Section 220 Guest Report: Liriano in Indy
Posted on June 21st, 2008 – 12:09 PMBy Howard
Maybe you saw the comment from yesterday afternoon, when Mike in IN was decided whether to hang with friends or go to Indianapolis to see Francisco Liriano pitch. He chose Liriano and filed this report, which makes things sound better than the lefty’s pitching line.
Mike offered up this endorsement for minor-league ball: “The game actually got a lot more exciting after he left. Being able to watch a exciting back-and-forth game and thoroughly enjoy it despite ‘my’ team losing on a walk-off three-run home run reminded me why I love going to minor-league games. If the Twins lost like that, I’d be grumpy for a couple hours.”
Here’s the Mike in IN report:
Francisco Liriano gave up 5 runs on 9 hits in 5 innings (7 strikeouts, 1 walk, and giving up 2 HR). Perhaps I am being overly optimistic, but I thought he looked better than that ugly line. He touched the mid-90s on the radar gun (which the radio guys claimed was as accurate as can be found in MiLB), and the ball popped into the mitt impressively. Plus, he stayed ahead in the count fairly consistently. I saw some weak, off-balance swings, and four of the Indians’ hits off him were infield hits. Two that stood out were lucky ’swinging bunts’ that were promptly followed by towering home runs. He left after the fifth having thrown 88 pitches. The Indians’ starter, former #1 overall draft pick Bryan Bullington, lasted only 2 2/3 innings.
The Redwings later regained the lead with two out in the 7th on some nice hitting and base running–a single by Ryan Jorgensen, an RBI triple by Span (who then scored on a wild pitch), a triple by Pridie, and then an RBI single by McDonald. This made up for being perhaps too aggressive on the base paths earlier: Span and McDonald were both caught stealing in the first and McDonald got caught off 2nd base on a grounder back to the Bullington in the third.
In relief of Liriano, Casey Daigle and Bobby Korecky held the Indians hitless for the next 3 2/3 innings, but, unfortunately, Korecky gave up a one-out walk, a two-out walk, then a three-run walk-off home run just over the LF fence: Indianapolis 8, Rochester 7, Indy crowd going crazy. Korecky looked impressive, but the Indians strung together some nice, long at-bats at the end. He was asked to get a 7-out save of what was a one-run game (until McDonald drove in an insurance run in the 9th), and Korecky came up one out short. It was a fun game to watch even though the Redwings lost.
Thanks, Mike.
One more thing: We were at the Twins game last night watching the Big Unit get crunched by the Twins, mostly by the six-run rally that was ignited by the bottom of the order — Delmon, Harris and Macri last night. It got me ‘n’ Ms. Baseball to think that the lower part of the order may need a nickname if it continues to provide key hits on an fairly regular basis.
In the spirit of the Piranhas of days gone by, Section 220 humbly suggests the following: “The Twins knocked around the Big Unit on Friday night, beating him and his Arizona Diamondbacks 7-2 behind a six-run rally ignited by the Bottom Feeders — Young, Harris and Macri — who combined for four hits in 10 at-bats in the 7-8-9 spots in the batting order.”
Whaddya think?
33 Responses to "Section 220 Guest Report: Liriano in Indy"
bottom blasters….not feeders
Ooo! I like bottom feeders. It keeps the whole fish motif going. Piranhas and bottom feeders. Nice one!
Just looking at the MiLB gameday, it appeared to me that Liriano left more pitches up in the zone and he didn’t have the control he did in his last start where he had almost every ball down in the zone.
BOTTOM FEEDERS IT’S GREAT!!!
How about the “Carp Destroyers”, if not, then Bottom Feeders is ok.
Bottom feeders….hmmm…not sure. Too generic. Need something with a little more bite.
I saw the Rochester game in Indy on Saturday night, with Humber pitching. The game started out with a throwing error on SS Santos allowing the first batter to get all the way to 2nd base, and that run got in as did one per inning while Humber was pitching.
Humber didn’t look bad, with his fastball consistly at 91 and off-speed at 80. But it seemed to me that he was not mixing his pitches well, and batters were anticipating his fastball. After he gave up a second HR, we started to see more off-speed pitches.
