Fire Gardy

Remember a while back, when I started pointing out that Liriano needs to step up his game significantly, or else our options are limited to sending him either to the minors or to the bullpen? Well, it sure hasn’t looked like he’s stepped up his game, has it? And Gardy has had just about enough of Liriano’s crap, saying he’ll make his next start but not necessarily any more after that:

“I plan on him probably going out there and making his next start, but I’ll talk with [pitching coach Rick Anderson], and we’ll see where we’re at.

“The options are very limited, we can’t go with a four-man rotation. We just don’t have much starting pitching left. It’s not like we can say, ‘Take him out and put those other guys in.’ You start telling me who those other guys are, I’m sure some fans have some ideas, but they’re not on our ballclub.”

Some fans probably do have some ideas, but Gardy’s largely right — we don’t have anyone banging on the door of the rotation down in AAA, and without Slowey our rotation depth is pretty minimal. But I have an idea. Liriano to the bullpen, Duensing to the rotation. He’s really the only “viable” starter we have left right now.

But I want to take a gander at what exactly has changed since I called for Liriano to go to the bullpen back in late June. His ERA coming into his June 23 start was 5.91, and right now it’s sitting at 5.63 (event taking into account his last 2 starts, which were both unmitigated disasters). In the 7 starts since June 23, he has an ERA of 5.09, which while horrible is considerably better than the 6.08 ERA he had in the previous 7 starts, or the 5.75 ERA he had in his first 7 starts.

So basically, while I agree that something needs to be done about Liriano, and we can’t keep running him out there, and if he doesn’t start to put together some strong starts he’s got to be out of the rotation … I’m a little bit confused as to what Gardy’s reasoning is here. It’s not like he’s getting worse … in fact he’s (extremely slowly) getting better (though not enough). If you’re willing to consider removing him from the rotation, why do it after this set of 7 starts? Why not the first 7 which was really horrible, or the second 7, which was even worse, rather than the third 7, which was the best of the three? Are we making this decision based only on his last two starts, over which he gave up 10 runs in 10.1 IP, for an 8.71 ERA? That’s not even his worst two start stretch this season — that’s an honor that goes to his starts on May 20 and 25, during which he gave up 12 ER in 8 IP, for a 13.50 ERA — and were the beginning of a stretch of 3 games in which he only went 4 IP per game.* If you’re going to decide to remove someone from the rotation … wouldn’t that be a better place to start considering it than, you know, 10+ starts later?

* The third start of that stretch was Liriano’s nadir, when his season ERA ballooned to 6.60 … and from there it had gone down every time until July 20 when he started getting rocked again. Well, rocked still … but even worse.

And do you really trust Rick Anderson to make the right decision about Liriano? I was talking about this with my dad during last night’s game — Rick Anderson’s reputation may be completely undeserved. Was it not Cuellar working with our guys in the minors that honed their talent? Not Rick Anderson? And fine, the major league pitching coach doesn’t develop the young pitchers, he helps them make adjustments and tweak some things while their in the majors. Anderson’s a big sinkerball guy, which doesn’t explain the fact that any pitcher on our team that had any success did it with the changeup. And, the coup de grace — our pitching staff has gotten markedly worse every year since Radke retired.

So I’m going to go ahead and say it. From 2002-2006, our pitching coach — the guy who works with the young guys, helps them with a new grip on their changeup, and helps them make adjustments — was not Rick Anderson, but rather Brad Radke. From 2007-2009, the pitching coach actually was Rick Anderson. Anyone want to go out on a limb and say which guy did a better job?

Given that there’s no chance Rick Anderson gets fired, and there’s no chance Liriano improves … what do we do? My take, as mentioned, is to put Liriano into a 7th inning role, and move Duensing into his spot in the rotation. (And also kill Keppel and send Crain to the minors, replacing them with Delaney and Slama … and evaluate Morillo’s command to see if we can also replace Dickey and his collapsing knuckleball/meatball repertoire.)

