Brad Radke may not have the numbers of a David Ortiz or a Justin Morneau, but his value to his team is so much greater than the runs the best sluggers have given their teams.  

 First I'll start with Brad Radke's stats.

12-8    4.43 ERA   76K's

Completely unimpressive eh?

But let's break it down a little further.  Brad Radke has a tear in his shoulder.  May 24th is the last start for Radke where he gave up more than 4 runs.  That date coincides with the date he got his first Cortisone injection in his battered shoulder.  Since then his ERA has been sub 3, and he has turned around his season.  He has battled for the Twins, using a shoulder that can best be described as throwing with a ten pound weight instead of a baseball. 

Brad Has nothing left in that arm.  His velocity is gone, and he is getting hitters out on pure deception.  While his velocity is not their, he has shown the ability to change speeds on his pitches. 

 Brad has been clutch.  He is literally pitching until his arm falls off.  He has stopped the Twins when they started to slide against the Blue Jays, shutting them down like he was 25 again. 

 Brad is also the best mentor the Twins have ever had in their pitching staff.  It was through his guidance that Johan and Silva learned change ups.  Without the change-up, Johan is largely an average pitcher.

 Brad has done so much for the Twins, It will be a sad day to see him retire, and when he does, so should his number.  Brad was with the Twins during the terrible years after the world series victory, and was a part of the group that brought the Twins back on the map in baseball.