Liriano targets Monday or Tuesday for Grapefruit debut
Posted on February 27th, 2008 – 1:48 PMBy Joe Christensen
FORT MYERS — Francisco Liriano said he hopes to pitch in a Grapefruit League game by Monday or Tuesday.
He will throw another bullpen session Friday, “and then, I think I’ll be in a game,” he said. “Probably Monday or Tuesday.”
Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson cautioned that the team will take a wait-and-see approach, depending on how Liriano feels. Anderson said the next step after Friday’s bullpen session would be live batting practice, which suggested it might be later next week before Liriano saw game action.
“There’s no timetable on anything,” Anderson said. “We’ll just see how it goes. As we see him progressing, then we’ll keep moving forward. … He’s eager to do it [pitch in a game], but we’ve got to keep the harness on him a little bit.”
As for Liriano’s session today, Anderson said, “He was comfortable. It was such a cold morning, we didn’t want him to do a whole lot. He didn’t seem tentative. It was nice and easy.”
41 Responses to "Liriano targets Monday or Tuesday for Grapefruit debut"
Frankie’s BACK…
Sidenote: LNP4Life is the early clubhouse leader for Post of the Year…
Max,
If that (LNP4Life) is what excites you, get his phone #.
Liriano better get used to pitching in cold weather… come 2010 temps in the 50s will be nothing. But I suppose he can worry about that after his TJ comeback.
MNGopher,
How about this April in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland?
3 Liriano articles in 1 day? Wow. I think Redmond was right…Spring Training has officially started now that the Franchise is here. 
Man I am pumped to see Liriano throw again. I was right behind home plate in his last start when he went down and I was devistated. So I am pumped.
Also talked with my buddy who plays for the Padres AAA club in Portland about some of the guys we got in the trade for Santana (he used to play for Low and High A ball for the Mets, 2 years ago) he said that Gomez is the fast guy he has ever seen, has a good bat just needs to develop it better. Said he is defensive wiz for how old he is. He said Guerra is wicked, at 18 the kid is incredible, it will just take time for him to develop his other pitches. He thinks he could be ready for the bigs in 2 or 3 years. The other pitchers he said are so-so. He likes Mulvey’s ability better.
I am going to try to grill him some more before spring training is over.
GO TWINS!!!!
Going back to the CF conversation in the previous post.
I think the only way the Twins should have gone out and gotten another CF was if we hadn’t made the Santana trade. Obviously we would be without Gomez right now but even with him I would really want Lofton so we had a bonafide leadoff hitter. I’m fine right now with giving Gomez or Pridie a shot. Since most likely we won’t be contenders why bother getting a veteran and limiting playing time for Pridie and Gomez.
TJ…S,
I too can’t wait to see the Franchise make people look silly. I would think right away he should be fine sticking mostly to his fastball changeup combo and just putting the Slider in to keep hitters on their toes.
I didn’t complete my thought up there. The reason I would want a bonafide leadoff hitter in CF is because with Santana I would see us more as contenders and we wouldn’t want to deal with rookie growing pains in the leadoff spot.
The Gomez/Pridie/Span solution is just a new look of the old Castro/Batista/Ponson/Ortiz type of solution.
In other words, it’s a long shot.
And it could become very ironic if the CF position is the one keeping us from competing this year, because……
It is looking more possible that the starting staff could be very good to very excellent if Perkins, Franchise, and Baker pitch to reasonable expectations.
And I just discovered that Harris got extra-base hits last year at a faster rate than Young, and beat him in slugging percentage .424 to .408.
I wonder what’s going to happen to Gary Matthews.
no one is taking Gary Matthews salary from the angels, thats for sure. Must be nice to blow one signing and come back the next year and throw even more money at Torii
The only thing that makes me nervous is that his motion is the same as before.
Garrett Anderson is the odd man out for 2009 Angels, not Matthews.
rotoman, his delivery and mechanics have been minutely examined. I apologize for not keeping the website, but the video was broken down into 30 still pics of his complete windup and delivery.
The conclusion was that he had an excellent delivery in all aspects. And you can stake your life that the Twins have spent a “franchise’s” worth of time studying it too.
Yet, he twists his forearm back and lets it recoil and just plain whips his arm. So what do ya do? Hope that he slows down and settles for 94-95? Would that hamper his overwhelming late movement on the ball? Probably.