Span, Pridie and Plouffe all looked good — all hit well, stole bases and looked strong in the field. I was impressed by Plouffe playing 3rd base, looked comfortable and confident, made a couple nice plays. Jorgensen at catcher wasn’t bad, threw out at least one maybe two attempting to steal.
But I was not impressed with the rest of the Red Wings line-up. Barthmaier threw 6 innings for Indy, fastball at 93 and off-speed at 77-78. He made some of the Red Wings hitters look really bad. Many simply couldn’t catch up with his fastball, looked like they would get totally blown away in the majors.
Barrett gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, but that was the only hit allowed in the final 4 innings. But the Red Wings line-up didn’t generate enough runs to win.
“carp” just about says it all.
Thanks for the reports from Indy, Mike and Steve
And I agree about minor league baseball. I love it.
JimCrikket, thank you, you made me laugh hard, and loud scaring my dogs. I have not thought of Carp in a long time as I no longer go fishing, but comparing the Punterrible side of the batting order with a Carp is pretty good.
Absolutely worthless fish that is almost impossible to kill, and will put up a fight like it’s a real fish.
That is really good.
I like the Bottom Feeders as well.
If we ever want to get colorful, I have a few names I like to call them, but I like both your names.
For a long time this season the bottom of the line up was the Bermuda triangle where at bats were lost for no reason at all. Young with his god damned 1 pitch atbats (he should be fined 10,000 dollars for ever 1 pitch atbat he has even if he gets a hit in that atbat), and well, everyone in the world knows how I feel about Punterrible, and Adam Everett… the spot where batting averages go to die.
soon as the twins get the right deal for hernandez,liriano will be called back. that is what they are waiting on.
Igniters
Steve,
Thanks for the Saturday night report. As for not being impressed with Rochester top to bottom, it is a lean year there. It seems like there are more players than usual right now who don’t have the upside you’d like. Keep in mind that’s in part because they’ve lost Casilla, Macri, Buscher and Tolbert to the Twins and the organization is properly cautious about rushing some of the talent at lower levels. It’s the curse of minor-league ball.
the smartest thing the twins can do is wait ,wait ,wait for liriano to develop, liriano should not be pitching under the idea that a few good outings will get him back to the majors let him settle in where he is and patiently work he will be back just chill twins, take the extra step for his proper development now
Steve, I have read the same thing about both of our METS pitchers. Good stuff, bad judgement on when to throw what…
Does anyone else think that the two Mets pitchers might actually be better pros than they are in AAA because here they will have Mrs. Mauer behind the plate who calls an amazing game, and they will have Rick Anderson here who is the best pitching coach in baseball?
Howard… It’s hard to think of a nickname for the bottom of the order, when I’m so frustrated watching Delmon Young waste his talent.
I was also at the Friday game against Johnson (great game). For the second time this year I was lucky enough to have seats right behind home plate, with a perfect view of the field. And I found myself, once again, wishing we would just get rid of Young, despite his getting a couple hits.
Have you really watched this kid in left field? Look around and you’ll see every other Twin in a “ready” position when the pitch is delivered. Take a good look at Delmon…he’s standing on his heals like he’s afraid it wouldn’t be cool to try hard. And in one way or another, I see the same thing in almost every element of his game.
I no longer care about his potential (comparisons to Frank Robinson are ridiculous). I think there’s something wrong in his make-up and that he’ll never be part of a championship team. I’d rather have a Dan Gladden out there (.270 hitter, light power, big heart, 2 championship rings). This is a great team to watch right now. Gogo and Casilla are erratic, but fun. They will get better and they show up ready to play. But I think they should put someone in left who is a team player, and forget about Delmon. I’d rather see Monroe out there (or Span or Kubel). Then they can have a nickname.
Great job Howard!
“wishing we would just get rid of Young, despite his getting a couple hits.”…you’ll see every other Twin in a “ready” position when the pitch is delivered…he’s standing on his heals like he’s afraid it wouldn’t be cool to try hard.”
Ted Williams used to take dry swings (without a bat, of course) while playing left field at Fenway Park. The media blasted him and some fans booed him, but the Red Sox overlooked his fixation with hitting and kept him, anyway.
