Twins plan to have Liriano pitch Sunday
Posted on April 11th, 2008 – 5:21 PMBy Joe Christensen
KANSAS CITY — The Twins will call up Francisco Liriano to start Sunday’s game against the Royals, Manager Ron Gardenhire said.
To make room on the roster, Kevin Slowey will be placed on the disabled list. Nick Blackburn, originally slated to pitch Sunday, will pitch Monday in Detroit, followed by Scott Baker.
TWINS
1. Carlos Gomez, CF
2. Matt Tolbert, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Jason Kubel, DH
7. Brendan Harris, 2B
8. Mike Lamb, 3B
9. Denard Span, RF
Starting pitcher: RH Livan Hernandez
ROYALS
1. Joey Gathright, CF
2. Mark Grudzielanek, 2B
3. Mark Teahen, LF
4. Jose Guillen, RF
5. Billy Butler, DH
6. Alex Gordon, 3B
7. Ross Gload, 1B
8. John Buck, C
9. Alberto Callaspo, SS
Starting pitcher: RH Gil Meche
Kauffman Stadium. First pitch: 7:10 p.m.
240 Responses to "Twins plan to have Liriano pitch Sunday"
It was time to put the “Franchise” back on the mound in the bigs. I will take him over Slowey any day of the week
Can someone tell me what was wrong with the 12 run lineup against Chicago.
Ugh. Liriano obviously isn’t ready. If he can’t pitch to AA or AAA teams without giving up a run every inning, how do they expect him to do it in the majors? I don’t like Gardy’s decisions this year.
thats great news that Francisco Liriano is back and that he dosent have to pitch in a cold detroit and i dont have to work until 5 sunday so i can watch the game
Whats wrong with the lineup now MSLY? They put in Tolbert for Everett and Span for Monroe….2 moves that most people wanted to see.
You have to wonder how many of the decisions are coming from the front office. I can not remember the lineup being the same for two days in a row this entire season. So, I also do not agree with their decisions this year.
Why would you change the lineup after you scored 12 runs the game before and have been looking for such a lineup. It does not make much sense to me.
I like the move.
Nothing against KC, but I’d rather see him start against them than fill the hole that would have been there Tuesday in DET.
MSLY, we don’t need to keep the lineup 100% the same.
I don’t know why Harris isn’t in the two hole still, because he hit great there. But as for Tolbert at short, I like that move.
I predict Everett will use the time on the bench to consult his hitting mentor, Nick Punto.
couple days ago gardy said younger guys are more suited to play in the cold…gor whatever thats worth…
Easy MSLY….. Tolbert>Everett……. Span>Monroe. Should score atleast 15 tonight. ha ha. Any lineup with Monroe on the bench and Kubel batting 6th is a good lineup to me. Tonights lineup SHOULD be their everyday lineup until Cuddyer comes back, then swap Span for Cuddyer.
I wonder how long Monroe will last? I’m all for giving him a chance, but how long before you need to give up?
I’m not worried about Liriano, when pitchers throw in the minors to rehab they work on their stuff and don’t usually pitch for the situation and thus usually don’t have the best outcomes, they dont pitch to win they pitch to make themselves better. Plus the minors are a different atmosphere than an MLB game. Lets see how he throws sunday before we get too upset.
Monroe has only had 15 at bats, give him a chance!
Span>Monroe
not exactly, but he is there, he needs his ABs, with a junk ball right hander pitcher might be a got time to take them.
It’s a good move, if the Twins are to move Liriano up. Blackburn is a better matchup vs all the RH batters Detroit has.
The lineup tonight is Gardy’s youth lineup… It is cold, old guys (with the exception of Lamb) on the bench.
I hope there is a swirling wind, that might make Livan look like Tim Wakefield..
[…] to the Minneapolis Star Tribune (click here for the article), the Minnesota Twins are set to recall Francisco Liriano to start the team’s […]
Thanks, this was a great conversation earlier today on clutch hitting. We didn’t agree, but once we got civil again I really enjoyed the conversation.
Here’s to the Twins crushing KC!
against Oakland tonight
Sabathia: 2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 49 pitches
Games not televised?
Anybody watching the game?
Sabathia: 2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 49 pitches
Not a good thing to do in a contract year.
They took the game off for the Wild playoff game…
Young walks. That’s good. And now: More Ku-Bell!
