Do you remember May 13th?  That was the last time that the Twins were first place in the standings in the Americal League Central division.  Prior to this season, most media members and fans alike suggested that the Twins were in a rebuilding mode.  As the Twins took their place atop the division yesterday it seems only fitting that a team made up of rookies and newcomers would be paced by the most recent of callups.  Fransiscon Liriano.

It has been well documented that Liriano had a horrendous start to the 2008 season.  The Twins brought him up in April and in three games he had an 0-3 record and an ERA that made Livan Hernandez blush.   After his horrible start the Twins did the right thing and sent him down to Triple-A Rochester.  Over the last few months, Liriano was able to find his pitches and regain some of the mojo that he had during the 2006 season where he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball.

After yesterdays game Liriano stated that he was “nervous” in his return to the Metrodome.  Liriano went 6 full innings and while the boxscore showed that he was effective, it was apparent that he wasn’t exactly the same pitcher as he was in 2006.  His fastball topped out at 93 mph and his slider which in 2006 registered at 87 mph only reached 83mph.  The encouraging thing however is that his slider had what appeared to be just as much movement as it did in 2006.  We do not know what will ultimately become of Liriano.  We are all hopeful that he will continue to regain his velocity and have better control of the strike zone.

What was very apparent yesterday was that Liriano seemed to be a shot in the arm for the rest of the team.  While the Twins stood pat at the trading deadlne, Liriano’s return in favor of a struggling Hernandez might be the pickup that the Twins were looking for.

The Twins appear to continue their hot ways.  They are in the 4th inning at SafeCo field tonight and are up 6-0

Go Twins!

It’s time to dust off your Fransisco Liriano jersey.  The king lives and will soon be comeing to a ballpark near you.  Liriano has been deadly for Triple-A Rochester over has last 10 starts.  His stats are pretty impressive:  He’s 9-1 with a 2.51 ERA during stretch of time.  He will be replacing the the human hit machine, Livan Hernandez.  It’s well been documented that Livan’s numbers are horrible but it seems as if the Twins have finally decided to stop trotting him out to the mound when Liriano is sitting in AAA. 

The surprise move of the day is our parting ways with Craig Monroe.  While his batting average was atrocious, I did like the fact that he had some pop in his bat.  We will be replacing him with Randy Ruiz.  Ruiz’s numbers in Rochester are pretty impressive as well.  He’s batting .320 with 17 Homeruns and 68 RBI in 111 games.  I am glad that the Twins made this move because I think that it is time to give Ruiz (DH and backup 1B) a chance.  He’s proven himself this year and if the word on the street was that we were looking for a right handed hitter with pop, well, Ruiz just might be our guy.

Liriano could possibly start Monday nights game at Seattle.  Both Liriano and Ruiz are on their way to Minneapolis to join the team for tonights game.