Earlier this week, Pittsburgh's Vance Worley nearly tossed a Maddux against the Giants, which led to this missive:
Twins gave up on him...changes are needed "@thrylos98: Former #MNTwins RHP Vance Worley had a 4-hitter shutout last night #GottaLoveAndy"
- Stirrups Now! (@uniformcritic) July 29, 2014
Well, yeah ... but the Twins also were smart enough to sign Phil Hughes last winter. So that's a bit of a wash, right? In retrospect, the Twins obviously look pretty foolish for "selling" Worley to the Pirates just before Opening Day. Sure, he was awful (and hurt) last year. But they had him in camp all spring! Couldn't they have foreseen Worley's surge?
In spring training, Worley gave up 16 runs in 11 innings. He struck out five, and walked five. Among the seven pitchers who started at least twice for the Twins, Worley was easily the worst. Should they have sent him to Triple-A and worked on whatever was wrong? Sure! We know that now!
In fact, Worley says there was a flaw in his delivery, which the Twins didn't spot but the Pirates did.
Which is the sort of thing that happens all the time. You just try to minimize those times in your organization, and if the Twins are smart, they'll try to figure out if they really did miss something, and how.
Pitchers, though. Man. They're tough to figure.
