How would you shake up the pitching?

Working simply with the pitchers that we've got under contract already, what (if anything) would you do to mix it up to try and make the best of what we've got?



Here's my ideas:

Bring up Scott Diamond or Cole Devries, and give them a shot in the rotation. If the first one tanks, swap them

Put Swarzak in the rotation and move Blackburn to the bullpen to be long relief. Make him our "mop-up" guy who comes in when we're down 7 runs in the second inning. Use him at least every 2 or 3 days, so we can finally see if there is any truth to Bert's frequent assertion that he sometimes struggles because he is "too strong" when he rests too long.

Send Maloney to AAA (or lose him on waivers, who really cares?)

Trade Capps for whatever you can get for him.

Make Liriano the new Closer. It seems like he's good for one lights out inning each game....so why do we keep letting him try to pitch more than that? If he whines about it, tell him he can be the closer or rot in the bullpen, his choice.

Remind Duensing and Perkins that they are supposed to be the stable veterans in the bullpen, and that they need to step up.



This wouldn't nesc. be permanent changes, but who knows, maybe some of these things might kick these guys in the pants. Plus it would let us get back to a 4-man bench

The Twins pitching will be fine. Why wreck everthing now, the wins will start coming.

Far too hasty to remove Blackburn from the rotation. Mark my words: at season's end, he'll have the best numbers of any Twins starter.

Also, Duensing has been doing his job. Left-handers hitting .188 against him. Gardy simply needs to do a better job of limiting his exposure to righties.

I'd shake it up by leaving Liriano in the rotation until he gets his head out of his a**. If we can ever get some performance out of him (and there is still hope) then I don't believe it's all doom and gloom. Marquis did his job tonight, Pavano will get his innings in and I agree that Blackburn will lead this staff by years end.

Yes very wishful thinking but possible with the way this team can score runs.

Uggh, talk about rearranging deck charges on the Titanic! I see no benefit to moving Swarzak to the rotation, he's the same kind of guy we already have there. Blackburn has shown the ability to get hot for a month at a time in the past, we are going to have to keep running him out there and hope for the best. I'd like to see Diamond and Devries continue to perform at AAA for another month or 2 before bringing either of them up, but I don't have confidence that either of them will be much of an upgrade. I'm not against the idea of trying Liriano as closer, I think that he'd be successful there. It's just hard to swallow, since if he's effective he is so much more valuable as a starter. I'd give him another couple starts to see if his time off helped, and if not, flip him to the pen. So, not to be too negative, but the lack of activity in the offseason has really tied the Twins hands. I have serious doubts that there is anything they can do with current personnel that will make much of a difference. I'm hoping some of these guys start performing better and that will probably happen and in all likelihood that's probably the best that can happen.

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Originally Posted by Top Gun

The Twins pitching will be fine. Why wreck everthing now, the wins will start coming.

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Please explain, "wreck everything". Twins pitching is absolutely horrible right now, how could you wreck it more than it already is wrecked?

Trade Pavano, Marquis, and Capps. Bring up Diamond... and some other guys.

Any way you shake it up, the pitching will be bad.

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It seems like he's good for one lights out inning each game.

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Yeah, but you don't know which one it's going to be.

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Originally Posted by Nick Nelson

Far too hasty to remove Blackburn from the rotation. Mark my words: at season's end, he'll have the best numbers of any Twins starter.

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Agreed. I would have said second best at season's start, and I'm still holding some hope that it'll turn around for Liriano...but...well, we know the buts. I could see Pavano, Marquis, and Blackie having really similar lines for the year, but I've got my money on Blackburn to pull to the front.

I've often thought that Liriano should be as closer. Think of all the head-cases who have been effective closers - From the "Mad Hungarian" to a Papfelbon stare to K-Rod to our own Jeff Reardon and more, baseball history is full of headcases who have been successful closers (and even more that couldn't do the job because of being a headcase). Maybe, it's time for Frankie to take his talent to a different role. Have Matt capps move to right-handed set-up guy. Bring up Scott Diamond to be a lefty starter (although I'm not very excited with that) and see what happens. There have to be consequences for bad performance.

I'm not sure there's a lot the Twins can do. Unless they get injured, Pavano, Blackburn and Marquis will stay in the rotation. Hendriks is a rookie and, at some point, might need to be sent down like Baker was. I think we'll end up giving 30-40 starts to Swarzak, Diamond, French or Deduno type guys. They'll play the 'hot hand' for a few weeks and when the league catches back up to them, replace them with someone else.

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Originally Posted by jeffk

Yeah, but you don't know which one it's going to be.

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You can almost always count on the first inning being his best over the last two seasons. This year he has yet to give up an earned run and his K/BB rate is 5/1 in the first. Joe Madden and Tony LaRusa would have already put Liriano in the back end of the bull pen if not outright given him at least an attemt to close.

If Liriano is turned closer and performs well his trade value greatly increases. If he can't cut it, who cares? Capps can't cut it either.

By the neck. Vigorously.

Good question to which there is no easy answer., don't see great options at the moment.

I don't buy the Liriano-as-closer idea. He has closer's stuff, but I'm not convinced he could ever develop a closer's mentality. But if he keeps getting shelled, he's going to have to be pulled from the rotation.

I think Pavano and Marquis will be OK, at least good enough to eat up some innings without lettiing the game get out of hand.

Tonight's start from Blackburn was an improvement, hopefully he and Hendriks can get better.

Giving Diamond a shot may be the best short-term option. I assume the front office is keeping a close eye on the waiver wire, might be able to grab someone there worth taking a flyer on.

You're probably not going to get much in a trade now but if the Twins are out of it as we approach the deadline, Pavano and Marquis should both be dangled. By then you'll have contenders looking for pitching help. They might not get you a great return, but at least there should be more options.

Didn't Blackburn have two or three good starts before having the clunker against Boston? Like it or not, Pavano, Blackburn, Marquis are our "big three" and we need them to eat innings and give us a chance to win. I think Hendricks will be all right. I think tonight could be Liriano's last start as a Twin as well as Pujols first HR as an Angel.

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Originally Posted by nokomismod

Didn't Blackburn have two or three good starts before having the clunker against Boston? Like it or not, Pavano, Blackburn, Marquis are our "big three" and we need them to eat innings and give us a chance to win. I think Hendricks will be all right. I think tonight could be Liriano's last start as a Twin as well as Pujols first HR as an Angel.

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I agrree. Keep Pavano, Blackburn, Marquis in the rotation. Mix in Diamond sometime soon....The day Liriano is no longer a twin, is the day this team starts to turn it around.