FanPost

Gardy's fascination with veterans

Kelsie Smith (an upgrade over Jason Williams, IMO) had an article in today's Pioneer Press in which she interviews Ron Gardenhire and others on the need for a veteran starter. After several quotes related to Gardy's nervousness with the "young starters" she paraphrases him thus:

Before the Twins opened the series against Oakland, Gardenhire told reporters that with the July 31 trade deadline approaching, he would like another arm, a veteran starter to fill the No. 2 or No. 3 spot in the rotation.

Ignoring the fact that the Twins are in the top half of the league in pitching and in the bottom half of the league in offense, the quote unearths a major weakness in the way Gardenhire thinks about starting pitching. My perspective is age is not that important. It's all about results, and if young guys can do the job, who cares how old they are?

Obviously, it's not just about age, it's about experience. And it takes time for young pitchers to gain major league experience. They will struggle some in doing so. Gardy just does not have much patience with inexperienced pitchers. And experience is no magic bullet either. Again, it's all about results, and when a guy runs out of outs in his arm, no amount of experience will help him.

The Twins have used five pitchers this year in the fourth and fifth spots. Three of them have been abject failures: Sidney Ponson, Ramon Ortiz, and Kevin Slowey. One has been inconsistent but promising: Scott Baker. One has only had one start, so it's too early to tell: Matt Garza.

All things considered, the experienced guys have done worse than the inexperienced guys. Yet Gardy wants to blame the young pitchers because he's run out of patience with developing them. Considering how limited the options are in terms of trade chips and how much need the team has at the plate, it sends the wrong message.

It's the same message Gardy sent before spring training. "I don't trust Garza or Baker, so I want two veteran starters going into spring training." We all know how that worked out. If the Twins were able to acquire a veteran starter now, it would likely be more of the same: Jeff Weaver comes to mind. How is that an improvement over Baker or Garza?

At some point, Gardy will need to work with the arms he has. If he commits to embracing those arms rather than short changing them, he might get the results he's looking for. It seems like a more productive tack than whining about the youth of his rotation while his third baseman and DH are at the bottom of the league for their respective positions.