Only thing I wonder about the Twins is as good as Santana was last season. Will he be able to repeat it this year or will he be the new "Loiaza"??

Do you see the salaries for the Tiger's starters? Look at all that flexibility!

I voted for the Sox for a few reasons:

 

1- Im a Sox fan. DUH!

 

2- Past Santana/Radke, the Twins have no one in their ROTATION. We smoked Silva a few times last year. Lohse has come down to earth versus us. Mulholland is a plain-old geezer. As far as the Sox, all 5 or solid or better. Buehrle and Garcia are at the top. Radke is a big fall off from Santana where as Garcia and Beurhle are closer. Radke is up in age as well I beleive. Garland, El Duque, Contreras >>>> Silva, Lohse, Mulholland.

 

3- The bullpens are close. I give Nathan the edge over Shingo at closer. Marte the edge over Rincon/Romero at setup. The Sox get the edge in long relief (Hermanson, Cotts, Adkins) and in middle relief, their tied.

Only thing I wonder about the Twins is as good as Santana was last season. Will he be able to repeat it this year or will he be the new "Loiaza"??

I was thinking the same thing exactly.

Twins.

 

How the f*** does Kenny expect this team to stay competitive in a playoff hunt with a bottom of the rotation that includes:

#3-El Duque

#4-Contreras

#5-Garland

 

That 3, 4, 5 will land us a second place finish. Its awful.

I voted Royals too

well, this is definitely not a pitching dominated division i must say

Twins.

 

How the f*** does Kenny expect this team to stay competitive in a playoff hunt with a bottom of the rotation that includes:

#3-El Duque

#4-Contreras

#5-Garland

 

That 3, 4, 5 will land us a second place finish.  Its awful.

Are you on crack?

Which 3,4,5,6 (because none of the teams in the ALC have a solid, durable 1-5)

compare better than the CWS' Contreras, Garland, El-Duque, Grili?

 

Certaninly not the Twins Silva, Lohse, Mays, & Gressinger!

Starting rotation: Indians scare me the most.

Best staff: Twins.

Starting rotation: Indians scare me the most.

Do you mean because their rotation is so bad it scares you?

Starting rotation: Indians scare me the most.

Best staff: Twins.

Why the indians? Dont tell me Cliff Lee scares you. After sabathia and Westbrook they have nothing.

I highly doubt the Twins #1 and #2 will put up the same numbers as last year.

 

Everyone expected Elo to do the same, and he bombed...while the Twins big two won't be quite as bad, I do not expect similar performance to 04, but we will see.

 

Overall, the Sox rotation is better than the Twins, as we really have no glaring holes anymore, a completely solid 1-5 and a great pen, not many other teams in baseball can say that.

 

-y2

I highly doubt the Twins #1 and #2 will put up the same numbers as last year.

 

Everyone expected Elo to do the same, and he bombed...while the Twins big two won't be quite as bad, I do not expect similar performance to 04, but we will see.

 

Overall, the Sox rotation is better than the Twins, as we really have no glaring holes anymore, a completely solid 1-5 and a great pen, not many other teams in baseball can say that.

 

-y2

True Radke and Santana might not but up the same numbers. But Santana has much better stuff than Elo had in '03. Elo success was almost solely do to his cutter. Santana has all around great stuff.

This is kind of an important question.... answered by the wrong bunch of people.....

 

I voted for the whitesox, but I cant REALLY make a concrete arguement that they are the best.

 

I think the twins have some ? marks that some people are dissmissing.

 

Keep in mind im going off the statistics infront of me... and from what i remember of the few Twins games I watched last year.

 

Santana's down right filthy... absolutely sick.... BUT he bested his career high in IP by 70 (not including playoffs) how will he respond from such a workload? Just something to think about.

 

Radke is a pretty solid pitcher... you cant argue that... he's gonna K about 140 win 13-15 games and walk nowone... but this guys best season was 7 years ago. he's still only 32 but wouldnt you guys say he is reaching the end of his prime if he's not already there....

 

Carlos Silva doesn't really scare me one bit.... he gave up 55 more hits than IP but thats partly due to his pitching in the strikezone alot and to be fair he walks very few batters. Not to mention the sox ability last year to completely rock him.

