Comments on: Just Winging It: The 2012 Minnesota Twins Starting Rotation http://knuckleballsblog.com/2012/07/29/just-winging-it-the-2012-minnesota-twins-starting-rotation/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=just-winging-it-the-2012-minnesota-twins-starting-rotation "Like butterflies with hiccups" Sat, 18 May 2013 04:17:30 +0000 hourly 1 By: Eric Pleiss http://knuckleballsblog.com/2012/07/29/just-winging-it-the-2012-minnesota-twins-starting-rotation/#comment-17094 Eric Pleiss Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:33:45 +0000 http://knuckleballsblog.com/?p=13125#comment-17094 Was reasonable to expect more out of Baker. And reasonable to expect Pavano to give the Twins more innings, but he gave up 4.99 runs per 9 innings last season. Some of that was bad defense, but a lot of that is on him as well.
There was hope in April when the team broke camp, but it was a lot of “best case scenario” hope. This season has certainly been far from that.
They hoped Blackburn would be better, hoped Marquis would return to form, hoped Pavano could avoid showing his age, hoped Liriano would be great again, and hoped that someone in the minor leagues would be able to pitch well.
Certainly you have to work with a lot of hope when payroll is cut almost 20%, but with hindsight being what it is, not looking for some additional starting pitchers, even Minor League free agent types has been very unfortunate.

]]> By: Jim Crikket http://knuckleballsblog.com/2012/07/29/just-winging-it-the-2012-minnesota-twins-starting-rotation/#comment-17091 Jim Crikket Sun, 29 Jul 2012 17:05:28 +0000 http://knuckleballsblog.com/?p=13125#comment-17091 In fairness, while the Zumaya injury was predictable (and thus why Zumaya was available on the cheap), it was reasonable for the Twins to expect more out of Scott Baker and Carl Pavano. Keep in mind, also, that for all the problems they’ve had with the rotation, they’ve been playing .500 ball since May. If Liriano hadn’t had such an atrocious April, we might be having a slightly different discussion now.

The Twins needed a more formidable arm at the top of the rotation and most of us said so very loudly last offseason. The Twins felt Baker was that guy.

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