Author: David Shama

Talk about inaccurate predictions.  Before the season Sporting News Magazine predicted the Twins’ Francisco Liriano will win the 2009 Cy Young award. The 25-year-old left-hander has struggled to keep his spot in the team’s so-so starting rotation.

At the All-Star game break, Liriano is 4-9 with a 4.47 ERA.  He’s walked 46 batters      in 102 innings, the most on the staff by 17.  Kevin Slowey, who is 10-3, has pitched 11.1 fewer innings but given up 31 fewer walks.

Learning to pitch with smarts, including throwing the ball over the plate, is still on the former phenom’s to-do list.  Liriano isn’t the same pitcher physically he was before major arm surgery but based on a comeback season last year, including a strong August, a better performance was expected in 2009.

Liriano was brilliant in 2006 before injuring his arm.  During that partial season he was 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA.  But even last year there was rumor of Minnesota trading him and that has to be considered a possibility, particularly to a National league team where if he did become a standout he wouldn’t be facing the American League Twins on a regular basis.

The Twins are only four games out of first place in the Central Division.  There’s been frequent complaining about the team’s relief pitching and anemic hitting at the bottom of the order, but the starting pitching will probably be the most important factor in how the Twins finish.

Not only has Liriano disappointed but so, too, has starter Scott Baker who received a new four year contract before the season.  Baker’s numbers are 7-7 with a 5.43 ERA.  His performance, like Liriano, has at times frustrated manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson.

Twins starters Slowey, Nick Blackburn and Glen Perkins have records of 10-3, 8-4 and 4-5.  Their respective ERA’s are 4.86, 3.06 and 4.71.  Those three have graded out better than Baker and Liriano, neither one of whom needs to pitch like a Cy Young winner, just a lot better to move the Twins to a Central Division title.

Not only will watching Brett Favre be a late summer treat for Vikings fans, but seeing rookie Percy Harvin scramble around in the Wildcat formation should be the cherry on the sundae.

The Vikings likely are planning extra personnel to handle crowds at training camp in Mankato anticipating Favre joining the team.

The Vikings have re-launched the team’s web site, www.vikings.com, making it easier for viewers to consume media of all types, including videos and news.  Fans will continue to stream live video of coach Brad Childress’ press conferences and other team functions, plus links to the Vikings’ Facebook and Twitter pages.

The mid-July issue of Sports Illustrated includes profiles of 14 extraordinary young teenage athletes in various sports.  Among them is Patterson, Louisiana running back Kenny Hilliard, who according to the magazine, has offers from Alabama, Louisiana State, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas A&M.  As a sophomore last season he rushed for 2,377 yards and 34 touchdowns, per S.I.

Projection on Tubby Smith’s starting lineup for the Gophers next fall:  forwards Damian Johnson and Trevor Mbwake, center Ralph Sampson III, and guards Lawrence Westbrook and Al Nolan.

Among the Gopher freshmen, point guard Justin Cobbs might be the most ready to play in the fall.  Seems like a no brainer to redshirt forward Rodney Williams, letting him develop his basketball and academic skills during his first year of college.

ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons didn’t like the decision making the Wolves used selecting back-to-back point guards in last month’s draft.  He’s part of the mainstream view that after drafting Ricky Rubio at No. 5 the Wolves should have opted for Stephen Curry, an extraordinary college scorer, instead of Jonny Flynn.  Simmons wrote: “That pick was transparent — Flynn clearly was a ‘here’s our backup plan if we don’t sign Rubio’ selection.”  See the full analysis at: https://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090710

Five women’s hockey players with University of Minnesota ties have been selected to compete at the 2009 USA Hockey Women’s National Festival August 18-24 at Blaine’s National Sports Center.  Participating will be the Gophers’ Anne Schleper and U alums Natalie Darwitz, Rachael Drazan, Gigi Marvin and Erica McKenzie. Forty-one players have been invited to the camp, which will assist USA Hockey in selecting its U.S. National team.  From the camp, 23 players will make the roster and prepare for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Give me a wink if you heard this before. The Vikings are an okay team but will try for a Super Bowl push by adding a high profile gray beard quarterback.

We’ve devoted this spring and summer waiting for confirmation on Brett Favre’s future with the Vikings. This franchise used a similar strategy in the 1990s.  Not once but twice.

It seems all but certain that Favre, 39, who won a Super Bowl quarterbacking the Packers, will soon be in training camp with the Vikings trying to win another world championship.  If Favre and the Vikings even reach the Super Bowl the team will have accomplished more than when Warren Moon and Randall Cunningham were quarterbacking in purple.

Moon was 37 when he arrived here to play for coach Dennis Green in 1994.  The Vikings had been 9-7 the year before and lost in the first round of the playoffs.  With Moon, the team went 10-6 and made the playoffs again. The Vikings qualified in 1996, too, Moon’s last season here but both years the team was one and done, losing wild card games.

Moon, who is in Canadian and American pro football halls of fame, was a well traveled player when he reached Minneapolis having played for two other pro teams in North America dating back to 1978.  His skills were still effective, though, and he made the Pro Bowl in 1994 and 1995.

While Moon’s teammates weren’t good enough to qualify for the Super Bowl, Cunningham’s were.  At least in 1998 when the 15-1 Vikings produced the best record in franchise history and lost in the painful to this day NFC title game to Atlanta, 30-27.

Surrounded by some of the best offensive players in the league, Cunningham, 34, had come out of retirement to join the Vikings the year before.  He was brilliant during the 1998 season, throwing 34 touchdown passes and being named All-Pro.  He and players like wide receivers Cris Carter and Randy Moss, and running back Robert Smith, helped the Vikings go from a 9-7 playoff team to one that could have been Super Bowl champions.

The next year, though, Cunningham was throwing more interceptions than touchdowns and was replaced by another veteran whom the Vikings had acquired, Jeff George, then 31 years old.  The team finished 10-6 and lost in the second round of the playoffs.  For Cunningham, who some believe should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it was his last year with the Vikings.

What will happen with Favre?  The Moon and Cunningham experiments show it’s dicey to expect much in high performance and longevity from an older quarterback, even a great one.  Favre is older than either Moon and Cunningham were when they came to town but he’s been the better player, too, statistically one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.

Favre’s football I.Q. and gun slinging (if healthy) arm are a welcome addition to a team that has some issues (see other quarterbacks and parts of the offensive line) but also boasts the NFL’s best running back in Adrian Peterson and a top defense led by linemen Jared Allen and Kevin Williams.  Will it be enough to make the Super Bowl?  All Favre has to do is lift his team to overachievement, beat “Father Time” and overcome the will of 31 other teams in the National Football League.  Oh, and also go beyond the performances of the Moon and Cunningham teams.