Work fast, change speeds, throw strikes. (Nick Blackburn teaches Francisco Liriano a lesson.)
Posted on April 20th, 2008 – 12:09 AMBy Howard
Quick and simple. That was the deal at the Metrodome on Saturday afternoon. Nick Blackburn doesn’t come close to being overpowering. Instead, he shows command of all his pitches, changes speeds and makes opponents earn their way on base. The radar gun rarely goes above 90, but in his first four starts this season, 68 percent of his pitches have either been strikes or put into play. Only Scott Baker (73 percent) is better among the starters.
In his two starts, Francisco Liriano is at 55 percent. (Senior Smoke Free is at 62 percent and Oof is at 66 percent so far.)
In 2006, when Liriano made his dramatic debut and then hurt his arm, his strike percentage was …
… 67 percent.
In other words, I wouldn’t be wasting time expecting to see Liriano throw the mid-90s fastball and the 91 mph slider that made him such a beast two seasons ago. Instead, judge him by the command of his pitches. If he can take better command of a biting slider and a moving fastball, while working in the change-ups he threw Friday night that totally kept some of the Cleveland batters off balance, Liriano should return to being an important and vital member of the rotation. In the longer run, I’d bet on a bit more velocity, but that’s not as important as being able to throw any pitch in any situation.
As for Blackburn, watching him retain composure when Cleveland put runners on base made me feel like I was watching a 36-year-old veteran rather than a 26-year-old rookie. That’s worth the price of admission.
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21 Responses to "Work fast, change speeds, throw strikes. (Nick Blackburn teaches Francisco Liriano a lesson.)"
Howard,
You couldn’t be more correct.
Command uber alles!!!
(I can’t even spell English. That’s probably not even close.)
It seems like such a simple concept. Throw strikes… win games. Of course, it helps when your defense is actually making plays behind you. That hasn’t always happened this season. If a pitcher feels like he has to strike guys out because his D isn’t making plays, things can get ugly.
I saw Blackburn pitch in ST and really liked the way he made hitters swing the bat to get on base. Hope he can keep it up.
His pitching style reminds me of Scott Erickson before he became a primadonna
Commander Blackburn
People have compared Kevin Slowey to a former Twins pitcher who wore number 22. Blackburn reminds me more of that guy than Slowey. He’s got better command of his secondary pitches than Slowey and he comes right at hitters. If Blackburn keeps pitching like he did yesterday, I like our chances. That was a rookie-of-the-year type of performance.
I guess BA’s John Manuel knew something when he defied every other prospect rating system to rate Blackburn #1 overall in the Twins system (prior to the Santana trade). It took guts to stick to his rating. I have new found respect for him after watching Blackburn so far this year.
If all we have to look forward to is Liriano learning to pitch by changing speeds then the santana trade is even worse. Your nothing without at least one dominant power pitcher. If Liriano can’t be that then why is he starting in the majors now?
I think the point, shameless, is that guys dont generally regain their full velocity after TJ surgery for a year or so after returning. Liriano will hopefully get that back eventually. In the mean time, he needs to learn to put the ball where he wants it, using all of his pitches. If he can do that, he can be effective this year… and even more dominant if/when his full velocity returns down the road.
Just from what I’ve caught from his comments and many of the comments made by the bloggers…it’s not that he isn’t working on his command, or isn’t trying to pitch strikes…
It’s more that he just isn’t there yet. I don’t see much point in telling an all-star pitcher that he needs to throw more strikes. He knows that already. It’s more that after 19 months of not pitching in the majors, he hasn’t regained the command that he had.
” Your nothing without at least one dominant power pitcher.”
Who was the dominant power pitcher on 2005 White Sox?
Beuhrle, Garland, Garcia, Contreras or Vaszquez?
I think that eventually liriano will be fine and that its way to early to worry about his control. He didn’t play for over a year and a half and it might take some time to get a feel for his pitches and command of them.
rory,
I agree.
But if it is going to take a long time for Liriano to regain his command and his team is going to lose games in the process, I would rather that team be the Rochester Red Wings.
Meanwhile Mulvey, Duensing or Humber could be winning games for the Twins.
I think the point that is being missed here is why can’t Liriano work on regaining his past form down in the minors instead of when it “counts” here at the major league level. We have so many major league ready pitchers just waiting for the chance to pitch with the Twins and yet we call-up a guy that is still trying to work on regaining his form after 19 months of not pitching?
Folks,
The problem with trying to regain command at Rochester is that minor-leaguers will swing at more bad pitches and umpires’ strike zones are dicier. You can argue well on both sides of this one, but I think Liriano and the Twins are better served by having him pitch here. It’s not like he got lit up in his first two starts.
It seems like Liriano got some things figured out between those starts. We just need to understand that his game is likely to be different in the forseeable future from the amazing half-season he put together in 2006.
Dare I say it - Nick Blackburn may be the new Joe Mauer. He has sideburns AND he’s tan! …not to mention the whole stamina thing. I love rookies.
“It’s not like he got lit up in his first two starts.”
Yes, but he was wild in and out of the strike zone. IMO he is going to fail temporarily whether at MLB or AAA.
He should be allowed to fail where his teammates don’t have so much riding on his wins and losses.
Who is better than Liriano in the minors right now? Mulvey? Perhaps. Liriano’s last outing was not bad. Perhaps Mulvey would have done better. But we don’t know. In the meantime, if he keeps taking baby steps to regain his command, he’ll be better than Mulvey in a start or two. I don’t think there’s much point in sending him down, unless he starts regressing.
I was at the game on Friday for Liriano’s first start in the dome this season (pathetic game by the way, Twins: 2 hits, both of the infield variety, against Cliff Lee, who?), and from what I saw, Liriano’s only problem right now is regaining his command, he hit 93 on the dome radar gun a few times, so the velocity is almost back. His changeup was throwing hitters off, and honestly his slider was his best pitch that day. He definitely was struggling to stay in the strike zone though, 93 pitches in 5 innings and 5 walks are far too many.
One unfortunate sidenote which I think will take Liriano even longer to adjust to is that he no longer has the ability to throw that slider in the upper 80’s low 90’s, watching the radar gun in the dome, his changeup was coming in at 78-81, and his slider was going 81-83, which isn’t a very big speed difference, so Liriano has lost much of his ability to keep guys off balance as far as velocity, he used to have the 95+ fastball, 80ish changeup, and the 88+ slider, 3 distinct, varied speeds. Now he has the 90+ fastball, 80ish changeup, and 80ish slider, I think that will be one of the biggest adjustments he has to make in using his pitches effectively.
It’s ironic; many comments I read on the various Strib blogs would have led me to believe the Twins were going to “make a run” with a “healthy” Liriano and a still-in-Twins-uniform Santana. And now we’re clamoring for him to be sent down? What a fickle bunch we are.
By the way, I see LNP has either surpassed .300 or is closing in on it. Do we love him now also?
Liriano,
According to Anderson, Liriano’s problem is more mental than mechanical. Anderson has stated that Liriano’s last 2 BP sessions has been phenomenal. He hits his spots with all of his pitches.
He just has to carry that over into the games.
Cut Liriano some slack. Who that had that surgery has done better than he has. He has the potential to make a serious difference in the team performance, much more so than any other pitcher in the system. Someone else may be able to win a couple of more games in the interim but his development(mental as well as physical) is more important to the team than a couple of more wins by someone without his upside.
And Liriano had another great bull pen yesterday. He’s almost there.