I am watching it on mlb.tv
end of 1, 0-0
Don’t forget Kubel, these guys are the Blue Sox. Just like the White and Red Sox. So hit well against them like you do the other Sox.
Listening on the radio.
More good news —– 24 walks in 9+ games for the Twins this year.
Kubel K’s on a “NASTY slider”.
Let’s see if Harris is still hot.
Young on third after a SB and WP.
At least they’re making Meche work……
Royal Blue Sox?
Gomez with 2 hits and 4 RBIs in his last two games.
I love this kid.
4 runs all scored with 2 out.
Span, Gomez, and Tolbert…wow.
Gomez is my boy
Good call on Span and Tolbert earlier….what great baseball minds>>>>>
Monroe and Everett are cold, Tolbert and Harris are hitting…and Span apparently likes being in the majors at the moment.
And since MOnroe and Everett are one year signings, I would say it’s more important to see what they have in Tolbert and Span vs. struggling with Evertt and MOnroe.
Gardy not settling for 12…..he wants 16 or there Will be changes!!! We’re coming!!!
Baby J got all of that one. There is nothing better than 2 out base hits, good to see the young guys come through.
My Fiance named the new puppy Gomez
to go with the other one “Viking”
if you care, cleveland is being spanked by oakland 9-1 and the chisox are up 1-0 vs detroit
Go-Go is awesome. What’s better is that all those runs came from the young guys.
How about Tolbert? He is 9-16 so far!
Woo-HOO!! 4-0 Twins! Another big inning for the Twins. Left fielder Teahen makes a big booboo. Condensation in his eyes.
Didja hear the cheering when the first run scored? From the Twins fans……….
Two transactions for the Twins:
Doug Deeds has been sent to the Cubs to complete the Monroe deal.
The Twins have received Tim Lahey back from the Phillies after he was DFA.
The Royals announcers are pretty decent, compared to most.
hey thrylos98, how does the mlb.tv 1.2 stream work for you. choppy for me tonight, going with the 800.
Uh, Hernandez…you don’t suck.
How come romer’s comment he posted 10 mins ago only came up now?
More good news —– 24 walks in 9+ games for the Twins this year.
How is that good?
23 walks in the first 9 games, 2.5 per game, among the absolute worst in the league.
512 walks last year, 3.2 per game (8th in the AL and 19th overall).
if you care, cleveland is being spanked by oakland 9-1 and the chisox are up 1-0 vs detroit
I do. Thanks for the updated.
Those watching Twins on TV… is Livan’s control off tonight? He is about 50/50 on balls/strikes. Is he missing badly?
Dontrelle was pulled in the 1st with an injury too. If the tigers can’t hit Contraras they might as well just shut it down.
#3
Like I said last Saturday. Royals pitching (specifically Gil Meche) is just what the Doctor ordered.
5-0 on a DINGER by Morneau.
Carlos, He is struggling with his command it bit in the cold wind. He is fighting and the defense has played well behind him.
For those that can’t see what is happening, Gomez bunted with 2 strikes in the first inning. It was a poor bunt that was in teh air back to the pitcher…landed in front of Meche and he still almost beat it out. Gutsy 2 strike bunt and incredible speed.
Morneau with a no doubt HR!
Dontrelle was pulled in the 1st with an injury too.
I wonder if they’ll claim the Marlins hid a prexisting condition…
T says “And since MOnroe and Everett are one year signings, I would say it’s more important to see what they have in Tolbert and Span vs. struggling with Evertt and MOnroe.”
Okay right. But the Twins are in the wild card thing. So I wanna see whoever can hit and win games.
Morneau and Tolbert love playing against KC:
Morneau: 3 HR
Tolbert: 6-12
nice homerun Morneau 5-0
sorry carlos g, i just fired it up and not had a chance to really see him.
Livan has gotten real good run support so far this season.
Morneau was just mad that he was the only guy without an AB in that last inning.
Thanks AaronK. Updates are appreciated.
nice to see justin hit another one out. his ba creeping up now….
I know I’ve said this a few times before, but since the game isn’t on, I wanted to say it again.
You can see replays of the big plays on MLB.com’s GameDay. Right now they have the Go-Go double, Span anf Tolbert singles and the Morneau bomb will show up soon.
