Evaluating a Diamond

Jamie Carroll has had better games afield.

I started speculating back in March about the 2013 rotation, but I certainly didn't imagine then that the Twins would be auditioning candidates by May.

The offseason plan, heavy on starters with expiring contracts, has crumbled. And the rest of the season, in terms of the rotation, will be a combination of trying to find tradable value in the veterans and establish some newcomers.

Scott Diamond has now had four starts this season, and four starts isn't a lot. But it's been easy to like what we've seen from the lefty.

Even in defeat Wednesday, in a game in which he clearly wasn't at his best, he did the things he does well:

• He threw ground balls — three GIDP, 10 ground outs in six innings.
• He threw strikes — 61 of them in 94 pitches. The only walk was intentional.

He did allow nine hits and five runs, and did surrender a home run (the second off him in more than 25 innings). As I said, he wasn't at his best.

But his teammates' support wasn't at its best either — as the three unearned runs attest. It wasn't a good game in the field for the Twins, and Wednesday's boots and bobbles came from players who are normally good gloves.

These things happen. The point here is that Diamond, even in defeat, looked still like a reliable major league starter. The Twins don't have a lot of them right now.