Duran, starter?

[Mike Sixel]

Would anyone consider moving Duran or Stewart back to starting?

I'm fairly sure I would not .... But it crossed my mind today....

[gunnarthor]

I would but they won't. His max innings in any season was something like 125 and he's coming off an injury. Even though he was a starter in the minors, they won't risk this. (I actually thought they should have seen what his trade value was last year). 

[Hrbowski]

11 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Would anyone consider moving Duran or Stewart back to starting?

I'm fairly sure I would not .... But it crossed my mind today....

I think Griffin Jax has a better chance of starting than either of those two.  Duran would take months to build up as a starter coming back from injury. Stewart's current pitch mix isn't good enough to start IMO.

[DJL44]

The starters are pitching 4 innings every 5 days. The relievers are pitching 2 innings every 3 days. Not that different.

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

The starters are pitching 4 innings every 5 days. The relievers are pitching 2 innings every 3 days. Not that different.

I'd be down with Stewart pitching that much, but he isn't, is he?

[nicksaviking]

I would not. Hard to see either being able to go more than 4 innings without offseason build up, and with those fewer innings and them no longer in the pen, that would tax the remaining relievers even further.

I want the Twins to win, but I wrote of a championship when they failed to get another top of the rotation arm. They might still be respectable enough to make a run to the playoffs (but not in the playoffs), but if not, hopefully it leads to big changes in coaching, player acquisition and the stupid take-two-strikes-before-swinging philosophy.

[Mike Sixel]

7 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I would not. Hard to see either being able to go more than 4 innings without offseason build up, and with those fewer innings and them no longer in the pen, that would tax the remaining relievers even further.

I want the Twins to win, but I wrote of a championship when they failed to get another top of the rotation arm. They might still be respectable enough to make a run to the playoffs (but not in the playoffs), but if not, hopefully it leads to big changes in coaching, player acquisition and the stupid take-two-strikes-before-swinging philosophy.

I think that's why I wouldn't also....it isn't a championship team and I'm willing to risk injury for these two w/o that being the case......but I'm bored with the same old topics (and general negativity) on the site....

[DJL44]

45 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'd be down with Stewart pitching that much, but he isn't, is he?

I think it is much more reasonable to try to get 2 innings out of Stewart when he relieves than to try to get 4 innings out of him as a starter.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

You might already have seen, the San Francisco Giants moved Jordan Hicks to the rotation this season.

The current Giants front office is no longer the same people who won those World Series in 2010-2014 but they are highly regarded. 

Obviously we’ve seen guys do it in the past. It worked for Smoltz going back to the rotation, not so well for Aguilera.

As far as Jordan Hicks, he has dialed back his fastball from 99-102 as a reliever, to about 95-98 this year as a starter. Otherwise I don’t know much else about the project.

[Mike Sixel]

2 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

You might already have seen, the San Francisco Giants moved Jordan Hicks to the rotation this season.

The current Giants front office is no longer the same people who won those World Series in 2010-2014 but they are highly regarded. 

Obviously we’ve seen guys do it in the past. It worked for Smoltz going back to the rotation, not so well for Aguilera.

As far as Jordan Hicks, he has dialed back his fastball from 99-102 as a reliever, to about 95-98 this year as a starter. Otherwise I don’t know much else about the project.

He's the one that made me think this was possible....

[Woof Bronzer]

I like the creative thinking....my fear would be that Duran's arm would explode after two starts because I just don't trust the Twins to manage him safely through a significant ramp up.  But it's probably past time for new and different thinking so I hope the FO is thinking about creative ways to dig out of this mess.  

[Cap'n Piranha]

1 hour ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

You might already have seen, the San Francisco Giants moved Jordan Hicks to the rotation this season.

The current Giants front office is no longer the same people who won those World Series in 2010-2014 but they are highly regarded. 

Obviously we’ve seen guys do it in the past. It worked for Smoltz going back to the rotation, not so well for Aguilera.

As far as Jordan Hicks, he has dialed back his fastball from 99-102 as a reliever, to about 95-98 this year as a starter. Otherwise I don’t know much else about the project.

Reynaldo Lopez is doing the same thing with Atlanta.  As for Hicks, it's worked for 4 starts and 23 IP; those 4 starts include one in Petco, one against the Nats, and one against the Fish--it's not like he's run into the Braves, Dodgers, or Phillies yet.

[Cap'n Piranha]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I think that's why I wouldn't also....it isn't a championship team and I'm willing to risk injury for these two w/o that being the case......but I'm bored with the same old topics (and general negativity) on the site....

Here's an interesting topic for you!

With 13 man staffs, why not move to only 4 starters, who are asked to get through only 4 innings (pitch count would be capped right around 75, which would ultimately determine the length of the start).  Four relievers would be set up as guys who would pitch two to three innings every three to four days, and the remaining five relievers would be traditional one inning guys.  You would allow your starters to throw harder, making them more effective.  You'd have better depth, with 4 other guys who can be ramped up to starter workloads within one or two appearances.

Thoughts?

[USAFChief]

No. Hell no. You have a successful player. Highly successful. And you want to change that?

