Franky comes though; Pavano up at noon

I got pretty lucky. On Monday, my friend Craig offered me box seats to last night's Twins game, and of course, I accepted without reservation. But on Monday, I could never have known what I'd be treated to in that climate-controlled cavern… yeah, the free drinks were nice, but Francisco Liriano's pitching performance was infinitely better. I was giddy the entire time, texting friends about how "vintage" he looked. There was a certain confidence and mission-mindedness about him that I hadn't seen since '06. Icouldn't believe what I was seeing. Seven innings, eight strikeouts, one run given up. HE'S NOT DEAD YET!

Yes, I know it was against the putrid Royals.

Yes, I know it was in the near-always-friendly Dome.

And yes, I know that pretty much anything resembling not sucking would have blown me away last night after Tuesday's abomination.

But I, and we, as Twins fans can't be satisfied with one sparkling start. That wouldn't be fair after what this a-hole Minnesota team has put us through recently. We need MORE. And we need Carl Pavano to provide us with the punctuation mark on a series win today. I chronicled his terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad stats against sub-.500 teams in one of the three August 12 entries. In short, we shouldn't be surprised by a Nick Blackburn-like (post-All Star Break) outing today. And just how bad has Blackburn been in the second half of the season? Check this out:

Five starts… 0-3 record…8.87 ERA (23 ER in 23-1/3 IP)… 2.100 WHIP… players are .407/.426/.638 COMBINED batting against him…

I could go on for a long, long time. Oooohh… just found another stat:

He gave up 1 HR per 51.8 batters faced in the first half… Is giving up 1 HR per 28 batters faced in second half.

What the hell is wrong with this guy? Is the sinker not sinking? Is his arm tired? Are contract negotiations throwing off his concentration (rimshot!…a la The Common Man)? We might have to go to a four-man rotation with the bullpen pitching every fifth day. Or maybe get John Smoltz?

***Special thanks to Joe Crede for restoring my faith in his power bat last night. Somebody please put him in a padded room from now till today's day game.***

Twins day game today at 12:10 CST! Enjoy! Thanks for reading.

Droppin' an F-Bomb on Y'allz

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's inconsistency. The Twins, while sitting at 41-39 after today's win at Kansas City, would seemingly be the model of consistency if you look only at their record. After all, winning half your games means you are demonstrating an inability to sustain success. A lot of factors play into the team's ragamuffin end results, not the least of which is Francisco Liriano's glacial metamorphosis into something resembling a starting pitcher.

Of course, at age 25 and coming off Tommy John surgery, Frankie has had to relearn his arm slot, which anyone can tell you takes more than a couple tosses in the bullpen. And yet, after a horrid rollercoaster 6.60 ERA through the first two months, the F-Bomb has started to return.

In June, Liriano busted out a 3.77 ERA with 30 strikeouts in his 31 innings pitches. What's more, his BAA (batting average against) fell considerably in the month of June (.231) as compared to April/May (.296). All of this, of course, was highlighted by Francisco's tidy (97 pitches) seven-inning, six-strikeout performance this past Sunday in St. Louis. He even managed to strike out Albert Pujols once, and that's only happened 31 other times in 264 at bats this season. Good stuff.

If this is the Liriano we're going to get from here on out - the efficient, confident guy we can trust - then our Twins, as a whole, will take a turn upward.

Oh, and speaking of inconsistency, I apoligize for the ridiculous two-month hiatus on this little ol' site. If the inspiration isn't there, it's always best to put a lid on your output.

Thanks for reading!

A Lost Weekend

Even the Tigers know Minnesota sucks right now. We thought our team needed a little home cookin', and Friday, Francisco Liriano devastated Detroit, allowing Twins' Fandom thoughts of a sweep. I'll even admit that after the seventh inning on Saturday, I was entertaining the idea that our team could rip through the homestand without sustaining so much as a loss. Then the "Grim Reaper Crew" (GRC) happened. And by that, I'm talking about our stable of relievers that we just KNOW are going to blow the game when they come in. And Saturday, Dennys Reyes came in with one out and served up a game-tying, two-run shot. Then, after he waddled off the mound, our boy Matt Guerrier proceeded to allow ANOTHER two-run dinger to give Detroit the lead at 6-4, and eventually the game. 

