Twins-Empire: Liriano will start in about 12 hours……
Posted on July 8th, 2009 – 11:37 PMBy La Velle
Glen Perkins still isn’t feeling well, so Francisco Liriano will start Thursday’s game against the Yankees. Liriano last pitched on Saturday, so he’ll be on his regular four days of rest.
Now there are rumblings that Nick Blackburn might be needed to start Friday’s series opener against the White Sox because Perkins might not be ready to go by then. Stay tuned….
Pitching coach Rick Anderson was pleased to see Anthony Swarzak not give in to Yankee hitters. Yes, he could have gotten the ball down more, but he didn’t nibble at the plate. Another good sign for the rookie righthander.
“There’s no hole in that lineup,” Swarzak said. “There are a lot of veteran guys in there and they take the close pitches and they foul off the ones that they can foul off with two strikes, and they wait for a pitch they can handle.
“Absolutely the most patient lineup I’ve faced.”
Other notes:
Bobby Keppel continues to look like the real deal. He has thrown 11.1 scoreless innings since being called up from Class AAA Rochester. Unlike Luis Ayala, Keppel throws a real sinker.
Four straight baserunners had swiped a base off of Joe Mauer before he gunned down Brett Gardner with a perfect throw in the sixth.
Mauer hit his first homer since June 20 and his fifth off of left-handed pitcher.
In addition to leading the A.L. with a .388 batting average. Mauer also leads with a 1.118 OPS.
The Twins, in fact, have four players in the top 24 in OPS: Justin Morneau is third with .984. Jason Kubel is 14th at .893. And Michael Cuddyer is 24th at .869.
43 Responses to "Twins-Empire: Liriano will start in about 12 hours……"
La Velle, do the Twins have any interest in B.J. Ryan?
What’s Cuddyer’s OPS when it actually matters?
Time to move Mauer back to #2. I love Harris, but he ain’t no two-hitter. And I’m scared Gardy will put him on the pine and go with a Punto/Tolbert infield. Naaaasty.
Or…any chance of getting Freddy from Pitt? How nice would a good hitting second baseman be.
LaVelle…. Is there every any chance that the Twins will spend $200M+ for a team like the Yankees do?
La Velle-can u put a link on your blog page to your twitter page? I hate twitter, but i’ll read yours if the link is handy. thx!
oh yeah, beat the damn Yanks tomorrow-pleeeeeze!
bill smith…find this team some help…now please before its too late….typical twins crap, wait and fall behind, while others make deals…..
Even Blyleven ripped Cuddyer for that at bat last night. As I recall Cuddyer has a similar at bat in the 12th inning against Detroit on Friday night.
I knew it was going to be a long night when D. Span got picked off second. Bone-headed base running!
Is there any chance the Twins will even check into Halladay? With the core of players they have now, it actually makes sense to go for a championship now, instead of building for the future. I guess I am coming to agree with Santana that the Twins are perpetually building for the future, instead of trying to win now.
Old Twinkies Fan
You are correct.
Do something now and quit protecting “prospects” that may never be useful.
Halladay has a full no-trade clause in his contract. He apparently has already given the Blue Jays a long list of teams that he won’t accept a trade to. Can we all just agree to forget about Halladay?
Pete D.
Do you know that the Twins are on his non-acceptable list?
The following teams have been attached to Halladay thus far…
Phillies
Rangers
Cardinals
Angels
…If you’re Hallady, do you waive your NTC to go to Minnesota when those teams are knocking?
coyotetom -
I’m pretty sure EVERYONE knows the Twins are on his non-acceptable list.
EVERYONE that bothers with a no-trade clause has the Twins first on the list. See Old Twinkies Fans comment where he agrees with Santana (I think Hunter said it too when he left). The players worth trading for want to win a series, and do not want to be traded to a team with a “do just enough to compete” philosophy.
Like Gardy says, it’s not enough just to compete. Winning is what it’s about.