 

Kyle Loshe has some pretty good stuff, but has never put it together (sounds like a lesser version of Jon Garland.)

 

I think that these guys are going to be a tough staff to go against, but boys and girls... i think you should feel pretty comfortable with our guys going into next year... were gonna be alot of fun to watch.

Good point, Murcie. At some point in time whether it's next year or 2006, Santana would probably experience some form of "dead arm" period.

All things considered the advantage the Twins have in the front-end of their rotation is negated by the advantage the Sox have in the back-end of their rotation. That means the #3 spot is biggest challenge for both teams. Who will have a better year: Silva or Contreras? If you think Contreras then vote for the CWS if you think Silva then vote the Twins.

 

So far in their careers there's not much of a separation so it's not an easy judgment to make. In terms of stuff Contreras beats Silva. I didn't factor it in but Contreras probably faced better lineups.

 

Let's look at their month to month:

Apr 04: Contreras 4 gs, 17 ip, 1W-2L ; Silva 5gs, 31ip, 4-0

May04: Contreras 3 gs, 14 ip, 1W-0L ; Silva 5gs, 28ip, 1-3

Jun 04: Contreras 5 gs, 14 ip, 3W-1L ; Silva 6gs, 40ip, 3-2

Jul 04: Contreras 6 gs, 39 ip, 3W-2L ; Silva 5gs, 31ip, 1-2

Aug04: Contreras 6 gs, 38 ip, 4W-1L ; Silva 6gs, 34ip, 1-1

Sep04: Contreras 6 gs, 28 ip, 0W-3L ; Silva 5gs, 31ip, 4-0

Oct 04: Contreras 1 gs, 8 ip, 1W-0L ;

 

Silva wins Apr, Jun, Sep

Contreras wins May, Jul, Aug

 

Slight edge to Silva. The most important months are Apr & Sep.

As for 2005, Contreras finished 1-3 & Silva finished 4-0.

The edge has to go to Silva again.

Forget Coop, bring back Nardi, he'll instantly fix our rotation.

I voted for the White Sox.

 

If Orlando Hernandez is healthy through out the whole year next season (and that’s a big IF) than we have a solid starting rotation. Not to mention that Garland needs to start being consistent. He’s going to rise some year and hopefully it is next season.

 

I have a big feeling that Santana had nothing but a fluke year last season. Yes he is young and has some good stuff, but I saw how the White Sox kicked his ass in the beginning of the season. If I’m not mistaking, we gave him two loses. Plus, he competed against Garland when he received those two loses.

Forget Coop, bring back Nardi, he'll instantly fix our rotation.

Ha Ha Nardi! That sack of crap never sat down! He went out to the mound every time a somebody got walked. A minute later the pitcher gave up a 3 run bomb.

I think it's the sox but it's very close, imo. I think the sox have a better starting staff because of the bottom 3, I think silva is going to be far worse then last year, Lohse sucks and Mullholland or Mays aren't good either. I think the sox have more depth to their pen, even though I'd say the twins have more dominating guys at the backend of their bullpen. I think it's very close but I think the sox have the advantage right now, jmo.

 

EDIT: Looks like I read the question wrong and it's just the rotation, not including the pen, if that is the question I definitely think the sox have a stronger rotation.

Twins are the best right now. IF Freddy can be the Freddy we traded for, IF JC can be the stud we saw at times, IF El Duque can stay healthy, and IF JG gets his head out of his ass we can be damn good.

 

If all of this goes our way, we can be the best. However, our bullpen is AWESOME right now, maybe the best in baseball.

I think its still the Twins. If we decrease the amt of walks given by Contreras and Garland becomes more consistent then we will be the best in AL central.

I'll say this much. Santana is not a one year wonder, like Loaiza was. He's the real deal and he'll be a thorn in our sides for years to come if he stays healthy.

it's a tough one. i think we have the best chance to win from day to day, but 2 days a week the twinks will have the advantage over most opponents.

it's a tough one.  i think we have the best chance to win from day to day, but 2 days a week the twinks will have the advantage over most opponents.

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