazy when one of them is 18 years old and no sure thing to be freed from his contract, but I'm skeptical to say the least. However, at the end of the day the rebuilding Wolves' primarily goal should've been simply acquiring as much talent as possible and Rubio, Flynn, Ellington, and a future first rounder is a plenty nice haul in that respect. I'm very curious to see how it all shakes out.

Of course, the funny thing about the Twins' decision to designate Ayala for assignment yesterday is that he was hardly the least-effective member of the bullpen and his replacement is far from a good bet to provide an upgrade. Ayala was horribly mismatched as a late-inning setup man, but the Twins should have known that when they signed him and even while failing to fit their preferred role he was relatively useful as a rubber-armed middle man. In other words, he was who they (should have) thought he was.

In a situation reminiscent of last month's swap of Craig Breslow for Sean Henn, the Twins have called up minor-league veteran Bobby Keppel to replace Ayala in the bullpen. At the time of the Breslow-Henn switch my analysis was that "it sure seems like the Twins chose the new lefty reliever over the old lefty reliever just because they felt the need to shake things up." Ayala-Keppel is the right-handed version of that same sentiment, right down to Henn and Keppel signing minor-league deals on the same day.

Keppel is a 27-year-old veteran of a decade in the minors who owns a 5.16 ERA in 572 career innings at Triple-A, including marks of 5.67, 5.48, and 5.99 during the previous three seasons. Those horrible performances came as a starter and Keppel has worked primarily as a reliever this season for the first time in his career, which along with a nice-looking 2.44 ERA in 55 innings at Rochester apparently has the Twins optimistic about his potential. They shouldn't be, because he's basically a poor man's Ayala.

Keppel is a moderate ground-ball pitcher with mediocre control and little ability to miss bats, managing just 28 strikeouts in 55 innings this season and 4.4 strikeouts per nine innings throughout his Triple-A career. He's looked good at Rochester thanks to the defense turning over 72 percent of his balls in play into outs and just one of the 47 fly balls hit against him traveling over the fence, but much like Henn he simply doesn't have a track record that suggests the ability to consistently get big-league hitters out.

Since that swap of left-handers Breslow has a 4.39 xFIP in 18 appearances with the A's and Henn has a 5.04 xFIP in 13 appearances with the Twins, and dropping Ayala for Keppel figures to work out much the same way. Meanwhile, the Twins boast a pair of legitimately promising relief prospects in Robert Delaney and Anthony Slama, but the former was passed over for his Triple-A bullpen mate Keppel and the latter can't even get a promotion to Rochester despite already being 25 years old.

Delaney has a 2.42 ERA, 50-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and .225 opponents' batting average in 48.1 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, including 10 strikeouts versus just two non-intentional walks in a dozen innings since last month's promotion to Rochester. He's a 24-year-old right-hander who's thrived at every level, posting a 2.03 ERA and 235-to-38 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 222 career innings, yet the Twins are choosing Triple-A filler like Keppel over him.

Slama had a 1.01 ERA with 110 strikeouts and a .173 opponents' batting average in 71 innings at high Single-A last season and has a 2.70 ERA with 53 strikeouts and a .225 opponents' batting average in 36.2 innings at Double-A so far this year, but the Twins inexplicably haven't even seen fit to let him join Delaney at Rochester six months after his 25th birthday. While two of the organization's top arms are at New Britain and Rochester, the Twins' bullpen ranks 11th in xFIP and 10th in Win Probability Added.

Dating back to Pat Neshek's elbow injury last May the Twins have clearly needed bullpen help, but Bill Smith refused to bring in a veteran setup man at the trading deadline, targeted mediocrities like Ayala rather than legitimate upgrades this winter, and is now turning to a journeyman with a 5.13 ERA in 572 innings at Triple-A rather than give Delaney or Slama a chance. The situation has gone from frustrating to bewildering and the front office's decision-making under Smith continues to disappoint.