Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/2): Diamond's Redemption?

[Steve Lein]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php/2925-Twins-Minor-League-Report-(5-2)-Diamond-s-Redemption

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'm more encouraged that Parmelee seems to have rediscovered his swing.

[Thrylos]

I'd be more excited about Gilmartin's than Diamond's performance. Diamond has fallen behind Johnson and Darnell at the LHSP chart for a good reason.

[kdrupp09]

I'd be more excited about Gilmartin's than Diamond's performance. Diamond has fallen behind Johnson and Darnell at the LHSP chart for a good reason.

 

Agreed! At this point, Diamond is AAA filler to make sure that Rochester has a couple stable pitchers while Darnell/Johnson/May/Meyer potentially get called up.

[Pitz]

Vargas has some very impressive numbers over the last 10 games:

.419/.514/.806 with 3 doubles and 3 homeruns.

Pretty good BB and K rates so far at AA as well.

One of the few bright spots for the Rock Cats so far this season.

I've been fairly skeptical of Vargas, but his early AA numbers are encouraging.

[Steve Lein]

I'd be more excited about Gilmartin's than Diamond's performance. Diamond has fallen behind Johnson and Darnell at the LHSP chart for a good reason.

 

I don't disagree with any of that. But I'll still take the stable 1-run performance over the schizophrenic one. Diamond could have pitched through the 8th with his pitch count (ended with 85, 56 for strikes). Gilmartin wasn't going any longer than 6 (96 pitches, 58 for strikes).

[Steven Buhr]

Agree, regardless of how you feel each pitcher is performing on the season or where they fit in the organization's pecking order, Diamond had the better performance and earned the pitcher of the day.

[Dantes929]

I'd be more excited about Gilmartin's than Diamond's performance. Diamond has fallen behind Johnson and Darnell at the LHSP chart for a good reason.

While I agree with that also and am not excited by Diamond's performance its not like he has a ceiling of AAA filler. His ceiling was weak #1 or very strong #2 because that is how he performed for an entire season. He may not reach that ceiling again and his position may be behind several guys in the depth charts and deservedly so but if he pitches his way up the ladder again, more power to him.

[Thegrin]

We need to remember that Diamond had surgery after his very good 2012 season. Who can say how long it takes for the body and mind to heal after they have been broken. The same goes for Pelfrey. Lets hope that Diamond (and Pelfrey) have a full recovery. Let us also hope that the Twins will profit from their patience.

[Thrylos]

While I agree with that also and am not excited by Diamond's performance its not like he has a ceiling of AAA filler. His ceiling was weak #1 or very strong #2 because that is how he performed for an entire season.

 

That entire season, two seasons ago, he performed as a weak number 4, strong number 5 for a contending team. Not like a top of a rotation pitcher. How many Cy Young award votes did he get? How many number one pitchers do you know who strike out 4.5 per 9 and have FIP around 4? Regardless what DickNBert called Diamond back then ("The Twins' Ace") and the illusions of the Twins' General Manager that one should build a staff around him, he is just that: a filler.

[Dantes929]

No proof there. How many Cy Young votes do most weak #1's or strong #2's get? That is hardly an indication that he does not qualify and neither do strikeouts. He was 14th in the American League in ERA with at least 160 innings right behind Jamie Shields and since there were only 14 teams maybe you can do the math to figure out why I said weak #1. He had an ERA of 3.54 which was better than Scherzer, Wilson, Darvish, Lester and Santana. If you do the math a weak # 4 would be the 64th best. As far as I can see there were only 39 pitchers that qualified and the 39th had a 5.77 ERA.

[ashbury]

If you do the math a weak # 4 would be the 64th best.

 

See, that's where the quick back-of-the-envelope calculation starts to fail and can mislead. You're counting down the list of pitchers who pitch enough innings in a given year, but there aren't that many to round out all the rotations. There's other problems as well, but that one stands out.

[Mike Sixel]

Also, some teams have no number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 quality starting pitchers (like a certain team last year....well, they had a 3/4)

[Mr. Brooks]

No proof there. How many Cy Young votes do most weak #1's or strong #2's get? That is hardly an indication that he does not qualify and neither do strikeouts. He was 14th in the American League in ERA with at least 160 innings right behind Jamie Shields and since there were only 14 teams maybe you can do the math to figure out why I said weak #1. He had an ERA of 3.54 which was better than Scherzer, Wilson, Darvish, Lester and Santana. If you do the math a weak # 4 would be the 64th best. As far as I can see there were only 39 pitchers that qualified and the 39th had a 5.77 ERA.

 

Why are you judging him based solely on one metric (ERA), and one metric alone?