liriano

[Havok1517]

They say he has Santana like skills, we'll have to see though. Any thoughts on Balfour (recovering from elbow surgery) in the rotation???

[DCNats]

Liriano has been added to the Yahoo! database for those waiting to stake a claim on him.

[looptid]

The Twins would be retarded to put Liriano in the pen with all that relief talent they have. Romero, Rincon, Crain, Nathan..... you don't need another reliever. Put this kid in the rotation and let him become a star.

Damn, Santana, Radke, Liriano, Baker. Not bad.

Just to nit pick, don't call Romero talent. He walks everyone and has allowed 16 of 35 inherited runners to score. But I agree, Liriano's final destination won't be the bullpen. Where the Twins decide to let Liriano cut his teeth to start the season remains to be seen, but Travis Bowyer, who is also now up with the September expanded rosters, is the guy being groomed to be the closer of the future.

One starting pitching prospect that probably will wind up in the pen is J.D. "The Real Deal" Durbin. He can hit triple digits on the radar gun but is still having trouble changing speeds and hasn't developed a quality third pitch. If that doesn't screm reliever, I don't know what does.

[looptid]

They say he has Santana like skills, we'll have to see though. Any thoughts on Balfour (recovering from elbow surgery) in the rotation???

Before he got hurt, I was really targeting Balfour. He was a starter in the minors and threw 97 consistantly. A lot of Twins fans saw him as a great darkhorse candidate for the fifth starter, correctly figuring Mays would be awful or wear down as the season went on. Now that he is recovering from right eblow surgery, who knows what his velocity will be like when he comes back next season.

Another candidate for the 5th spot in the rotation is the other pitcher the Twins got along with Nathan and Liriano for AJ Pierzynski from the Giants: Boof Bonser. Bonser has posted a 3.99 ERA in 160 of work as a starter in Triple-A this season and certainly wouldn't be the worst fifth starter in the league come 2006. Bonser is 24 to Liriano's 21, and the Twins might not want to rush their best prospect, who has only a half a season in Triple-A and only one season above Single-A.

[looptid]

I believe Jones has a club option for next year, so if they were smart they would do the option and make a trade considering their outfield is and has been for a long time very deep. I've heard they want Hunter, Krubel, & Stewart for their OF. Also, they have Nathan to close and future closer Crain in line later on. I think the question mark is what they will do with Grant Balfour. I know they like him a lot. Anybody got anymore info???

If Kubel is ready to go, Jones will be gone. If not, the Twins will waste $5-$6 million on Jones to go with the $10.75 Hunter will make in 2006 and the $6.5 Stewart is owed.

That's a third of the Twins' $60 million payroll, and not all that much production. Stewart is having a terrible year (last among AL leadoff men in OBP and second to last in pitches seen per plate appearance), there is no way Hunter is worth $10.75 million, and Jones was already overpriced this season for someone that should be a platoon player (check his right-left splits, this season, career, and otherwise).

We desperately need Kubel to be healthy, and should really try to get rid of two of three of our current starting outfielders, letting Ford and Kubel play two starting spots and costing us about $800,000 total. Then we'd free up between $11-17 million to spend on a big right handed bat: Konerko, or Carlos Lee if the Brewers fail to exercise their $8.5 million club option.

[Havok1517]

Wow, the Twins are sooooo deeeeepp, I forgot about Durbin.
So the Twins have a possibility of...

Santana
Silva
Radke
Baker
Liriano
Durbin
Balfour
Bonser...all starting and all very good.

I've heard Crain is gonna close soon as Nathan is done. I know nothing about Bowyer. Also, I think the Twins should try and trade Radke (getting old, I smell Yankees jk). I think they should move Cuddyer to 2B for good and and find somebody for 3B. On Romero, he can fantastic sometimes, last year he went how long without giving up a run after stinking before that.

Hopefully gone: Maybe they could trade them to Tex
Lohse (could be dominating if he'd use his head)
Mays

[looptid]

Wow, the Twins are sooooo deeeeepp, I forgot about Durbin.
So the Twins have a possibility of...

Santana
Silva
Radke
Baker
Liriano
Durbin
Balfour
Bonser...all starting and all very good.

I've heard Crain is gonna close soon as Nathan is done. I know nothing about Bowyer. Also, I think the Twins should try and trade Radke (getting old, I smell Yankees jk). I think they should move Cuddyer to 2B for good and and find somebody for 3B. On Romero, he can fantastic sometimes, last year he went how long without giving up a run after stinking before that.

Hopefully gone: Maybe they could trade them to Tex
Lohse (could be dominating if he'd use his head)
Mays

If Crain gets his velocity back, that could happen. As it is, we're kind of worried. The results speak for themselves:

Crain's K/9
2002 (NCAA) - 11.31
2002 (Rookie) - 10.34
2002 (Low A) - 8.25
2003 (High A) - 11.84
2003 (AA) - 12.92
2003 (AAA) - 11.42
2004 (AAA) - 11.37
2004 (Twins) - 4.67
2005 (Twins) - 3.15

That's scary to say the least. He used to throw 94+, now he's just a shade under 90 and the strikeouts have dissapeared.

[looptid]

Lohse (could be dominating if he'd use his head)

I never bought into that. All the Lohse hype came about after Gammons read the report that one of the local papers here did about an anonymous survey of major league umpires where one mentioned Lohse had the best stuff on the Twins staff. I guess that ump didn't work any games that Santana or Nathan pitched in, but sure enough Gammons starts in with the Lohse hype too, and all of a sudden a guy that has never reached 7 K/9 in his major league career is supposed to have good stuff. Another reason to completely disreguard any anonymous source, especially when it comes to sports journalism. As long as Lohse is cheap, he's good 4th-5th starter material, but he'll be in his second year of arbitration and the salaries won't go down from here.

[looptid]

I know nothing about Bowyer.

6'3" 210 pound right-hander.

2005 Triple-A Stats
4-2, 59 G, 74.1 IP, 2.78 ERA, 23 SV, 40 BB, 96 K, 51 H, 1.22 WHIP

All he needs to do is cut down on the walks.

[looptid]

I think they should move Cuddyer to 2B for good and and find somebody for 3B.

A lot of people think his defense is better there. And, his bat would be worth more at that position. Pretty astute. Do you follow the Twins fairly closely?