Giving Liriano another look
By Lyle Diekmann
Created 04/18/2008 - 6:55pm
I don't know if it was a slow radar gun or the sub-30 wind chill, but it looked like Minnesota Twins lefthander Francisco Liriano didn't have his usual stuff April 13 in Kansas City.
With fastballs in the 89 to 93 mph range his slider at about 79 to 82, Liriano's pitches didn't have the same pop as they did when he dominated in 2006.
It could be that he just isn't all the way back from Tommy John surgery, too.
Hopefully we see some improvement when he goes against Clevelend tonight.
Otherwise Liriano's going to have to learn how to pitch with lesser stuff until he regains his confidence, command and velocity.
Having a healthy and effective Liriano is more important now that Johan Santana is gone and my fantasy baseball team could use a few good starts from him, too.