Mr. Brooks

You mean like leading the league in runs scored? Yeah, that would be Brian Dozier.

I also agree with Oxtung, and couldn't really say it better myself...but I guess I'll try anyways. I think people are somewhat blinded by the comparisons to previous rotations. Yes, compared to those, this rotation looks great. But, they are still possibly the worst rotation in all of baseball. Hughes has been a bargain at this point. I hope he keeps it up, but even so he's not a difference maker. He wouldn't be a 1 or a 2 in any legit WS contending rotation, and he'd likely be a 4 in many of them. Gibson has looked pretty good at times, but I think we can all agree that he is not as good as Hughes. If Hughes is a #3 on a playoff contender, but likely a number 4 on a WS contender, then what does that make Gibson? Probably a #4 at best. Nolasco might have the numbers of a solid #3, but those are NL numbers. In the AL it is looking like he's probably a guy you run out as your 5th starter, a guy who (when healthy) should be able to eat innings, but isn't going to be a difference maker- a la Kevin Correia. I was on board the May Day Express as much as anyone, and it's an extremely small sample size thus far, but obviously he hasn't looked good thus far. Meyer will help, if the Twins ever decide to give him a chance. (The opinion that he may not even make the rotation to start 2015 is hard to wrap my head around.) This is not a rotation that is just a couple tweaks away from being good. It's more like a rotation that is at least not an embarrassment to Abner Doubleday. It is a rotation that needs not just a little, but a LOT of improvements to ever be a playoff or WS contending rotation.

I couldn't disagree more. Prospects with Sano's skillset (80 power, but a lot of K's, and no other tools), are about the riskiest prospects their are. Sano is the definition of high risk/high reward.

The pitching staff may be "better", but it is still the worst starting rotation in the AL, and the 2nd worse in baseball (the only rotation with a higher ERA plays half its games a mile high). They have also gone, something like 340+ games without a 10+ K performance by a starting pitcher. Until they either: A) Bring in some MUCH better pitchers. Hughes is a good start, but as the overall staff numbers show, he does little to improve the staff as a whole. or B: Bring in a field staff that can "do more with less", a la Oakland's smoke and mirror act to somehow get pretty good results out of Tommy Milone's pedestrian stuff, or likewise for Vance Worley in both Philly and Pittsburgh. This team is not going anywhere meaningful anytime soon. Yeah, it's great that we have good prospects. But prospects don't always pan out, and even now our best pitching prospect is going on 25 years old, and is still not good enough to make the, arguably, worst pitching staff in all of baseball.

Wait, didn't he just have a bunch of solid starts in a row prior to these last 2 duds?

So, now that Nolasco is healthy, and still pitching terribly, what is the new excuse?

You may view them as "exhibition games", but I can guarantee you that not a single person on the field does, and I also can almost guarantee you that if any of them did view it as such, they would immediately have zero respect from any of their teammates, opponents, or fans in the stands.

Let a ball drop?? Glunn, it is unfortunate when these incidents occur, but it is a hazard of the job. This may not be the big leagues, but it is still professional baseball. Let a ball drop because of the maybe 1/1000th of 1% risk of a freak thing like this happening? Wow, my mind is now officially blown.

Sure, but a Win is a team stat, not an individual stat. The starting pitching has only so much control over getting the win. When evaluating individual players, its better to focus on things that they have more control over.

Wow, after a couple of years in the system, insisting he is a starter. Then, a much earned promotion, and they move him to the bullpen because of ONE bad, admittedly really bad, start?

Wow, there is some major overreaction to 1 start against a great lineup in this thread.

Small sample size, I know (2 games), but it appears Schaefer is our starting LF'er, not the guy described above.

Why would he be on a short pitch count? If he went 77 in his last start, he should be ready to go 100 in his next start, that is not a short pitch count.

Wow, a 6 man rotation that STILL doesn't include Meyer? We must have one of the best rotations in baseball if we don't have room for Meyer on a 6 man pitching staff. Serious question Seth, how many SP's deep would our rotation have to go to have room for Meyer in it? Whatever that answer is, I vote for that. Meyer is a very tall pitcher, even once he's "ready" he will always have a high'ish walk rate. I don't understand using this as an argument why he's not ready. He is dominating AAA, I don't get it.

Because likely not every team thinks he's going to continue to OPS below .600. Teams pay for what a player is going to do going forward, not entirely what they have done previously. If teams were paying based on this year's results only, we'd be moving Suzuki for an elite package of prospects right about now.

You know your team is a mess when Eduardo Nunez is your DH. Some people insist this team has improved itself this year, but it's hard to believe it when you look at this lineup. Hughes is an upgrade, I'll grant that. Santana probably is, though it's still a pretty small sample size. Outside of those two, it's tough to find any new player who is an improvement, and will be here next year (I don't believe Suzuki will).

Best news I've heard all week.

What am I missing? We paid nothing for Morales, outside of money, he wasn't doing much, and wasn't going to be here beyond this year. Yeah, Pryor isn't a great haul, but he's a lotto ticket. Any small chance he has of returning to his pre injury form and contributing to us is still a larger percent than the chance that Morales was going to contribute in future seasons. I'm all for it.

This is pretty shocking for a team that really should be rebuilding. Wow!

Last I checked, it's not illegal to "outscout" the other teams. The Twins missed big time on this guy. Yes, so did other teams. But guess what I'm not a fan of other teams, and this isn't "Indians Daily", so I'm commenting on him as he pertains to the Twins.

If you are referring to me, no that is not what I'm saying. I am saying that we have the financial flexibility to sign a 50+ HR hitter like Abreu, for what turned out to be a modest price, regardless of position. Not sure if you have noticed or not, but we could REALLY use that type of bat in the middle of our order, and if Sano fails to hit his ceiling we are going to have a hard time finding it in the future.

Right, it's better to roll it up and stuff it under a matress and not use it at all then it is to spend it on a 50+ HR hitter just entering his prime. It's not like this team is anywhere near its financial spending limit now, or any time in the near or medium future.

Which is why I suggested the other possibility being that their international scouts are not very good. Perhaps I should have made that more clear. What is wrong with locking up a 1B/DH combo for that many years and dollars if they are both great hitters?

No, I'm not blaming him per se, I'm just saying he shouldn't be getting all this love for "calling such a good game" and "working so well with the pitchers", when our starting rotation has been brutal.