Meche was hit on the Harris ground out in the back of his upper leg….looks like they are warming up a pitcher…so he may not come back out.
For someone watching, have both of Gathright’s outs been on bunts?
no, gathright grounded out to Lamb in the first on a broken bat.
Okay, on GameDay they both looked like short groundouts to third…
Livan has 43 pitches with one away in the second.
Pitchs aren’t a big thing with him, because he can pitch pretty long. I’d be happy with six innings.
yeah, it was pretty weak and short because he got jammed bad and his bat shattered.
Make that 47 pitches after three innings for Livan.
Looks like Meche made it back out.
has anyone else noticed the all of a sudden incredible plate discipline by gomez and young? the last 2 games they both have been taking bad pitches, unlike the first week. young has 2 walks tonight and gomez has the double. i think he just struck out looking, but oh well.
Yeah, I have actually noticed them being more patient.
Go-Go, even in his outs, has worked deap into counts. Same with Delmon.
I wonder what happened at the end of the inning though. Both Go-Go and Denard struck out looking…
TwinsTerritory,
The Twins staff has been eating up innings pretty well. You gotta wonder once Liriano settles in if they will keep Span up and let Bass back down?
They were both close pitches on the corner. I was surprised Gomez went down looking…may never see that again. lol
Yeah, that’ll be interesting…
The main thing though is that the Twins want Span to play quite a bit. So with Cuddyer back, that might not be possible.
Yeah, Go-Go doesn’t take to many stikre 
Man, Livan really has that slow curve working tonight. I love that pitch because these major leaguers don’t know what to do with a 70 mile an hour pitch. haha
61 pitches, 4 innings and no runs for Livan. Hopefully he can keep it up and get six or seven when all is said and done.
Aaron, it has actually been clocked as low as 59 MPH tonight
Bass can’t go back to AAA without going through waivers… He may, but he may not. No room for Span to stay once Cuddyer is back, so might as well let him play in AAA.
Yeah, you guys are probably right about Span…I just like the way he looks at the plate and field. Very confident, nice discipline. Just like his approach.
Tolbert with a walk, on base again…wow
Tolbert is awesome right now! I’d really like to see him everyday for a while at short. It isn’t like Everett is playing awesome defense (two errors).
I think you have to play Tolbert until he cools down…whether that is ss, 2nd, 3rd. Now a SB!
I agree, he needs to play until he stops hitting at least.
Nice AB for Mauer. Kept it going and then advances Tolbert to third with one out after he steals second.
Walking Morneau with 1 out and Tolbert at 3b…come on Young
Make them pay Delmon!
OOOOOOO….
That first pitch up and he fouled it.
it was pretty close to being a double too.
ughhh, double play
After our good discussion on clutch play today, I had to smile at what just came on with the wild and avs hockey game. They just asked the question of who is the all time most clutch postseason player. Answer was Gretzky… they based in most game winning goals. Just thought it ironic that it came up tonight… not that I want to start the discussion again with two good games going. lol
DANG!
Delmon started the year strong, but seems to be in a funk right now.
2 straight hits for the Royals to start the inning. That is a ball that Everett gets to pretty easily. That is the only problem with him not being at SS.
First and second, no outs and the heart of the Royals’ lineup is coming to bat.
Lets go Livan!
seeing eye single. royals going the other way or up the middle every hit.
time to get the bullpen up. just in case.
Thanks snepp for the reality check on the Twins walks thing. I’m getting Giddy with this Twins offense.
Willis with a hyper extended knee.
The Yanks and Tigers aged real quick this year.
Still think the Twins will be in the WC chase with Seattle and Toronto and ????.
They’re hitting him prety hard now. He’s lucky they haven’t scored. Bases loaded and one out with their cleanup hitter due up…
Why can’t this Twins team compete for a division title or the wild card? Do people realize how good our staring pitching ahs been, which is our weakness? With the lineup waking up, if hte pitching can keep up…I like our chances. Just saying…
Wow, how long will Willis be out with that?
Livan needs a strikeout…
Livan with a 63 mile per hour curve strikes him out. 2 outs
He got him! Two outs and the bases loaded. Livan has a chance to get through this with no damage…
I really like Livan. He just doesn’t get riled up. That’s how he was when he won the World Series MVP. He might give up some runs here but he won’t fall apart if he does.
