Liriano update

by halfchest on May 12, 2008 2:06 AM EDT

Since Seth didn't post this weekend I had to go do my own digging to see what happened in Rochester. Liriano finally put together a good start down there. While it's only one start its good to see little upside for once. He pitched 6 innings gave up 2 earned runs, 5K's 2 BB's, and 4 hits. It's nice to see the guy have a little success. He also threw 91 pitches, 58 of them for strikes. So he showed a lot better control getting 64% of his pitches across for strikes in comparison with the roughly 55% he did the last two starts down at Rochester.

I found a short article that just said it was good to see him
with a smile after getting off the mound but nothing much about velocity what kind of pitches he threw or how much movement was on his offspeed pitches. So finally we get a tidbit of good news involving Mr. Liriano.

I was wondering if anyone knows what's up with Trevor Plouffe. I looked at the weekend boxscores for the Rockcats and didn't see him? is he injured or possibly getting called up to Rochester to replace Casilla?

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Halfchest...

...all you had to do is go to the weekly Minor League Report, right here o TwinkieTown, and you would have found Liriano’s line for his last start.

Have also been wondering whether Plouffe was going up to Rochester. With Watkins hurting a finger and reportedly unable to hold a bat, they are down to three infielders for second, short and third (Clark, Basak & Buscher). The likely candidate to go up would be Luke Hughes, but he also is battling a leg injury (although not on the DL). Plouffe did play Friday night, when he was 2 for 5, and is hitting a respectable .290/.338/.427 with only 4 errors this season. None of the normal reports said anything about his being injured. If he did make the trip west on the weekend, suspect we will hear today.

by roger13 on May 12, 2008 7:44 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Except. . .

. . I was talking about Saturday’s game of which you didn’t mention because you posted your report before the game took place. I actually had realized from reading the minor league report that he was supposed to start on Saturday. When I saw that it was an encouraging start I thought others would like to know about it.

In other notes I saw that Plouffe returned today and went 0 for 4. Still no Hughes.

Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?

by halfchest on May 13, 2008 2:04 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs

Liriano = progress

Every start down there is a little better. I’m most interested in his pitch to strike ratio, which has increased with every start. He’s starting to control the fastball. When he shows that he can command the fastball, maybe we bring him up.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on May 12, 2008 10:19 AM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Joe C has a sidebar article about Liriano's game on Friday

Check it out here.

But, here’s an appetizer:

Francisco Liriano’s fastball was clocked between 88 and 95 miles per hour during his start on Saturday at Rochester, with most pitches about 92 mph on Saturday, Class AAA manager Stan Cliburn said.

by Old Twins Cap on May 12, 2008 1:58 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Optimism vs pessimism

I’m happy to hear that. I’m real happy to hear that he is slowly getting some velocity back. I don’t really listen to the high end of the range, but 92 is real improvement over what he did with the Twins.
I don’t think the velocity will regress, but I do expect to see a few more control problems before he gets consistency back. Still, good to see that he can throw strikes. As he gets comfortable with the motion again, his muscle memory will improve and strikes will become the norm. I hope.

by snolls on May 12, 2008 5:57 PM EDT reply reply 0 recs

Command and velo

I was trying to focus only on strikes. But he seems to have no problem throwing his fastball for strikes in the upper 80s. When he starts to really let er rip, that’s when the ball sails on him. I’d like to see him spot that 95 MPH fastball. So velocity is also important. It would be cool to get a pitch by pitch breakdown. Oh, wait, we can get that, Gameday has that. Never mind. Time to go to work and analyze his last start in Gameday.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on May 13, 2008 9:57 AM EDT up reply reply 0 recs