Down on the Twins today. I HATE the Yankees and getting beat by them, again.
i luv the pix of cuddy on the trip web site. looks like he should be using a 9 iron instead of a bat.
We don’t have the pieces to land Halladay anyway.
The Jays have no long-term answers at third base or shortstop, and those are the two main pieces they want.
And if anyone mentions Tolleson, Plouffe, and/or Valencia as the basis for a Halladay package… the Ricciardi would hang up the phone laughing at Smith for that offer.
We don’t have the pieces - Halladay doesn’t even count as a pipe dream. He’s an impossibility for Minnesota.
I like Cuddyer, but for the life of me I don’t know why pitchers throw anything but breaking balls in the dirt to him. He ALWAYS swings/flails and the pitch is unhittable. A pitcher that neglects to throw that to him in a 2 strike count has done no homework.
Given that Halladay is a “pipe dream,” who is someone on the radar that:
1) could help the Twins NOW, and
2) the Twins COULD put together a package for?
The holes in the lineup are a direct result of Bill Smith’s bungling of his 2 major trades…
Think about how much better the Twins would be with Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie, Jon Lester, and Justin Masterson.
I like Gomez. Here is one of the best defensive CF in MLB but he cannot hit. He is a downgrade from Coco Crtisp overall. Lester is now an Ace. Lowrie would look good at 2nd. Masterson is a fine swingman. He can start of come from the BP.
How nice would it be to have Garza and Bartlett back. Bartlett 356/402/558. Playing superb defense and an AL Allstar. Garza, the MVP of the ALCS.
Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 and I realize it is still early, but Smith screwed up. He turned down a much better deal from the Sox on Santana. Delmon has been a big disappointment but he is still young. It would be nice to have Bartlett right now…
“What’s Cuddyer’s OPS when it actually matters?”
Better than Kubel’s
Why is Halladay a pipe dream again? Since the only way the FO can show they have any kind of commitment to winning is to get him and Freddie Sanchez, they better be on the phone. Twins have plenty of Major and Minor League Players to give and forgive me but don’t they have a new ballpark opening next yr that will bring in boatloads of cash to cover Halladay’s 2010 salary?
After completely screwing up the offseason last winter this non playoff roster is what they got..They had their chance to NOT give up one current player and fill several holes..Remember they could have signed Blake (Big upgrade over Crede). O. Hudson and Juan Cruz (pitching well now..and be honest..with the Twins he would have been a big improvement over that stiff the Twins did sign and release..or Crain.) But they made their bed and now have to trade for Halladay and Sanchez or say goodbye to 09 and most likely 2010. When your watching the All Star game, keep reminding yourself that M&M, + Nathan are NOT the likes of anyone your going to see around here again in the next 25-50 yrs. Then wonder what in the world this ownership and FO is thinking about, wasting Hall of Fame talent instead of doing everything they can to surround them with a World Series quality team. It’s the crime of the early 21st Century.
why no mention of Morneau not catching the foul ball from ARoid last night? If he catches that the Yanks don’t score that 4th run. Are we too MN nice to point out the plays that we could have made?
I dont know if garza would have ever grown up without leaving minny..that being said it was not a good trade… but I dont see them making a mid season move because they rarely do so dont hold your breath…when was the last midseason trade really helped? Shannon Stewart?
The holes in the lineup are a result of Ryan and others not drafting/developing/acquiring the right players over the last ten years. Smith has been on the job for less than 2 years - the huge/vast majority of any team is made up of players in systems much longer than that timeframe. You blame Smith for there being no 3B, SS, 2B in the system, for there being no OF in the system (which is why he traded for Young and Gomez)?
He screwed up the two trades, no doubt, but the genesis of the problems start with decisions made 5+ years ago, not decisions made in the last 18 months.
There is no big trade coming guys. We don’t have the #1 piece everybody wants: major league ready pitching prospects. We have none. Zero.
