Is Liriano Back, or is this a fluke?

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

http://sports.espn.go.com...rs/profile?playerId=6211

 

23 scoreless innings, the prohibitive April favorite for the AL Cy Young (think Greinke's hot start last year). Part of me wants to absolutely believe he's back, but i wonder if this is just a fluke. At what point to the Twins lock him up, or do they go year to year for two more years of arby?

 

Lock him up, and he gets hurt... ouch

Don't lock him up and he keeps this up, no chance they can resign him.

 

He's making $1.6m this year and hasn't made much career wise. If he keeps it up through the AS Break, would you offer something in the neighborhood of 4/40? If not, what would you offer?

[razzzorsharp]

I really hope so, he is one of my favorites pitchers to watch.

[RockCoCougars]

It does make you wonder if he could have been had in the Hardy deal. He was definitely not a slam dunk to make the rotation up there at the beginning of the spring

[trwi7]

It's still early, but his fastball is faster and his slider is filthy. His walks are going down and he's striking out nearly a batter per inning. I don't think he'll ever get back to where he was before Tommy John surgery, but I still think he can be really good and he's showing that now.

[sheethead]

The Twins should give him 6/$75M. Of course, I don't like the Twins.

[Invader3K]

It does make you wonder if he could have been had in the Hardy deal.

I'm guessing if you asked anyone on this board at the time, no one would have wanted him. The consensus was that he was pretty much washed up.

[CheezWizHed]

Based on our rotation in the off-season, I was ready to trade for him. Not saying I was predicting this, but I thought he would be better than last year (FB speed still there, etc).

 

I think Liriano is legit. He won't sustain this, but I think he has recovered.

 

However, I think a long term deal is premature. He is an injury risk: 1- as a pitcher, 2 - as a previously injured pitcher. They are probably better off letting him pitch out the year and flipping him for prospects. With the Mauer deal, I don't think they can risk a large bad contract on him.

[Buckylovesbeer]

He sure looked good last night in his win. I am glad for the Twins for sticking with him, hopefully he stays healthy. A bunch of guys commented at the bar I was at that he looked like he put on some size......not sure of that, but his stuff was nasty.

[MessiahRp]

I would have taken a washed up Liriano during this offseason over Doug Davis or another year of Suppan in the rotation. Of course, I was never a fan of the Davis signing (I thought too many people forgot how many walks he gave up his first time around and just looked at some of his better numbers in Arizona to think he was going to be a success here)...

 

I don't know though that Minnesota was certain about giving up on him yet. It would be a shame if we actually could have had him though.

[NievesNoNO]

I think this is a little bit of a fluke. He might be back to being a good pitcher, but his stuff is not even close to what it was pre-injury. I think he ends the year with about a 3.7 era and a 1.3 whip.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think this is a little bit of a fluke. He might be back to being a good pitcher, but his stuff is not even close to what it was pre-injury. I think he ends the year with about a 3.7 era and a 1.3 whip.

He was hitting 95-96mph on the stadium gun last night and his slider is starting to get vertical tilt and look very much like the filth that came out of his left arm a few years ago...and I would guess that if the Brewers had asked for Liriano in return for Hardy in a trade this offseason, Twins management would have laughed for about an hour before hanging up the phone. His numbers didn't bear it out last season, but the Twins knew better than anyone where Liriano was in his recovery from surgery. Structurally everything was fine, but he spent all last year building his arm back up - since he's been looking progressively better with each start he makes, I think that barring additional injuries, he'll get back to being dominant again, if he isn't already.

 

 

[davemakovec]

I wanted him, but I am a huge fan of power lefties with something to prove (I still think Parra is going somewhere, for example).

I think he's back. A big part of what was missing last season was his confidence and control. His stuff was rebuilding, so to speak, as he was regaining full arm strength. The only question has been will his stuff recover along with his ulnar collateral ligament, and he's showing that it is, and he's recovered the confidence he was missing last season. Watch out for Liriano this season.

[Roderick]

It does make you wonder if he could have been had in the Hardy deal.

I'm guessing if you asked anyone on this board at the time, no one would have wanted him. The consensus was that he was pretty much washed up.

