Liriano healthy finally

[TR21HP]

Liriano has been pitching in the Dominican league and is 3-1 with a .49 era. Sounds like his fastball is mid 90's and his slider is 100% back. If he is healthy this year this could be big for the Twins.

[greebs]

I've still got my doubts about him but that would be huge if he returned to being a quality pitcher.

[DonBo]

I'm hopeing, but he's not exactly pitching to major league hitters. We sure could use him this year. Even at 75% of his pre-injury stuff he'd be a force on the staff.

[mrklean]

i read that in the star yesterday i was very happy to see he is pitching better hopefully it carries into the season

[zamboni]

Hmmmm, facing Dominican players not good enough to play here vs facing Major Leaguers (which is full of Dominicans that ARE good enough to play here)

We'll have to wait and see, but I am not gonna start jumping for joy anytime soon. Dude got rocked almost everytime he pitched last year

[TR21HP]

Actually a lot of the players are major league players. We will see in a few months if everything we are hearing works out - hopefully so.

[mrklean]

i read in the star about this and they also said alexi casilla was doing well to so that makes me wonder

[solbes]

Would be huge to our staff if he could even get back to .500 W-L record. He was SO dominant before the injury in 2006. I'm sure it hasn't been easy for him.

On a related note, how is Pat Neshek doing?

[DonBo]

On a related note, how is Pat Neshek doing?

[mrklean]

even better news

[zamboni]

i read in the star about this and they also said alexi casilla was doing well to so that makes me wonder

Exactly. Maybe he's learning how to properly tag up down there

[graingrower]

I for one, am confused about the optimism Liriano generates. His potential was unlimited to begin with, but I think too much water has gone under the bridge. Fact is, he's never shown the durability it takes to be a complete starter. An impressive off season means nothing come opening day; at this stage of his career, why not make him earn his respect? Personally, I would discard him with the first reasonable offer.

[TR21HP]

And replace him with what? Have you any idea what is out there in terms of talent? At least Liriano has shown that he has talent he just needs to understand how to pitch especially with his reconstructed elbow. It usually takes 2 years after this kind of surgery to be fully healthy. I, for one, hopes he comes back to some form of himself and helps the team.

[duckhuntr21]

I for one, am confused about the optimism Liriano generates. His potential was unlimited to begin with, but I think too much water has gone under the bridge. Fact is, he's never shown the durability it takes to be a complete starter. An impressive off season means nothing come opening day; at this stage of his career, why not make him earn his respect? Personally, I would discard him with the first reasonable offer.

+1 If we can't get a reasonable offer or player for him, he should stay in the bullpen where his stamina doesn't matter as much. Even when he was pitching good, it was seldom he went deep into the game so why take a spot out of the rotation for someone like that. I think he just had too much pressure on him with everyone hoping him to be the next Santana.

[solbes]

Sometimes an offseason is all it takes to get some of the confidence back. He still has some stuff, but he lacked any kind of confidence last year. He would pitch around batters with balls way outside the zone. That led to many many problems.

[TR21HP]

Who, from the Twins starting staff goes deep into the game anymore? It's Gardy's and Anderson's approach for the starters to go 6 innings and then get turned over to middle relief and then the closer. How many times do you hear Blyleven complaining about the starters giving a quality start when they go 6 innings. Thats not what happens in baseball anymore. Why do you think its headline material when you see a pitcher complete a game. Besides a few pitchers in the majors very few go more than 6 or 7 innings anymore. If Liriano can come back and give the Twins 6 innings a game and give them an opportunity to win it will really help the team this year.

[JBMasterAngler]

I'm going to continue to dread watching him pitch until I see his ERA under 4 going into the all star break. If that happens, then I'll show some optimism.