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I was planning to post on the Pittsburgh Pirates‘ options at the starting pitcher position today, but it appears the Bucs have already settled their rotation. 

Francisco Liriano is a polarizing player who is only two years removed from a season in which he was one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Yet, he clearly has not been that player during over the last few years.

The reason to be leery of this signing is pretty evident; Liriano has demonstrated very poor control during each of the last two seasons, walking more than five batters per nine innings in 2011. Liriano also has been homer-prone of late and has struggled with runners on base.

$14 million over two years is a decent risk for a team in the Pirates’ financial position to take. Yet, this is absolutely a gamble worth taking for the Bucs.

The Pirates do not have many ordinary means of acquiring elite players in free agency, as their budget does not allow Neal Huntington to spend upwards of $15 million a year on one player. The only way for the Bucs to come out of free agency with an elite player is to guess correctly on someone with elite potential, who also comes with questions attached.

Liriano, who struck out more than a batter an inning in his disappointing 2011 season, is exactly that kind of player.

Liriano has always had the pedigree of a potential ace, and he was exactly that in 2010 when he was worth six wins above replacement.

It is obviously unreasonable to expect Liriano to revert to this high level of production, but the talent and strikeout ability make him the right pitcher to take a chance on. Even if he only slightly outperforms his 2011 season, Liriano can be a league-average pitcher (with subpar walk rates mitigated by the strikeouts) and well worth the money the Pirates are paying him. 

There are reasons to expect improvement from Liriano.

He is moving to a park that favors left-handed pitchers, particularly when it comes to home run prevention, and he will have a better defense behind him than he has in recent years. Liriano should also benefit from moving to the National League.

The Pirates have had very recent success with this “reclamation projection” strategy, as A.J. Burnett put together a much better year in Pittsburgh than he had in recent seasons with the New York Yankees. This approach clearly will not always work, but if the Bucs pick their spots there’s no reason not to take another chance.

The Pittsburgh rotation suddenly has a pretty high ceiling, with Burnett, Liriano and James McDonald all capable of stellar outings, and top prospect Gerrit Cole likely to join the club in the middle of the season.

There is a large gap between that ceiling and the floor, especially given the variability of many above the pitchers’ performances. But the Pirates need to substantially exceed individual projections in order to have the kind of season they want to have, so they are right to invest in this kind of variability.

The Pirates have rightfully indicated that they will not be satisfied with mediocrity.

Their actions are backing up their statements, as they have shown an exciting penchant to seek high-impact talent during the last year. 

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According to the Chicago White Sox Twitter feed, the White Sox have traded for division rival Francisco Liriano of the Minnesota Twins. Minnesota will receive left-handed pitcher Pedro Hernandez and shortstop Eduardo Escobar in the deal:

Sox acquire Liriano for Escobar and Pedro Hernandez

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) July 29, 2012

Liriano is 3-10 with a 5.31 ERA in 2012 on a porous 42-58 Twins club. He has recorded 109 strikeouts on the season to go along with an opponents’ batting average of .239.

Chicago gave up Pedro Hernandez and Eduardo Escobar in the deal. Hernandez has an ERA of 18.00 in four innings pitched in a White Sox uniform this season.

Escobar has played in 35 games in 2012, posting a .195 batting average with two RBI.

Chicago was in desperate need of adding to its starting-rotation depth before the 2012 MLB trade deadline. Zach Greinke would have been a great addition, but as far as value with this trade, the White Sox didn’t give up too much to acquire the former highly touted Twins prospect.

Liriano has produced an up-and-down career filled with the highest of highs (12-3 with a 2.16 ERA in 2006) and the lowest of lows (5-13 with a 5.80 ERA in 2009).

Despite struggling for the majority of his career, aside from two quality seasons, Liriano has failed to live up to expectations. At age 28, the White Sox taking a chance on Liriano makes complete sense.

Not only do the White Sox bolster their starting pitching depth by giving up little in return, but they also grab a guy with great potential if he can control the strike zone.

We have seen it before with major-league players; a change of scenery can do a player good. Maybe this change is one that earns the White Sox a division title.

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For the Minnesota Twins, their Jekyll-and-Hyde starter, Francisco Liriano, is once again throwing like a pitcher that knows what he’s doing. The timing is almost perfect as the non-waiver trading deadline approaches, and teams are looking for help to make a push in the second half of the season.

The credit for his turnaround has to be given to Scott Diamond.

