Filthy Francisco

The two biggest question marks facing the Minnesota Twins as they entered the season have yielded some early season answers that have fans of the first-place team grinning from ear to ear and dreaming of another Homer Hanky October. The biggest question, of course, was whether Jon Rauch or anyone else could adequately fill in for injured closer Joe Nathan. Needless to say, given Rauch's five-for-five start in saves, the early returns look promising. Remember those omnipresent Heath Bell trade rumors? Those have died down considerably, even though there was reportedly a Padres scout at Target Field the other day per my friend Darren Wolfson.

Big question number two was answered to a certain extent Thursday afternoon at the Twins fancy new ballpark. Said question: would Francisco Lirianao's dominant Winter Ball and Spring Training numbers carry over once the real games begin and would he put 2009 behind him? In short, is "The Franchise" back? Answer: it sure looks like it.

Thursday afternoon's performance against the loaded Red Sox lineup (and I say "loaded" because David Ortiz was NOT in the lineup) stirred memories of 2006. The line: 7 IP, 4 hits, 8 strikeouts, 0 runs. Now, I am not about to declare once and for all that Liriano is back to his vintage, pre-Tommy John surgery form. He probably won't ever have that elite level of success again, as short-lived as it was. However, the Liriano we saw on Thursday was a reasonable enough facsimile, and if he can pitch like that more often than not this season, he will evolve into their first, not fifth, starter. He is their only starting pitcher who does not pitch to contact. Liriano pitches to dominate--to blow batters away or to make them look silly.

"Oh, yeah, I haven't felt like that since '06," Liriano told the St. Paul Pioneer Press after today's game. "I got my confidence back. Physically, I'm feeling good. I'm comfortable."

That confidence is one key for Liriano because it was shattered in 2009 when he finished 5-13 with a 5.80 ERA. The other key, obviously, is getting his filthy fastball/slider combination working again. We've heard tales since Winter Ball that the knee-wobbling slider was back; however, Liriano seems to have the heater back close to what it was in 2006 as well. Liriano was consistently hitting 93-94 mph with the fastball on Thursday, which is harder than it has been at any time since '06. According to Inside Edge Baseball Scouting Services, Liriano threw 67 percent of his fastballs for strikes against the BoSox on Thursday, which is three percent higher than the league average and seven percent better than he threw last year. The Red Sox were able to put Liriano's fastball in play, but once again 67 percent of the fastballs they put in play were hit on the ground. That's a good sign, especially since the league average is 42 percent...and just 14 percent of his fastballs were put in play on the ground last year. It's one game, but that's a remarkable difference.

It's that slider that has everyone talking, though. Again according to data compiled by my friends at Inside Edge, Liriano's slider produced strikes 76 percent of the time on Thursday. That's 13 percent higher than the league average. The Red Sox chased his slider out of the zone 43 percent of the time (league average for sliders is 33 percent) and they swung and missed on his slider a whopping 56 percent of the time--25 percent higher than the average slider is missed by major league hitters. Of the 16 sliders that Boston batters swung on, just three were put in play. That's 19 percent, or exactly half the rate at which sliders are put in play on average by big league batters.

Concluded Red Sox outfielder Bill Hall, "He should be really proud of himself. He's definitely got his old stuff back."

If that is indeed the case, and Frankie has his filthy repertoire back, this Twins team just got that much tougher to beat. Yes, there's still 152 games to go and Liriano still has 30-plus starts left, but the confidence is kicking into overdrive.

Based on what you have seen thus far through 10 games from your Minnesota Twins, go ahead and vote in the BoKnowz.com poll: How many games will the Twins win this season?