minny&paul

By the way, in all the Correia-related discussion, let's not lose sight of the fact that the Twins are 25-21 when someone else starts. Who would have predicted THAT at the beginning of the year. Go Twins!

By the way, regarding Blackburn, he was just a touch better than average in ERA+ his first two years with the Twins.

You can say Correia isn't this bad (although I agree with the poster who notes he has had good luck in some of his less disastrous recent starts). But the thing is, Correia has never been good. He has never had a full season of even average ERA+ as a starter. That's in seven full years, and he sure doesn't look like he'll do it this year either. That's maybe my biggest Correia complaint. Even if he turns it around, how good do you expect him to be? If you say "at least average and maybe better," what's the evidence for that?

The thing about Correia is, what version of Kevn Correia are the Twins waiting for? They guy has been a full-time (or almost full-time) starter since 2007. He has never -- repeat -- never had even a league average ERA+ as a starter. He probably has been somewhat unlucky this year, but for seven years he's been below average at his job. That's not luck.

I'd feel better if Gardy said "interestingly, if you trust fip, Correia has been extremely unlucky this year." That would mean that (a) the decision to keep starting him was being made for baseball reasons; and ( Gardy knows what fip is! That would be better than saying we are stuck with this guy because we pay him a lot.

Ron Gardenhire on the future of Kevin Correia, who has arguably been the worst regular starting pitcher in baseball so far this year: “Kevin’s one of our starters. [He’s] paid good money to do that, and he’s still going to get paid no matter what, so he’s one of our starters,” Gardenhire said. “We need him to be a little more consistent, but he’s one of our starters right now. The guys in Triple-A have had their ups and downs, too. They’ve had some good starts and bad starts, and believe me, we know where they’re at.” (Emphasis added.) So instead of paying people because their play dictates it, we have to keep playing people because their pay dictates it. Side note: In all the games that Kevin Correia has not started, the Twins are 25-21. That’s a .543 winning percentage and translates to 88 wins and a good shot at a wildcard. But Kevin Correia is going “to get paid no matter what,” so let’s keep playing him.