Also "no" to the previous 127 times someone posted this.

[LA Vikes Fan]

4 hours ago, Hrbowski said:

I think Griffin Jax has a better chance of starting than either of those two.  Duran would take months to build up as a starter coming back from injury. Stewart's current pitch mix isn't good enough to start IMO.

As an interesting idea since Jax doesn't appear to be the world's greatest reliever, and is a lousy closer as we saw today. I would not be opposed at all to them sending Jax to AAA to get a couple starts in and build up his innings, call up SWR to be the fifth starter, and put Varland in the bullpen. I see it is Louie Varland number two closer.

[jkcarew]

No. In hindsight, there was probably a better argument for it if they had made such a decision early in the offseason…when they decided they weren’t going after anyone to replace Gray (or Maeda). Tough to do in-season as you have to replace the bullpen innings lost, at the same time you’re probably giving up starter innings as you ramp the guy up.

[KirbyDome89]

Stewart hasn't show he can handle a relief workload. Let sleeping dogs lie. 

Duran? Eh, Idk. I wouldn't revolt, but they should be able to find a starter capable of giving them what Duran could if he were to be converted. Why potentially eliminate one debt just to incur another? 

[Schmoeman5]

Duran as a starter. Nope. I don't even like him going multiple innings.  He has and he can do it. But it sure seems as if there is a big drop-off in performance when he does so. Let's get him healthy so he can close games if the Twins can ever get the lead.

[lecroy24fan]

If you even consider it, you don't do it in the middle of the season. you give them an offseason to prepare.

[CRF]

No, no, no!

[FilthyMogwai]

This was already discussed on these boards this offseason

[Mike Sixel]

37 minutes ago, FilthyMogwai said:

This was already discussed on these boards this offseason

 

[TwinsDr2021]

16 hours ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Here's an interesting topic for you!

With 13 man staffs, why not move to only 4 starters, who are asked to get through only 4 innings (pitch count would be capped right around 75, which would ultimately determine the length of the start).  Four relievers would be set up as guys who would pitch two to three innings every three to four days, and the remaining five relievers would be traditional one inning guys.  You would allow your starters to throw harder, making them more effective.  You'd have better depth, with 4 other guys who can be ramped up to starter workloads within one or two appearances.

Thoughts?

If the goal is drive more fans away from the game, this would be a wonderful idea. If you have guys that are good enough to pitch 6 to 7 innings fairly consistently and you intentionally cap them at 4 innings a time, doesn't seem like a great idea IMO. Imagine paying a Lopez 21 million next year to start 40 games go 160 innings and be like 0 - 13. Can't imagine he would be happy and I can't imagine and decent minor league pitching prospect would be too thrilled to be in that type of organization. But hey ideas like this that reduces player salaries might get you a job for the Twins.

[TwinsDr2021]

@Mike Sixel

Honest question what part don't you like?

The fans not liking it?

Reducing Pablo's (and your best pitchers)  innings from 180 to 200 down at least to 160?

Paying really good pitchers to pitch less?

Thinking prospects and their agents will go for it?

Or coming up with ideas that will at minimum reduce the pitching side of the payroll.

or the sarcasm?

[Mike Sixel]

9 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

@Mike Sixel

Honest question what part don't you like?

The fans not liking it?

Reducing Pablo's (and your best pitchers)  innings from 180 to 200 down at least to 160?

Paying really good pitchers to pitch less?

Thinking prospects and their agents will go for it?

Or coming up with ideas that will at minimum reduce the pitching side of the payroll.

or the sarcasm?

Sarcasm. The fans part. The general just got in the way of me being tired of the negativity on the site making me annoyed with so many posts. I get it. They stink right now. But constant negativity isn't going to help anyone, on the team, or more importantly, on the site. Your post got in the way of me being tired of this site right now. 

[bean5302]

Yes. 100% I'd like the Twins to try it. Duran's value as a reliever is limited to about 1/3rd of that as a successful starter. I think they'd have to start him off as a 2 inning closer.

Johan Santana was a successful reliever before he was the best starter in MLB. 

[ashbury]

On 4/17/2024 at 8:15 AM, DJL44 said:

The starters are pitching 4 innings every 5 days.

The Twins are right about league average so far in 2024 with 5.1 innings per start.  Last season of course they were nearly at the top of the majors in innings per start.  This canard that Rocco pulls his starters lightly just won't die.  With a collective ERA among his 2024 starters that is 29th out of 30 teams, one could make the argument that he's been unnecessarily patient with them.

[Twodogs]

It's kind of a neat idea, but I don't think it would be a good idea to try to do this mid season.  I think this has to be discussed in September so the player has the off-season to train for it, and spring training to ramp up.  This isnt the first time Jordan Hicks has been tried as a starter.  

[sampleSizeOfOne]

I would like to see him get a chance to start, but more in consideration to him as a player as i think way back when he voiced a desire to start.

 

I wouldn't want to upset the team dynamics to do it, whatever they may be.

 

And probably do it to fill a need what didn't have any better options.

 

Oh well. Woe is me he likely won't get to even start starting...

[h2oface]

Strider did it.