Any trade will be the Guardado type of trade from last year.
The only help is coming from within. Guys we were counting on need to get back on track, or this team won’t be going to the playoffs. I’m looking at you, Mr Crain and Mr Casilla
Don’t forget to look at Mr. Gomez, also.
“Think about how much better the Twins would be with Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie, Jon Lester, and Justin Masterson”
Think how much better the Red Sox would be with Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, Brad Penney, Tim Wakefield and Dice-K as their rotation, blocking the Twins in the playoffs.
Lineups??????
I’m thinking:
Span CF
Mauer DH
Morneau 1B
Kubel LF
Cuddyer RF
Crede 3B
Morales C
Harris SS
Punto 2B
Cuddy could be alot higher on that list if he knew what a slider was.
As I mentioned in comments to Joe C’s blog this morning, Cuddy wasn’t the only Twin swinging at junk out of the strike zone last night. Our home run hero, Morneau was also a poster child for horrible at bats. After Mauer hit his dinger, Justin went down on 3 straight pitches. The last pitch resulted in an embarrasing flail at a ball low and in the dirt. He, also, has a habit of swinging at zip code pitches.
DG
“Think how much better the Red Sox would be with Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, Brad Penney, Tim Wakefield and Dice-K as their rotation, blocking the Twins in the playoffs.”
At this point, I would give Santana a “slight” edge over Lester. Lester has turned into a stud.
If that trade had gone down instead of w/ the Mets, The Twins make the playoffs last year and lead the division this year. Lets get to the post season before worrying about the RedSox blocking us…
I thought the Sox were going to throw Youk and Pedroia in on that deal. Boy, we would have been good.
ifs and buts …….. uninformed speculation feeds the blog.
has the team made a decent trade in the summer besides Shannon Stewart in the last 10 years?
I had heard Lester was never really on the table. Just a ploy to get the yankees to up the ante. I am guessing we could have gotten Crisp and a prospect at best.
Twins being on no trade lists cuz they don’t go out to get the missing pieces is kind of counrterintuitive. Kind of like saying “you don’t go after a player like me which would give you and me a championship, so if you do go after me, I won’t let you.”
“At this point, I would give Santana a “slight” edge over Lester. Lester has turned into a stud.”
Santana 3.29 ERA
Lester 4.16 ERA
I would make that more than “slight”.
Santana has been the MAN (best in MLB?)for a long time.
Lester will never be in THAT category, IMO.
I think most fans are overreacting a bit to losing 2 games to a very good team and their 2 best pitchers after having a pretty good June. I would rather beat the White Sox anyway.
I agree that Casilla could be the key to the rest of the season. Batting .336 in the minors. Bring him up and play him every day the rest of the year. Just don’t tell him he is going to play every day. Keep him hungry.
Harris did just fine in the 2 spot for awhile but is definitely in a big slump right now. It happens but he should probably work it out lower in the order.
In the last month:
Santana 1-4, 5.64 ERA, 16K in 30 IP
Lester 2-1, 1.99 ERA, 38K in 31 IP
Santana has peaked, and has never thrown a no-hitter. That said, I’m pretty sure Lester was never offered to the Twins.
Des,
I don’t see Casilla as the key to the second half of the season. To quote Forrest Gump, “Stupid is as stupid does”. As you said, he is unmotivated and makes too many mental mistakes.
Trade rumors.com said this morning that the Pirates are actively shopping Freddy Sanchez, but the Twins are not
mentioned among the interested teams. Until our team philosophy changes about obtaining available players that could really help us, we must simply enjoy the great players we do have and not get caught up in illusions of granduer.
Sorry, that’s grandeur.
It would be nice if out pitchers didn’t give up at least 6 runs everytime they face the Yankees. Little hard to win games that way.
Will this ever end,nobody knows who really was ever on the table in regards to the Johan trade matter.This has been speculated about for a year and a half on this board.Get over it!
