First, a Memorial Day leftover: The commenters on this blog, who miss nothing, wondered why Johan pitched to Konerko with first-base open in the sixth inning yesterday before A.J.Gate XLV started. Great question. Something I didn’t get to yesterday was this postgame quote from Gardy:

“We had the one situation where we sent Andy [Rick Anderson] out there to talk to Johan about walking Konerko and pitching to A.J. … Jo wanted to go after Konerko. It kind of stunned me in the dugout, and I let him go after Konerko.”

On the morning rounds, I found a Q&A with Jeff Manship over at Seth’s blog. Of course I read it because, as some have noted, I seem to have a Man Crush on on Mr. Manship.

Also, there was Aaron Gleeman’s post about how starting the year with Ponson and Ortiz in the rotation already cost the Twins 2-5 wins and could eventually cost them 6-8 wins by season’s end. Far be it from me to get into a Battle of the Blogs with Mr. Gleeman. The guy is so smart, he would chew me up and spit me out all over his laptop. But as you saw from my weekend post, I respectfully disagree that the Twins screwed up.

Eric in Madison, this got to me: “Joe, You ought to be in politics; you successfully use specious argument to prove a point that nobody argued. Comparing Ortiz’s deal to those others is absurd; that wasn’t the choice. Ryan doesn’t get any kudos for being smart enough not to sign Pavano, sorry. … On another note, can I chide you gently about getting scooped on the irritated Garza story by the other paper?”

You want to antagonize me, Eric, antagonize me. Chide away. La Velle and I spend seven days a week monitoring this team in the interest of our readers. We’re not perfect. We might miss sometimes, but I guarantee you we battle through our share of quality at-bats.

So for those who’ve rolled their eyes at my recent pitching argument, for those who suggested my weekend post was nothing but a strawman argument, it’s your turn, now. I’m giving you $10 million to spend on the 2007 Twins payroll, with Carlos Silva, Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson still un-signed. I’m giving you a pair of 20-20 hindsight glasses and two months of data from the current season. You can spend that money on any players you wish, just be sure to leave the Twins with an Opening Day pitching rotation and a contingency plan for injuries. Go ahead because right now, maybe I can’t see it. In other words, counter these arguments with some actual suggestions of your own.

P.S. If I sound surly this morning, perhaps it’s because a certain airline turned my wife’s return flight from San Francisco yesterday from a 3:45 p.m. departure into a red-eye. She’s upstairs sleeping as I write this.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2007 at 11:52 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.