Darrell Evans sucks and more rotation stuff

UPDATE: The Twins have cut Mike Venafro, despite the fact that he pitched 10 scoreless innings this spring, and despite the fact that competent lefties are somewhat scarce. Venafro could easily catch on somewhere else (he has a 4.09 ERA in 307 career major league games), but said he will consider reporting to Rochester. If that happens the Twins are too lucky for their own good.
And worse, just when I began to credit Gardy for seeing the light, the Strib reports that it looks like he's had a change of heart, and that Carlos Silva will in fact get the last spot in the rotation, with Matt Garza going back to Triple-A.
Awesome.

FSN replayed Game 5 of the 1987 ALCS Monday night as part of their Twins Classics series.
This was the most enjoyable replay of a 'classic' game I've ever watched, mostly because I didn't remember any of it.
I was 7 years old in 1987, and while I know I watched every game of that year's playoffs, the only ones I really remember were Games 1 (which I attended in person), 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the World Series (I remember that worthless buffoon, Tom Lawless, hitting that big 3-run homer in Game 5. Fuck him, by the way. I hope he's dead. (I felt bad for writing that, so I checked. He's not dead. So double-fuck him).

And even though I didn't remember that particular game itself, watching it brought back a lot of memories of players I loved, players who were responsible for me falling in love with baseball.

Some other observations from a game that happened 20 years ago. Really.

*Bert Blyleven's curveball was unbelievable. Wow. Better than Kerry Wood, better than Darryl Kile, better than Tom Gordon. WOOOOOSHHH!
*Kirby swung at everything. EVERYTHING. He's chasing shit in the dirt and over his head, then he gets rung up on a pitch on the corner at the belt. Geez.
*Randy Bush comes up in a big spot in the 8th and lifts a sac fly to center for a big insurance run. I don't think there would be a better way to epitomize Randy Bush's underrated Twins career than that AB.
* No knock on the G-Man (or the Rat, if you prefer), but Tom Brunansky should've got the ALCS MVP.
* Dan Schatzeder. Terrible in regular season, lights out in playoffs as the only lefty out of the pen. Ironically, the same thing happened in '91, when a largely useless David West turned nasty against Toronto in the ALCS.
*Tom Kelly was only 37. Darrell Evans was 40, and while he hit 34 bombs that year (amazing for a 40-year old), he was a paraplegic in the field and on the bases, a major factor in the series.
*Stirrups are ugly.
* Tony Kubek was 1.9 million times better as a color man than Tim McCarver.
* Jeff Reardon. Not that good, really. He had a 4.48 ERA in '87. That's about three runs higher than our man Joe Nathan.
*Don Baylor, Gaetti, Bush, Al Newman, Frank Viola, Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, Chet Lemon, Matt Nokes. All played in this game, all went on to coach or manage at some level after their playing days. There's probably some more I'm not aware of.

Turning our attention to the modern-day Twins:
*Turns out Carlos Silva does, in fact, have the ability to refuse a demotion to Triple-A. But if he did that, he would become a free-agent, and sacrifice the $4.5 million the Twins owe him for this year, so doubt that'll happen.
Unless Silva throws 7 shutout innings in his next start, my money's on Matt Garza for the final spot in the rotation. If Garza does get that last spot, I bet Silva gets sent to Triple-A (with Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire quietly hoping that he's dumb enough to refuse the assignment, getting them off the hook for the 4 and a half mil).

*Sidney Ponson threw six shutout innings with no walks Monday afternoon. His sinker is working. Maybe he'll turn out okay.

*JD Durbin relieved Ponson and was terrible. There's no way he makes the team, even if the Twins keep 12 pitchers. That means he'll have to clear waivers for the Twins to send him to Triple-A. I doubt that'll happen - he'll get claimed - but I don't think losing Durbin is the end of the world. He's got a nice arm, but I don't think he's a future All-Star.
Everyone kicked and screamed when Michael Ryan and Mike Restovich ran out of options and were claimed off waivers, and they are both still in the minors.

*Mike Venafro pitched another scoreless inning, making it 10 this spring. If the Twins do decide to keep 12 pitchers, I hope he's one of them.