Apparently, the pitching sucks, too. Great.

Sunday's 16-4 win over Detroit gave some brief cause for optimism.
I have to admit, I didn't fall for it.
This is still a very flawed team. So flawed, in fact, that I almost wonder if they're actually overachieving right now. It could get worse.
Could this be a 90-loss team?
It shouldn't be. In fact, it could still be a 90-win team.
But there are just so many things that have gone wrong and continue to go wrong.
Some were easy to see coming. Others were not.

Early on, Ramon Ortiz and Carlos Silva, the two worst starting pitchers in their respective leagues last year, were the biggest bright spots on the club. Ortiz was 3-0 with a 2.05 ERA. Silva still sports an excellent 3.00 ERA.
Now Ortiz has posted a 12.25 ERA in his last three starts, and Tuesday's performance against Cleveland was flat out embarrassing. He didn't even compete after being handed a 2-0 lead.
Even when Ortiz was winning there were signs that this was coming.
He wasn't striking anyone out. He was leaving pitches up. The velocity was unimpressive.
Now it's catching up to him.

I think there's still hope that he can be at least passable, i.e. - an ERA around 5, but that of course isn't good enough to keep the youngsters down on the farm, nor is it good enough to justify the $3.1 million the team is paying him this year.
It was easy to cut bait on Sidney Ponson, who gets only a million.
What about Ortiz? I wrote way back in February that signing Ortiz could be a good idea if he was dirt cheap like Ponson, but that the problem with signing him to an expensive deal is that modest-payroll teams can't afford to give up $3 million to a guy and then release him.

And what if Silva rediscovers his form from last year? His sinker has really been moving, so I'm somewhat confident he can keep it up. But if he starts getting bombed, too, 90-losses is a safer bet than 90 wins.

*Jesse Crain gave up 6 runs in 2/3 of an inning, but was sent to the DL afterwards. As much as the Twins don't need another injury, I don't think anyone is jumping off a cliff over Crain going on the DL. He's been terrible this year. I thought they should've traded him this off-season, and I still think that'd be a decent idea. Matt Guerrier has proven he can handle Crain's role as a late-inning guy, and there are plenty of candidates to replace Guerrier in the mop-up/long relief role.

To replace Crain, the Twins called up 24-year old righty Julio DePaula.
DePaula had a 2.56 ERA in 43 games last year in Double-A, and so far this year has posted a 3.15 ERA and 2 saves in 15 games for Triple-A Rochester.

*Rondell White could be back by the first week of June. I guess that's good news.

*There were actually some positives in the 15-7 loss to Cleveland, mostly that the team hit 4 homers for the second straight game.
Justin Morneau whacked two, giving him 11. That puts him on pace for about 42.
The biggest positive to come of the entire game was Jason Kubel finally hitting his first homer, with Dick and Bert practically willing him to do so in the 8th inning.
Hopefully that will help Kubel turn a corner.
His failures this year have been a big reason the Twins offense has been so bad.

*Jeff Cirillo made his first appearance of the year in the field, taking over at 3B in the late innings. I have a feeling Ron Gardenhire is feeling him out to see if he can play there somewhat regularly. No matter how good Nick Punto is defensively (and he misplayed three balls on Tuesday, including his first error of the year), I don't think Gardy will stick with him if he can't get on base.

*Which brings me to the biggest positive I've seen from the team so far.
Gardy.
He seems to be getting it.
He stopped batting Punto 2nd. Stopped batting Redmond 3rd. Moved Bartlett up. Has shown a willingness to move Cuddyer, Morneau or Hunter in and out of the 3-4-5 holes. Plays Kubel.
And if you watched Tuesday's post-game show, you saw him as mad as you ever have.
He was ready to blow at the gathering of reporters, and they weren't even asking pointed questions.
It's good to see Gardy finally losing his patience. Good to see him holding players accountable.