Despite Francisco Liriano’s lack of major league experience and history of arm trouble, Twins president Dave St. Peter didn’t express surprise about the Sporting News Magazine’s prediction that the 25-year-old left hander will win the 2009 Cy Young award.
That’s a gutsy call since Liriano has yet to pitch a full season in the majors and never won more than 12 games. Liriano had a phenomenal rookie season in 2006 and at times was even better than teammate Johan Santana who won the Cy Young award that year. But before season’s end Liriano injured his elbow and off season surgery for ligament replacement kept him out of baseball in 2007. Then the 2008 comeback season was characterized by early season frustration, a sentence to the minor leagues and a late season return during which he had a 1.23 ERA in August.
In the Twins opener on Monday Liriano gave up four runs on four hits in seven innings as part of a 6-1 loss to Seattle. Although he was the losing pitcher, St. Peter approved of his no walks, three strikeout performance and said the Sporting News prediction is “wonderful recognition for Francisco.”
What are the expectations for Liriano? “We think that he has a chance to be one of the best pitchers in the game,” St. Peter told Sports Headliners. “Certainly a guy who has the stuff. I think he’s worked very closely with (pitching coach) Rick Anderson to become a better pitcher. We’re very optimistic. .. Again, it starts with his health. I think that’s the thing we’re most excited about is that he’s healthy. We think he’s 100 percent. We expect that he’s going to have a big season.”
The surgery has compromised Liriano’s ability to throw consistently in the mid-90s and wisdom dictates he no longer pitch with the violent motion that produced a nasty slider. But if he’s less a wonder child now, he has become more of a thinker. “He still has the ability if he needs to throw those devastating sliders,” St. Peter said. “I think he’s much more of a balanced pitcher in terms of fast ball, change up, slider. …He’s learned a lot since his big league debut. I think he has a chance overall to have a very, very long successful career by just frankly being more balanced and not being so reliant on the slider.”
St. Peter praised Liriano for passing up a chance to play for his native Dominican Republic in this spring’s World Baseball Classic, making a commitment to the Twins a priority. “Francisco is a good man,” St. Peter said. “He certainly is somebody that we believe we can count on. We think he has the maturity to do that. …”