Crain is one to watch

FORT MYERS, FLA. -- The Cincinnati Reds sent a split squad of players to Hammond Stadium on Friday. The few veterans on the trip were long since showered by the time the Twins' Jesse Crain entered to pitch the ninth.

The Twins were leading 10-4, and the Reds lined up to face him were Stephen Smitherman, Ray Olmedo and Andrew Beattie. Crain struck out Smitherman looking at a fastball, retired Olmedo on a bouncer to shortstop and struck out Beattie looking at a curveball.

"I don't know what Crain threw at the end, but it had a lot of guys talking . . . excited," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Tony [Oliva] already is in love with him. He said, 'That isn't Uncle Charlie. That's Uncle Sam.' "

Uncle Charlie is Joe Garagiola-era lexicon for a curveball. And we must presume that in the mind of a grand hitter, Mr. Oliva, an Uncle Sam curveball trumps an Uncle Charlie.

"He hides the ball well, and the ball snaps out of his hand," Gardenhire said. "He has a nice slider, and he threw a big curveball, and both were biting.

"We'll have to see him face some [big-league] lineups, but he's definitely one of the guys we're looking at to finish games."

Crain started last season at Class A Fort Myers in a setup role. Then, Beau Kemp, the closer at Class AA New Britain, was arrested for third-degree assault after fighting teammate Ronnie Corona in a parking lot at 4 a.m. The Twins responded by demoting both players to Class A.

Crain showed up in New Britain on May 6 and became the Rockcats' closer. He had nine saves, an ERA of 0.69 and an opponents' batting average of .099. On July 1, he was promoted again, to Class AAA Rochester. He had 10 saves, a 3.12 ERA and an opponents' batting average of .245 in two months there.

Crain will not turn 23 until July 5. He is entering his third minor league season -- and only his second full year occupied strictly as a pitcher.

Crain would start games at shortstop and then pitch in the late innings. This lasted from his Little League days until he completed his junior season at the University of Houston in the spring of 2002.

The Twins took Crain in the second round of the June 2002 draft because of his live arm. They didn't know how live that right arm was, until his radar-gun readings started climbing from 90 miles per hour to its current 95, 96, even 97.

"I started throwing harder when I stopped playing shortstop," Crain said. "I'm sure your whole body is a lot fresher when you haven't been playing in the field for seven, eight innings.

"I'm not a pitcher with a fluid delivery, but my mechanics are better -- I'm more consistent in my delivery -- since I started concentrating just on pitching."

Crain's non-fluid delivery could be one of his advantages as a pitcher. He's stocky. He cuts off his arm action close to his body. Those pitchers are referred to as "short-armers" by baseball people, and most aren't hard throwers.

"It's such a short-arm delivery . . . it's a timing thing," Gardenhire said. "Hitters are used to seeing a guy with a big windup, where they can sit back and get a little groove going. With his short-arm delivery, he's screwed up your timing, plus he's throwing 95."

Crain was born in Toronto, where his father was working a temporary assignment for his company. Jesse lived in Canada for a grand total of three months.

There's a mini-legend that Crain passed on a chance to pitch for Canada in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament. He wound up on Team USA, which was upset by Mexico in the semifinals -- giving the Olympic spots for North America to that country and Canada.

"I never heard a word from anyone from Team Canada," Crain said. "That's was just talk as far as I know. And, once I had a chance to play for Team USA, it wasn't an issue."

The most intriguing issue the Twins are dealing with this month is what the back end of the bullpen will look like without Eddie Guardado and LaTroy Hawkins.

Plan A is Joe Nathan as the closer and J.C. Romero setting up. That plan comes with an asterisk placed next to the name of Jesse Crain -- a notation that suggests, "Look out for this kid."

The curveball he threw to end Friday's exhibition might have put bolder ink on that asterisk, even if the knees that buckled did belong to a hitter named Andrew Beattie.