It's not easy.

Even though I do try to maintain a view of the larger picture, I can't deny it--I get caught up in the moment just as much as the next guy.  And in those moments it's easy to second-guess decisions, and all justifications of The Future can be lost to an emotion-fueled fret.

Carlos Gomez

When the Twins had the decision to make of whether to start him in Rochester or Minneapolis, it was pretty easy to justify going either way.  Once the choice had been made, there were some natural doubts but for the most part it seemed plausible enough that, in the long run, this was the best route to take in the development of Carlos Gomez.

Ten games in he was incredible.  Twenty games in he couldn't even get by on luck.  A bit of a panic settled in, to which I wasn't immune.  Questions starting popping into my mind:  What if this was the wrong decision? What if being this over-matched wreaks long-term damage on his development?  How long should the Twins allow him to suffer this punishment?

Again, the emotion-fueled fret destroyed my common sense.  Ten games isn't enough to judge anyone on.  Hell, a full season often isn't enough to judge what kind of player a guy can be.

Questions like the ones I was asking myself don't have to be asked now.  It's Major League Baseball, and here's a shocker:  there's a learning curve.  For a 22-year old it's not uncommon to be over-matched, and in the end I do believe that the experience he garners now will help him reach his ceiling much sooner than had he been sent to Rochester.  We probably won't see it this year, but the re-occurring theme here is Long Term.

Joe Mauer

Mauer's had a slow start, just like pretty much every other position player.  For good reason we're concerned with his production, because the Twins need him to be an offensive force.  After a 2-for-3 game on Friday, however, it's amazing how quickly things change.  One game, and suddenly the batting average and on-base percentage are significantly closer to where most of us think they should be.

Of course there's still work to be done.  Mauer is still only batting .301/.358/.384, which shows a disturbing lack of power--even for a guy who's home run ceiling this season will only be 10-15.  But, patience is a virtue; it's a very long season.  Players who hit .300 aren't getting exactly three hits in every 10 at-bats, and it's not going to happen with Joe, either.  While there's a time and a place to be concerned about Mauer's production, it isn't now.  Not yet.

Joe Mauer is, without a doubt, one of the most talented hitters this team has seen.  What is done with that talent is more important, but we've seen what he's capable of.  We can't ignore that he's just as much to blame for Minnesota's slow offensive start as some of the other guys out there, the difference is that he has what it takes to come around; there's plenty of time for him to return to the form we hope he can fill out.

Francisco Liriano

For some reason it seems like somewhere along the line, it was forgotten that Liriano really hasn't pitched that much in the last year and a half.  Tommy John is a major surgery, and it's mildly annoying that somewhere out there, there's a Twins fan who's infuriated by the fact that he's not pitching like he was in the summer of '06.

It was asked earlier on this site whether we thought Liriano was lazy.  It's a good question, but unfortunately isn't really a question we can answer in any way besides subjectively.

Essentially, from our perspective, it's incredibly easy to make judgements on those kind of questions and they make for great debate.  But it doesn't help us answer the real question, which is how long will it take for Liriano to regain his effectiveness?  This means everything from his mechanics, to his command, to velocity, to his mental state, and the answers range from never to it's hard to say.  We don't have any answers right now, and as a result of that frustration we look for something to blame it on.

When Kevin Slowey went down, the Twins took a gamble on Liriano in hopes that in the higher levels of competition would up his game.  They ignored what Rochester told them, that he wasn't ready, and threw him into the fire.

There were no surprises here.  What would have been surprising, would have been if he'd been able to be even half as effective as he'd been in 2006.  But instead, he's responded just like a pitcher who's still recovering from the effects of Tommy John surgery.

Time is the only answer we have.  It sucks, it's frustrating and it's not the answer we want because we want an answer right now.  At least I do, when I hit one of those emotion-induced frets.  Hopefully whenever one of them strikes I can come back and read this, and maybe regain some of my sanity.

Thursday afternoon's contest against the Athletics was discouraging for many involved.

Francisco Liriano failed to make it through the first inning yesterday, easily making it his worst start to date in his career with the Twins.  Only 43% of his pitches were for strikes, and when you're struggling for command with your fastball there's not too much you're going to be able to do to be effective.  He recorded two outs, allowing eight men to reach base; Liriano was charged with six runs.

After his night off, Carlos Gomez collected hits in his first two plate appearances on Thursday.  Leading off in the top of the first, he gave the Twins a 1-0 lead when he hit his first home run of the season.  Minnesota's only other run came off Brian Buscher, who knocked in Mike Redmond from second base following his double in the fifth.

With more than eight innings chewed up by four members of the bullpen, it's likely that only Guerrier, Neshek and Nathan will be available for Friday night's game.  While Rincon and Reyes only threw 15 pitches apiece, in today's game that means they'll only be used if absolutely necessary.

It was a disturbing thing to watch, from the bottom of the first innings through the rest of the game.  Francisco Liriano's immediate future with the Twins will likely be decided in the next 24 hours, when the Twins will decide whether to option him to Rochester to further develop his arm, or whether to give him one more shot at a start.