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I was in Washington, DC over the weekend so I was unable to witness the beatdown that was the Twins-Angels series.  Thankfully.

Since we last blogged, the Twins acquired shortstop Orlando Cabrera from Oakland.  I have no problem with this trade, since we didn’t have to overpay for two months of a shortstop who is only slightly better than what we have.  My bigger concern is that we didn’t address the pitching needs.  Many effective relievers were swapped for reasonable prices, but Smith has told the press that the asking prices were 4 of our top prospects for Michael Wuertz.  I (and many other bloggers) find this hard to believe. 

The Twins pitching staff as a whole is falling apart.  When was the last time one of our starters had a quality start against a non-divisional opponent?  When we played Texas two weeks ago?  The bullpen is just as bad.  Every reliever we have with the exception of Joe Nathan and possibly Matt Guerrier are totally out of their element when pitching in late and close situations.  This division is very winnable, but the two teams ahead of us added effective arms, and we stood pat.  That is not a way to catch and pass the teams leading you.  While I hope Washburn comes back to earth over the next two months, spacious comerica park and Curtis Granderson in CF seems like a situation in which he can continue to thrive.  Hopefully I’m wrong. 

Everyone says trades can still be made in August, but I just don’t think our front office is capable of pulling that off.  They simply seem to be incapable of fixing this team on the fly.  Hell, they seemed incapable of fixing the team in the offseason.  If we don’t make a run this year, Bill Smith and co. really need to aggressively add pieces to build a winner around Mauer.  If they do not do this, can we blame him for leaving?  I don’t think so.

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There wasn’t really one thing that went wrong last night.  Nathan screwed up.  I think he can do that once every 25 times he pitches or so.  Instead of 25 times every one time he pitches, Jesse Crain style. 

 

Other than that I don’t have much to say.  I’m out of town this weekend so maybe me not watching the Twins will cause them to win.  Stranger things have happened.

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There will be no discussion of last nights “game”.  That is all.

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I know the All-Star game was on Tuesday, and this is Thursday, but I wanted to post some comments anyway.  Now, I have mixed feelings about the all-star game.  The fact every team needs a rep and it counts doesn’t make sense to me.  Either let managers manage to win, or tell them it doesn’t matter and to have fun.  You can’t have both, Bud.

Every all-star game has its flaws.  The NBA plays no defense (as if they ever do), the NHL plays their game on a Tuesday afternoon on versus or some crap, and the Pro-Bowl exists.  So of the four major sports I would say baseball is the best.  I also think the baseball all-star game is the most salvageable.  Those comments deserve their own post, though

This years game was actually quite good.  The managers managed to win.  The game moved at a nice pace (maybe that is because no Red Sox or Yankee starting pitchers got into the game).  It was played like a real god-damned baseball game.  I hope this has become the norm and not the exception to the rule.  Most times I find myself watching something else and flipping back to the all-star game every so often, but this year I was glued to my set.  I even watched all the pre-game stuff.  Joe Buck is still terrible, and the fact that he fake laughed directly into his mic when Obama told the “we’re out of money” joke was awful.  I enjoyed the fact that a) Obama cheered for one team and didn’t wear a generic MLB jacket (even if it is the dastardly white sox) and b) he hated on the Nats.  This comes from someone who has never and will never vote democrat in his life.  So take your compliments, because those will be the last you ever get from this guy. 

The Twins are off today, but start a 9 game west coast road trip starting Friday in Texas.  What are the chances that while playing in the brutal heat on Sunday, Mike Redmond suffers heat stroke and goes on the DL?  I kind of hope its high, because that is the only way Morales will get any PT behind Mauer.  Not that I wish ill will on Redmond, but Morales is just the better player.  Simple as that.

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Well, we are entering the worst 48 hours of the year for sports (so basically the worst 48 hours for anything).  I’m going to use this opportunity to get a few mini-rants out in the open and you all can do the same in the comments.

