Thursday, June 22, 2006
The Future Looks Bright
I'm not exactly sure where to begin, since I have about a million Twins-related things to talk about.
Maybe I wasn't jinxing the team when I titled a recent post Turnaround time for the Twins? Of course, with the White Sox and Tigers continuing to play so well, a playoff berth this year is still unlikely. Regardless, having the young core of this team gell and play decent baseball is a win-win situation.
Maybe Ron Gardenhire heard all the Twins' bloggers calling for his head, or maybe Terry Ryan just shortened his leash. It makes you wonder, though. If the Twins had started the season with Bartlett at SS, anyone but Batista at 3B, and Liriano in the rotation (all moves many of us considered painfully obvious), would there be a 3-way race for the division right now? Maybe not quite, since Radke, Silva, Crain, and others got off to such a horrendous start. I guarantee the team wouldn't be 11 1/2 games behind Detroit, however.
The other major mistakes?
Gardy hasn't all of a sudden become a smart manager, though. What was Lohse doing pitching in an important situation last night?
It sounds like Torii Hunter wants to remain with the team- he's mentioned wanting to play in the new ballpark. While I previously endorsed trading him this year, I've changed my opinion. He does remain a player whose trade value is probably much higher than he's actually worth, and I don't want to see the Twins paying him his $12 million option next year.
However, he's the one Twin that all the little kids look up to, he still plays very good defense in center, and he brings some emotion to a team with a lot of mellow young dudes (Mauer, Morneau, Santana, etc.). Oh yeah- he get a big hit every now and then, too. If they can restructure an affordable deal with him, and if he promises to never throw a punch at Morneau again, I'd be in favor of holding onto Torii. Who's our other CF option? Ford? Way too inconsistent. Denard Span's hitting decently in AA, but he may never make the leap.
I had jotted down a bunch more Johan Santana stats the other day, marvelling at how well he's pitched, and what an incredible season he may end up having. Most of these numbers, jotted on various scraps of paper, don't make sense to me anymore, but there are a few interesting things. In his past 11 starts, look what he's done:
79 IP / 60 H / 7 BB / 91 K / 20 ER / 2.28 ERA / .848 WHIP
That's 10.37 strikeouts/ 9 innings pitched, and only .78 BB/9 IP! If he can keep that walk rate low, there's no telling what he can do.
Right now, Santana is on pace for stats very similar to his '04 and '05 seasons. However, he seems to have heated up earlier this year. In 2004 and 2005, his numbers from July onward are absolutely sick:
1.63 ERA * .838 WHIP * 13.48 K/9IP * 1.92 BB/9IP
If he stays true to form, and finishes strong, his 2006 totals will be absolutely incredible. Of course, if he doesn't lead the league in victories, John Kruk won't think he deserves the Cy Young Award.
A couple things that will be fun to watch:
Clemens vs. Liriano, obviously.
Torii Hunter is 0-23 with 13 Ks vs. the Rockett in his career. It would be nice to see him jack one!
Mauer vs. Prior this weekend. Although Prior may have helped the Twins win a World Series, it's safe to say that we made the right pick.
Maybe I wasn't jinxing the team when I titled a recent post Turnaround time for the Twins? Of course, with the White Sox and Tigers continuing to play so well, a playoff berth this year is still unlikely. Regardless, having the young core of this team gell and play decent baseball is a win-win situation.
Maybe Ron Gardenhire heard all the Twins' bloggers calling for his head, or maybe Terry Ryan just shortened his leash. It makes you wonder, though. If the Twins had started the season with Bartlett at SS, anyone but Batista at 3B, and Liriano in the rotation (all moves many of us considered painfully obvious), would there be a 3-way race for the division right now? Maybe not quite, since Radke, Silva, Crain, and others got off to such a horrendous start. I guarantee the team wouldn't be 11 1/2 games behind Detroit, however.
The other major mistakes?
- Offering Lohse arbitration (he actually had some trade value this off-season!)
- Continuing to jerk around Kubel and Cuddyer. Gardy is so crazy. He often prefers crappy veterans like Juan Castro to talented young players. But then he'll give someone like Kubel an incredibly important at-bat in the playoffs. Kubel was coming off major knee surgery, and most people assumed he'd start the season in AAA. Meanwhile, Cuddyer tore the cover off the ball in spring training. So Gardy annoints Kubel the starting RF, and Cuddyer gets a total of 4 starts and 22 plate appearances in the first 14 games of the season. It's amazing that Bartlett, Cuddyer, and Kubel are all doing so well, after the way Gardy's messed with their confidence over the past few years.
"I'll talk to Shannon about it," Gardenhire said. "But we're looking to probably to DH him and maybe spot play [in left field] here and there when he comes back to protect him, before he hurts himself out on the AstroTurf."Stewart has been a defensive liability in the outfield for 2 1/2 seasons now. Add to that his injury history, and it's been a no-brainer for a while now.
Gardy hasn't all of a sudden become a smart manager, though. What was Lohse doing pitching in an important situation last night?
It sounds like Torii Hunter wants to remain with the team- he's mentioned wanting to play in the new ballpark. While I previously endorsed trading him this year, I've changed my opinion. He does remain a player whose trade value is probably much higher than he's actually worth, and I don't want to see the Twins paying him his $12 million option next year.
However, he's the one Twin that all the little kids look up to, he still plays very good defense in center, and he brings some emotion to a team with a lot of mellow young dudes (Mauer, Morneau, Santana, etc.). Oh yeah- he get a big hit every now and then, too. If they can restructure an affordable deal with him, and if he promises to never throw a punch at Morneau again, I'd be in favor of holding onto Torii. Who's our other CF option? Ford? Way too inconsistent. Denard Span's hitting decently in AA, but he may never make the leap.
I had jotted down a bunch more Johan Santana stats the other day, marvelling at how well he's pitched, and what an incredible season he may end up having. Most of these numbers, jotted on various scraps of paper, don't make sense to me anymore, but there are a few interesting things. In his past 11 starts, look what he's done:
79 IP / 60 H / 7 BB / 91 K / 20 ER / 2.28 ERA / .848 WHIP
That's 10.37 strikeouts/ 9 innings pitched, and only .78 BB/9 IP! If he can keep that walk rate low, there's no telling what he can do.
Right now, Santana is on pace for stats very similar to his '04 and '05 seasons. However, he seems to have heated up earlier this year. In 2004 and 2005, his numbers from July onward are absolutely sick:
1.63 ERA * .838 WHIP * 13.48 K/9IP * 1.92 BB/9IP
If he stays true to form, and finishes strong, his 2006 totals will be absolutely incredible. Of course, if he doesn't lead the league in victories, John Kruk won't think he deserves the Cy Young Award.
A couple things that will be fun to watch:
Clemens vs. Liriano, obviously.
Torii Hunter is 0-23 with 13 Ks vs. the Rockett in his career. It would be nice to see him jack one!
Mauer vs. Prior this weekend. Although Prior may have helped the Twins win a World Series, it's safe to say that we made the right pick.
