Yes, Ramon ‘n’ Kyle, it could be worse
Posted on May 25th, 2007 – 5:05 PMBy Howard
Last six appearances
Pitcher IP H ER BB SO W-L ERA
Ortiz 28.1 42 25 8 12 0-4, 7.94
Lohse 29 50 28 9 17 0-6, 8.59
JeWeaver 22 50 35 7 12 0-6, 14.32
Redman 21.2 38 29 11 13 0-4, 11.63
13 Responses to "Yes, Ramon ‘n’ Kyle, it could be worse"
wow! Guess I don’t feel as bad about Ponson, Ortiz and Silva as I thought.
Atleast Redman has an all-star appearance under his belt.
Redman’s “All-Star” appearance last year was the equivelent of every five year old t-baller getting a trophy at the end of the year.
Seattle paid Jeff Weaver $8 mil for a 15 ERA and a trip to the DL
If Ramon Ortiz implodes again tomorrow, we absolutely have to shut him down. We actually should have done this a few games ago. The holding-on-to-meatballers-way-too-long scenario is all too familiar… can anybody say Joe Mays?
How did TR convince Krivsky to take on Lohse again?
I know I keep bringing up the Ramon’n'Kyle thing, I just always am bothered to see so much virulence directed by our fanbase at one former Twin. There’s at least a few former Twins out in baseball having mediocre seasons (Mientkiewicz and Jones come to mind) that nobody really points and laughs at, and there’s plenty of mediocre pitchers in baseball, including the four listed above. Mark Redman is actually another decent comparison, since he’s had a pretty similar career performance to Lohse and Ortiz. Pitchers with their track records of mediocrity are going to struggle over stretches like we’ve seen them all struggle recently.
If Ramon Ortiz gets cut sometime in the next few months, however, and someone else picks him up to fill out their rotation, no one in the Twins fanbase is going to point and laugh at him personally when he continues to pitch like Ramon Ortiz. And they shouldn’t. And I realize, like I’ve said before, that Lohse didn’t do himself a lot of favors here, but it’s frustrating to me to see so many fans pat themselves on the back and mock one guy in baseball who’s not on the team anymore.
(Sorry I take up so much space with these responses, Howard; I’ve never really been responding solely to you as to the piling on that seems to generate from the majority of fans as represented in your comments sections.)
DK,
No worries. I’m all for people offering defense for someone whom they feel is being maligned. And if you were in a courtroom, I’d say that was a hell of a closing argument.
While Kyle was getting knocked around by Washington the other day, one of the Reds’ radio announcers (Not sure whether it was Brantley or Brenneman) went off on him like this: “You really have to wonder how much longer the Reds can run out Kyle Lohse every 5th day if they’re serious about winning. He’s just not getting it done.”
That was rough.
“If Ramon Ortiz gets cut sometime in the next few months, however, and someone else picks him up to fill out their rotation, no one in the Twins fanbase is going to point and laugh at him personally when he continues to pitch like Ramon Ortiz”
Quite wrong my friend, I will be laughing heartily!
I guess the thing about Lohse is he was such an ass when he was here. You didn’t hear Silva asking someone behind him to make a play last year. Ponson never beat a defenseless door when he sucked. So, I don’t root against Lohse but it’s not hard to see why people don’t like him. He’s an ass. Beyond that, he’s got the raw talent but it just doesn’t seem he’ll ever put it all together. What a waste.
Actually Ponson did criticize the defense.
http://twinsfans.zedzone.com/wiki/view_entry.php?wikiEntryId=22751
But the reason Twins fans will never stop hating Lohse and will never really care about Ortiz enough to dislike him once he’s gone is twofold.
1) We developed Lohse to the point where he was on the verge of becoming a great pitcher, and at that point it was up to him to take the next step. Just a few years ago, it looked like Lohse would make it to the rotation before Johan and would in fact have a better career. He had more dominating stuff and more pitches, all of which he could throw for strikes. As we all saw over the years, he never properly used those skills and never took the step to becoming a good/great pitcher in this league. So we’re pissed that he screwed that up for us.
2) He repeatedly took shots at other guys on the team that are fan favorites, the most famous of which was the Cuddyer incident. One of the many things people love about Cuddyer is that he’ll go for plays that he might not be able to make. Sometimes he makes them, sometimes he doesn’t. Everyone knows he’s no Torii, but that doesn’t stop him from doing his best. When Lohse called out Cuddyer after one of the times he didn’t make the play, that was unacceptable.
“How did TR convince Krivsky to take on Lohse again?”
The same way that he took himself behind the woodshed with the signing of Ortiz.
Hey - at least Ortiz didn’t get a multi-year deal or anything.
