I Dislike Your Favorite Team

In the early days of this blog (May 2006) we talked about a great fireballer in the bullpen of the Minnesota Twins named Francisco Liriano.  Shortly thereafter, he became a starter, and then got injured, and hasn't been the same since.


But today, against the Boston Red Sox, Liriano reminded everyone, me included, just how devastating he can be if he has confidence in all of his pitches.  Of course, I was equally optimistic in August of last year, right before Liriano was benched.


But today's stats feel important.  ESPN is paying attention to the Twins, which is almost scary--national media?  Us?  What the fuck?


But ESPN, with their number-crunchers, provided some sweet, sweet data to mull over.  Consider:


Liriano had 8 strikeouts--7 of them, the final strike was on the slider.


But he used the fastball to set up the junk.  In fact, despite the power of his slider, he used it at the right times.  Boston was 1-12 against non-fastball pitches.


And once ahead in the count, Liriano didn't buckle or lose his focus--again according to ESPN, Boston batters went 1-9 when even or behind in the count.  First pitch strikes, bitches!


Liriano has gone up and down a lot, but he's all of 26 years old.  He has a chance to be the most dominant 5th pitcher that any team has ever had.  Keep your eyes on him.  If he's back, for real, the Twins have the best starting rotation in the MLB.