Lets start the debate

Lets just assume for the sake of fun the Twins win the first two against Chicago.

Sundays game come downs to win and you win the division, home field advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

Do you start Santana even though he has been a bit off the last couple of starts and could use the rest.

Do you start somebody else and use Johan for a couple of innings if you get ahead by one or two runs.

Do you give him the day off and start him in the playoffs no matter what.

Personally, now that we are in the playoffs I don’t think we can advance beyond the first round unless Santana carries us there. As much as I would like to start him on Sunday to 1) Beat the Sox 2) beat the Sox 3) win the division I think Gardy needs to save him.

Sunday we may see why Ryan & Gardy are the best in the business, tough descisions to make!

Finally, if we win Friday & Saturday is anybody going to watch the Queens play Buffalo without flipping over to the Twins?

Football is only something to watch between the world series and spring training.

You have to sit Santana on Sunday and rest him for game 1 of the playoffs…if you do start him that eliminates using him twice in a 5 game series in the 1st round which would be crazy…Go Twins!

Would rather have Santana twice in a series even if it is the Yanks! Thinking about it, it would even Validate this team even more if they would be The Evil Empire!!!

I will go the other route. I would start Santana on Sunday and let Radke start in game 1 of the playoffs. Santana would be available by next Friday.

I like the Santana twice route. I like our odds with Santana and Radke taking 3 of the 5 starts. If it gets to 5!

I’d start him Sunday personally but I think the decisions already been made not to have him start. If he gets two starts vs. NY they’ll both be in NY. I’d rather play the A’s and have home field advantage and have Santana available for just one game. Then he’d be lined up for two or three(1,4,7) in the ALCS. The ultimate goal is to win the WS, not just the 1st round.

I personally would rather start the series on a good note with a win and my chances with Santana are much better than with Radke or Booooooooof!

It’s a tough call…….but the decision has already been made he won’t be starting Sunday……

I think the decision comes down to who do we want to play in the first round. Home field is huge this time of year, especially when there is a good chance we could end up playing the Tigers again. I’d rather secure the home field, send Detroit to N.Y. to start the playoffs and let them beat each other up before we take on the survivor.

I also believe we match up better against the A’s than we do the Yankeees. So, yes, I’d maybe start Santana, but most likely keep him in the pen just in case we need to ask him for 1 or 2 innings of work later in the game.

Of course, it might not matter if K.C. can take 2 from Detroit!!

None of it matters anyway, my Yankees are gonna take it all this year!!

I think we stand a better chance to beat the payroll bums in a five game series than in a seven game series.Its not that i don’t want them to have home field , its just i want them in the ws.

Have to play the Yankees in all probabilty to get to world Series and the home field advantage all the way so I would opt to play them in a 5 game series rather than 7 games. Santana sits and pitches first game of playoffs.

I think we all agree that Santana is definitely the best pitcher on the team but he hasn’t fared well (at least to his standards) in his last couple starts. I think the pitcher who has had the best starts lately is Boof. It will be exciting to see if he can keep up the good stuff under the pressure of playoff baseball.
I do think, though, that having home field would be a great advantage in the playoffs. remember we still have a shot at the A.L. best record. We are only one behind N.Y. and I am pretty sure we have the tiebreaker over them.