Luis Ayala is Out of The Doghouse!

Happy day! The Twins officially dispatched horrible relief pitcher Luis Ayala on Tuesday in anticipation of the opening game of the three-game series against the Brewers. Ayala, who had a deceivingly low 4.13 ERA, had the perennial task of extending opponents' leads, and he was doing that fantastically. Give Ayala a one-run deficit and he'd turn it into a two-run deficit, whether you give him one batter or five. In reality, Ayala had lost any value for the Twins by the middle of April, but characteristically, the Twins let Ayala lose a few more games for them in order to get their money's worth. After all, they paid this guy $1.3 million to lose games for them, and they'd be darned if they weren't going to get all that they paid for. Ayala's departure is yet another in the long list of free-agent busts and bad trades that the Twins have had in the last five years. Here we go:

Terry Mulholland

Pat Borders

Juan Castro

Bret Boone

Tony Batista

Rondell White

Ruben Sierra

Phil Nevin

Jeff Cirillo

Sidney Ponson

Ramon Ortiz

Adam Everett

Mike Lamb

Carlos Gomez

Seldom Young

Livan Hernandez

Craig Monroe

Eddie Guardado

Luis Ayala

That's impressive. Some guy named Bobby Keppel has been called up to take Ayala's spot on the roster. In ten major league games, Keppel is 0-4 with a 6.10 ERA, though most of those games were starts for the 2006 Kansas City Royals. Whatever Keppel's stats are, he's going to be an upgrade from Luis Ayala, who just could not get people out at the major league level. And Keppel's been doing a fine job in Rochester, for whatever that's worth. We all know that Sean Henn was firing aces down in Triple-A, and that hasn't exactly translated to success in the majors. But it was about time that the Twins addressed Ayala's suckiness -- too bad it was two months two late. He was so bad that he got a spot in The Doghouse, but before I was able to write a formal piece on Ayala in The Doghouse, he was released. There's only a few ways that you can get out of the Doghouse: getting released, retiring, getting sent to the minor leagues, or winning a World Series. Ayala is free because of his release.