Thursday, March 27, 2008

Twins Pitching Surplus and Wittman is an idiot

Sure, there are many worries about our current MLB pitching staff and its depth and experience, but organizationally, we are out of control loaded.

From Gleeman today:

Assuming that Bass sticks as a long reliever, that leaves Nick Blackburn waiting to see whether Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano begin the season in the rotation. If Baker needs a stint on the disabled list or Liriano heads to Triple-A, Blackburn will slide into the rotation along with Livan Hernandez, Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey, and either Baker or Liriano. If both Baker and Liriano are ready, Blackburn will join Humber, Glen Perkins, Kevin Mulvey, and Brian Duensing in an amazing Rochester rotation.

Perkins, Blackburn and Humber should/could all be major league starter-worthy by mid-season. Mulvey probably too by then end of the year and Duensing is no slouch.

Plus, Swarzak, Mullins, Sosa and Pino are all in AA. Swarzak is nasty and should own his way to deserve a AAA promotion by mid-season.

Then, there’s always Robertson and Guerra…

Can we get a trade for all of Twins fans in the hood? How about an uber 3B or 2B prospect...
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My extensive analysis has turned to concise absurd annoyance with this team lately, namely because Wittman starts Marko Jaric and Kirk Snyder every damn game.

Just once...seriously just once...can we just see the damn lineup of:

Foye/McCants/Brewer-Gomes/Jefferson/Richard

...start the game or at least get some extensive PT together?

Is it really that hard? Is it that tough to give most every semi-knowledgeable fan their wish? Does everyone have to play out of position all of the time?

Yes, Snyder does bring good things to the table in terms of hustle and defense...but so does Corey Brewer. Plus, Brewer's a lot longer, quicker, more athletic, taller, a better defender, a better passer and has a much higher ceiling.

It still does not make sense for this team's long-term future to limit the minutes of McCants and Brewer in favor of Jaric and Snyder.

By starting Jaric, you greatly limit the minutes of McCants, take the ball out of Foye's hands in a lot of playmaking situations thus stunting his growth at running the show at the 1 and completely limit the chances of our apparent future back court of getting the chance to play together and develop chemistry.

By starting Snyder, you keep Brewer on the bench in favor of a guy who you already know what you have in. Brewer needs PT to develop, needs run defending the best guys in the league, aaaaand needs to develop a chemistry w/ Foye, McCants and Al if they're the future of this team.

But, Wittman thinks this isn't a good idea. He wants to win 5 extra games this year with Snyder and Jaric starting in order to not only set our future starting lineup back a few months in terms of developing a chemistry but by managing to greatly decrease our chances at a top pick as well. It's really a great strategy. Hats off to the genius.

Unless they have some magic deal with Stern that if they don't tank they'll get a top pick (no possible way...and if they did, Taylor's absurd KG comments probably ruined that deal anyway), we're pretty much operating the squad as stupidly as possible...(surprise, surprise) well, I guess we could always be adding Fatoine and Doleac to the mix.

Brewer's the future 3 for this team, and Snyder's a solid backup 2 and fill-in backup 3. Read my above post.

It only makes sense to start the pieces you drafted as the future starting lineup of this team together when the season is in the toilet.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like Kirk Snyder, but Kirk Snyder is Kirk Snyder. He's a 4th year player. He didn't come out of college young and raw. He's pretty much shown the same thing throughout his NBA career. I've always been a fan, and yes I've followed his game.

He is and should be a great backup 2/3 for this team.

Corey Brewer has a much higher ceiling. Brewer's potential is greater due to his solid bball IQ, greater height, length, speed and athleticism. THIS IS NOT MAGIC POTENTIAL. THESE ARE FACTS. The team owes it to their future to give him the run necessary to improve and adapt and eventually give a fair evaluation on the kid towards the end of next season and eventually at the All-star break of 09-10 season. How is that not reasonable?

1 comment:

Dave Thompson said...

This spring, Humber has pitched great coming out of the bullpen, not so great as a starter. As a relief pitcher, he is good enough to pitch in the majors right now, so I agree with you, trade one of our relief pitchers (not Nathan!) for a 2B or 3B prospect like Lowrie.