Remember When the Twins Had Too Much Starting Pitching?

[KirbyDome89]

On 5/10/2026 at 9:43 AM, thelanges5 said:

Too many names to list, but we’ve averaged 8 to 9 starting pitchers each season for the past four. 

As a pretty damn healthy rotation/pen too. Depth is way overblown around here.

[KirbyDome89]

On 5/10/2026 at 12:14 PM, Nshore said:

"Depth" is pretty meaningless if the next man up on the mound can't do the job - unless you're looking to increase your depth in the standings.  The phrase that applies to mutual funds applies to Minor League records- "Past performance is not an indicator of future (Major League) returns".  How many proven pitchers?  As many as humanly possible.

Nobody has pitchers with proven MLB track records on retainer in AAA. 

I do agree with the bolded though. People have been crowing about "depth," for a while now, and many of those guys ended up being fringe at best. 

[JD-TWINS]

On 5/10/2026 at 1:54 PM, Mike Sixel said:

Given that zero teams have eight good starters, I'd guess humanly possible is less than that. 

Agree! Most Teams struggle to field FOUR “good” starters!!

[JD-TWINS]

5 hours ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Nobody has pitchers with proven MLB track records on retainer in AAA. 

I do agree with the bolded though. People have been crowing about "depth," for a while now, and many of those guys ended up being fringe at best. 

Similar …… to the fabulous OF depth. “Trade Larnach - don’t pay him” …… “……Larnach is BLOCKING the youngsters………….Let Wallner DH and bring up two young guys to play the Corner Outfield spots!” ……. “F.O. is clueless keeping Slow Footed Larnach with all the DEPTH they have at AAA”

All 3 OF “depth pieces” are on the IL and none of them are setting the world on fire………..and to add insult to injury, the would be DH, Wallner, is having the worst 7 week stretch imaginable!!!

[nicksaviking]

On 5/10/2026 at 2:52 PM, Riverbrian said:

Whenever I accidentally trip and fall into one of those greatest of all time questions. 

I always say... I don't know but whoever he is. He's playing right now. 

Babe Ruth would have never seen a 90 MPH Slider.

The game has indeed dialed up. 

Yeah, evolution is undefeated.. 
 

Fortunately those ‘greatest ever’ debates seem to have tapered off with more recent generations.

[Riverbrian]

3 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Yeah, evolution is undefeated.. 
 

Fortunately those ‘greatest ever’ debates seem to have tapered off with more recent generations.

I want to know what generation is generating all these fake AI videos that are infecting my social media feeds. 

 

[nicksaviking]

22 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

NO he would be out of TC organization baseball because he gets/got outs.

Nobody pitches for 20 years throwing 88 MPH any longer. Not even five years. It’s unsustainable.

[nicksaviking]

10 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I want to know what generation is generating all these fake AI videos that are infecting my social media feeds. 

 

Certainly could be user algorithm bias on my end. I don’t see too many top ten lists since I stopped watching ESPN live eight hours ago day and David Letterman retired.

To me it seemed like a prior generation obsession. But I can see how it could be the easiest thing for an AI bot to generate.

[Major League Ready]

9 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Similar …… to the fabulous OF depth. “Trade Larnach - don’t pay him” …… “……Larnach is BLOCKING the youngsters………….Let Wallner DH and bring up two young guys to play the Corner Outfield spots!” ……. “F.O. is clueless keeping Slow Footed Larnach with all the DEPTH they have at AAA”

All 3 OF “depth pieces” are on the IL and none of them are setting the world on fire………..and to add insult to injury, the would be DH, Wallner, is having the worst 7 week stretch imaginable!!!

If the goal is to go from 70 wins to 73 wins, then yes, keeping Larnach makes sense.  He is not at all important if your goal is to build a 90-win team.  For those of us who think these half measures generally produce mediocrity or less, it does not matter if Larnach is here to get us to 73 or 75 wins.  It just takes up a roster spot that could be used to audition players that could contribute to building a contender.

We also don’t know if Rodriguez or Jenkins would be hurt if they had been brought up.  We do know that Rodriguez would not have made the slide into 1B that got him hurt and Jenkins would not have run into the wall on the play that got him hurt.