It's Liriano Time

A matter of hours remaining until the trade deadline. Word has it the Twins are looking at Rich Aurillia as well as a middle infielder after the devastating injury to Alexi Casilla. Also, my childhood hero Ken Griffey Jr. is headed to the AL Central to dawn White Sox stripes. Yuck! It'll certainly be hard to watch Griffey play for the Sox, but we will get to seem him in the dome more. Sorry for my writing delay, I have been away for work in Chicago for the last two weeks. More to come on the Casilla and Giffey issues and stay tuned for deadline deals, for now DY21 has this to say...

Sorry it has been over a week since my last post but life has been hectic as of late. Since my last post the Twins have been up and down, but things are looking good now taking the first 2 games of the ginormous July series verse the Chi Sox.

As Twins fans know there have been many grumblings about the young lefty Francisco Liriano's recent dominance in AAA. For the season Liriano has 10 wins and a 3.28 ERA with 5 less strikeouts then innings pitched. That's not even the sick part. Up until his most recent start in which he allowed 4 runs in 6 innings (he did still strike out nine) Liriano had a 0.26 ERA in his previous 5 starts. If that isn't deserving of a callup I don't know what is.

Early in the year it seemed Liriano was just a little timid to wing it again after Tommy John surgery, which is very understandable. But the Twins handled him perfectly, and now it looks like he remembers how to be just as filthy as he was in 2006. But the question arises, whose spot does he take in the rotation? Or better yet, should he be brought up as a bullpen guy? To me it isn't fair to replace Liriano for one of the four young starters who have been surprisingly pretty consistent at this juncture of the season. Therefore, my take on this is that it is time to get Livan Hernandez out of the rotation. It seems Livan's only plus nowadays is that he eats up innings and gives the bullpen a rest. Beneficial, yes, but at what cost? In his past twelve outings Livan as given up 3 or less earned runs in only four starts. There is not a doubt in my mind that Liriano is ready to do much better and with the Twins in the thick of a heated division race, this is the move that must be made.