Led by Guerrier, Boof Bonser, Jesse Crain and Reyes, the GRC have sabotaged game after game with their late-inning antics. Bonser is going the wrong way right now... Reyes/Crain combined to lose the game Saturday in stomach-punch fashion... Eddie Guardado is embarrassing. For god's sake - the bullpen is something like 1-7 in since the 14-game road trip. In fact, only Crain and Craig Breslow have been bearable lately, as the rest of the non-Nathan relievers own a 13.00 ERA over the past seven days. If you thought Pat Neshek's injury was devastating at the time, look at us now... look at us now.

And Sunday, Glen Perkins gave the team a chance to win for five innings before succumbing to the longball, giving up a homer and three total runs in the sixth. The Tigers tacked on a couple more runs vs. Bonser in the seventh, effectively ending the game. I'd like to fight Bonser right about now. 

On top of all this, the White Sox gained a game on us this weekend to push the lead to 2.5 with 19 games left... hopefully they won't be able to solve the Blue Jays and A.J. Burnett tonight (7:11 p.m. CST). Toronto has been on fire in September, winning eight straight after sweeps of Minnesota and Tampa Bay. They're in "spoiler mode", and I'm hoping they keep that mojo workin'. 

Despite all this negativity, the Twins get Kansas City for three games starting Tuesday, where they'll send Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.71 ERA), Kevin Slowey (11-9, 3.75 ERA) and Francisco Liriano (5-3, 3.33 ERA) to the mound against Brian Bannister (7-14, 5.56 ERA), Kyle Davies (6-6, 4.59 ERA) and Brandon Duckworth (2-1, 6.60 ERA). That's right, we're not even going to see Gil Meche or Zack Greinke. It's like they're throwing the series. Seriously.

Thanks for reading today, and GO VIKINGS!!!

Let's get PUMPED UP!!!!

In the wake of the Twins' victory tonight on the strength of Francisco Liriano's pitching, I thought I'd let my boy Van Halen do the talking. I'm pretty fired up right now!

Casilla back... Angels await

Francisco Liriano is scaring me. You look at his 4-0 record, 1.14 ERA, .182 opponent batting average and very good 20 strikeouts in 23 2/3 innings, and it feels good. It feels like Liriano is back. But he's not, and we all know it. The same dominance just isn't there - he's not throwing as hard as he was before, and might not ever get all the way back (yes, we all knew this was a possibility). Even more disturbing though, are the 10 walks in those near-24 innings. Folks, our "golden boy" is having trouble finding the strike zone, and though he'll miss the Angels and continue "tuning up" vs. the whipping boys of the American League for a bit, there's going to come a time when a patient team eats him alive. A few more Liriano stats:

• He's thrown 401 pitches in 23 2/3 innings, which is about 17 pitches an inning - pretty inefficient. His fellow starters' numbers over the past four starts... Perkins (14.88 per inning), Slowey (16.01), Baker (16.8), Blackburn (15.4). Basically, he's giving himself the worst chance of ALL of our starters to go 6+ innings. Even Scott Baker, who's obviously struggling, has been a bit better.
• While Liriano has thrown about 61% of his pitches for strikes since "The Call-up", fellow Twins starters have faired much better - Baker (69.6%), Slowey (68.6%), Blackburn (64.3%), Perkins (69.1%).

Anyway, despite all this, I went to bed last night with a good feeling - the Twins had won their fourth consecutive series, and six out of their past seven games. The starting pitching is looking decent and the bats lively... even the bullpen looked good yesterday. What's more, Alexi "it's a miracle" Casilla (4-for-7, RBI in two rehab starts) is back from his hand injury and will look to help spark the top of the order where Nick Punto faltered. The Twins optioned Brian Bass to Triple-A Rochester to make room. Good riddance. Casilla's at bats are much better than anything we have in the middle infield, and we have to hope he can hit the ground running this evening.

Conversely, I woke up this morning and that feeling was all washed away... I mean, we're going to Anaheim...we're facing John Lackey tonight... we're a game back in the Central Division. Our starters have to deal with Vlad/Tex/Hunter for four games... our hitters - if there's to be a comeback win - will have to hit vs. the only guy better than our closer in Francisco Rodriguez. It's a brutal way to start a road trip, but I suppose it's best to get the worst over with first.

Game 1, tonight at 9:05 p.m. CST, will feature Scott Baker (7-3, 3.91 ERA) vs. John Lackey (10-2, 3.22 ERA), and tomorrow evening Glen Perkins (10-3, 4.17) will take on 14-game winner Joe Saunders (14-5, 3.14). Saturday's pitching probables are Nick Blackburn (9-7, 3.71) and Jon Garland (11-8, 4.33), and the series finale will feature Kevin Slowey (10-8, 3.78) and Ervin Santana (13-5, 3.39). Needless to say, we'll have our hands full with these guys, but it'll likely be the toughest test we face - outside of the White Sox series and the @Tampa Bay in September - the rest of the year.

