Puckett's Pond » Jeff Francis

Joel Piniero, Jeff Francis, Jon Garland. Please tell me this is a joke, Twins!

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 12:08:30 +0000

The Twins are at it again. They’re targeting a trio of past-their-prime starting pitchers who get knocked around and cannot buy a strikeout. It seems the Twins have learned nothing from their experiments with Sidney Ponson, Livan Hernandez, and Ramon Ortiz. Instead of targeting a respectable #2 or #3 starter, the Twins are chasing after a parade of #5s. I know this isn’t exactly breaking news – the rumors came out last week, and the Twins have been looking at Francis since before the Winter Meetings – but I feel the need to address it before the Twins do something stupid (not that I can stop them, but at least I can shake my head and say “I told you so”).

The 33 year old Piniero had a 5.13 ERA last year in 27 starts with the Angels. His strikeout rate was 3.8 per nine innings. That number was very low even for Piniero, but not totally out of character; he hasn’t struck out more than 5.5 per nine since 2004. In 2011, Piniero gave up 181 hits in just 145 innings, helping pad a Blackburnesque WHIP of 1.51.

Francis, 30, beat Piniero in pretty much every statistical category last year, but that is not saying much, of course. He had a still-ugly 4.82 ERA in 2011 to go with 4.5 K/9 and 1.44 WHIP and 224 hits allowed in 183 IP. (more…)

Twins Free Agency Watch: Edwin Jackson and Jeff Francis

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:56:23 +0000

Jeff Francis and Edwin Jackson are on the Twins’ radar, according to reports.

Let’s ignore Francis for a minute and concentrate on Jackson. This means one of two things: either the good folks at Fox Sports and MLBTradeRumors.com are trying to play a joke to get my hopes up, or the Twins really are getting serious about addressing the gaping hole in their rotation.

I am an unabashed Jackson advocate. I view him as the best pitcher on the free agent market, aside from C.J. Wilson. He has amazing “stuff” including a fastball that averages nearly 95 mph and a very productive slider. But the amazing thing about Jackson is his perfect combination of youth and experience. At 28 years old, he is one of the few pitchers on the market who could conceivably improve over the next couple seasons. But he already has enough of a track record to make him a safe bet. Jackson has pitched at least 180 innings and won double digit games for each of the last four years. In three of those seasons, he notched at least 148 strikeouts. Furthermore, he has pitched in the postseason for two World Series teams: the 2008 Rays and the 2011 Cardinals.

In short: Jackson is a durable, and he’s a winner. (more…)

2011 Series Preview: Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals (6/2-6/5)

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:51:54 +0000

It used to be that the Minnesota Twins beat the Royals seemingly every time they played, those days have come to an end. After an early season split in a two game series at Target Field the Twins were promptly swept out of their last series in Kansas City, failing to score more than 3 runs in any game. Hopefully this time around the Twins can continue to hit the ball well and come out of Kansas City with nothing worse than a 4 game split. Although the Twins bats are not REALLY that hot, as they haven’t won a single game in 2011 when they have given up more than 4 runs (0-25). Oofda.

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