Good decision!
Sid…good point and if Delmon has a career like Ted Williams, I’ll buy you dinner.
Tanderson,
I am a big Ted Williams fan.
As a hitter and a fisherman -
Not as an outfielder.
He was a good enough athlete to be great outfielder, but he he had no interest in that.
And if Delmon has a career like Ted Williams, I will accept that dinner invitation and I’ll buy YOU dinner the following week!
Please don’t compare Delmon to Ted Willliams. That’s a jinx and sacrilegious.
I left Kirby off the “Fat Tub of Goo” lineup for about the same reason.
Sacriligious!
Mudcat,
The only comparison made was regarding their disinterest in outfield play.
And Delmon was more interested!
Of course, with Ted Williams, it was MUCH easier to overlook.
Frankie is not ready for a call up and he should not be rushed. He is just throwing way too many pitches. I really think that unless he has a complete game or goes through 8 innings with less than 100 pitches, he should still be down there. Despite his obvious shortcomings, Livan is winning for some reason I could never understand, and the other 4 are fine. If you bring up Liriano, something has to give… Who goes down? Perkins, Slowey, Baker? Unless Boof or Bass are traded, I do not see Liriano up any time soon.
Well Rochester just got a bit better this evening, with Macri heading back down as Punto is re-activated. Obviously, the move is more about him having options remaining than it is about ability to contribute right now. It’s a bit of a shame that that’s what you pretty much have to base your decisions on these days.
Rochester is doing fine, Macri down probably means Watkins sold, but one thing that nobody in the big club noticed is that Ruiz is .345/.415/.655 with 7 homers for June… This guy should be in the majors sooner than later…
BC Benenke,
Please accept my condolences for the Twins play this past week. I realize it has been trying for you.
As is the nature of baseball, losing streaks will come, and you can be happy again.
Sit tight, your day will come again, maybe soon.
Regards,
I’m amused by all the Young haters. Ok, so he’s not what we expected right from the get go, but he’s only 22 and only played less than half a season here. Give him some doggone time, folks. You’d all be complaining about the shortshighted front office if the Twins traded him. Some of y’all still complain about letting Big Papi get away when he had several years of being injured and not producing here. Relax. Let the kid get develop.
“Bottom Feeders” ?
Clever. Yes.
Marketable. Unfortunately no. 
Let’s give it a few weeks with this lineup and see what happens when the Twins play the Sox again. Hopefully Ozzie will get pissed off and ramble on about something or other and we’ll get our nickname from there.
Provided it’s something we can actually print…
T,
Last thing I’m gonna do let bleepin’ Ozzie choose another nickname for this team.
Carp and bullheads 4ever.
Maybe if we’re lucky one of the many nicknames used by Twins fans will find its way to the ESPN…where they’ll take to it as if it were their own.
…Then drive it to the ground as they refer to the play using that name as though it were their given name.
But I think I want that mostly for the hilarity that’d ensue when Berman referred to Mauer as “Baby Jesus…WHAAT?!”
FTR: I’m surprised that “Livan on the edge” hasn’t caught on yet.
Do they ever play that song when he’s on the mound?
“Baseball in bed” tonight, 9:05 first pitch. At least we won’t be facing another Cy Younger until tomorrow. Not that they’ve been shutting this powerhouse unit down. A game out of first (ok one and half but who’s counting) maybe First by the Fourth!
Can’t expect the Bottom Bouncers to carry us every night, but it sure makes it more interesting!
Mudcat,
Off day today. Rest up for the next 2 nights.
oops.
I guess that should be “Bottom Feeders” also. San Diego is the Bottom Bouncer, 7.5 out, last place, NL West.
T:
Aerosmith, good one. Found this from last February:
““And he shall be Levon….and he should be a good man.”
These are the lyrics to a song by Elton John and let’s hope this will hold true to the Livan that is now a Twin. He is 33 yrs old if you believe his birth certificate, if he has one, that I think he got from the same place that little leaguer got his a few years back which means the 33 could be on the low side. Livan is a Cuban escapee so it is hard to tell just how old he really is. Only Castro knows.”
