Welcome, SBG fans, to the twelfth edition of 360 Degrees, a regular report on the Twins starting pitching. This report includes the five games ending on Friday, June 9, 2006. This trip around the rotation was, in one sense, one of the worst trips around the rotation all year. The pitching staff had the third worst FIP of the season, primarily because of the low number of strikeouts and a poor strikeout/walk ratio. However, the results weren’t too bad, and I’m not exactly sure why that is (other than maybe luck). As we will see, the defense was better than it has been (prior to last trip) but still it appears that the defense has not been “goodâ€.
Let’s start by going to the numbers.
| Trip | IP | R | ER | H | BB | K | HBP | HR | ERA | WHIP | FIP | QS |
| 12 | 26.67 | 18 | 15 | 35 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 5.06 | 1.69 | 5.19 | 1 |
| 11 | 32.7 | 13 | 12 | 23 | 8 | 24 | 2 | 5 | 3.31 | 0.95 | 3.97 | 3 |
| 10 | 28.7 | 15 | 15 | 38 | 8 | 23 | 0 | 3 | 4.71 | 1.60 | 3.27 | 2 |
| 9 | 29.0 | 16 | 13 | 32 | 11 | 32 | 1 | 5 | 4.03 | 1.48 | 3.65 | 2 |
| 8 | 24.3 | 24 | 24 | 35 | 5 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 8.87 | 1.64 | 4.64 | 1 |
| 7 | 31.0 | 15 | 14 | 37 | 9 | 29 | 1 | 4 | 4.06 | 1.48 | 3.23 | 3 |
For one of the very few times this year, the FIP was higher than the ERA. This would signal good defense, if you forget about the three unearned runs given up last night after Terry Tiffee’s error. By the way, how was that an error and the ball that famously bounced of a stationary Tony Batista’s leg a while back not? For the record, I think that Tiffee’s misplay was an error, but I also think that there’s a little bias there on the part of the hometown scorer. Off the topic, I was listening to a portion of the game last night on the radio and Joe Mauer rolled a ball toward right field and John Gordon said that he thought it was an error and expressed surprise when it was ruled a hit. Gordon then said something to the effect that that was a hometown scorer ruling the ball a hit for the hometown kid. I'll bet Bremer didn't say that. (Then again, maybe he did.) Okay, back to the business at hand. Overall, the defensive lineup that goes out there on a nightly basis right now is a little better than what we’ve seen (cough, no Shannon Stewart, cough). However, as long as the left side of the infield remains what it is, the Twins are most certainly leaving a lot on the table. Let’s go to the numbers.
| Trip | BF | BB | K | HBP | HR | ROE | Hits | Def_Eff |
| 12 | 125 | 10 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 35 | .673 |
| 11 | 128 | 8 | 24 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 23 | .809 |
| 10 | 126 | 8 | 23 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 38 | .598 |
| 9 | 125 | 11 | 32 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 32 | .632 |
| 8 | 114 | 5 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 35 | .633 |
| 7 | 134 | 9 | 29 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 37 | .615 |
Yep, the defensive efficiency is a bottom-of-the-barrel-but-still-improved-from-the ridiculousness-we’ve-seen-recently .673. Honestly, it’s really hard to evaluate the starting pitching staff when these are the numbers. In truth, the Twins pitching staff (and this includes relievers, so it’s not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison to what I’m doing here) has the best FIP in the American League at 3.81. Yet, the Twins have the fourth worst ERA in the league. Is it the pitching? We don’t really think so anymore, do we.
As a staff, the starters allowed opponents to hit .308/.360/.416/.776 with a GPA of .266. Let’s look at the performances by starter.
| Pitcher | AVE | OBP | SLG | OPS | GPA |
| Carlos Silva | 0.391 | 0.417 | 0.565 | 0.982 | 0.329 |
| Francisco Liriano | 0.280 | 0.321 | 0.360 | 0.681 | 0.235 |
| Boof "Junk†Bonser | 0.318 | 0.400 | 0.727 | 1.127 | 0.362 |
| Johan Santana | 0.238 | 0.273 | 0.238 | 0.511 | 0.182 |
| Brad Radke | 0.304 | 0.385 | 0.391 | 0.776 | 0.271 |
No one actually had a really good effort and only Brad Radke, with his 3 unearned runs, had a quality start Francisco Liriano had a six inning, three run quality start. Johan Santana’s numbers were good, but he struggled to get through five innings. Nevertheless, he’s once again the pitcher of the rotation.
Didn't Liriano have a quality start, 6 IP 3 R? (I could be wrong)
Also, I think Hunter's really terrible misplay last night for a "double" should be an error--he stood still until the ball was halfway to him, and then it barely bounced out of his glove. Had he taken a single step backwards before the ball was halfway there, its an easy catch.
My bad. It was Liriano. I have a column that tabulates quality starts and I didn't look at who it was, thinking it was Radke. In fact, Radke didn't make it 6 innings. Another dish of half-baked crap.
Moss just noticed that Liriano is listed as the AL leader in ERA on CBS sportsline. He's not actually qualified yet, though. But that would be interesting if he made a charge at that honor.