Thursday, June 22, 2006

Mailbag

Time to go to the mailbag. This is an actual (edited) email from a MNGameDay.com reader:

I must defend Lohse somewhat for Wednesday night. I see him getting ripped by everyone and, while I realize he's probably not the most personable or popular Twin, this is ridiculous. Some of the dailies did a complete hachet job, even though their articles mentioned the "checked swing" and “broken bat" bloops for hits. I pitched in Division 1 and know that if that happens, you essentially defeated your opponent even though they might be on base. Does anyone else see this or am I wrong here?
- Dave

What Dave says is true. But there was also the double, and the walk was unforgivable in that situation. The bottom line is that there's just too much history, and it's been bad, even very bad, for several years. To be honest, I don't know why he's on this team anymore. My gawd, the Twins release Batista, despite the fact that he:

1. didn't have any obvious problems with the coaching staff,
2. had performed about as well as anyone should have expected,
3. didn't have any real replacement on the roster and
4. was drawing one-fourth of Lohse's salary this year.

Meanwhile, Lohse has been terrible in every role, acts immaturely, is making nearly $4 million and could be capably replaced by several guys (Baker, Durbin, Pat Neshek) in whichever role they put him. So why is he here? And why was he on the mound in a tie game?

Maybe the Twins think Lohse can be a great reliever. Great, then have him learn how in Rochester. There are costs for these investments of major league playing time they keep making. In the offseason Lohse’s presence cost them $3.95 million that could've been spent on a real third baseman. In April, it cost a half dozen starts by Liriano. Wednesday night it cost a game. And there's NEVER a payoff. Not for three years has there been any kind of real payoff.

Was Wednesday night unforgivable? Absolutely not. But the last straw you throw on the camel isn't heavy, either. It still breaks the poor camel's back. It's long past time to make a change.

5 comments:

Howard said...

"I pitched in Division I." The minute I saw that, I knew it was gonna be a losing argument.

MF said...

I kinda want a t-shirt that says "I Pitched in Division I". That's 100% awesome. Lohse is all about placing those straws on the camel. Sometimes he throws 20 on there and sometimes he pulls 2 off, but at the end of the year there's always a camel laying in misery in the stable. There are so many other things worth defending out there, why stick up for Mr. Badditude?

John Sharkey, Esq. said...

One thing that should be mentioned: Batista's money isn't guaranteed, Lohse's is.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully, with a new ball park on it's way, Carl Pohlad will find a way to loosen his money belt, so the Twins are not at such a financial disadvantage against the White Sox and Indians, and don't have to jimmy rig a rotation with lowlife losers like lohse in the future.

SBG said...

One thing that should be mentioned: Batista's money isn't guaranteed, Lohse's is.

That's false. Batista's money became guaranteed when he made the roster I believe on March 28. Nevertheless, the money should make no difference, it is a sunk cost. While I agree that Batista played about as well as expected, it should never be forgotten that what was "expected" was sub-replacement level. Thus, by definition, there are players who can take his place readily.