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I was heads down and didn't get to watch today's game. The numbers look awfully good and they certainly couldn't gush enough about him in the post game. I'm looking for impressions from those who watched it. Leaving aside the obvious "He has to do it again and again and again....." thing, what did people think watching it. Notice anything different? I'm far more encouraged by a 9/2 K/BB performance that I was by his no-hit game last year.
The biggest thing I noticed was that he seemed very composed.
I just don't doubt that Frankie has the stuff (although I'm bad at judging it). My latest thought is to hire a hynotist for him with a "trigger" word to help keep him in the zone.
Francisco Liriano: Twins Fans
Lucy Holding the Football: Charlie Brown
Is there another player that is capable of exciting fans the way that Liriano is? All it takes is 1 dominant start, like he had today, to get us going again. My God, the talent is there. He's exceedingly frustrating, though.
His delivery was usually under control so he wasn't recoiling and falling backwards and to third nearly as much. Still happened some and he would miss the zone. Anderson and Butera did a good job with him.
Let's not forget he was facing the A's. I think the best of their 4-9 hitters entered the day hitting something like .226 and none of them has scary power either. Not a real good test for a guy. From what I could see, he still had problems commanding the fast ball, but the A's couldn't figure out how to hit his off speed stuff. at one point I think it was something like 38-31 k-b on the board, and then Oakland just started swinging at everything. An improvement on what we've seen, but I think we need to see him against a major league team before we get too excited.
To where? Last year, the year before. His magical pre TJ self. That really is a moving target of a question. I can't say that Frankie is what he is...he is a riddle wrapped inside a enigma. He is hope held tightly by despair, he is a state fair pronto pup filled with radioactive waste. He is designed to ultimately intrigue our minds and break our hearts. Time to move on from Frankie.
He got behind in too many counts for my taste, but he managed to pitch his way out of it, which was a big problem with him earlier in the year. Would like to see a higher strike/ball ratio, but all in all a promising rebirth.
Almost exactly what I was coming to write. I only saw the first 4 innings, but at one point I know his first pitch strikes were 5 of 10. More than one 3-0 count, etc. That's the bad side, but as said, the flip side was that he recovered from those things well. His stuff looked plenty good, and he wasn't missing by as much as he was on the misses earlier in the year (first pitch excepted).Quote:
Originally Posted by sbknudson
Like to see him flourish as much as anyone but it's 1 game against MLB's worst hitting team.
I didn't get to see the game, just the online gamecast. One thing that Frankie seems to do consisitantly is pitch better as the season progresses. Maybe it's the weather or maybe he needs a couple months to calm his nerves, but April and May are usually borderline disasters followed by solid summer months.
I've seen a lot of talk about his makeup, mental state etc. but very little about his actuall stuff. I recall Gleeman made a post a couple of months ago noting that his velocity was down a bit. How does his raw stuff compare to other pitchers? Has it indeed diminished? If he can get the mental side figured out, what can people reasonably expect? I'm guessing it's not very close to the dominance of his rookie year, but could he get back to his 2010 performance with his current stuff?
I don't know how this compares to previous years, but for what it's worth they said he topped out at 94 today.
Agree with much of the above: 1) It WAS Oakland. Still, it's a major league team. 2) Occasional issues with fastball command, but unlike all year, when he HAD to throw a strike, for the most part he was able to do so. 3) Didn't have a lot of adversity to deal with, but didn't come unraveled over a 3-0 count or a baserunner, as has often been the case this year. 4) Seems to have toned down the delivery just a bit, a little more compact and controlled. However, he was still sitting 92 on the FB, hit 94 as mentioned above, with movement. Slider still had nice action and missed lots of bats. There were a couple hard hit "at-em" balls, but generally speaking, not a lot of hitters had good swings off him today. Still showed above average MLB stuff, IMO.
All in all, encouraging on many levels, for a guy who had imploded to the point he couldn't keep a spot in THIS rotation not that long ago.
I just threw this up at Twinkietown http://www.twinkietown.com/2012/5/30...e-do-something
More downward movement on all this pitches than he's had this year. Velocity didn't look like 2010, but his fastball moved more like a sinker and less like a sitting duck. Ditto his change.
Of course he is back...Let's just hope a couple of NL teams are foolish enough to think that either he is back or they are smarter than the Twins coaches(Which probably doesn't take much to be) and pull off a deal and get some value for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Bonnes
I think that he needs a couple more starts like this and then we are talking for a hot commodity... The Oswalt signing is going to get the Dominoes dropping and June is upon us.
I watched the game. He threw a lot of balls nowhere near the strike zone. The A's hit a lot of balls hard and far. The Twins defense came through for him. He hugged Rick A. in the dugout after his six innings were done. I want to view it as a positive, but past history prevents me from doing so, and even though he didn't give up any runs, it wasn't really that strong a performance. I know, baby steps...and I guess it was that.
WHY?! Why does he do this to his?! All I wanted was for him to get a few quality starts so the Twins could trade him and slam the door shut once and for all. But good lord, with a masterful outing such as tonight, it's so difficult for me to not get pumped! You just don't want to see someone who is capable of performing on an elite level leave. I hate the way Liriano messes with our minds. I feel so torn, but my brain still realizes it's the wrong move to keep him. Although, my heart says otherwise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Twins Fan From Afar
I have to disagree... The good Frankie (and today it was FranKKKKKKKKKie, btw) was never a pitch to contact guy. To miss bats you got to throw pitches outside the strike zone but you got to make hitters chace them. They were chasing plenty today. So I have no problem with pitches outside the strike zone if they no not result in walks and result in plenty of Ks like they did today.Quote:
Originally Posted by twinzgrl
Oakland has the worst offense in the majors hands-down. That's the main negative I can think of in this situation. However, I don't understand how you can say it wasn't a strong performance. 9 strikeouts and a double play in 6 innings is ridiculous. I think what you're getting at is that it looks better on paper, but for me stats are stats. He was missing bats like crazy and didn't struggle with the strike zone. Liriano played to his advantages and I doubt he couldn't have pitched any better.Quote:
Originally Posted by twinzgrl