Francisco Liriano Frustrated

well, when theres smoke theres fire, maybe they are trying to keep him under team control longer, why not? why is it so shady, cause he wont get paid so much to do it yet like that wont happen for him someday, id want to be sure his arm stays glued to his shoulder first

This is actually quite a sticky situation. Livan is the leader of the staff; not in statistics but rather in mentorship. Cutting him would be more detrimental than what most people think. None of the other four young starters (Baker, Blackburn, Slowey, or Perkins) have pitched poorly so you can't removed them. As of right now the only option is to trade someone to keep Liriano happy, but who? I think Liriano and his agent need to be patient based on the circumstances.

FWIW - Liriano's FA was delayed in late May before he started pitching well in the minors. But Liriano is likely losing Super-2 arbitration status by being in the minors until this point.

If I were the Twins I would pay him next season like a super-2 and put the issue behind them. No reason to aggravate a potential ace that you might be interested in signing in the future (buying out 1-2 years of FA).

lol to the comment above me

GD said FOR a 3B or other position, not TO 3B or other position. Try reading the whole comment before making fun of the guy.

0% chance the Twins trade Liriano.

While I agree that Liriano is LIKELY better than Livan, the Twins are violating no rules, regulations or statutes by keeping Liriano in AAA. It is quite likely that when/if Liriano is called up, he gets lit up worse than Livan. If Livan were to be the one in AAA, he could be more dominant there than Liriano. It's all apples and oranges, really.

well heres how im looking at it, 1.5 games out makes them a contender, but they could still fall out of contention very easily like most teams do in the second half, look at the mets last year they fell out on the last game of the season pretty much. i believe if the twins muscle there way into first and can get a 3 game lead, liriano will be called up to maintain the lead, but other then maintain a lead in the division, what good is wasting an arbitration year on possibly the next big game pitcher in baseball? as far as being insulted, i think like if we did this with clay bucholz in the same situation, i would rather not bring him up and save him then waste him if we were losing

The Twins are keeping him arbitration eligible by keeping his major league service time under 3 years.

I like the thought and Rob Antony (Assistant GM) has said the bullpen might be an option after the break. While the young arms are doing so well, it only takes a couple bad starts or an injury for one of them to be switched up with Franny.

Livan shouldn't go anywhere despite his numbers. His veteran leadership and big-game experience make him vital in a playoff run and moving him to the bullpen to create a starting spot for Liriano might now bode well for Livan's confidence/moral.

The money thing (imo) is a non-issue. The Twins have more than enough to spend now and into the future. If they were holding him down to save a year, that'd be smart of them, but I highly doubt that is why he is still in triple A.

I can't wait to see him though when he does come back up and word from Rochester is that his pitches are hitting mid-90's again and that slider is starting to bite like it used to! :-)

The Twins are definatley saving their money because baseball is a business, the sooner Liriano realizes it the better. Here is an important moment to watch because yet again the Twins are displeasing first rate left handed pitching.

Tim, you're not doing your homework here, and either has Rosenthal. The Pioneer Press had reported TWO days ago that the Twins are on the verge of bringing Liriano up: http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_9899665

As Bill Smith suggests, if it were really about money, we wouldn't have seen Liriano in late April.

It's also a false choice between Livan and Liriano. Likely, we'd see Bass get cut. Livan might end up in the bullpen, but I think more likely we'll see Liriano start games, with Perkins or Boof finishing them up depending on the outcome. The Twins are clearly going limit Liriano's innings, and with Boof's implosion, Slowey's injury, not much pitching at AAA, and a staff w/o a vet, it's an oversimplification to suggest the Twins should release Livan.

I love the comment at the end about going with veteran mediocrity. I mean sure keep questioning this team all they have done is win division titles in 02,03,04,06. It's also not like they have a history of devloping pitchers or anything. So yeah keep questiong what they are doing with a pitcher you have alot more knowledge of pitching than Rick Anderson and Jim Rantz.

"Guilty"? You're likening the Twins to a pedophile? I'm at a loss. Really.

Liriano is ready to come up. The Twins know this and have said as much publicly. If they were cheap and shady, they would have never pulled him up in April and given him several starts. And they would be talking out of the side of their mouth saying he still had a ways to go.

Liriano crapped on his chance to get Super 2 status by not being ready months ago when he was gifted a chance by the Twins. He didn't perform. I'm not gonna cry in my beer for a guy who will get his due.

This is much adieu about nothing. He will be up before the end of the month. Maybe even early next week if Slowey's finger isn't better for his start or they finally decide to unload Bass or find a trade for Boof. Let the process work and find someone more deserving to villainize.

dude thats bull !! you want to know why he is down in AAA still, look at his numbers agenst rightys (a lot of them at the show) 4.6 era 69 hits in 70 innings with twenty walks and 71k. . that is why i think he is still down. . leftys its a diffrent story .77 era with 23 hits in 35 innings 7 walks and 23k. . . if he could only face leftys he should be up!! but he can't, keep him down a lil longer till we KNOW he can throw agenst right handed hitting !!