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.