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For the last week we've heard over and over that the Angels have interest in Francisco Liriano. But they're not the only ones, even if (along with the Blue Jays) they've come up more often than others. Here's a timeline of how the enigmatic southpaw's name has come up over the last few days.
- July 14: Jon Paul Morosi tweets that Angels have interest in Liriano.
- July 15: ESPN 1500 reports on a number of teams who have "attended" recent Liriano starts. It's a very thin line between "attended" and "scouted". You have to believe it was for the latter, but unless you know for sure you have to call it the former.
- July 16: Morosi again, this time in a column. He doesn't expound much, other than again saying that Toronto and the Angels are "showing interest".
- July 16: Following Liriano's 15-strikeout game, Jon Heyman says Liriano "is drawing decent attention on the trade market now". I really love all these vague turns of phrase. He lists a number of teams as having interest.
- July 17: Ken Rosenthal says Liriano could be among the Nationals' "potential targets".
- July 18: Phil Mackey highlights the Angels and Blue Jays, and with those two teams popping up again it would be easy to read into the situation as though they were the leading and most interested buyers.
- July 19: At CBS Sports, Scott Miller acknowledges that Liriano is the best trade chip the Twins may have (he must believe Willingham is staying put).
Here are Liriano's numbers since his return to the rotation on May 30.
It's interesting to see how what-we-expected-to happen has turned into the current climate. Carl Pavano is injured; Matt Capps hasn't garnered too much interest to this point; Justin Morneau's production will not encourage buyers; Josh Willingham is so hot he's become a trade deadline darling.
Along with Denard Span, whose name has come up a couple of times but not nearly as often or as blatantly as it did at this time last year, Francisco Liriano is turning himself into a chip that could actually yield a return.
As of this writing, the following teams have either A) been reported as having an interest in Liriano, B) been reported as having scouted Liriano, or C) been reported as attending his starts: Angels, Blue Jays, Nationals, Red Sox, Yankees, Braves, Mets, Reds, and Padres. Excluding the five other AL Central teams, since it's highly unrealistic he'd ever land there, Liriano's picked up interest from roughly 40% of the market.
That we know about.