Top 20 prospects not in Yahoo!

[carter]

Liriano is too high, and borderline to even make top 20 (he's gonna wind up reliever.. not like johan, more like hawkins)

Care to elaborate on this? All signs point to him having the potential to be one of the best left handed starters in all of baseball, so I'm just curious as to why you think a guy that's been so dominating as a starter in the upper minors is going to the bullpen. I do recall that he has had arm problems in the past, but I think he was healthy all last year and so far all of this year.

well, durability has defenitly been an issue before (he missed all of 03).. he's been fine this year, but they were a little more cautious last year.. in the past he averaged a lower amount of innings per GS (not sure the exact number.. 5 to 6 ip maybe) .. he's started to stretch it more since going to AAA, but he hasn't been there that long yet. maybe its not an issue anymore, but i think he needs to do that for a longer period of time to show he can handle a bigger workload

a bigger reason is the twins and how they view him. first thing, they are not like other teams at all with how they handle young pitchers (or young players in general for that matter) or how they handle a pitching rotation...secondly, in a spring training radio interview, Gardenhire specifically said him + Durbin were pegged for the bullpen longterm .. they seem to be wanting big K's at the end of a game... they really like him for that and everyone knows Nathan won't be around forever.. Liriano is the kind of guy they would love to have closing games in a few years..

granted, that was spring training.. they couldve changed their minds since then, but the twins can be unorthodox, and do what you least expect, thats all i know.. i also just think he could have a better career as an rp, dominating the 8th or 9th inning, without destroying his arm

[drpiranha]

Frankie Rodriguez was a starting pitcher that the Angels converted to a closer because of arm problems. In Frankie's case, he never could make it through a full season, without some type of arm problem. However, if you have seen Frankie pitch, you would know why he has arm problems. He has a very unorthodox arm delivery that the Angels tried to get him to change, unsucessfully.
Frankie never got past high A as a starter. He was a closer only, in AA and AAA.
Liriano has started in AAA sucessfully. I would imagine that they would leave him there unless
(1) He has a delivery that they think will cause him continual arm problems.
(2) He has a major arm injury.

[carter]

like i said, the Twins do things unlike any other team, so comparing their players to other players is a wasted arguement,, lol

also - too many AAA sp's have become MLB rp's over the years.. not everyone is like frankie

[joeg24]

Liriano MIGHT start in the pen, however there's little to no chance he won't be the 2 or 3 behind Johan in a couple years. Kid has sick stuff.

[xeifrank]

Thanks for taking the time to put together such a thoughtful list. I will save your post for future reference. vr, Xeifrank

[raiders_umpire]

very nice list.... i would have had to have troy patton in there somewhere though.... he is young but has some dominant stuff as well... i really think he has a chance to be special, not felix special,,, but a super solid top 10 SP in the bigs in the future.........

[bigken117]

bump
No Delmon

[scr]

Scott Olsen doesn't make the list?

[bigken117]

Olsen is available in Yahoo.