vikeinmontana wrote:the pitching started very mediocre and has since regressed to pretty awful. something has to give. pavano has our best era and even his is 3.58. lirianos is worse and baker and slowey are flirting with an era of 5! and don't even get me started on blackburn as last time i looked he was sitting around an era of 6.
this is certainly not a rotation that is going to win us games in the playoffs. hell, this may be a rotation that throws us right out of the playoffs. although i will disagree with one poster calling for gardenhire to be fired. that guy manages his butt off and i'm always amazed at the style of ball we play despite lackluster pitching. i'm just hoping morneau gets healthy and the all star break is just the rest our rotation needs to get something going. i'd be lying if i said i was overly optimistic right now but i'll still watch every game...afterall, i'm a fan of minnesota sports. this is nothing i'm not used to.
Gardenhire does have to go. So does Rick Anderson. Gardenhire's managing has cost us many games (the most recent example is the game against TB last weekend) because of his fear of pitching over (GASP) 100 pitches. There has never been any proof, nor any legitimate study done, that proves that 100 pitches is some sort of magic number. Liriano had TB on its heels, they were swinging wildly at pitches in the dirt, and more importatly, the Twins were winning 4-1. Then, Gardenhire in his infinite wisdom, took him out for an overused rookie (who has, admittedly pitched very well) and the first 3 batters crushed the ball. Then, he brings in a pitcher who, before the game, he was quoted as saying he wanted to gove one or two more games of rest because he was overused as well. Well lo and behold, a .178 hitter with 13 career HRs hits a grand slam to the deepest part of the ball park to put the Twins in a 8-4 hole. Had he left Liriano in, chances are the Twins would have won and split the very important series against probably the most comp[lete team in the AL.
Now, just about every game of this road trip thus far, his brilliant starters have given up at least 1 run in the first inning. Usually 2.
They need an entirely different rotation. I have faith in Liriano and Pavano, because the other three in the rotation are all the same, they are all Brad Radke's, only they can't hold Radke's jock right now. And that is frightening. Other teams have figures one out, and therefore all three (Baker, Slowey, Blackburn) and other teams only have to worry about scouting Liriano and as a result they have figured him out too. They have Swarzak in the minors, among others, that the worst that can happen is they do the same crap that the current rotation is.
Something has to be done, and I am sick of the Twins losing games the same way every day. Oh, and, when the Twins are down 13-3 in the 8th inning, Gardenhire will come out and argue some ticky-tack call and get ejected. That's real mature.