Tried to get him with a 62 MPH curve
AaronK, methinks that this team will compete for the division title and probably get it…
LOL, these hitters look so bad on that slow curve.
And he gets out of it!!!! Livan
Livan gets out of it. I love this guy.
Goes from bases loaded and one out to no runs allowed. Great job by Livan there!
He has 82 pitches, so he should be able to go at least six…
That was some serious pitching to get out of it as well. He would not give in with anything straight. Just kept throwing sliders and curves on the lower outside edge. It was very impressive, for someone with no fastball. Especially when he got behind in a couple counts with the bases loaded, just didn’t give in.
I’ve been up and down on Livan whether it was a good signing before the season started. And i don’t care if he bombs the rest of the way out. he was a good investment considering Baker was hurt, Liriano was hurt, Perkins didn’t step foward.
GO TWINS!
any comparisons of Hernandez to Ortiz or Ponson resently? The man can pitch.
Kubel hits one hard right at someone. Is he really this unlucky or does he just hit em at people? The anti-Mauer?
When they are healthy…
CF Gomez
ss Tolbert
CA Mauer
1B Morneau
RF Cuddyer
LF Young
DH Kubel
3B Lamb
2B Harris
Harris got hosed. That one was inside. Don’t like the ump. The Kubel SO in his first AB looked like he had held up, didn’t go.
JP, good point on Kubel’s first AB. He didn’t go and the ump behind the plate rang him up. Pretty weak call to not even look at the 3b ump.
Sounds like Livan is directing some on-the-job training to Mauer — calling him out for a visit or two.
A master pitcher who knows how to handle everything.
I think Delmon or Cuddyer needs to hit third…
Tolbert in the nine spot might be good because then he’d be on base when Go-Go comes up.
That 1-2 pitched was very close…
Yeah, I agree with you. Plus I like Mauer in the 2nd spot because he gives Go Go a great chance to steal 2nd. Also, the most AB’s you can get Mauer the better. Tolbert would give us some speed at the end of the order to go along with Go-Go when the lineup rolls.
Let’s all remember that Tolbert will cool down and not hit .500+ all year!
After six innings, Twins lead 5-0.
Livan has 93 pitches through six innings and has allowed no runs. I think he can easily at least go out for the seventh.
Heck, he could go a complete game. He said he can pitch over 130 if he needs to earlier this year.
Span, Go-Go, Tolbert…this has a chance to be a fun inning.
Yeah, he won’t hit .500 all year 
Still, I he can hit better than Everett, so he’ll still add something to the end of the lineup.
Yes it does Aaron. I’m really hoping Go-Go can get on base again. He has just one game without a hit this season, but I’d like to see him keep that BA up and have another multiple hit game.
Span called out on strikes twice now. That one looked good, did he just freeze?
Go-Go hits one to the fence….triple…to dead freaking center field…wow
I don’t know how to tell you guys this…but that ball was fielded cleanly off the fence…and was a line drive…and he gets a triple.
Gomez is so much fun to watch it’s insane. Even when he does something bad it’s still entertaining.
What just happened? It said “In play, no out” and then it said that he lined out.
it was a line drive over CF…for a triple…Tolbert pops out…ughh
Caveat on the triple, if he throw is on the money he’s out. But it wasn’t.
Must have been an error. They just changed his stats from 1-4 to 2-4 and placed him on center
Woulda been nice to see tolbert drive in the run. But he’s had a very good night. Everett/Punto who?
Tolbert was bound to get out eventually…
No error
Good thing we got some “eyes” on the game. Gameday says Gomez lined out. thanks for the updates guys.
i would bring livan out for one more inning. but it is pretty cold so i could see him going to the bullpen.
No error
Should have been more clear. I meant an error with GameDay. It said he was out on a linedrive after it said “in play, no out.”
They have sinced changed it to a triple…
Between innings break. In case we have any Wild Twins fans or Twins Wild fans in here… the Wild are behind 1-0 in the 2nd. They just hit both posts in 2 plays in 15 second time span. Bad luck for the home team.
Livan is back out for the 7th.
I’m glad I have my eyes on the game because that was something else. Two pitches before the triple Gomez swung at a low pitch and ended up on one knee in the batters box. Then he takes a pitch and then laces one to the wall.
Yeah, it said he lined out and it said, “Leftfielder Teahen to centerfielder Gathright, one out”
They did fix it thought and he is hitting .333 right now!
