Minnesota Sports Forum

Ricky Nolasco threw a complete game 4-hit shutout for the Angels last night. Meanwhile the Twins have lost 13 in a row and have the worst record in baseball, and have nothing going for them except for the remarkable Brian Dozier.

Has it ever been tougher to be a fan of this hapless franchise?

Santiago in July for the Angels: 6 - 0 with a 1.80 ERA.
Santiago in August for the Twins: 0 - 4 with an 8.17 ERA.

Oops?


[Note: Before my time, but I have to imagine the lean years led by the ever-so-thrifty Calvin Griffith were even worse.]

You're right, Abe...some of those Calvin years were more depressing. But I am getting some of the weirdest excuses from friends this week when I invite them to upcoming games (a bald guy saying he has to wash his hair...come on). At least this franchise still has the promise of some guys who could become future superstars, although the Berrios/Buxton/Sano trio has been a flop this year.

The Santiago turnaround has been extraordinary. I've heard of babies being swapped in their cribs in the hospital, but this is the first instance of a pitcher being swapped successfully after a trade.

longstrangetrip wrote:You're right, Abe...some of those Calvin years were more depressing. But I am getting some of the weirdest excuses from friends this week when I invite them to upcoming games (a bald guy saying he has to wash his hair...come on). At least this franchise still has the promise of some guys who could become future superstars, although the Berrios/Buxton/Sano trio has been a flop this year.

The Santiago turnaround has been extraordinary. I've heard of babies being swapped in their cribs in the hospital, but this is the first instance of a pitcher being swapped successfully after a trade.

Seemed there was a lot of fool's gold thinking even when the trade was made... but the stats are pretty alarming.

The guy has definite flaws but his career ERA was 3.75 over 5 seasons...

It seems like the Twins do to pitchers what the Wolves to do 3pt shooters.

bleedspeed177 wrote:It seems like the Twins do to pitchers what the Wolves to do 3pt shooters.

And yet there is always exceptions. Maybe that's another reason they held onto Santana. They figured hey this guys hasn't sucked pitching for us we better hold onto him. Lol

Some of it has been bad luck. Some of it is they acquired guys that weren't exactly top level guys and so they don't always look good. Starting pitching is so unpredictable and that's why anyone that has proven to be a top end starter gets big bucks and that guy could still blow out his arm at any time. You could also find some random dude off the scrape heap that has a terrific 1-3 year stretch as a high quality #2-#3 starter. You can't bank on that but it certainly happens partly because the depth of the league with so many levels of organizations and other independent leagues for guys to keep playing.

Anyway back to how depressing this stretch has been it's been awful and it followed a nice stretch where there was some nice vibes about the team. Maybe it was Buxton being sent down. He comes back up and they win. Maybe he will be the Teins Rubio he can't hit but he does everything else to help them win...lol

I think an ACE makes everyone else look better. Santana could be a solid 2nd pitcher if we had an ACE.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think an ACE makes everyone else look better. Santana could be a solid 2nd pitcher if we had an ACE.

Yeah an ace can make a big difference. The Twins haven't had one of those in a long time. Starting pitching in general has been a massive part of why they have been so bad the last few years. When they made all those division championships they didn't always have a top flight guy by the depth of the rotation was very good and a number of those guys ate innings. Lately you are lucky if the starters are decent enough to get though 5 innings and even if they did that they probably gave up at least 4 runs. That makes the problems the Twins have had with the Pen even worse.