Silva in the rotation March 27th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
I feel kind of like Carlos Silva did last season when he left a game early with a tummy ache. It sounds like the Twins are gonna give him the fifth spot in the rotation to start the season. To make matters worse, the Twins have cut left hander Mike Venafro after he pitched 10 scoreless innings through the spring.
Barring a miracle, Silva will surely have 3 or 4 bad starts in April before the Twins finally realize their mistake and send him to AAA or release him in favor of one of the younger guys. I try to tell myself that Gardy and T.R. are the experts and probably know what they’re doing, but it’s really hard to think that after they nearly blew the season last year with guys like Tony Batista, Rondell White and Juan Castro when seemingly every Twins fan knew they were trouble from the start.
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4 Comments
Kris wrote: March 27th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
As far as I've read so far, Durbin isn't officially on the roster yet, but the fact that they already cut ties with Venafro leads me to believe they're strongly considering keeping him around.
I realize he's out of options and I realize Silva is making a good chunk of change, but at some point the Twins have to accept that these guys aren't working out and never will work out. There's no value in keeping them.
mitch wrote: March 29th, 2007 at 9:55 am
I am worried about Silva as much as everyone else, but I am even more worried about Sidney Ponson.
Ponson has had exactly one good season…2003…his only sub 4.00 era season and his only winning season. He's older than Silva, and fatter (but only slightly).
Silva has 4 winning seasons (2 of them as a reliever in Philly) and has a 4.35 career era compared to Ponson's 4.89. Our beloved Brad Radke's career era was only slightly better than Silva's at 4.22.
Silva will need to show the Radkesque command he displayed in 2005 on all his pitches if he wishes to remain with the team beyond the time when Terry and Gardy decide Garza can swim in the big pool.
Kris wrote: March 29th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Mitch,
Your comparison between Radke and Silva is a bit distorted. The career ERAs may match up, but by many measurements Silva was the worst pitcher in baseball last year. I don't think you could've said the same about Radke through his career. Radke also pitched much of his career during a time when the Twins didn't have a great bullpen to call on during trouble (that makes a difference when looking at stats like ERA).
But I totally agree with you on Ponson…he's not very good. He is, however, being paid a fraction of Silva's contract.
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Twins Territory wrote: March 27th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I think the Twins also need to let go of Durbin. He has done nothing to win a job this spring, and giving him a spot over Venafro just because he doesn't have any other options isn't right.
Also, I think they should at least take Silva out of the rotation and put him in the bullpen if they aren't going to can him.