Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau had to cool off a little bit sometime this season. The Red Sox are loaded up and down the line-up. Cuddy and Kubel aren’t our saviors. Span isn’t an iron man. Johan Santana is worth more then Go-Go, ie. we probably should have taken the two compensatory picks instead of the boat-load of marginal prospects. We don’t have a number one starter on our team as of right now.
The game that Morneau won for us on Tuesday was awesome. It isn’t surprising that Slowey was able to make that lead stick, he’s a good pitcher. Right now Slowey is probably the best we have going for us. Baker has his days. I can’t say I see him as a number one right now or every. I aways saw him as a great three or possibly a passable two. Baker throws strikes and people know if they wait him out long enough he’ll start throwing those strikes too high in the zone. That’ll kill you every time.
Right now the Twins are a team with known commodities. Franny will get high in the strike zone, won’t throw his pitches enough because he isn’t patient. Baker let’s things sail too high. Perkins tries to work inside outside too much and guys will just wait for one they like as the game progresses. Slowey and Blackburn right now are our only starters that vary things up as the game progresses. I’m not sure why our coaching staff hasn’t worked with these guys to look at the game not just on a pitch by pitch, hitter by hitter level but on an inning by inning, match-up to match-up level. Guys aren’t seeing a pitching, going to the bench and not telling their teammates what they just saw. Coaches are also breaking down pitch locations and letting their guys know what to expect. The Twins starting pitching staff needs to also start playing more mind games, not over thinking things, but start looking at my last at-bat with Ortiz I went inside-low, inside-low, followed by high-away to get him so now maybe I need to show him a low-away breaking pitch just to get him off my fast ball’s timing. Pitching is a thinking man’s game. Granted a catcher needs to call a clean game and Mauer tends to call great games, but that doesn’t let a pitcher off the hook. These guys needs to work with Mauer to know that if I fall behind in a count this is where I then feel comfortable. If I need to work out of the stretch I have the confidence in Mauer’s arm that if I deliver the ball in less then 1.5 seconds he’s got my back with the runner at first. Then I can just go out and let my mechanics and my talent take care of the rest. Right now I feel like Baker is thinking too much about runs and runner and not about location, arm motion, release point and pitching to actually become a great pitcher. Franny needs to not feel pressure, because right now he’s not a pressure pitcher. Right now he’s a four or a five guy in the rotation with possible one stuff. Franny needs to go out and throw like the Twins don’t need him to be their stopper. Slowey is our current stopper no bones about it. Blackburn is our number two man. Baker our three. Franny our four if Perkins is out but if Perkins is in the rotation Franny is the guy I have the least confidence in getting a quality start. Franny is the one guy that I think could no-hit the other team anytime he takes the mound but at the same time he might not get out of the third inning too. Perkins is our four man who throws like he wants to be a two. Anthony L is our rookie and I don’t expect much from him once other teams have more intel on him. Down the line he might be a Blackburn type of pitcher. A guy that you know will go out there and intelligently make his pitches but his pitches aren’t every going to be better then a three man in the rotation and because everyone knows that he should probably be a four or a five. That being said he could surprise me because I’ve only seen him throw three times now. His stuff isn’t electric its just new. That’s what I see from our starters. Our relievers well that’s another post for another day.
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