MIN 5, SDP 2: Don’t Need a Closer When You’ve Got Erv

At this point I do not understand why Bartolo Colon is taking starts away from potential starting pitchers for this team. It makes no sense, even if rookies from AAA and AA are not as effective as the cagey old veteran. You still need to get some rookie feet wet by pouring coffee on them. Who cares if Colon can fool hitters for three innings with an amazing drifting two-seamer, then get pounded after that? I want to see if Slegers can get a few big league hitters out. I want to see Gonsalves, Romero, Garver, etc. 

Bring on the kiddie parade!

Excellent headline(s) for the last two days.  You gotta love Erv.  For some reason it was really refreshing to see a different lead off hitter.  Does Dozier have the record for lead off homers yet?  Can we move on from that?

Absolutely! Some of Slegers numbers are pedestrian, some are solid. The run he is on the last 8 games should have people screaming for a chance...or two...or three...etc. he's still 24 for a month, in his first season of AAA ball and performing well. He is not a journeyman picked up on the waiver wire. (No offense to anyone). 12-4 at AAA with 85 SO in 118 IP. You have to take a look don't you?

In a word, yes.

Excellent headline(s) for the last two days. You gotta love Erv. For some reason it was really refreshing to see a different lead off hitter. Does Dozier have the record for lead off homers yet? Can we move on from that?

I think he has the Twins record. I think he's about 50 behind Rickey's all time record.

It seems we have some players playing out of position. Santana should be our DH and our back up catcher in the pen....

Hard to say.   One has to wonder, at least a tiny bit, if the Twins were reluctant to part with Santana due to his team control and that drove up any potential asking price.

Molitor looks really stressed to me, wonder if, he knows something......

Can Santana win 20 games this year?

And if he does, will we still insult with him "Oh, he's just a #3" threads?

Can Santana win 20 games this year?

And if he does, will we still insult with him "Oh, he's just a #3" threads?

Going to be tough when he already has 7 losses and has a pattern of crapping the bed every 2nd or 3rd start. I'd peg him around 17 wins. Still very good but not a #1 for a contender if that's what you're implying. He plays up to that level at times but the differentiator is consistency. There's a reason his FIP is 4.81 and career ERA is 4.08. He's a very solid #3 that can play up and pass as a #2 for stretches. If the league saw him as more than that then he'd have had a much hotter trade market. Teams would kill to get a true #1/#2 pitcher for only $14 million per year.

If he gets to 20 wins can we complain about him getting hosed if he doesn't get the Cy Young if Chris Sale wins it with a mere 16 wins?

I hope Ervin makes it a little tough on the voters by pitching 2 more complete games and getting the 20 wins.

Does Dozier have the record for lead off homers yet?  Can we move on from that?

I tried looking this up out of curiosity, but I couldn't find the full list.

However, I did find out one thing... Paul Molitor has 33 career leadoff HRs, good for 12th place on the all-time list.

Going to be tough when he already has 7 losses and has a pattern of crapping the bed every 2nd or 3rd start. I'd peg him around 17 wins. Still very good but not a #1 for a contender if that's what you're implying. He plays up to that level at times but the differentiator is consistency. There's a reason his FIP is 4.81 and career ERA is 4.08. He's a very solid #3 that can play up and pass as a #2 for stretches. If the league saw him as more than that then he'd have had a much hotter trade market. Teams would kill to get a true #1/#2 pitcher for only $14 million per year.

17 wins will probably be the 3rd or 4th highest total in mlb this year.

17 wins will probably be the 3rd or 4th highest total in mlb this year.

In a typical year that's good for somewhere in the 6th-8th range, but you're still talking about a pretty useless statistic. It's a rough indicator of performance, at best, with a lot of randomness and external factors built in.

In a typical year that's good for somewhere in the 6th-8th range, but you're still talking about a pretty useless statistic. It's a rough indicator of performance, at best, with a lot of randomness and external factors built in.

Do you consider 5 complete games to also be a useless statistic? Without looking it up, I would guess that's the highest total in at least 10 years. That's the kind of ace I want. That's the kind of ace Jack Morris and to some extent Bert Blyleven were. They didn't always dominate lineups the way Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver did. But they gave their team the chance to win the overwhelming majority of the time AND pitched deep into games taking pressure off the pen. That is vitally important in today's game. There is more to being an ace than racking up a lot of strikeouts.

you have blyeleven and Morris 100% backward in your assessment, btw.

Meaning what, exactly? I really wouldn't call any season either had dominant, other than 1973 for Bert. But they certainly chewed innings. Morris was top 5 in K per 9 twice in his career. Top 5 in CG 8 times. Of course, in Blyleven's era most guys racked up CGs.

Do you consider 5 complete games to also be a useless statistic? Without looking it up, I would guess that's the highest total in at least 10 years. That's the kind of ace I want. That's the kind of ace Jack Morris and to some extent Bert Blyleven were. They didn't always dominate lineups the way Nolan Ryan or Tom Seaver did. But they gave their team the chance to win the overwhelming majority of the time AND pitched deep into games taking pressure off the pen. That is vitally important in today's game. There is more to being an ace than racking up a lot of strikeouts.

You'd be wrong. Only one year in the last 10 has there not been a starter with 5+ CGs (there were several with 4 instead), and usually there are multiple. It's a great feat and indicative of a very good pitcher, but it doesn't make someone an ace. His ERA is over 5 since the start of June. It's still over 4 since the start of May. That's because he's been highly volatile, flipping between good/great and poor. Like I said, a very good pitcher and is a decent #2 or very solid #3 as it stands today. But given the choice there are probably 15-20 pitchers that you'd take before him to start game 1 in the playoffs. That alone kind of knocks him out of the argument of being a #1 on a contender.

Also, his FIP is a run and a half higher than his ERA because his peripherals are much more middle-of-the-road. Not that I think his FIP represents the 'true' Santana but it does point to some underlying issues which manifest during his blow-up games.