Minnesota Twins Whatnot: June 25

When would you bring up Francisco Liriano?

Dan Wade: Short Answer: When he’s needed.

Long Answer: When someone in the rotation clearly can’t cut it. If the FO finds a buyer for Livan, or if Glen Perkins can’t find consistency, that’s when it makes the most sense for him to be called up. Failing an obvious hole, I don’t really know.

There’s a lot of talk about avoiding Super-Two status for Liriano, and while I think that is a TERRIBLE reason to keep him down if there is a need for him, it is an ancillary benefit to his time in AAA.

Perkins is the real question here. I almost feel bad for him; he has to be looking over his shoulder every time Liriano starts. If Perk struggles, even slightly, in his next outing against the Pads, I think you’ll hear cries for Liriano to come up for the next spate of very tough games (DET, CLE, BOS).

There is some wisdom here if, and I stress IF, Liriano is ready. If he isn’t, we’ll see his ERA stay near 11 or whatever it is now.

My fear with Liriano (see I told you this was long) is Matt Garza Syndrome. If he stays down longer than necessary, I fear we will see a drop in stats that looks like he doesn’t have his stuff back, but is actually due to the fact that he doesn’t care anymore. He needs to be back up before the end of July, but how much before then is up in the air.

Marty Andrade: Now. Livan Hernandez would be out of my organization were I in charge.

Belthezar Bumperdingle: I haven't really analyzed Liriano's performance down in Rochester, but all of his starts (that I heard about) were somewhere around 6 IP, 2-3 ERs, 5-7 Ks. He's solid and might be able to hold his own in a starting role. The problem is that it's hard to pick out one guy in our current rotation that deserves to get the boot.

My thought has been lately that Perkins could move to the rotation—the thought of three lefties in the bullpen is quite interesting—and put Liriano in the starting role. The question there, of course, lies with who would be sent down in such a case, but what happens, happens. At this point, my thought is to wait for one of our starters to tank before making the move on Liriano.

Andrew Kneeland: As soon as we find a buyer for Livan Hernandez. One could argue that this trade would create a lack of pitchers in the organization, and that alone might be enough to keep Smith from doing anything with Livan.

If Livan stays, Perkins has to go. He has been the most inconsistent of the bunch.

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