Not true, there were some that wanted him. Obviously MN would have better information on his health than anyone else, plus they would probably have wanted too much for him to protect against him doing well after he was traded.

 

http://brewersfandemonium...ilable.html#reply-588102

[TheCrew07]

It does make you wonder if he could have been had in the Hardy deal.

I'm guessing if you asked anyone on this board at the time, no one would have wanted him. The consensus was that he was pretty much washed up.

I'm not picking on you Invader3K, I'm just responding to the idea you posted because it's been thrown around quite a bit in the past.

 

The problem here is that we don't truly know who's available and at what price. If my choices were Gomez vs Liriano... I'm going pitching and hoping to get lucky, I despise the Gomez deal, posted such at the time, but now that it's done we need Carlos to harness his physical gifts. You'll see I didn't post in the linked thread because I didn't have a strong opinion either way. I was intrigued by the reports over the winter, scared by his lack of results for 2009, and hoping Melvin would make a move for someone younger, Well my "hoping" hasn't gotten me anywhere with Melvin, I've been hoping for over 2 years now.

 

The same thing was said of Edwin Jackson last year about how no one was calling for Melvin to trade for him. Well there was absolutely no reason to believe he'd be the one to go, I spent all winter talking about Neimann, but if I had thought Jackson was available I certainly would have looked to acquire him. I was disappointed when Melvin didn't make a move for Kazmir, I didn't think he was finished. Granted he's been on the DL and wouldn't be available to help the rotation at the moment, but at least he still has stuff. I guess my point is that beyond the obvious big name pitchers that are nearing the end of their contracts or their team has gone into rebuilding mode, it's very difficult to pinpoint other players who may be available given the proper situation.

 

The truth is that the trade possibilities are rather limitless once the deal extends to a 3rd team and we never even know all of the players who were available around the league and were discussed, we only know the few names that actually end up getting traded. I don't want to turn this into another "Melvin only signs average FA pitching thread" but I do find the notion that people should have to call their shots for a trade idea to be realistic off the mark. If the deal is so obvious we can pick up on it and pretty much call the trade before it happens, well then it didn't take much imagination or creativity to get it done. It's like if a deal isn't completely obvious then the conclusion seems to become that Melvin had no realistic offers, and I just don't think that's the case. Hardy, Hart, and Braun were my favorite Brewers and I would have traded Hart and/or Hardy in a heartbeat if there was an offer on the table for a projectable young pitcher. I'll always trade hitting for pitching because I believe that pitching is more important than hitting.

 

I'm happy for Liriano and hope he continues to progress, he's been the poster boy for negative results following TJ surgery for a long time, and I'm a sucker for a good comeback story anyway.

[pebadger]

My dad has Twins season tix and spends a month down in Florida during spring training. He's also friends with a member of the Twins coaching staff. The Twins have been pretty optimistic that Liriano was going to be really good this season since early in Spring training, and Dad thought he looked right in the srong games he saw, too. Time will tell.

[jjfanec]

My dad has Twins season tix and spends a month down in Florida during spring training. He's also friends with a member of the Twins coaching staff. The Twins have been pretty optimistic that Liriano was going to be really good this season since early in Spring training, and Dad thought he looked right in the srong games he saw, too. Time will tell.

The Twins asked him to move to the bullpen according to reports and he said he did not feel comfortable doing that. So, they did not expect him to be lights out according to what I have read

[Ennder]

I would have done backflips if we could have had Liriano instead of Gomez, there is no reason at all to think he was done. I would have been extremely surprised if it didn't take a lot more than Hardy to get Liriano though.

 

However I don't think the Twins should sign him long term either. I highly doubt he stays healthy over the next 3 seasons. Get as many innings out of his arm as you can and then trade him before he reaches free agency.

[pebadger]

My dad has Twins season tix and spends a month down in Florida during spring training. He's also friends with a member of the Twins coaching staff. The Twins have been pretty optimistic that Liriano was going to be really good this season since early in Spring training, and Dad thought he looked right in the srong games he saw, too. Time will tell.

The Twins asked him to move to the bullpen according to reports and he said he did not feel comfortable doing that. So, they did not expect him to be lights out according to what I have read

 

Never said "lights out", just optimistic. This article seems to back up what I had been told.

 

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/92642839.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsr