The people (and the Twins) have spoken
Posted on April 24th, 2008 – 6:35 PMBy Howard
At about 2:40 p.m., there was a sense of giddiness in the Star Tribune sports department. Without the game being on TV — and in a building that’s hostile to AM radio — we were forced to rely upon on various internet means to keep track of the Twins.
It was about that time that laughter rang out.
We saw on our screens that Gogomez had gogone deep to give the Twins a 1-0 lead.
Joe Christensen, making an office visit the day after writing about he’d lost his patience with Gogomez, exchanged high fives with Section 220.
“You really got him going,” I told Joe.
Then, I imagined the headline: “Gogo to Joe: Demote THIS!”
The humor dissipated, though, when Francisco Liriano managed to let 8 of the 10 A’s he faced reach base. Five walks, three hits, big loss.
Then, after the game, the Twins went along with the wishes of the Section 220 electorate by demoting Denard Span instead of Gogomez. (Hey, I know the decision was made before the game, but for the sake of empowerment, let’s say that the people — kind of — united, will never be defeated.)
As the Cuddyer/Span announcement was made, the results were 1233 in favor of demoting Gogomez and 1737 opposed — a 58.4 majority saying he should stay.
And, yes, I did check right after the homer. At that time, the vote was 989 for demotion, 1205 to stay — a 54.9 percent majority.
In other words, the votes that came in after the homer went 532-244 for keeping Gogomez — 69 percent.
Of course, you know I really meant to ask about Liriano! You knew that, right?
other people are here too
22 Responses to "The people (and the Twins) have spoken"
Howard- I would suspect that about 95% of Twins Territory would like to see Liriano head back to the minors,if only for his sanity.Franchise would probably be among the 95%.Bringing him north this soon with no success under his belt was a huge mistake IMO.
It’s good to hear that others w/i 60 miles of the downtown TC’s can’t get decent radio reception of that awful station that the Twins sold their soul to for a few sheckels!
Liriano looks dangerously overmatched
It would have been insane to demote Gomez over Span. Glad that it didn’t happen (homer or not). Frankie (sweet music) Liriano is a different story. Someone for some reason has been telling him to throw a slurve instead of a slider (I guess the excuse/motive would be that it causes less strain on a surgically repaired elbow ligament) up here. He needs to go down and stay down and babied until he can get that slider going or develop another out pitch. The fastball location will take care of itself. The slurve bugs me. The only pitchers who use it are washed out pitchers that try to hang on. Who in their right minds would talk to a 24 year old about developing it and using it at the major league level? Make him throw a splitter as an out pitch, fine. But a slurve, uffda! (the thing looks like a flat change up to most major league hitters and depending on location they either pound on it or take it for a ball)
‘nough said. The kid needs some nourishment and understanding. Send him to A, AA, AAA where ever he can work on what he made him be him. This team has 5 starters already, let the goal be that Fransisco would be ready for opening day 2009 and let this team be competitive once every five games (but that would take better hitting and that’s another whole can of worms…)
I’m afraid to say it, but I really believe this may be the first definite signal of the end for Francisco. Years from now, I think we’ll look back as he was a “one-hit wonder” (2006). He is not recovering well from his surgery and it does take time, but he does not have the discipline to condition himself properly and I don’t think he has the mental fortitude to exist as just a mediocre pitcher and eventually “will” himself back to top form. Gardy knows Frankie didn’t work hard last year or this Spring. He wants him in Minnesota so he can ensure he works harder. But lack of success and frustration will eventually set in and sending him back to minors will not serve as an effective wake up call - rather the beginning of a long, downward spiral.
Too bad, he was THE MAN in 2006….but then again, so was Mark Fidrich until injuries ended his very promising career. Another one-hit wonder~
Toby Gardenhire had THREE ERRORS in a game at Fort Myers tonight.
But he did get after it.
Chris … my sentiments exactly. I only hope that we are both wrong.
I think the twins should just put Franchise at AAA until he shows he can pitch. Humber has to prove he’s ready to be here and he was a top prospect prior to his TJ surjery too!!
Even though Franchise had a half a season of success he was still really a prospect!
Just for the record if Liriano isn’t comfortable with the adjustments in delivery then it will take awhile to get his control!
Just for the record part 2
After his last start I said that he looked like the type of guy who comes out of the BP to get one left handed hitter out!
Still hopeful though go franchise!
Gardy knows Frankie didn’t work hard last year or this Spring
Gardy was complaining that Liriano was out of shape because he thought that he did not follow the conditioning program. Look at this AP picture posted at the Strib’s web site after the game today (http://www.startribune.com/photos/?c=y&img=1twin042508.jpg)
does he look fat or out of shape to you?
This was another one of Gardy’s ignorant comments…
I am having a hard time determining his percent body fat from a picture.
I heard that when Liriano showed up late to Spring Training he was forced to run laps.
He sucked so much oxygen out of the air, the other players became dizzy.
Stop calling him gogomez. It’s stupid.
Charlie,
How often have I told YOU to stop calling yourself Chazz? That’s stupid.
Love, Mrs. Mikey Mike
Can we get Joe C to start writing a weekly entry in his blog entitled ” is dangerously overmatched”?
For an old ballplayer, I’m not all that superstitious, but I’m seriously willing to try just about anything to generate some offense.
Yes, the story of the day is Liriano’s implosion in the first inning. But the Twins still only managed a couple of runs. They can trot out new pitchers all year long but if they don’t score more runs, it won’t matter who’s on the mound.
Well I just got reminded that using angle brackets is a bad idea in the comments section… that first sentence should read:
Can we get Joe C to start writing a weekly entry in his blog entitled ”(insert name here) is dangerously overmatched”?
Actually, Liriano allowed 8 of 9 to reach, Denorfia got thrown out trying to stretch a double to a triple.
EDIT: Oops, he actually got thrown out going 1st to 3rd on a single.
Tim,
It all kind of blended together, huh?
From what I’ve read/heard, Liriano is lazy. In 2006 he got away with being lazy because he had such dominating stuff he just had to simply throw the ball over the plate to get outs. Now that he doesn’t have the stuff, he is going to have to learn how to pitch. Only he can decide if he wants to succeed. But I do think we can remove the Franchise label now.
I think we had to give Franchise a chance, if he hadn’t gotten 3 big league starts we all would be groaning that we’re wasting his talent. At least now we know that we’ll be lucky to even see Liriano get another win this year. He’s far from ready…
Thats funny i wonder how embarrased experts like Joe get when the players he thinks should go down end up turning it around and surprising him. I think Joe might be “That guy” is he related to the Stienbrenners by any chance?
I don’t think one home run and a bunt single constitutes embarrassing Joe. One good game is not a turnaround make. We’ll see after another week or so if Gomez embarrassed Joe or not.