Thought you should know that Matt Tolbert is now 1-for-6 in two rehab starts for New Britain, and is expected to rejoin the Twins when rosters expand on September 1... Last, I wanted to mention that Boof Bonser is looking much better lately. John Gordon talked about some increased velocity yesterday afternoon (hitting 95 mph), and that can only mean good things for our bullpen. He's boasting a 2.79 ERA, .250 BAA, 1.344 WHIP and 8.38 k/9 in eight August appearances.

That's enough for now...

Minor League Notes:

• 2B/3B Luke Hughes belted two hits, scored twice and stole his second base as a Rochester Red Wing last night. His batting totals (.284/.373/.540) have dropped a bit, but he's still looking good.
• Looking dominant, SP Anthony Swarzak moved to 4-0 with a 2.10 ERA/1.300 WHIP in five starts at the Triple-A level. Swarzak pitched one-run ball for six innings and struck out six batters while giving up just five hits. In addition, reliever Bobby Korecky now has nine straight scoreless innings, and racked up six saves and 9 Ks over that time period.
• Matthew Fox, a starter for Single-A Fort Myers, has been quite good over his past four starts (2-0, 1.14 ERA, 1.183 WHIP in 23 2/3 IP), including his most recent outing where he pitched seven shutout innings, striking out five.
• After getting blown up for eight earned runs in four innings on August 3, Beloit's Steven Hirschfield has been nearly untouchable. He's given up just three runs in the 21 subsequent innings, going 3-0 over that span.
• Elizabethton 1B Jonathan Waltenbury hadn't hit for much power lately, but rocketed two homers last night to bring his total to 10 on the season. He's currently on 10-game hitting streak that has his batting average back up to .329 on the year.

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome day!

And we're back...

After a nice day off for the Twins, Seattle is in town to start up a three-game set. If you remember, Minnesota was supposed to crush, dismantle, annihilate, dismember and pummel the Mariners last week, but the bullpen left their mojo at the Metrodome and we dropped two games at SafeCo. Fast forward to today, and things are a bit different, if only because Francisco Liriano (2-3, 6.55 ERA) is starting the opener. Liriano has a 2.00 ERA in 11 2/3 innings with 10 Ks since his call up. He's facing Carlos Silva (4-13, 5.93 ERA), who has been as hittable as current Colorado Rockies SP Livan Hernandez for most of the season. Of all the moves Bill Smith made, deciding not to re-sign Silva might have been the best.

The Twins miss Felix Hernandez for the second straight series, which has got to feel great.

In Game 2 on Saturday, the Twins are running Scott Baker (7-3, 3.78 ERA) out to the mound after he bounced back from three less-than-stellar starts vs. the Royals this past Sunday. He'll take on Ryan Rowland-Smith , a recent call up from Triple-A Tacoma. On Sunday, the Mariners are sending Ryan Feierabend to the bump in what will be his first major-league action of the 2008 season. Opposite Feierabend will be Glen Perkins (9-3, 4.07 ERA), who shut out the Yankees for eight innings this past Monday.

Other Series-Related Notes: After reaching a season high .292 batting average on July 31, Nick Punto has dropped 33 points and is down to .259 (.167 BA)... Since the Minnesota series last week, Raul Ibanez has continued to scorch the ball, going 9-for-27 (.333) with two homers and four RBI... A shaky July seems to be behind Twins reliever Jesse Crain, who has a 2.70 ERA and .208 BAA in seven appearances this month... Seattle SS Yuniesky Betancourt currently has a five-game hitting streak, and is batting .524 over that stretch... Twins closer Joe Nathan has only given up six runs all year (51 2/3 IP), and hasn't taken a loss all year long.

The White Sox begin a three-gamer in Oakland tonight at 9:10 p.m. The Athletics have lost 11 of their past 13 games, so we need them to get hot in a hurry... of course, we play them next week, so let's hope it's a short-lived surge. Go Twins!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the game tonight! Minor League update coming tomorrow! Subscribe to my blog via Email here!

Happy Liriano Day!

Francisco Liriano represents everything the Twins organization tries to sell us. Namely, "Hope for the Future". Well, the future is now.

