Remember this name...Francisco Liriano

[SaveElmer]

The next Johan Santana type pitcher for the Twins...this guy comes even close to meeting expectations, Twins could have the best pitching staff in the bigs next year!!!

[KitchenWitch]

1. The kid is GOOOOOOOD!

I am so excited for next year!

[SaveElmer]

2. No kiddin....

Here's your staff:

Santana
Liriano
Silva
Radke
Loshe, Mays or a call up


awesome

[KitchenWitch]

3. I sure hope Lohse is GONE next year

His flashes of brilliance do not come near compensating for his attitude.

Interesting story...I subscribe to a Twins email list, and one of the members is from out of town (I forget what city). He went to watch the Twins in his city...and ended up sitting next to Kyle Lohse's mom and dad. Apparently Kyle's dad has told him to disregard everything the pitching coaches are telling him, and to pitch how he likes...

[MN ChimpH8R]

6. Just thinking this over

Did even the great Braves teams of the '90s have a starting five to match Santana, Liriano, Radke, Silva and Baker? That is a terrifying looking rotation if you're in the other dugout. Give any of those guys four or five runs and you will win 60-70% of the time.

[WeRQ4U]

15. That was my thought. That's potentially one of the best lineups possible.

ANd they already had a good lineup.

[MN ChimpH8R]

4. Liriano has the potential to be frightening for many years

He's only 21 for pete's sake. Scott Baker will be the 5th starter in '06 I think, and he has plenty of talent too. Lohse will be gone.

What the Twins need is a big scary slugger that can hit 35 HR and drive in 110-120. Fortunately, it's easier to find a slugger than five quality starters, a good bullpen and a dominant closer, all of which they already have. If they'd had a slugger this year, the Indians would be distantly in the mirror for the wild card and they could have challenged the White Sox for the division.

[WeRQ4U]

16. Terry Ryan usually does such a good job, and the rotation shows it, but...

The fact that he couldn't get the Twins a hitting 3rd basemen or a big bat DH was a real dropped ball this year. Kind of makes me sad. I thought he was infallable.

He'll come through though. We'll get some free agent that can hit this summer and STILL have Lariano and Baker in the lineup.

[5thGenDemocrat]

5. We Tiger fans already know the name after yesterday

He's going to be a good one. The Tigers have a couple of real good prospects in the high minors (Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya) you'll be hearing from soon, too.
John
Win or lose, it's still Tiger baseball.

[KitchenWitch]

7. I really believe that the Tigers will be in contention next year

Bonderman is a great pitcher...

Hopefully Pudge gets an attitude adjustment...Yes the Tigers have been sucking, but you do not call your team out like that, it is just too Bush league.

[SIU_Blue]

8. Hope the twins enjoy the playoffs...

from their couches!




:rofl:


haha, I'm a big White Sox fan.

[KitchenWitch]

9. bite me!

I am rooting for the Angels in the Series...

[SIU_Blue]

10. Don't be so harsh...

the twinkies dominated the division for 4 or 5 years, give us a chance! :)

[KitchenWitch]

11. but as a Twins fan

the White Sox hatred is visceral.

[SIU_Blue]

13. Yes, well...

I don't think we'll get very far in the playoffs, we've been playing terribly as of late, and the pitching that carried us through most of the season has become questionable, so I wouldn't worry too much.

[SaveElmer]

27. Well you would know the feeling...

Having been there the last three years...

I wouldn't get too confident just yet...the INdians are gettin pretty big in your rear view mirror!!!

[WeRQ4U]

12. He is SCARY good man.

Oh, I am SOOOO excited. I was excited BEFORE he played last night. Now watching him throw 97 mph heat and 85 mph sliders and only givin up two hits to MLB batting over 5 innings, I've already forgotten about this shitty season.

The twins have a great rotation NOW. Next year with Johan, Radke, Silva, Lariano, and Baker... they might just be unstopable. HIPEEDEEEEEE.

[KitchenWitch]

14. All we need is some OFFENSE!

[SIU_Blue]

17. I'm sorry, I can't help myself

Wasn't Brett Boone supposed to fix that problem?

:rofl:

I'm sorry, I'll stop now.

Really.

[WeRQ4U]

19. Brett Boone was a no-risk acquisition.

Seattle paid the remainder of his salary and we had injury problems at 2nd base. There was no reason NOT to at least let the guy try. I think it was a great trade at the time.

Sure, he sucked, but we lost nothing by giving him a shot.

[KitchenWitch]

22. Don't make me go all pagan on your ass!

:rofl:

[WeRQ4U]

18. Terry will come through for us this summer.

I smell a big bat third baseman in our future. Or some ball crushing DH. I don't know WHO, but it'll come.

Plus, they'll execute better next year. At least they better, or Scotty Ulger won't have a job.

[SaveElmer]

28. I think the offense will be better next year...

Morneau, Mauer and those guys just needed some seasonin...Morneau is gonna be a great hitter I think...but one scary slugger would be nice.

[WeRQ4U]

20. Did you realize what we got for AJ Peirzinski in that trade?

BOTH Lariano and Nathan. That has got to be one of the best trades EVER.

I still can't believe that. I think TR is a genius man.

[KitchenWitch]

21. Terry Ryan - Never has anyone done so much

with so little...The man is a baseball savant! I thought when Andy McPhail left, that no one could replace him...How wrong I was.

[WeRQ4U]

23. I thought, at first, that he dropped the ball by not securing a hitter...

But I realized that he COULDN'T get one without giving up Lariano and he wasn't going to do that. Although people were screaming for him to do whatever it took to get people like Alfonso SOriano and to give up on our prospect once in a while, he wouldn't do it. He sacrificed this year's batting for next year's pitching. And he'll get someone for us over the summer.

We'll have our hitter AND we'll have a dominant 5-man rotation.

[KitchenWitch]

24. Yeah, I was screaming about that at the time

However, the big picture prevails.

The Rangers wanted WAYYYYYYY to much for Soriano...

[WeRQ4U]

25. And he can't field.

At the time we had Lohse, Silva and Mays. With those 3 ground ball pitchers in the lineup, you can't have a lazy second baseman. He's got to be able to pick and turn a quick DP. Soriano can hit the ball a long way, but he can't pick for crap.

Plus, he strikes out way too much for this type of team. We play small ball. We learned harshly this year that if people strike out istead of executing sac flies and hits to the third baseman, we don't win. Simple as that.

[MN ChimpH8R]

26. Ryan can make bricks without mud or straw

he is one of the shrewdest judges of talent anywhere in the bigs. He was brilliant in not succumbing to the urge to trade a great young pitching prospect for a half-season rent-a-player like Soriano.

Piersynzki for Liriano and Nathan was like Red Auerbach trading a draft choice and a bag of Boston Garden peanuts for Robert Parish. Genius at work.

[SaveElmer]

29. Hell...he got Johan Santana...

In the Rule 5 draft!!!