Article: Twins Take a Hard Turn With Deduno

[Brock Beauchamp]

Walters should get Worley's spot. Albers should be the 6th starter.

 

What on earth makes anyone think that Walters is going to be a better pitcher than Worley?

 

The guy is three years older than Worley, has a very pedestrian minor league track record, and has a pretty spotty track record (mostly bad) in limited MLB innings.

 

Worley is the only guy in the rotation who should have a lengthy leash at this point (along with Diamond, obviously). Yes, he's been bad. But he's still only 25 and has a pretty good MLB track record and he's getting completely hosed in the luck department this season.

 

Replacing him with Walters solves nothing in the long-term and probably solves nothing in the short-term, to boot. It's the kind of "win 70 games NOW" move that the Twins shouldn't even consider in 2013.

[spideyo]

At AAA this season:

 

Start 1 - 5.1 innings - 4 Ks, 4 BB, 5 hits, 0 ER, 100 pitches

Start 2 - 5.2 innings - 5 Ks, 4 BB, 4 hits, 1 ER, 99 pitches

Start 3 - 6.1 innings - 8 Ks, 2 BB, 5 hits, 4 ER, 93 pitches

 

He had little to no success last season:

 

6.5 K/9

6.0 BB/9

4.44 ERA, 1.544 WHIP

15 starts - 79 innings

 

The WBC was an exhibition and he made three starts, totaling 13 innings.

 

Little to no success? He was second on the team in wins, third on the team in H/9 (behind only Burton an Perkins), 2nd on the team and above league average for QS%.

 

His high walk rate certainly inflates a lot of the stats, but from actually watching the games, he did pretty well. Part of what makes him exciting to watch is that he defies traditional pitching logic. With his walk rate and wildness, his state "should" be a whole lot worse. For better or worse, he was either the second or third best starter last year, depending on how you feel about DeVries

[spideyo]

How is it rushing? If he's healthy at the start of the year, he's already on the roster. he's going to be 26 this year. How is pitching in AAA less impactful to his arm? Or are you suggesting he's not mentally ready?

 

Yes, I'm suggesting he isn't mentally ready.

 

As far as getting shelled by Detroit, they are leading the AL in hits, runs, BA, OPB, and 4th in SLG and TB. There is a decent chance ANY pitcher we throw out there will get shelled by Detroit.

[jay]

Deduno may not be a pure strikeout pitcher but he's legitimately tough to hit, and that's been true everywhere -- minors/majors/whatever. He might pitch to contact when he's not issuing walks but he doesn't pitch to hard contact. In contrast to the current suspects, that intrigues me.

 

Painful/funny part is, that's exactly how you're supposed to be able to describe those current suspects with all those sinkers and groundballs... but that sure hasn't turned out so well.

[mikelink45]

I am fascinated with this discussion. The complaint is that Gibson does not put enough good games together in consecutive starts. Look at the Twins starters - if we could get one to have a good game every other start we would consider them the team ace. Get Gibson up here, use his arm up if we need to and bridge the big gap between what we have and what we need to win.

[Brad Swanson]

Little to no success? He was second on the team in wins, third on the team in H/9 (behind only Burton an Perkins), 2nd on the team and above league average for QS%.

 

His high walk rate certainly inflates a lot of the stats, but from actually watching the games, he did pretty well. Part of what makes him exciting to watch is that he defies traditional pitching logic. With his walk rate and wildness, his state "should" be a whole lot worse. For better or worse, he was either the second or third best starter last year, depending on how you feel about DeVries

 

Well, I don't really care about wins because I am a stereotype, but you could make the opposite argument that his stats should be worse because of the walks but he was lucky and they will regress. I don't know which side is correct, but either option is at least equally likely right now.

[spideyo]

I'm just really hoping he turns out to be the next RA Dickey kind of story. A pitcher who defies conventional logic, and turns into a great pitcher far later than should ever happen

[Willihammer]

I can wait for Gibson. It won't be long before his turn is up

This Sunday at the pace we're going

[Riverbrian]

At AAA this season:

 

Start 1 - 5.1 innings - 4 Ks, 4 BB, 5 hits, 0 ER, 100 pitches

Start 2 - 5.2 innings - 5 Ks, 4 BB, 4 hits, 1 ER, 99 pitches

Start 3 - 6.1 innings - 8 Ks, 2 BB, 5 hits, 4 ER, 93 pitches

 

He had little to no success last season:

 

6.5 K/9

6.0 BB/9

4.44 ERA, 1.544 WHIP

15 starts - 79 innings

 

The WBC was an exhibition and he made three starts, totaling 13 innings.

 

I'd love to have a 4.44 ERA on the 2013 team right now.

[Willihammer]

It will be refreshing to finally watch someone throw a pitch that spins