There’s reasonable hope that his strengthened shoulder will take on more of the fulcum burden away from his elbow.
Only time will tell, but he’s probably got at least 2-3 great seasons in his elbow left.
I like that Liriano really took after it and bulked up. If he was only 185-190, I could see his arm not holding up the way he was pitching. That extra muscle should mean some extra endurance in that golden arm.
t-wins-I think bulking up was the plan the medical staff had for the very reason you ststed
I think Liriano has a great mindset. He really must have taken after that rehab like he takes after hitters. Just went out and blew it away. 40 pounds of muscle, thats what you want out of you ACE.
sane,
Saw your post bout Matthews and the 09 Angels. Do you think they will try to move Torri to LF to open CF for Matthews? How will that sit with Torri?
Paul,
Torii will be CF, Matthews to LF in 2008-9.
Eventually, unless Vlady refuses to go along, Torii goes to RF and Vlady to DH.
The Gomez/Pridie/Span solution is just a new look of the old Castro/Batista/Ponson/Ortiz type of solution.
That’s one of the oddest statements I’ve read all year: Comparing three young and talented, but unproven, guys with bright futures to four washed-up no talents with no futures.
The last we saw of Gomez, before his injury at the end of June, was this major league line: .299/.351/.403/754.
The last we saw of Pridie in August in AAA was this line: .313/.379/.574/953.
The last we saw of Span in August in AAA was this line: .324/.398/.412/810.
Any one of them might be a long shot to take the next step and be a productive lead-off hitter and center fielder in the major leagues this year. But it is not a long shot that one of the three will take the next step. Let’s see them play in spring games before we pronounce the whole lot long shots, like you would be correct to do with Ortiz/Ponson/Castro/Batista.
sane,
Do you think the Angels can live with a good fielding weak hitting LFer? After years of Garret?
cmath, I appreciate your response. And I’m not feeling highly negative about the CF situation.
My point was that all seven had long-shot futures for their coming season. To be honest, what I was really thinking is the three starting CF candidates this year are medium-long shots at best.
Because of your reminder, we now know that Pridie and Span had a good last month in AAA in addition to Punto having a good last month in MLB. Punto thinks he can be an adequate starter this year too. It isn’t impossible.
Gomez is more intriguing, but his span of success last year was short-lived; and his lack of success might just as easily be ascribed to the National League figuring him out as it could be to his injury-recovery process.
So yup, medium-long shots. And forgive me for invoking Punto; but you brought up the one-month wonder stuff. (And BTW Ortiz had that one good month last April, too.)
So, in general, all seven don’t(didn’t) instill much confidence when compared to the chances of the rest of the team.
And Livan doesn’t either. I’m already — poor me — getting nervous about him too.
I’ll be listening to the game tomorrow. Can’t wait.
Do you think they will try to move Torri to LF to open CF for Matthews?
The Angels did not spend all that money to sign Hunter to have him play LF. Especially when it would be to open up CF for a guy they already have (and hated enough to go after Hunter).
That’s why I’m glad nobody’s asking about Matthews. All of baseball knows the Angels overpaid Matthews, and now they’ve overpaid Hunter. Let them live with the mess they created.
T,
The Angels don’t hate Matthews.
If their “mess” means Matthews, Hunter, Garrett Anderson and Vlady in the OF-DH spots, I think they are live with it OK.
Their mess may be elsewhere on the team.
40 pounds of muscle, thats what you want out of you ACE? I hope that you were being sarcastic with that comment.
Cause you want domination out of your Ace not muscle mass. Who cares if he weighs 200 or 230 as long as he baffles lineups day in and day out!!
Liriano had been recovering for over a year so I think at this point if he truly is hitting 97 MPH it’s a matter of shaking off rust and getting right mentally.
Call Me Stupid
So you have a problem with guys who broke down after half a year going out and building up their body to handle the rigors of pitching a whole season.
I think your comments just reaffirmed your name.
His determination to make himself better shows the rest of the guys that he is commited to being the best possible pitcher he can. That is what you need out of an ACE. A guy who leads by example. I don’t think anyone on here would rather have Liriano not to have put on the muscle. Better luck next time
Am I the only one who thinks it great that Liriano turned him self froma 185 pound kid into a 225 pound man??