Gomez can really drive the ball…I can see where some scouts think he can hit 30 hrs. He has driven a lot of balls hard this year whne he hasn’t been bunting. LOL
If it was up to me, Livan would go until he gives up a run. He is accustomed to pitching 120 pitches in an outing, and it’d be nice to see him get a complete game shutout if possible.
He is only at 97 pitches with two outs in the seventh.
Livan quick 7th.
Yeah, he just about hit a HR in his final AB of the Sox game Wednesday. It was just foul…
After seven, he has just 99 pitches so they should let him keep going…
I’d pull him. He’s doing well but it’s cold and he’s up at 100 pitches. It’s a long season.
Its a tough choice…
I think he’d like to keep going knowing him, and to have a chance at a complete game shutout doesn’t happen often.
The pen is rested, I bet Rincon is up next
I’m sure Livan wants to keep going. Maybe the cold doesn’t bother him. It’s not like he’s throwing big time heat.
Is anybody up in the ‘pen? I’d like to see him go out for the eighth and go from there…
Nice AB for Morneau. Three walks and a HR today.
They haven’t showed anyone in the pen.
How about the Indians scoring 5 runs in teh 8th…two guys on base…and then get stuck in a rain delay. That has to suck, just kills momentum when they finally get the tying run at the plate.
Too bad I can’t feel sorry for them!
I really hope Delmon can get on here. He needs something to go his way…
If he’s cold, pull him.
Sounded like the Royals kind of figured him out, but then had a little bad luck and untimely hitting.
Now they’re probably demoralized.
Man, Delmon with a line shot to deep center…just not deep enough.
That sucked for Delmon.
At least he had a good AB and then hit it deep…
Delmon just needs to start turning on some pitches. He is getting peppered on the inside corner. As quick as his bat is…it surprises me that he doesn’t pull the ball more often.
It’s time for Lamb to jack one.
damn
Any observations of Yabuta… anything special with his pitches?
I agree on Delmon. I’m not big on complaining about coaches but sometimes I wonder about what the Twins hitting coach is trying to accomplish. We don’t need to hit this year how we did last year. We have guys with real power now.
I think once he gets a big hit, things will turn around for him. Looks like Go-Go will get another chance to hit…
A little disappointed that Crain is in…
Crain for Livan
J Crain in to pitch. Good choice, excited to see him throw.
Crain’s got some zip.
I think that Livan Hernandez has pitched SHOCKINGLY WELL this year so far.
If he keeps this up, he might be worth a ton at the deadline.
wow, Crain’s fastball is popping and that slider was whicked. Nice to see.
I wonder how it is to take a 95mph fastball inside, “cup” high. That’s got to cause butterflies.
How could anyone be shocked by Livan’s pitching. This is what he’s done for years.
BC Beneke, if he keeps throwing like this along with our other starters we won’t be offloading at the deadline.
Wow, Billy Butler is some kind of dumb.
wow, Span guns em out trying to stretch a hit into a double. Not overly strong, but right on the money. very nice play by Span.
crain looks good in a 1,2,3 throwing 95 which probably seems like 120 MPH after livan.
good throw by span.
loving this game.
Lets go Go-Go. A 3-5 night will raise the average
The Wild are now 1-0 after two periods.
Gomez hits the ball hard again, lined out to LF. He looks great at the plate right now.
How hard did Go-Go hit that to left?
dont know if anybody said this but Gomez tripel was his first career tripel in mlb
I think Gomez will develop some decent power eventually. He’s got a nice swing when he keeps it under control. Tolbert gets ANOTHER hit.
Tolbert line drive hit to right center
Tolbert with another hit
Gomez hit it pretty good.
TwinsTerritory, very hard…great contact.
Was the Go-Go out right to him in left?
Okay, thanks Aaron..
Ball was hit by Gomez directly to Teahen.
yes, hit it right at him or he wouldn’t have caught it.
WTF Mauer
Nathan in getting some work.
Twins Territory that is 0-1 Wild are behind after 2 periods. Hit a couple of posts; deserved better. Have a power play to start the 3rd period.
I think the Twins are making a big mistake about bringing up Lariano cause I think he needs two to three more starts in the minors. I hope he gets hurt and pulls a Garza.
tolbert has to play every day until he cools off; move him around if you must, but play him
You hope Frankie gets hurt? That’s interesting.
