Radke

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Radke is our ace. Sure, Santana is pitching great, the bullpen is doing well, heck even Loshe is doing better.

Our ace pitched another jem last night. Painted the corners, threw off speed stuff to a high slugging team and kept them off the bases.

His nickname should be "Joe Cool."

[Willy]

Hey Brad had a heck of game last night. Fun to watch him pitch the way he mixes and matches pitches and fools hitters. I would still call Santanna the ACE though. Hard to not call a guy your ace when he is on the verge of a Cy Yound award! He will be our #1 starter in the playoffs.

They both are aces really. Lohse hasn't pitched well at all though. He needs to get his sh*t together before the playoffs.

[IFallsRon]

Radke's got 284 starts and over 1860 innings. That''s huge.

[First Ice-Mike]

Nobody wants to see the Twins in the first round of the playoffs. Facing Santana and Radke 3 out of 5 games - maybe even 4 out of 5 games would not be fun!! Silva in capable of shutting a team down also!!! Lohse better get acclimated to the bullpen bench - thats where he is going to sit throughout the playoffs. Twins would be better off giving Grampa Mullholland a start in front of Lohse!!!

FI

[Pete Riola]

Lohse cannot be in the playoff rotation. Radke and Santana have given up 1 run in there last 4 starts combined. Pitching wins in the playoffs. I think Garty goes Radke then Santana in the playoffs hopefully Brad steps up. Santana has to be chopping to back in there against the Yanks after last years cramp debacle.

[buzzsaw]

I think the Twins should change the playoff rotation to look like this: Santana, Radke, Silva. I'm not very comfortable with Mr. No movement on his pitches being our third starter but I think you can always bring in the next best guy available if he starts off a game badly.

[Stratosman]

I don't see any way Gardy can start Lohse in the 3 hole, he just doesn't get it done. I think Silva might be a better choice, at least he has been getting better instead of worse. I was watching the Twins game on ESPN last night and even the Yankees-*** -kissing announcers believed we could outpitch them at least in the first two spots. Hopefully Kevin Brown is still too hurt to pitch by then, I think he's thier best starter. Does Lohse get the start tonight?

[bigbucks]

Twins are off tonight & then I believe it's Silva tomorrow & Lohse on Saturday. I agree with whoever said Silva for the 3rd start in the postseason. Lohse has got the stuff, but he just hasn't pitched well even right out of the box most times. He seems like he gets in trouble & gives them up so fast you can't get him out in time to rescue the game a lot of times.

[buzzsaw]

My advice to Gardy would be this... If Lohse is the starting pitcher and say it's the 4th inning and the Twins just scored 4 runs to go up 4-0.. I would immediately put in a call to the bullpen for any long reliever to begin warming up!! Lohse is not mentally there and that is a big part of his issues! He gets a lead and wizzes it away!

[wade22]

Great points. I'm guessing they gotta put Silva on the bump for the third spot. I know it's still a rocky position for the Twins, but the third starter in '87 was Les Straker. Not exactly dominant. Viola and BBly were pitching well enough that Straker didn't need to be.

I think the 1-2 combo of BR and JS is so overwhelming right now that our Twinks could afford to throw out a toss-up and see what happens.

Al Newman said the other day it all depends on what shape the Twins would be in after the first two games of a series. I still think you gotta go with Silva. Maybe Mulholland if the Twins clinch with a few days left of the season. Old Man Mully looks worlds better when he gets a few days rest.

Another thought I had the other night while watching the Twins crush the Rangers was how about moving JC to starter and Silva/Lohse as the set-up guy? Romero has had an inconsistent year but he's really pitching well right now. Just a thought...he probably doesn't have the mind set/mentality to start a playoff game but his stuff is exploding off the mound ever since getting called back up.

This is shaping up to be a spectacular season.

[Willy]

Wade,
I agree with you about our first two guys being so good. Silva is good enough to give us a chance if he starts. As far as Romero goes, I don't think he would be a very good starter. He throws a lot of balls and over a few innings I think it would catch up to him. He's great out of the bullpen though!

A better option would be Rincon, who has started before and done well. (last year against Seattle). However, if the twins are thinking about using any of their bullpen guys for starters in the playoffs, they need to start doing it now so that the pitchers arms can get in shape to throw more than 30-50 pitches.

[bigbucks]

Romero was a starter when he first came up with us originally too. I don't seem them using either of those guys to start for a few reasons:

1) They don't want to give up the only dominant lefty in their pen (Romero)
2) They don't want to give up their most consitent right-handed setup man (Rincon)
3) It would be pretty demoralizing to Silva & Lohse especially if those guys who haven't been starters any time recently, took their spots. It could hurt them mentally for next year too, without the benefit being anything certain.

I expect it to be Silva or possibly Mulholland depending on who we're matched up against & assuming the big two have pitched a lot of innings. They'll just be on short leashes.

[knoppers]

I would use mulholand as our third starter, but have silva and lohse ready to take over in relief if needed.
I think since mulholand is a veteran, he has more incentive to do better, what a way to retire, winning the world series.
with santana, and radke, the third starter might mean nothing.

[Willy]

I agree guys. There is no way that Lohse can or will start in the playoffs. If he has to come in for an inning or two out of the pen it wouldn't be all that bad. Silva will probably be in the 3rd starting spot. It sure would be nice to have a real 3rd starter though. One that is solid and you could really count on in the playoffs.

[bigbucks]

Willy, I think there's a bunch of teams thinking the same thing...

[riverrat56]

Since this post is about radke anyways i thoguht i would take this time to say that radke is pitching better or just as good as Santana radke and santana are tied for quality starts. Something about the line up though when radke takes the hill, they dont want to hit the ball. i dont get it one night the lose 1-0 with radke pitching the next night they win 10-0 with santana. any thoughts on why this might be?

GO TWINS

[Pete Riola]

Scary thing about Silva is opponents batting average is like 310. That's a lot of base runners in a playoof game. That said he is a battler. I'd go Radke, Santana, Silva if Silva starts to struggle we go to Mulholland. Mr Potential goes to the pen. There's no way I'd start him in the playoffs but he could get some key outs for us. Remember last year Beckett won the series practically by himself. We have 2 great starters that can shut down any lineup and our pen is darn tough. Twins are series bound!