T-Wins,
No you are not. If that ~40 lbs that he put on is truly muscle, then that is nothing but a good thing. I think it will help him stay healthy. It surely can’t hurt. Could also up his velocity.
I am excited to see the kid throw. That said, I am not gonna hang on pins and needles if his slider is a little off or it he is only hitting the mid-high 80’s to start spring training. It is not gonna be an instant thing. It isn’t with any pitcher to start the spring.
We just all need to be patient and give it time. It is still spring training and it takes all the pitchers a little while to get their groove back.
Did I say I had a problem with that? NOPE.
Go ahead and keep thinking that to be an Ace calibur pitcher you need to gain 30 lbs.
Liriano had TJ surgury due to him throwing his slider while his arm was hurting and throwing it more than he should have. Not because he needed to gain 30 lbs
The Twins should have all their pitchers gain 30 lbs so they all can be aces then? LOL.
I get a kick out of you trying to make it sound like you know what your talking about
I never said he needed it to be and ACE. He clearly did quite well without it, except for the breaking down at the end of the year. With the extra muscle, he should be able to go all year. Look at my posts again. you clearly cant read
like that Liriano really took after it and bulked up. If he was only 185-190, I could see his arm not holding up the way he was pitching. That extra muscle should mean some extra endurance in that golden arm.
I think Liriano has a great mindset. He really must have taken after that rehab like he takes after hitters. Just went out and blew it away. 40 pounds of muscle, thats what you want out of you ACE.
Wow, looks like i never said that he needed 40 pound of muscle to be an ace. Looks like I said that Liriano putting on the muscle should help his stamina, and shows he has a mindset do what it takes to get better. I get a kick out of you misinterpeting my statements
Call Me Stupid
you clearly have and ax to grind so i’ll let my comments stand by themselves.
If I blew out my elbow after going 12-2 and my team got swept out of the playoffs. I’d want come back and show the guys I mean business. I think everyone can agree that Liriano is better off for it.
No ax to grind, the extra muscle should help. Liriano’s determination was never in question, if anything he was too determined and threw the slider WAY too often. That is the real problem not weight or muscle mass. Doesn’t matter if he gained 30-40 lbs muscle if he doesn’t cut back on throwing a 90+ slider 40-50% of the time.
Also extra muscle mass doesn’t always mean better. Look at Marty Cordova when he hit the weight room hard, it made him worse. Or JC Romero, after he bulked up. Made him allot worse, there are more players that could be mentioned throught the league but since it’s a Twins blog I mentioned Former Twins Players
In Boof’s case loosing the extra weight will help out stamina wise.
If you read the article that Joe has today he said that Liriano was 201 when he was injured. Now his agent is saying that he is over 230. I would guess that after he gets his running in he will settle at around 225. That is not 40 pounds. He was 22 when he got hurt. It is very possible that he just filled out as most guys do at that age and if he is lifting the extra 25 pounds is not really a huge surprise. I am a little concerned about his elbow holding up but I am sure the training staff will be all over this spring to make sure he is as healthy as possible.
Guys got the 40 pounds from that he was listed at 185 in the media guide in 2006.
Wow,
I just love guys who don’t even read others post and then start ripping them for things they never said. Call Me Stupid must me a complete Moron.
T-Wins says:
February 27th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I think Liriano has a great mindset. He really must have taken after that rehab like he takes after hitters. Just went out and blew it away. 40 pounds of muscle, thats what you want out of you ACE.
If I didn’t read two posts up I would have made fun of it looked like T-wins started ripping 1st then Stupid.
the way i read it, Call Me Stupid was making fun of his comments. I think T-Wins made a decent point. The guy broke down and obviously worked real hard to strengthen his body. Call Me stupid took it to mean was an ace just because of just the extra 40 pounds. That wasn’t what he said.
Liriano is also listed at 185 on Baseball Reference
My point comes down to this, Liriano isn’t the ACE of the Twins right now. Sure he has the Potential to be the ACE but having a great start and then having TJ surgury doesn’t make him the ACE till he can prove he’s healthy physically and mentally. On top of that he has to quit relying so much on that 90+ slider or he’ll be back on the DL 30+ lbs more muscle or not. So to call him the ACE is premature at this point. But what do I know I’m a complete moron right?! LOL