Is it just me, or has Nathan gotten the first two easily and then allowed a hit after that in almost every outing this year?
I am pretty sure he meant to put in “doesn’t”…at least I hope.
Offer Livan a 7 year, $14 million contract.
What?
You think he will lose something off his fastball?
There is nothing to lose off his current fastball.
The only risk is the early onset of Alzheimer’s in the last 2-3 years of his contract.
If that happens, then just don’t pay him. He’ll never know.
It’s a good move IMO. It was either Sunday or Tuesday…
Aaronk gotta agree with BC. By then I think Slowey and Perkins will be knocking on the door. If the young pitching staff has matured, there is no reason to hold onto him.
Brewers have a young stud 3rd base prospect we should look into.
How about Gomez hustling over to limit the hit to a double. Love it!
Yeah, Gordo/Gladden going gaga over Tolbert’s play, saying he looks like a veteran with confidence.
Remember that mystery about him last year. He’s hitting the hide off the ball at AAA and Gardy said he wasn’t ready for MLB yet.
Looks like Gardy was right. Just needed a little more seasoning AND one more ST with the Twins.
wild tie it up early in 3rd period. 1-1. C’mon let’s have two victories tonight.
We also ahve to give Gardy some credit, he has gotten Tolbert a lot of AB’s during this streak. I understand that Harris getting sick helped, but he ahs gotten him on the field. I suspect we are going to continue to see him.
Game over! Great win
Nice win for sure…
ha-ha sane! The Alzheimer’s clause.
Looks like Nathan was challenging everyone tonight. 16 strikes out of 20 pitches! Nice. Wish I could have seen it. gotta see that Gomez triple on the highlights.
Yeah, Tolbert full-speed-ahead.
But what a weak bench — Monroe, Punto, Everett.
How’s Harris doing? Like I said yesterday, if Everett is a weak bench player (no pinch hitter and weak-arm defensive replacement), how can you pretend he’s a good starter.
How does one game away from 1st place with 2 games against them sound?
Dan Gladden hearts Matt Tolbert.
And I think I understand why…
Gomez should be in AAA!!! He cant hit a slider!!! Pridie should start until Gomez learns how to hit!!! He is garbage!!
Where did all of those people go?
It was a good thing tonight’s game wasn’t televised. I watched the game on the Royals network and they couldn’t use the CF camera because the wind was
blowing the water from the fountains causing a spray that blurred the shot. So they used a camera behind home plate through the first 5 innings. It was brutal. Than some genius finally got them to turn off the waterfall and they used the camera the final 4 innings.
Good win. Tolbert could keep Everett on the bench with his hitting and he looked good at short. Span’s two out rbi single was huge and led to the big 4 run inning. Still bothered by lack of situational hitting. 6th inning, first and third and one out, Young hits into 4-6-3 DP. 7th inning, Gomez one out triple, Tolbert pops to third and Mauer grounds out to second. Livan pitches 7 innings for the third straight game.
Keith Carney baby!! Wild, Twins, and Wolves all win!!
About Where We Want To Be
Twin’s a half game out, Morneau close to leading the league in HR, Livan leading in Wins, Nathan near the top in Saves, Gomez getting multi hit games, stealing bases, scoring runs.
But we all knew this would happen.
And the Wild won.
Yes, all is right in MN tonight. At this rate, we might see 60 degrees soon. lol. and we’ll see you tomorrow night.
Where did all of those people go?
They’ll be back the moment he goes cold. But seriously, it just goes to show that some people have no knowledge of the team beyond “I hate _____”. If they start winning, they have no idea what’s going on and thus have nothing to talk about.
I didn’t get to watch any of it, but I heard Livan get out of the bases loaded jam in 5th or 6th and was really impressed. Even if the other shoe drops, right now he seems like at worst another Silva (or at least another good Silva)
If you would’ve told me he’d be 3-0 after 3 starts I wouldn’t believe it. But he’s pitched well, and I’m happy to see him succeededing the AL thus far.
Seeing the offense string together a big inning two nights in a row is fantastic as well.
Denard Span is showing that he is a pretty good player. He will likely head back to Rochester, once Cuddyer returns, until he is needed again. He is a good man to have at the ready.
Rookie of the year: Matt Tolbert. It’s not impossible. Excellent young player.
