2008 Minnesota Twins

[mvb34]

Does anyone know the staus of Francisco Liriano?

[bergie56]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

Does anyone know the staus of Francisco Liriano?

He is supposedly doing absolutely fine and on pace to start the season in the rotation. I would imagine he will be our number one starter now that Santana is gone. Here is my guess at our starting lineup (not actual order)

C Mauer
1B Morneau
2B Cassila
3B Lamb
SS Everett
LF Young
CF Gomez
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel

[Rod_Carew29]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

I'll take a guess...why not? With the lineup based on what you listed:

1-Casilla
2-Everett
3-Mauer
4-Cuddyer
5-Morneau
6-Young
7-Lamb
8-Kubell
9-Gomez

He is supposedly doing absolutely fine and on pace to start the season in the rotation. I would imagine he will be our number one starter now that Santana is gone. Here is my guess at our starting lineup (not actual order)

C Mauer
1B Morneau
2B Cassila
3B Lamb
SS Everett
LF Young
CF Gomez
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel

[dust247]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

I guess I should join in on the party and make a prediction for the opening day roster too.

Stating Rotation
1. Francisco Liriano
2. Boof Bonser
3. Scott Baker
4. Kevin Slowey
5. Glenn Perkins

Bullpen
1. Joe Nathan
2. Juan Rincon
3. Jesse Crain
4. Dennys Reyes
5. Pat Neshek
6. Matt Guerrier

Defensive Allignment
C - Joe Mauer
1B - Justin Morneau
2B - Brendan Harris
SS - Adam Everett
3B - Mike Lamb
LF - Delmon Young
CF - Carlos Gomez
RF - Michael Cuddyer
DH - Jason Kubel / Craig Monroe

Batting Order
1. Brendan Harris (R)
2. Carlos Comez (R)
3. Joe Mauer (L)
4. Delmon Young (R)
5. Justin Morneau (L)
6. Michael Cuddyer (R)
7. Jason Kubel (L) / Craig Monroe (R)
8. Mike Lamb (L)
9. Adam Evertt (R)

Bench
1. OF Craig Monroe / Jason Kubel
2. IF Nick Punto
3. C Mike Redmond
4. 1B/OF Garrett Jones
5. IF Alexi Casilla

Notes - I have Glen Perkins in the rotation just so we have two lefties. I'm not sure about Jesse Crain's health, but I'm assuming he should be ready by to go soon. As for the line-up, I'm still questionable on whether Harris is even remotely capable of leading off.

[bergie56]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

http://nc.startribune.com/blogs/christensen/?p=486

The Twins signed Livan Hernandez to a 1 year deal today for $5 million. The deal doesn't do a whole lot for me, but it is nice to have an innings eater on the staff since we lost two in Santana and Silva this offseason.

[dust247]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

I like the idea, but I don't like the fact that we offered him a $5M contract. Seems a little high to me for someone who struggled as a starter in the NL West last year. I'd rather see our six or seven young guns battle it out to make the rotation, than bring in a veteran off another team. The bright side is, if we somehow get off to a good start, we could really feed off a veteran pitcher like Hernandez.

Now we just need to figure out who is going to start in center field...

[snepp]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

The only thing Livan is going to be eating is the post-game buffet.

Take a gander at this less-than-impressive trend...

K/BB
2003 3.12
2004 2.24
2005 1.75
2006 1.64
2007 1.14

OPS against
2003 .691
2004 .698
2005 .770
2006 .797
2007 .863

All of this in the NL as well.

This signing has exhausted bullpen written all over it. He's going to be nothing more than another Sidney Pontoon / Ramon Ortiz / RonDL White / Tony Fatista with a larger contract.

[dust247]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

The only thing Livan is going to be eating is the post-game buffet.

Wasn't it stated that he'd just be filling the gap left by Silva?

[snepp]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

Wasn't it stated that he'd just be filling the gap left by Silva?

LOL!

That's one hell of a gap, but I think Livan is up to it.

[dust247]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

Liriano just finished up his Spring Training debut going 1.2 innings with 1 strikeout, 1 walk, 2 allowed hits, and 0 runs allowed. Not bad considering he's been out for over a year.

[bergie56]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

Liriano just finished up his Spring Training debut going 1.2 innings with 1 strikeout, 1 walk, 2 allowed hits, and 0 runs allowed. Not bad considering he's been out for over a year.

I was worried when I noticed he pitched 1.2 innings. I thought maybe he hurt himself and wasn't able to finish the 2nd inning. I have a feeling this paranoia will be around with him the entire year.

[snepp]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

It comes as no surprise that Gardy is going to start Monroe over Kubel against a right-handed pitcher in the opener.

My god it's going to be another long year of wishing harm on someone.

[faster]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

The Twins are going to struggle mightily. Plenty of Twins homers see their team as unproven, but the reality is they no pitching and no hitting. Solid defense is fine... and so is having a great bullpen, but it doesn't do much when you can't score runs and are getting lit up. Unfortunately it's going to be a VERY rough year. 70 wins? eh......

[snepp]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

Have I mentioned I'm not Gardy's biggest fan?

[bergie56]

Re: 2008 Minnesota Twins

The Twins are going to struggle mightily. Plenty of Twins homers see their team as unproven, but the reality is they no pitching and no hitting. Solid defense is fine... and so is having a great bullpen, but it doesn't do much when you can't score runs and are getting lit up. Unfortunately it's going to be a VERY rough year. 70 wins? eh......

Please explain to me how we have poor pitching, when we received excellent starts in two games and have a strong bullpen. I don't think we have multiple Cy Young winners or anything but I wouldn't say we have awful pitching.