Wondering What Francisco Liriano Could’ve Been

The way the Twins handled Liriano after his surgery should have gotten all of Ryan, Gardenhire, and Anderson fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.

How do you mishandle an arm like Liriano that badly, for a mid-market team that needs all the arms out can get, and still manage to stick around for multiple years?!?

Will always remember a conversation I had with Seth before anyone was aware of his problem.  Gut wrenching for us fans.  Can’t imagine what it was like for him.

Nailed it. Losing Liriano from that 2006 rotation is the biggest what if for me as a Twins fan. Going into a playoff series and rolling out Johan, Liriano and Radke was exciting to think about. Then, poof. 

What could have been if only. 

Remember being at the game In Sept 2006 when Liriano attempted to return to the rotation that year, before the playoffs.  Our seats were just above the third base dugout and we could hear a ton of the A’s chatter during the game.  Liriano had just dispatched Frank Thomas, and made him look silly doing it, and when he walked past the on-deck batter he told him “good luck to anyone trying to hit that #%+*%#+% today”.   HE WAS BACK!..and we knew what that meant!!
The feel at the Dome that day was something you can’t forget; Peak Liriano back for the playoffs - no one could stop us!!!  Alas, a few innings later, he was pulled from the game and….the dream was over.

Regardless, 2006 was the most remarkable and most interesting Twins season I’ve ever seen and Liriano was a massive boost to the plot all summer - thank you Francisco!

Remember lots of discussions on how Liriano’s nasty slider would put a lot of stress on his elbow. Almost if having Tommy John surgery was a fore gone conclusion. 
 

When Liriano returned from TJ surgery, the issue became the consistency of his delivery. I remember seeing a chart somewhere that on Liriano’s effective outings, a plot of his release points would fit on a grapefruit. On his bad outings, the release point plot expanded to the size of a watermelon. 

I can still hear Dick Bremer's "oh no..." in my head after he threw that pitch. 

Liriano was the first real twins jersey I ever got. Like every one above, biggest "what if..." of my fandom. 

Francisco Liriano had a physique that made you think workhorse pitcher. The torque on his elbow from throwing that devastating slider was just too much. Wonder what his career might have looked like if they had converted him to closer early in his career. But then, we had Joe Nathan and a slew of good bullpen arms so who would do that.

I remember beginning of July that year talking with co-workers about who was better, Santana or Liriano, By the end of the month, it was Liriano hands down. A bad game for Liriano was giving up 4 hits. We could have had the 1st and 2nd place Cy Young pitchers, and the Cy Young would have been Liriano.

He was the future for us.  It was so exciting to think of Johann, Francisco and Brad as the top three.  Not that the Twins would have afforded all three, but for a couple seasons I think we would have dominated the league.  To go from Liriano to Bonser was going over the cliff. 

I remember being at a game against the Yankees, must have been April or May 2006. The Twins took a tiny lead, then things started to fall apart. The Yankees tied it up, had men on base, and the top of the order up. Liriano came in and looked unhittable against an historically great lineup. He shut things down, then kept the door shut as the Twins took it into extra innings and won on a Morneau squibber into right. 

Anyone who has ever seen a Twins-Yankees playoff collapse can just imagine what could have been if Liriano had kept that form for a few more years with the Twins.

Liriano would have been exposed as the "throw strikes never" pitcher he was, but had he been able to avoid the injury in 2006, I also believe the Twins would likely have won the World Series. The UCL replacement was always going to happen with his throwing style and I don't believe it made a huge impact on his overall career. It was a nice, solid career, but he just didn't have control. Like hitters with big leg kicks, other crazy motions like Liriano's very unorthodox follow through lend themselves to critique where there are problems. Liriano's problem was not being able to throw strikes coupled possibly with long term durability if he kept the same slider he had pre TJ.

In 2006, hitters simply didn't have a chance. There were no good MLB scouting reports and the velocity and movement of his slider gave him the name Liria-NO for hitters. Fun times.

I specifically remember Patrick Reusse saying on the radio in 2005 that an elbow injury was almost a certainty for Liriano because of the violent delivery he used to throw his slider. Human bodies are only capable of so much for a given period of time, and Liriano's given period of time ended in 2006. But, man, what a given period of time it was. It hasn't been many times that the Cy Young winner has been second-best in his team's rotation.

Scot Erickson has  a similar dominant 1/2 season in 1991 undone by unsustainable torque on his arm as well... but boy was that 1/2 equally as fun to watch as Liriano's half season....