Sunday, April 23, 2006

Repetition

I am not really sure there is too many new observations to bring about after watching the Twins get destroyed by a superior Chicago White Sox club yesterday. It pains me to write that, but they just walked all over the Twins. And in so many ways, the Twins defeated themselves.

It was the same story it has been all year in our losses: Starting pitcher was awful, bullpen didn't fair any better or did worse, and the offense got guys on but couldn't drive them in. Although the Twins offense has made some improvements, that really doesn't matter if the Twins opposition is batting .314/.354/.488 with 22 HRs. Brad Radke can be blamed for some of that, as he has allowed eight home runs this year along with 30 hits and a 7.71 ERA. He looks awful, but so does most of the Twins pitchers.

I know its still April, but if pitching and defense is the plan to win games, things need to improve. A 5.76 ERA is not acceptable at all and neither is an ugly 1.51 collective WHIP.

I could discuss the 16 men the Twins left on or Jesse Crain's continued failures. But its pointless if the Twins don't change things. Tommorow, they go up against Jose Contreras, whose had some major success against them. Let's hope for a return of Shannon Stewart and Luis Castillo to hopefully spark something in this team that is looking like a doormat for the streaking White Sox right now.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's exactly what I said out loud when the hit went through. Best defense in the league!

Nick M. said...

Yeah...defense hasn't exactly been a huge strong point this year, but what has? This team really needs to get things together soon.

Troy said...

We need to make a trade and get Liriano in the rotation. For all we know, having him in the rotation from the beginning could have given us a couple more wins. Lohse/Radke aren't cutting it and one or the other (most likely Lohse) needs to go. Crain is a mess too. I cringe when he or Rincon come into the game. We need someone in RF - not Ford/Cuddyer. I like the thought of White in RF and using Sierra as the regular DH. We'd be much stronger with Sierra, Hunter, Morneau, Batista, White through the middle of our lineup and with Liriano in the rotation, perhaps things would change a little.

Nick N. said...

I agree that Liriano needs to get into the rotation. Unfortunately, Lohse's trade value has dropped astronomically with his horrible performance thus far, I have to imagine.

As for White in right field, I don't think that would work. His wimpy arm out there would kill us. The only position he's suited to play is left field, and I'd prefer to keep him off the field completely. His defense did not impress me during the Chicago series.