Wednesday's 18-5 game really appears to have forced the people covering the Twins to notice, and the people running the Twins to admit,(if not for attribution) that the middle relief corps has issues. See LaVelle Neal's blog entry from Wednesday night. Neal even puts the 40-4 record when leading after seven innings into some perspective, noting that that's already as many losses as they had all of last season.

The four losses, incidentally, doesn't contradict my pinning five losses on the middle relief's penchant for blowing big leads. At least one of those leads — June 9 against Chicago — was blown in the sixth and seventh innings.

Neal's writing specifically about the eighth-inning role. My concern has been about the depth of the bullpen. The two issues are related and overlapping, but not identical.

One way of thinking about this: In 2006, Matt Guerrier was the fifth best middle man on the staff, behind Rincon, Crain, Reyes and Neshek. Now he's No.1. He's a little better, but not that much. The problem is that Rincon and Reyes fell back and Crain and Neshek got hurt.

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One other thing before I split from this task: The Thursday Strib had a quote from Livan: "I pitch better in the second half every year, so let's see what happens."

Last year, Livan had a pre-All Star game ERA of 4.54; after, 5.44. That's hardly better.

Over time, it doesn't figure either. He was markedly better in '06 (5.94 pre, 3.61 post), but worse in '05 (3.48/4.58) and as close as you can get to even in '04 (3.58/3.62). Of the past three full season, his ERA hasn't significantly changed pre and post. (4.51 pre, 4.59 post)