Liriano arrives in Twins camp
Posted on February 27th, 2008 – 7:15 AMBy Joe Christensen
FORT MYERS — “We can start now!” Twins catcher Mike Redmond said this morning. “Franchise is here!”
Francisco Liriano arrived in Twins camp after missing the first nine days because of visa problems in the Dominican Republic.
Liriano, 24, moved purposefully through the clubhouse, getting a pile of clothing from the equipment managers.
For those who haven’t seen him since before Tommy John surgery in November 2006, he is noticeably thicker now. The media guide lists him at 6-2, 225 pounds. There have been reports of his fastball hitting 97 miles per hour in recent workouts at the Twins’ Dominican academy.
He is throwing today and will address the media after the workout.
37 Responses to "Liriano arrives in Twins camp"
Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!
Noticebly thicker. Hmmmmm. Not sure if that’s a good thing. In a Boof Bonser way or muscle?
Don’t you just love this time of year? Hope springs eternal! Go Franchise!!
if he’s hitting 97 already… the TJ surgery wrapped well, and should prevent that from happening again provided our pitching coaches, and medical staff (some of the best in the game) keep an eye on his mechanics… THAT IS A GOOD SIGN! A VERY GOOD SIGN! Now let’s find out about that slider, and a consistant release point on the changeup… and people may not be in pain over Santana.
Hopefully the franchise rebounds to his old form. If he does, then we dont need the $137.5 million guy, we have one with the potential to be even more dominant!
Finally camp is started 
And EXPENSIVE!!!!
One can only hope we are worrying about a new franchise record contract being divvied out to Franchise in a few short years
Franchise is the key to knowing if the Twins can be a surprise team this year. If he can come back to his old form, all of a sudden you can bump Baker to #2 and Boof to #3. Livan is a solid #4 and a guy like Slowwwwley can fill out the #5. That rotation is young, but potentially lethal.
The Twins have an improved lineup from top to bottom and should score more runs. I honestly don’t understand why people are so down on this club. If a few things break right they can contend even while they are building for a Super team in 2010.
Since it’s spring, here are my hopes (not too far fetched I hope):
- Liriano makes us forget about santana, though only over 150 innings this year
- baker, slowey, bonser combine for 500 innings of a high 3s ERA
- livan baffles AL hitters for a few months before falling back to earth and being replaced with whoever is dominating AAA
- nathan, guerrier, neshek match 07 and crain, perkins help round out the best bullpen in MLB
- monroe and buscher provide legitimate bench bats
- mauer, morneau, kubel, cuddyer, young all improve on 07 number s; or at least 4 of them do
Big question - who leads off? Doesn’t make sense for gomez yet - too much pressure and he should be 8th or 9th if he makes the team this year (which means he should be in AAA since we need the CF to lead off. That leaves Pridie I guess - can he provide a .350 OBP? Probably best case scenario - but this is the spring and hope springs eternal!
1. Patterson/Lofton
2. Mauer
3. Cuddyer
4. Morneau
5. Young
6. Kubel
7. Lamb
8. Harris
9. Everett
I also agree with the idea of bringing in Patterson or Lofton to play CF.
Does anybody have any further knowledge on Liriano’s frame? Joe C mentions he is now 6′2”, 225 pounds. What was his height/weight when he was ‘tearing up’ 2006? Will this help him gain more veloticy? Is this muscle or fat?
i heard this is muscle cause he did a lot of weight training..
he also did weight training on his shoulders to make them stronger…
so he wont injure as much.. a lot of the problem supposivly was that his shoulders werent strong enough to do those sliders
Did anyone else see that the Cardinals are going to bat their pitchers in the 8 spot this year? This is same philosophy is why I think Everett should be hitting 8 for the Twins if Gomez is starting in Center. Gomez should be in the 9 hole to get on for the top of the lineup.
Is Liriano’s extra weight in his legs? If so that would be nice to generate extra power.