• First, what would a series of rants be without a Nick Punto rant.   For some reason I found myself reading Sid Hartman the other day and he had this quote from Gardy
  • Nicky can play anywhere,” Gardenhire said. “He’s a glove guy. … He’s good everywhere you put him. He’s great at third base. He’s plays great at short. He plays great at second. He can flat-out pick it
• Ok, Gardy.  If Punto’s value comes from his being able to play three infield positions reasonably well, doesn’t locking him in at second base eliminate most of his value?  I think it does, and therefore he should be made a full-time utility player.  Not a starter. 
• Another quote from the same article  “If everybody else does their job in the lineup, Nick Punto is fantastic. When other people start struggling … then people starting saying, maybe he can’t hit”  So basically what you are saying, Ron, is that the reason Punto is hitting 200 is because everyone else around him is sucking?  We aren’t giving Punto enough lineup protection?  Are you f-ing serious?  He also says “He’s hit .280 in this league”.  Yes he has.  But he has also hit .200.   He just flat out can’t hit enough to justify playing everyday. I just don’t get it.  Would we instantly turn into the worst team ever if we didn’t play Punto everyday?  Gardy seems to think so. 
•  I was happy with Mauer’s performance in the derby last night.  As we learned from last year, nobody remembers who won the previous year.  ESPN made it seem as if Josh Hamilton won, when it was really some dude named Jason Morneau who only has one MVP award.  Loser.  Joe didn’t get shutout (suck it Tigers) and he was in a “swing off” with the AL and NL HR leaders.  Not bad.  He was also wearing some sweet yellow kicks.
•  All-Star Game.  Here is what I think.  Either don’t make it count, and keep the rules the same.  Or, make it count and eliminate the stupid “one player from every team” rule.  I know pretty much every baseball-related blog has had something on this topic this week, and we at firegardy don’t want to be left out.  You are basically telling a manager he has to manage to win, but then handcuffing him when it comes to constructing his roster.  I still don’t get why Charlie Manuel pick Ryan Howard as a replacement, thus giving him about 12 first baseman (remember: No DH) on his team.  I like that the AL has Youklis and Zobrist.  Gives them quite a bit of positional flexibility.   If its a close game I wonder if Maddon will use Mauer late into the game so the NL can’t run all over Victor Martinez. 
• Trade deadline:  The MLB trade deadline is July 31st.  Will the Twins make a move?  Don’t hold your breath.  I think the move to bring Casilla back means they are going to try to make a run with what they have.  Maybe they can deal for a bullpen arm.  But there doesn’t seem to be much out there.  I think one of the moves that MUST be made involves Anthony Slama.  If we can bring a hard throwing, strikeout pitcher up, why the hell not?  Can’t hurt. 
• I tihnk this 9 game, west coast road trip is do or die for the Twins.  If we can’t come back home with at least a 5-4 record, we might be in trouble.  We have been playing well on the road lately, but a lot of that was against NL teams.  Doesn’t really count. 
• What are your mid-season thoughts?  I will be weakly attempting to constantly update the All-Star game via Twitter (@Robert_Short) but no promises. 

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Before the season we here at firegardy (well, I guess just me) made pre-season predictions.  They can be found here.  I’m not doing so well.  The Indians, Cubs,  A’s (The A’s, what the hell was I on when I wrote that!?), and Mets picks look pretty bad now.  The Yankees and Rays are both in playoff contention, so its still too early to write those off as bad picks.  The Sizemore for MVP pick doesn’t look so hot because a) the Indians suck, and b) he has been hurt.  The Grienke for CY Young is still possible.  As is Gardy for manager of the year.  However, its pretty clear that someone like Ron Washington will get that unless the Rangers absolute tank the rest of the year.  My NL MVP and CY Young picks are still possible, but Johan isn’t really the frontrunner for the Cy right now.  If he tears it up in the second half as usual, that will help both my Cy Young pick and NL Wild card pick. 

How did your picks hold up?

