28 July, 2012 – Knuckleballs

Not surprising really that the White Sox released the news before the Twins did so, but regardless, Francisco Liriano is now a Chicago White Sox (Sock?).

In return, the Sox sent two young players who have primarily been minor leaguers, though both have already spent some time in the Big Leagues with the BitchSox.

Lefty pitcher Pedro Hernandez recently made his MLB debut with a four-inning start. He gave up 8 runs (3 homers). I guess his 18.00 ERA is bound to improve, right? The 23 year old Venezuelan has been a starting pitcher pretty much his entire minor league career. He’s got a 3.42 career MiLB ERA and a 1.240 WHIP in his six minor league seasons. In rookie leagues, he was striking out about a hitter per inning, but that rate has dropped as he’s progressed through the levels. Thus far in 2012, with time in AA and AAA, he’s sporting a 5.7 K/9 rate and walking 2.2 hitters per 9 innings. Hernandez is just 5′ 10″, but he weighs in at an even 200 pounds.

The other player coming to the Twins is also a 5′ 10″ 23 year old Venezuelan. However, infielder Eduardo Escobar is just 165 pounds. That’s a good thing, because if he carried Hernandez’ weight, he wouldn’t be “hitting his weight” this season (he’s hit .195 in 32 games for Chicago this season). He has just 99 career plate appearances for Chicago (92 this season). He appears to essentially be a utility infielder, but he’s going to have to learn how to do something with the bat if he’s going to have any kind of career. Escobar has a .270/.315/.351 split in 6 minor league seasons.

I’m sure we’ll learn more about these players in the coming hours and days. Frankly, if Hernandez turns out to be at least a replacement level starting pitcher, then this return is about all I was expecting for Liriano. There’s no doubt in my mind that his implosion in hs last start cost the Twins something in trade value.

Thanks for the memories, Frankie. I wish I could wish you good luck in the future, but given where you’ll be playing, I just can’t bring myself to do so. I do thank you for the good times and I’ll try not to think too much about the bad times.

– JC

Danny Valencia is back up with the Twins, with Trevor Plouffe on the DL and Danny is in the lineup tonight.

I haven’t been paying much attention to my Twitter feed today, so if there’s other news involving the Twins, I’m simply not aware of it.

Let’s see if our guys can put a second straight total effort out on the field tonight. Then again, it’s probably asking a bit much for Deduno to replicate Diamond’s performance from last night.

INDIANS	@	TWINS
Choo, RF		Span, CF
Brantley, CF		Revere, RF
Kipnis, 2B		Mauer, C
Santana, C, C		Willingham, LF
Hafner, DH		Morneau, 1B
Damon, LF		Doumit, DH
Kotchman, 1B		Valencia, 3B
Hannahan, 3B		Dozier, SS
Lillibridge, SS		Casilla, A, 2B
_Masterson, P		_Deduno, P

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cleveland	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	5	4	1
Minnesota	0	0	0	2	3	5	1	1	x	12	12	1

Big time offense from the Twins two nights in a row? I’m not well versed on the Book of Revelation, but I think maybe that’s a sign of the Apocalypse. Better be prepared. Just our luck, right? The Twins finally pull out of the cellar of the AL Central Division and the world comes to an end.

How do you score 12 runs on just the same number of hits? One way to do it is to go 8-12 with runners in scoring position. Four Twins drove in multiple runs. Ben Revere went 3-5 and Josh Willingham blasted his 27th home run of the season. But the offensive star was Alexi Casilla who had a double and a triple, both with runners on base, giving him 4 RBI on the night.

The Twins also got a second consecutive very good pitching performance from their starter as Sam Deduno went seven innings, giving up just one run and two hits while striking out six. If we wanted to pic nits, we might ask him to cut down on the five walks he issued, but we’re certainly not going to complain tonight.

For their efforts, Casilla and Deduno earn co-BOD awards!

Day: July 28, 2012

Frankie Joins AJ on the South Side

GameChat – Indians @ Twins #2, 6:10 pm