Baseball-reference.com has Liriano listed @ 6-2, 185. I would imagine that would be about right, maybe 190.
jeez if hes 225 i could see why he can throw harder
lets hope his slider can have more movment too 
jama,
I agree.
Gomez batting ahead of Everett will mean tougher pitches to Gomez.
Gomez ahead of the leadoff man will mean better pitches for Gomez.
If Gomez is on base, (as a stealing threat) the leadoff hitter will see all fastballs. Everett would not be able to take advantage of that if HE was batting with Gomez on first.
honestly…
i think punto is just as good defensivly as everett.. everett though has home run power while punto cant hit one out of the infield…..
I bet Liriano doesn’t start for the big-league team until June. If everything goes right.
June should be about when AL hitters start to figure out Livan, so that would be a good time-frame.
any time someone says that someone is ‘getting thicker,’ all i can think of is the show scrubs.
j.d. to elliot: ‘are you getting thicker? yeah, i think youre getting thicker.’
The Twins have no lead-off hitter if Gomez hits in the 9-hole, unless Gardy lets D-Young develop there… But he’s a pretty free swinger right now, not good for a Twins lead-off batter.
how about just get rid of everett and get a real hitter? then put gomez 1st lol
I wish they wouldn’t turn off the comments section when an article gets written on a subject that they know will be criticized. First there was their report that the Wild signed Chris Simon. Now there’s Souhan writing the praises of Nick Punto. Let me bitch and moan, damn it!
Punto as good in the field as Everett? Not even close. Everett has tremendous range and arm strength. Outside of Tulo…nobody in the league can touch his SS skills.
Gomez should be in the 9 hole to get on for the top of the lineup.
There’s still the question of who leads off (if it’s Mauer who bats 2nd?)
I like the idea of Young/Morneau/Cuddyer/Kubel in that order (since Young gets the benefit of having Mauer likely on base ahead of him and Morneau coming up next).
But If Mauer’s 1/2, and Morneau is leading off (which Gardy really wants from the sound of it), who takes the 1/2 spot not occupied by Mauer?
Heck, is Mauer even a leadoff type guy?
WOW…I miffed that post. Should read:
But If Mauer’s 1/2, and Morneau is cleaning up (which Gardy really wants from the sound of it)
Glad I caught that before too long.
Now there’s Souhan writing the praises of Nick Punto. Let me bitch and moan, damn it!
Yeah…let’s open up the article about Punto trying to overcome what he knows are his problems so that people can spend a week writing all kinds of fun things about taking him out back to get shot and burning his uniform in effigy…
There’s enough Punto/Gardy/Pohlad bashing in the blogs that it doesn’t need to spill over to an article. Because honestly, what could be said in the article that hasn’t been said here a million times?
Punto is a valuable member of this team…as a utility player and late-inning defensive replacement. The problem with Punto is that everyone (especially the Twins) got too excited about his year in 2006 and he shouldn’t have been handed the starting spot at 3B.
Should Mauer leadoff?
I think with what they have to choose from he should be, atleast against RHP, and until Gomez/Pridie are ready.
Harris can be the leadoff hitter against LHP with Mauer hitting second.
Punto proved his ceiling, in 2006, and his basement,in 2007, lets hope he can find his avg. here this year,,, he has a lot of pride,,which he should,, if he has any self-worth, i think he,ll be fine, how come nobody talks about Pridie, as lead-off is,t why thay brought him in here,,i,am i the only one that thinks that he,ll be the starting cf. and lead-off hitter
Columbo: So Harris & Mauer bat 1/2 (depeneding on pitcher)? That could be interesting.
How does the bottom look? Kubel/Lamb/Everett/Gomez?
Punto and Morneau play too intense; they wear themselves out.
They should both fish with Herbie more.
[…] being up for grabs, one major question to answer is, should Francisco Liriano be deemed the “Franchise” now or should this tag go to Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer (new team leader) or Justin […]
[…]one major question to answer is, should Francisco Liriano be deemed the “Franchise” now or should this tag go to Delmon Young, Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer (new team leader) or Justin Morneau?[…]