Span Optioned to Rochester; Cuddyer to Start Friday

Following the 11-2 defeat, the Twins sent Denard Span back to triple-A to make room for Michael Cuddyer's return on Friday.  Span was 1-for-1 in relief of Jason Kubel yesterday, and Ron Gardenhire believes the outfielder needs to be with the big league club:

"I know he needs playing time, but I'd like to have him here and off my bench too," Gardenhire said. "Maybe that is something I can work out over the next couple weeks or so. I'd like to use him in the big leagues a bit more. I like having him here."

Span's appearances didn't shock anyone, and he didn't do too much to make you notice whether he was there or not.  But by playing well in the field and limiting his mental mistakes, he's at the very least impressed his manager.  Span averaged 3.97 pitches per plate appearance in his first brief stint with the Twins, and managed a .324 OBP.

On Friday night, Michael Cuddyer will make his first appearance since leaving the game on April 4.  Reports on Cuddyer, and his hand, have been positive.  It will be interesting to see if he favors it during his at-bats tonight.

Franchise can't complete 5, struggled with command.

While this wasn't a devastating performance by Liriano, and in many respects was really a quite predictable outing at this juncture, it still wasn't pretty.  Fastballs and changeups dominated the afternoon, and the fastball in particular struggled to find the strike zone much of the time.  The fourth and fifth innings in particular were intriguing to watch, as he appeared to lose a little something.

I've charted Liriano's pitch selection by inning, to give you an idea of how he fared.

Fastballs (49 total, 54% selection)

I was entirely unaware that Liriano had a cutter in his arsenal (or a curveball for that matter, as you'll see below), but Gameday insists he did.  There weren't many pitches labeled as a cutter though, so we can stick with the fastballs.

All six of Liriano's hits were given up on fastballs, which weren't registering near the mid-90's according to some reports.  Just over half of his fastballs went for strikes, and while working into deep counts and getting behind didn't help him, that once blistering pitch was quite hittable Sunday afternoon.

Breaking Balls (8 total, 9% selection)

Once again, Gameday identified a pitch that I didn't know Liriano had:  a curveball.  It seems to me that both the cutter and the curveballs could have been wonky sliders, causing them to be misinterpreted.  For that reason I've combined the chart for sliders and curves.  (But then again, a couple of those pitches did look like curves, didn't they?)  At any rate, only eight of Liriano's 90 pitches were breaking balls, three of which went for strikes and none of which were turned into a hit.  At least in his first start, Rick Anderson's wish to dramatically reduce the number of sliders/breaking balls used came to fruition.

As the weeks wear on and Liriano gets stronger, I do anticipate he will begin to throw more sliders/breaking balls again, but on Sunday afternoon it's clear he was limited.  And from how effective the pitches were, I don't think the limitations hurt him too much.  The fastball wasn't locating well enough to make breaking balls any sort of bait.

Changeups (33 overall, 37% selection)

Game announcers called this a circle change, and based on this one appearance it did look as though Liriano was more confident with its use.  Or maybe it was just because his fastballs weren't too effective and he wasn't throwing many breaking balls.  At any rate, the change was Cisco's most effective pitch on Sunday.  Thrown for strikes 61% of the time, no changups were turned into hits, and even when it appeared hitters were waiting for it they weren't able to capitalize.

Final Sunday Thoughts

Once again, no offense, but it was fun being able to watch Liriano throw his first real game in 19 months.  He'll be a work in progress most (if not all) of 2008, so we should be prepared for many more starts that may look just like this one.  Hopefully he can start putting it together these next few weeks, and we'll be able to see some positive trends as we move into the fall.

Hernandez 3, Blogosphere 0

I'm having flashbacks to Ramon Ortiz.

Last spring, Ortiz started the season looking like a wolf on the prowl, stalking the mound.  Through his first three starts he was 3-0, tossing 22 innings with an ERA just above 2.00.  In fact, in all of April he was extraordinarily effective, as all five of his starts were quality starts.  In 35 April innings he struck out 14, walked 6, and for the briefest of moments looked like a Terry Ryan bargain-bin steal.  Of course we know what happened once the clock struck May.

Livan Hernandez has been the center of many of the same criticisms as Oritz, but for now we find ourselves in the same position.  Three starts and 21 innings into the season, Hernandez is 3-0 with a 2.57 ERA.  He's given up a hit per inning, but thus far has only walked a single batter.

It's easy to say "there's nowhere to go but down", but at seven innings per start, and seven quality innings at that, we can at least be extremely happy with the results so far.

Liriano to start Sunday versus Royals.

With Kevin Slowey's move to the disabled list (retroactive to April 4) due to his strained right bicep, the Twins are bringing up Francisco Liriano.  In two minor league starts this spring, his line isn't the most impressive:

His start in Rochester last week was mediocre at best.  When he steps onto the mound come Sunday, it will be interesting to see how he responds to his first, real major league start since 2006.  I wish him the best, but I'm still cautiously optimistic.

While the shuffle of the rotation has been no surprise, how often conerns have been raised about individual pitchers has been a little unnerving.  Scott Baker's been battling bouts of illness and a muscle strain, Kevin Slowy is headed to the disabled list and Francisco Liriano hasn't exactly been consistent.  I'm looking forward to seeing how Boof Bonser and Nick Blackburn fare in their third appearances.

I'll see you for the game tonight!