Well, that's just great.

Normally, I am happy when my favorite team signs a pitcher that pitched 210 innings with a 3.85 ERA in a severe hitter's park last year. This time however, it means that Johan Santana will be moving back to the bullpen. It is almost as if the Twins did this all to toy with me. I had been talking for months about how Santana should be in the rotation and when Milton went down with the injury, they immediately announced that he would. I was sad about Milton, but very excited about Santana. Then, a couple weeks later, this happens.

Kenny Rogers' K rate has never been very good, but it reached a career low last year at 4.57/9 IP. A low K rate is not unique among Twins starters, as Mays, Radke and Reed all K'd less than 6.0 per 9 last year. Kyle Lohse is now the Strikeout King among Twins starters at 6.18/9. The difference between Rogers and the other starters is that Rogers is an extreme groundball pitcher (2.02 GB/FB), while the other guys all get the ball in the air a ton (Radke 1.05, Reed 0.91, Lohse 0.83, Mays 1.18). Milton (0.67) is one of the biggest flyball pitchers in baseball and prior to this I was under the belief that the Twins were consciously building their pitching staff around their outstanding outfield defense, which I thought was a brilliant plan.

This, of course, puts a hole in that theory. Rogers doesn't strike anyone out and the Twins are very weak up-the-middle defensively, which is a recipe for mediocrity at best and disaster at worst.

On its own, this signing is a nice one. They get a veteran starter that was pretty good last year. But it isn't on its own, it is on the Twins, which means one of the most promising young lefties in baseball now goes back to pitching in relief.

I haven't made throws from the outfield on consecutive days," said Richard. "I'm sure the shoulder will be able to handle it. ... I hope the Rockies realize that I'm less than 100 percent throwing from the outfield."

Year    LVL     AB     AVG     OBP     SLG    HR    2B     BB     SO

1999      A    455    .334    .450    .651    32    42     96    145

2000     AA    447    .293    .440    .526    20    32    117    150

2001    AAA    442    .278    .415    .525    27    24    102    160

2002    AAA    359    .265    .407    .524    23    24     83    121

"I will not forgive him. Even my little boy (Jose Jr.) told me to get him. If I face him 10 more times, I'll hit him 10 times. I want to kill him."

"If he comes to apologize, I will punch him right in the face. And then I'll kill him. If you're a writer and you want to write a good book, you don't write a story about somebody else."

"I was hurt by remarks by a former teammate," Mesa said in a statement Thursday. "I would never injure anyone."

"If he wants to hit somebody he needs to stand there and fight," Mets manager Art Howe said. "He backpedaled faster than I can run forward."

"If he had gotten loose, I don't know what would have happened,"

"The guy ran like a scared rabbit. If he wants to hit someone, he should stay there and fight. It was a set up, as far as I was concerned. I'm angry. He's my best player and I don't want guys taking potshots at my best player."

"I know what I did and it was not intentional," said Mota. "Whatever they (the Mets) think ..."

The fans there are very much aware of what's happening, and they feel two things, which are reflected in the SI piece -- sad and betrayed. And I think they feel a little foolish. That's a big theme of this story -- the fans were taken. They gave their hearts away and it turned out that the man to whom they gave their hearts was not quite so deserving. Even if Puckett is acquitted of the sexual assault charges brought against him, it's still very clear that he's not the person everyone thought he was. But a fascinating aspect of this story reflects on how fans get so carried away with their heroes.

"It has to be put back together," Nevin told the San Diego Union-Tribune in a telephone interview Saturday night. "It has to be fixed. It'll happen again and again and again if I don't get it fixed."

The good news here is that Johan Santana, whom I have been yapping about for some time now, will likely get a chance to begin the year in the starting rotation. I've said it before and I am sure I will say it a thousand more times: Johan Santana has the most long-term potential of any player - pitcher or hitter - in the entire Minnesota organization. He's a special player and I think he will take a huge step up this year, in no small part because he'll get a chance to start every 5th day.

Half      IP      ERA     OAVG      HR/9

 1st     111     3.17     .237      0.97

 2nd      81     7.00     .293      2.22

I think it is an excellent idea.
The basic idea with a pitching staff is (or at least should be) to have your best pitchers pitch the most innings.

Anytime you think you can potentially get 180-200 innings out of a pitcher like Kim, instead of 85, you try it. Byung-Hyun Kim has been a dominant reliever for the past couple of seasons and if he can continue to pitch at anywhere close to the same level as a starter it would give Arizona the best 1-2-3 punch in the league, by far (although that isn't saying a whole lot, since Johnson, Schilling and Aaron "The Human Home Run Allowing Machine" Gleeman would be one of the best 1-2-3 punches too).

Most significantly, the 24-year-old sidearming right-hander threw just 42 pitches, 30 for strikes. Manager Bob Brenly has said Kim must cut down his pitch count to become a starter. He was known to throw 30 or more pitches in an inning as a closer.

"BK was fantastic today," Brenly said. "He's always been a very quick learner and very coachable. We told him what he needed to improve on from his last start, and today was a tremendous step in the right direction. ... That's what we envision him doing for us all season."