Frankie

[Nick Nelson]

Faced a Yankee lineup stacked with regulars today and hurled five shutout frames. Through five starts, Liriano now owns a 2.00 ERA and 23/3 K/BB ratio in 18 innings.

 

It's only spring training, but in the past Liriano's spring performances have been pretty indicative of how his season was going to go. Hard not to get excited.

[James Richter]

If he throws strikes, he's a top 10 pitcher. And he's throwing strikes.

[Fanatic Jack]

Nick,

 

If Liriano has a good season will the Twins resign him or let him leave as a free agent? They could of course deal him at the deadline for some good prospects.

[Nick Nelson]

At this point I think the chances that Liriano is still around after this year are close to nil. Could easily see them flipping him in July for prospects if he's pitching well.

[mikeee]

** phew ** !!

[Mr. Ed]

See how he fares getting thru inning 6/7/8(if he keeps pitches down)

[Seth Stohs]

I'm encouraged... with Liriano it's always been about that BB to K ratio... Most spring training numbers mean pretty much nothing, but it is encouraging to see Liriano with the K:BB rate. Hopefully it bodes well and he can be traded in July for a big haul!!

[Thrylos]

Agree with Seth, and especially the BB/9. No matter what the competition (even little league) you got to find the plate. And he has. Some of the K's came against lesser competition of course, but today he struck out Texeira, Grandenson and ARod among others.

[Guest USAFChief]

I may be in the minority but I'd rather see Liriano signed to a 3 or 4 yr deal than dealt this summer. This organization has to stop pretending to us and themselves they're a small revenue organization and start trying to build WS contenders.

[Twins Fan From Afar]

If you read my stuff, you know I'm a big proponent of first pitch strikes, especially for Liriano. He has delivered thus far this spring, and the K to walk ratio is fantastic.

Perhaps the best scenario (since it seems very unlikely that the Twins will attempt to lock him up before free agency) is that he's the Twins' best player this season, and, like Seth just said, someone gives us a great prospect for half a season of a guy they think can be an ace.

[Thrylos]

Not sure how they can sign him if he thinks he can get 5 years at $10-12M per by someone by having a great year. Unfortunately the Twins are a little too late in that and they decided to put their money on Blackburn by extending him instead of Liriano a couple seasons ago.

[bird]

It all depends on what you can get for him, but I sure hope he has a great first half and they dangle him. Who knows, someone might pay give you an equivelent talent that is ready to contribute by, say 2014, when the Twins might finally have WS quality talent in place.

[Harrison Greeley III]

He came to camp in shape this year. He didn't last year. He did in 2010. I like his chances of being consistently effective this year. But it's really hard to justify a big contract to a starting pitcher whose focus has so much variance.