We can all pretty much quote his stats from the 2006 season (12-3, 2.16 ERA in 121 IP), and if you have a good memory, you can pretty easily recall his stat line from earlier this year (0-3, 11.32 ERA in 10 1/3 IP). Now, if you didn't know the second version of Liriano was coming off Tommy John surgery, you'd think he lost it. But his showing in Triple-A points to a man who has regained form, confidence, swagger and dominance. By throwing 118 innings of sheer precision, Liriano has re-established himself as the heir apparent to Santana's throne. He whiffed 108 batters and went 10-2 with a 3.28 ERA in his stint, and is ready for his start today.

He'll face Matt Ginter and the Cleveland Indians today (At 1:10 on your local WFTC station, Ch. 29). Chances are he'll fare pretty well, too - the majority of the team hits worse than .270 vs. left-handed pitchers and hasn't seen a healthy Liriano in nearly two seasons. Should be fun.

By the way, Kevin Slowey was very Radke-like in his performance last night, giving up a couple of two-run home runs, but pitching pretty decent in his six-inning, six-hit outing otherwise. He managed to strike out seven, but didn't get any run support in the 5-1 loss.

Cleveland's Paul Byrd generally has the Twins' number, and ran his win streak to three games, pitching seven sharp-as-a-tack innings. Byrd gave up just one run, but as predicted, gave the Twins opportunities with eight baserunners over that span.

Denard Span and Delmon Young each picked up a couple of hits while the no. 2-5 hitters went a combined 0-for-13. Certainly not a recipe for success.

We'll hope for better luck, and a series win today.

One minor league note today - Phil Humber of the Rochester affiliate dominated last night, going eight strong innings and striking out nine batters in a 4-1 win over Lehigh Valley. In his past two starts, Humber has pitched 20 2/3 innings, giving up just four runs. Looks like someone else may be pushing for a big-league callup in September...

Minor League Notes and more good stuff from the Twins Hotspot coming tomorrow!

Liriano, Ruiz traveling to Minneapolis!

Just a short message, but a powerful one - Francisco Liriano is finally back with the Twins! The team is expected to release Livan Hernandez and Craig Monroe (surprise!) today to make room for Frankie and 1B/DH Randy Ruiz (17 homers, 68 RBI, .320/.366/.536). The good news about Ruiz is that he's been just a "smidge" worse against left-handed pitchers than righties this year, unlike Monroe, who's been unable to hit anything. Thanks to Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune for the update!

Liriano isn't going to pitch tonight, but I'm sure we'll get more information on all this as news gatherers get details. More coming tomorrow!

Liriano up? Livan gone?

I covered the Twins in extensive detail last night, and here's the Live Blog to prove it!

Looks like I missed one thing though - Liriano isn't expected to make his start tonight, and could be up within the next few days for the Twins! Here's the latest from Lavelle E. Neal from the Star Tribune.

Luke Hughes called up...
After a season filled with sweet swinging and injury, Luke Hughes has finally reaped the benefits of a breakout offensive performance in 2008. Batting .319/.385/.551 with 15 homers and 40 RBI for New Britain on the year, Hughes proved he was capable of doing pretty much whatever he wanted at the dish. Hughes went 1-for-5 for Rochester last night and started at third base.

In addition, Anthony Swarzak moved up from Double-A on Tuesday, but there were no real notes to go off. Sorry for the delay on that information. He went five innings and struck out two batters, but let in just one run for his first AAA win vs. a tough Pawtucket team. 

Other Minor Leauge Notes: 

• Riding a sweet 11-game hitting streak, Fort Myers catcher Wilson Ramos picked up his third multi-hit game in a row last night, bashing out four hits in five at bats with five RBI. Ramos has 11 homers and 64 RBI on the year for the Miracle, and as a 20-year-old catching prospect (his birthday is August 10), it would seem his best days are ahead of him. Watch out, Joe Mauer! 
• In his second start as a Beloit Snapper, Shooter Hunt was pretty wild (five walks), but got the job done. Hunt didn't allow a earned run and struck out nine batters for the second straight outing, picking up his second Low-A ball win in a row.

Series win... Sox looming

It was a nice end to a crappy road trip, but we'll gladly take our two wins at "the Jake". Nick Blackburn looked great for seven innings, then Dennys Reyes promptly gave up the lead before the bats roared back and Nathan nailed it down for his 28th save. A win's a win...