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If the head coach of the University of Michigan lost to Ohio State every year, that is basically grounds for firing.  Ron Gardenhire has a sub 300 winning percentage against the Yankees since he became the Twins manager in 2002.  That isn’t good.  I’m not sayin he should be fired for losing to a team we only play seven times a year, but  he needs to tell the players that we aren’t facing Ruth and Gehrig everytime we play them.  We need to cut them, like in Rocky IV, after Rocky makes Drago bleed and Duke (his trainer) says  “You see? You see? He’s not a machine, he’s a man, he’s a man”  Well right now, the Twins think the Yankees are a machine.  If Liriano can come out today and shut them down for 7 innings he can show the rest of the team that they are just men.  Same as any other team (just more expensive). 

When we faced the Yankees back in May we walked them twice as much as they normally draw walks on a per game basis.  I’m pretty sure this is because our pitchers were scared of them.  Swarzak didn’t look too bad last night and he didn’t give up.  He kept trying to make his pitches, but those damn Yankees are so damn patient.  Jerks.

Let’s hope the title of my next blog post can be “They’re cut! The Yankees are cut!”, and not “If they die, they die”.

 

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The Twins kick off a three game set with the Yankees tonight at the Dome.  Pitching matchups are as follows:

Tuesday- Scott Baker vs. CC Sabathia

Wednesday- Glen Perkins vs. AJ Burnett

Thursday- Anthony Swarzak vs. TBA

The Twins have some pretty ugly numbers against CC.  Redmond is one of the few who does not so I wonder if Gardy will DH Mauer (since Kubel would be useless against CC) and use Redmond at Catcher.  Or even vice versa.  Other than that I’m sure the lineup will be pretty normal.  Gardy seems to have settled on one lineup most of the time.  Which is nice.  Its not a good sign when the lineup changes from day to day.  Unless of course you have too many good players, but it usually means you don’t have enough.

If we can take two of three from both the Yankees and White Sox I think we will be in very good shape heading into the break.  I’d also be happy with a 3-3 split.  The tigers have now lost three in a row, so maybe they are starting to fade for good. 

Another interesting note:  The Twins are done with the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays after this week.  The Tigers still have a bunch of games left against them.  That is a good sign.

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Going into this series I was nervous that the St. Louis Pujols’, I mean Cardinals, would beat us soundly.  Not sure why, they aren’t all that good.  Especially offensively.  Their starting pitching has been exceptional lately, and the Twins seem to be easily flustered if an opposing starting pitcher shows early signs of dominance.  Well, Perkins was the one who was dominant on friday night.  He cruised through 7 innings, giving up 4 hits and 1 earned run.  Granted, the Cards lineup isn’t all that great, but he did get Pujols out a few times.  Nathan gave up a double to start the ninth, but retired Pujols, Ludwick, and Ankiel to end the game.  The Nathan-Pujols matchup was a great one to watch. 

The saturday game was much more forgettable.  Both starting pitchers were gone after the third inning.  Not sure if that had more to do with the heat or what, because Slowey didn’t look that bad.  He didn’t look good either.  The bullpen kept us in the game which is all you can ask for, we just weren’t able to score any runs.  All three game on a Brendan Harris 3 run single.  How often do you see that?  The more exciting news of the day was this:  I was at a bar saturday night and some random girl came up to me and said “Hey you in the Twins hat.  You look just like Glen Perkins! Has anyone ever told you that?”  Good thing he pitched well.  I don’t want to be told I look like a guy who gave up 7 runs in 3 innings or something.  Anyway…..

Sunday was much better.  Joe Mauer was playing, Morneau hit a homer, Liriano pitched great.  It seemed that everything fell into place.  I’m happy that we have started playing better on the road lately.  If we can inch closer to being a 500 road team, and continue to play out of our minds at the dome, we should position ourselves nicely for a playoff push. 

We have two divisional series in a row.  At KC this week, and at home against Detroit over the holiday weekend.  A sweep over the Tigers would be great, but I’ll take 2 of 3.

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