Please, no more illness jokes. There were jokes going on some time back about Tourettes, and now it’s Alzheimer’s. What’s funny next? Childhood leukemia? You guys are better than that.
If it were up to me I give Liriano 2 more starts at AAA. Then if I felt he was ready I’d bring him up when the Twins go to the West coast in about 10 days. Shouldn’t be any worries there about getting loose in cold weather.
I have to say, I’ve been really impressed with the team as a whole so far this season. I never had any doubts about Gomez, but I must admit I had my worries about the starters. I also figured that with all the new blood, they would be off to their traditional slow start and we’d have to wade through all the “fire Gardy” and bench _____. It’s still early, but it looks like they’re really starting to click.
I looked up the team stats and they are third in BA and fourth in ERA. They’re still near the bottom in runs scored, but with all the low scoring games that is pretty much to be expected. If they keep hitting like they have, that will change.
If its possible to be wrong and NOT be a dumbass, I would like to take that position. If not, I will accept dumbass, because after looking at Livan’s deteriorating stats, I thought it was a bad signing.
I wanted the Twins to go ALL YOUNG in their rotation.
Livan has shown me (and one or two others who might admit to it)that I was wrong (and a dumbass).
Fortunately for me, I am not always that far off.
does anybody know how good Tolbert is playing short?
GO GOGO GO
All you negative Livan bloggers, [during ST] where are you now?
The KC announcers were commenting on the importance of Livan. He is showing the youngsters some of the subtler, but very important parts of the craft. Like figuring out what the hitter is trying to do. Do you think he’ll be a steadying influence on Franchise?
Early season observations—–They’re fun to watch, not great, but fun. The youth shows both in good ways and bad. I see a lot of reasons to be optimistic.
GO GOGO GO GO C’MON FASTER FASTER
HAVE FUN!!!! GO TWINS !!!
Young, Gomez, and Span, are all excellent young outfielders. Those three could man the OF for several years. All have some nice skills, but none have much HR potential. That’s not a problem. Span may be the most polished of the three.
Young has lots of HR potential!!
He probably won’t hit 30 this year, but will likely be a 30/30 type guy next year and beyond.
Francisco probably isn’t ready but here he come!!!
He’ll work it out here with Anderson and by mid-May if his health holds we’ll start to see if he’s going to sink or swim!!
I’d be nervous if I was a Clevland fan CC looks terrible and Franchise is back in MPLS!!
hey joe…how about a fresh post and some talk about last nites game and looking forward to this evenings game…how is the everett situation..? a real sore arm or is tolbert slowly working his way into that position…the way hes hitting, its going to be hard for gardy to take him out of the lineup..who sits?? everett or harris…livan has been awesome for this team and even if he didnt win another game, he should have shown these kids some incredible insight to this game and pitching, i hope they were watching….
” Franchise is back in MPLS!!”
And you’re excited after hearing/reading/seeing his minor league starts? And you expect him to duplicate his ‘06 numbers?
Santana gave up 3 dingers to the Brewers today at Shea. Is Livan going to give up 3 HRs all year?
I wonder why Santana is still giving up the dingers? I figured that the unbalanced schedule gave the central teams a chance to figure him out, but he hasn’t been in the national league much at all, and he got peppered today. One thing that we can say about Santana though, they usually are solo homers. His era is still very good, so it’s not like he’s getting shelled.
Too bad for Johan and the Mets. I wonder how long before they suspect he was damaged goods like TB says about Garza. Johan will probably still have a very nice year, but it was growing disturbing with all the HRs last year. Lack of concentration; tipping pitches; teams sitting on certain pitches? I go with the latter.
I don’t think he is damaged goods. He is still a VERY good pitcher, but he does give up a disproportionate number of homeruns compared to total runs scored.
Kinda sad really, he keeps the runners off the basepaths, except for those that circle the bases.
[…] to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Twins’ starter Francisco Liriano will make his 2008 season debut on Sundayagainst the Kansas […]
[…] Liriano to return to majors on Sunday The Twins will call up Francisco Liriano to start Sunday and place Kevin Slowey on the disabled list to make room for him. Nick Blackburn is being pushed back to Monday to make room for Liriano. ‘ + title + ‘ - ‘ + basename(imgurl) + ‘(’ + w + ‘x’ + h +’) […]