It's not so much that I don't care about yesterday's win - it's more that the next four games are extremely important in comparison. Consider: The Twins are 4-7 so far this season against Chicago, and thankfully they won't have to play them at U.S. Cellular field again. However, Minnesota only gets seven more opportunities to take full game chunks out of "pale" Sox' lead from this point forward. It starts tonight when Kevin Slowey (6-7, 4.41 ERA) faces off against Mark Buehrle (8-8, 3.56 ERA, and killed the Twins his last time out). 

It figures to be a tough series for a few reasons: 

1. The Sox are sending lefties to the hill just about every night; our best hitters are left-handers
2. Chicago is scoring an unbelievable 6.8 runs per game over their past 11 outings. They average 5.04 a game for the season, so we know the bats are hot.
3. Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Livan each had pretty spotty outings last time they pitched.
4. Jim Thome. The guy has a lifetime .315 batting average against Minnesota and hits a homer every 11.8 at-bats against the Twins. He ALWAYS gets his.
   
5. The Twins' bullpen has been awful lately. Never good against an offensive powerhouse. 

Other than all this, I'm pretty confident going into this pivotal series. To be honest, I'd feel a lot better if Liriano were up. Speaking of...

Francisco Liriano pitched yesterday, and I finally caught a radio broadcast! He pitched wonderfully through 5 2/3 innings before giving up a three-run dong to Scranton/Wilkes-Burre in the sixth. He finished with nine Ks and gave up four runs on eight hits overall. If you look at the box score, it really doesn't do him justice. He was in complete control for most of the day, but missed on some pitches and Scranton made him pay. I still say the kid is ready, and it looks as though the Twins need him now more than ever. 

Other Minor League notes: 

• My guy Jason Pridie smoked another home run for Rochester last night, his 12th of the season. He continues to be one of the favorites for a call-up this September. If not for the sub-.270 average, he'd get more press.
• After coming up big in his previous outing with a seven-inning, 8K performance, Cole Devries was swatted back to earth by Dunedin, who tagged him for eight hits and five runs in just five innings of work. 
• Another Elizabethton pitcher is on the radar - Daniel Osterbrock. Despite some up-and-down outings (given up 6 and 4 runs before last night), he's managed to strike out 52 batters in 40 1/3 innings thus far. Last night, however, Osterbrock was downright filthy as he punched out 12 batters in a seven-inning stretch of shutout mastery. He'll likely be up in Beloit or Fort Myers next year. 

That's all for now... thanks for reading! 

New Series, New Life

The great thing about baseball is that you start over every day. I mean, you have a running record and accumulating stats, but you get a clean slate... every batter starts out 0-0, every pitcher starts out with 0 balls and 0 strikes thrown. 

And a clean slate is exactly what the Twins need after getting pounded in New York and losing a 1-0 heartbreaker this past Sunday to the Rangers. 

Tonight, Minnesota faces Cliff Lee (13-2, 2.29 ERA), then Fausto Carmona (4-2, 3.10 ERA) Saturday - his first start coming off the DL - and Jeremy Sowers (1-5, 7.33 ERA) on Sunday. After that, we start a pretty important four-game set vs. the White Sox, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves here. The Twins toss out Hernandez (10-6, 5.29 ERA) tonight, Baker (6-3, 3.26 ERA) tomorrow and Blackburn (7-6, 3.83 ERA) Sunday, assuming no minor-league call-ups occur. The team flipped Baker and Hernandez in the rotation, giving Livan and Scotty B. an extra day of rest. 

No real news from the "big club" yesterday, aside from the fact that a Francisco Liriano sighting is imminent. 

It's also been stated by ESPN's Jayson Stark that the Twins are, in fact, still looking for a third baseman. 

Minor League Notes: 

• Kevin Mulvey pitched five solid innings for the Rochester Red Wings (AAA) last night and earned his fourth win of the season. Mulvey, however, has had a bit of an up-and-down season, but has maintained a stable 3.87 ERA on the year. 
• Prize acquisition (from the Santana Trade) Deolis Guerra (10-5, 4.56 ERA) continues to teeter between mediocrity and disaster in A+ ball at Fort Myers this season as he gave up four runs in five innings last night. In his past four starts, Guerra has struggled to a 5.48 ERA and 1.406 WHIP. He's not been terrible, but certainly could use more time at this level. 
• In all the commotion to pick up a higher-level third baseman, 3B prospects Luke Hughes (AA) and Daniel Valencia (AA) continue to play well. Valencia smoked his first home run as a Rock Cat last night (2-for-2), while Hughes went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .318 on the year.  

That's all for now... Thanks for reading!