35 Pitchers

Where MOST major league ball clubs invite as many as twenty pitchers to spring training, most settle for about 15. The Twins currently have 35 prospects trying to find some mound time down in Florida.

THIRTY-FIVE!

It's come to the point that they are actually digging up dirt and making lots of extra mounds outside their practice field so that these guys can find a place, any place, to pitch.

Let's face it, none of this gives an average Twins fan much reason for optimism. The Twins are basically going to throw 35 pitchers at the wall and see if any of them stick. That might not be a bad philosophy EXCEPT that most of those arms are not going to see any real game time. There's not nearly enough games in spring training to evaluate all of them properly. Most teams KNOW that there aren't enough games to evaluate 15 arms properly. The Twins coaching staff simply isn't large enough to look at that many pitchers.

Just watching them throw off a mound in practice sessions isn't going to show anybody much anyway. Pitching is a whole lot more than throwing to a guy behind the plate while somebody watches, realizing of course that most of the guys that they will also be throwing TO aren't even catchers.

Scott Diamond, barring injury or freakish accident pretty much has a starting job sewn up. Vance Worley will be given a starter's role at the beginning of the season IF he looks pretty much recovered from his Tommy John surgery from two years back.

The Twins top prospect, Kyle Gibson will be given every opportunity to prove himself after his own Tommy John surgery from a little over a year ago, but he PROBABLY won't be ready by opening day. The Twins are going to baby that arm knowing that even hard-working guys like Joe Nathan needed about 18 months to start looking like his old self when he came back from his own TJ surgery. The Twins had him back in twelve months, but sent him to the minors after so many horrible outings. He simply needed more time to get his groove back. Kyle will most likely need that as well.

Scarier? We don't even know if Kyle CAN pitch at the major league level, since he's never done it. We just know that he was pretty good in the minors.

Last year's late season starters (Cole Devries, Liam Hendriks, and Sam Deduno) did not impress the Twins as much as they would have liked. DeVries was hurt just as he started to look good. Deduno was incredibly wild, and Liam Hendriks always looked good but at the same time lost 17 starts in a row (an all-time major league record!) before finally winning a game late last season.

IF the Twins had confidence in THEM, they wouldn't have invited 35 pitchers to spring training.

Like everyone else, I'm just waiting to hear and see good reports coming from spring training about a few pitchers who look "better than expected." With 35 to choose from, a few may actually standout and shine.

We should have a few good relievers. We always do. But wins are determined by how good your starting rotation is, and how deep into game that each can go. Without starters who can pitch 6 or 7 innings, it doesn't matter how good your relief corp is. Bad starters will burn that relief corp out in a hurry, and the season will become incredibly hard to follow.

I haven't read or heard one Twins sport's writer who thinks that THIS YEAR'S squad is better than last year's roster. Considering how bad last year's roster was, that's just rubbing salt in the wound.

The ONE plus? Getting tickets to games this season is going to be much, much easier.

Of course, I don't know many Twin's fans who will have the patience to sit through a nine-inning game this year.

Even Tom the Twins Fan has his limits.