Update (5/17/06 4:05 PM): It’s just been reported that the Twins have sent Lohse to AAA Rochester and called up Boof Bonser who will start on Sunday. I’ll be curious to see what the future holds for Kyle Lohse. Full AP Story

The Day after Carlos Silva was notified that he’d be losing his spot in the rotation Kyle Lohse came with another terrible outing. Let’s also not forget Scott Baker getting roughed up again on Monday. As terrible as Bradke has been, he’s at least able to struggle through his troubles and give somewhat decent starts to the team.

Some tough decisions are going to have to be made. What will the Twins do with Lohse and Baker? I’d like to see them give another couple starts to Baker before they yank him out of the rotation. He’s shown that he can pitch well, and his career is still young. I’m holding out hope that he’ll be able to make the adjustments necessary to start giving the Twins some quality starts again.

As for Lohse, he’s been nothing but inconsistent his entire career. This year he’s shown a bit more consistency (in the negative direction) and everyone is starting to lose patience with him. He no longer has any trade value and at $4 million it’s tough to just let the guy go. However, as the Twins have dug themselves deeper and deeper into a hole, it’s become more clear that Lohse needs to step out of the rotation. The main problem though is who replaces him with Liriano in the rotation as it is?

In the minors we don’t really have 1 guy that stands out as an ideal replacement. At the major league level we have Matt Guerrier who would be capable of stepping in and at least give us better starts than Lohse has. Ideally, I’d like to see Guerrier step in for a couple starts and have Lohse go to the bullpen. After a couple Guerrier starts hopefully Carlos Silva will have figured things out and would be ready to return to the rotation. Guerrier then goes back to the bullpen. Lohse can either succeed in the bullpen or leave the team. Things would have to be pretty bad before I’d ask for him to return to the rotation.

Considering how good this rotation has been in the past, it’s difficult to change 2/5 of the rotation in 1 week, but we simply can’t keep sending out guys with 8+ ERAs and expect to win games.