This season has been a microcosm of Liriano’s career since having Tommy John surgery that ended his 2006 season and caused him to miss the entire 2007 season. In the even years of 2008 and 2010, Liriano had a 20-14 record with a decent 3.70 ERA. In the odd seasons of 2009 and 2011, he went 14-23 with a 5.45 ERA.

That certainly meant that heading into the 2012 season Liriano would have a better season than the 9-10 record with a 5.09 ERA he had in 2011. Of course, that has not been the case.

After opening the season 1-5 with a 9.45 ERA in six starts, the Twins moved him to the bullpen after his May 7th loss to the Angles.

The day after Liriano’s fifth loss, left-hander Diamond would make his first start of the season.

While watching from the bullpen, Liriano saw Diamond lead the Twins in May with a 3-1 record in four starts with a 2.27 ERA. 

Liriano was promoted back to the starting rotation on May 30th. Since then he has a 3-2 record in eight starts with a 2.74 ERA.

Perhaps all he needed was someone to show by example what it takes to win.

It would explain the results in 2006. Liriano joined the Twins rotation midway through the season. That year, another left-hander, Johan Santana, earned his second American League Cy Young award with a 19-6 record and a league-leading 2.77 ERA.

Liriano was 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA in 28 games and 16 starts. It was in August that he started having problems with his elbow that would eventually end his season, leading to the Tommy John surgery.

By the time he returned to the Twins rotation in 2008, Santana was in New York pitching for the Mets. Liriano had lost his mentor, leaving the likes of Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn to show him the way. While two of the three have been serviceable starters, none were ever anywhere close to dominating hitters like Santana. 

Now, with Diamond dominating on the mound for the Twins, Liriano once again has another left-hander to show him how to win.

Just in time to turn around his 2012 season and allow the Twins get some value in a trade for him. 

Hopefully, wherever he lands there will be another dominating left-hander. Perhaps the Twins could package Liriano and Denard Span in a deal to Washington. Gio Gonzalez currently leads the Nationals with an 11-3 record and a 3.01 ERA, and he is left-handed.

If the Twins can get something in return for Liriano they should give all the credit to Diamond.

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2011 was a season which the Twins and their fans would like to forget sooner rather than later. The team is approaching the start of spring training with a lot of question marks throughout their 25-man roster. Most notably, will the bullpen be better? can Mauer and Morneau regain their MVP form? And most importantly, what are the playoff chances looking like?

The following are six bold predictions I have for the Twins in 2012 which will help to answer those questions and more.

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There have been many words used to describe the Minnesota Twins‘ 2011 campaign—frustrating, humiliating, injury-ridden, disappointing, lost.

However, one word that has come into view following their assent from the American League Central’s cellar: historic?

That’s right. The Twins have a chance to erase the largest deficit in Major League Baseball history, should they come all the way back to win the division.

As of June 2, the Twins sat 16 1/2 games behind the division-leading Cleveland Indians. By June 25, following a three-game losing streak, the Twins have closed that gap to eight games behind Cleveland and seven games behind the Detroit Tigers (who I identify as the real team to beat in this division).

Should the Twins erase the deficit it would be the largest comeback in MLB history.

The current record is held by the 1914 Boston Braves, who sat at 26-40 in early July that season, 15 games back in the standings.

The “Miracle Braves,” as they became known, finished the season by going 70-19, eventually winning the pennant by 10 1/2 games over the New York Giants. The Braves would go on to sweep the favored the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series that season.

The Twins are facing an uphill battle, but have shown great resolve in recent seasons. In 2009, the Twins erased a seven-game lead of the Tigers in the final weeks, eventually securing the division title in one of the most memorable games in Twins history—Game 163.

The Twins will now turn to Fransisco Liriano to get the comeback back on track in the second game of a three-game set in Milwaukee.

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There’s no doubt that 2010-2011 has been extremely disappointing for Minnesota sports fans. 

The Timberwolves again failed to hit 20 wins, the Wild missed the playoffs yet again, and the Vikings look to be in a free fall after being within one 14-men in the huddle penalty from the Super Bowl only 18 months ago.

It would seem that things couldn’t get any worse.

But hope springs eternal and the time is right for baseball, the one constant within the Minnesota sports landscape. 

With the new stadium smell still hovering over Target Field the expectations have been the greatest for the local nine. What was supposed to be a season full of hope appears to be falling in line with all of the other professional teams as the Twins are in the midst of the single greatest turnaround in franchise history—the problem is this turnaround is in the negative direction.

Taking a look as what has transpired for the Twins since they were last swept by the New York Yankees in the divisional round of the playoffs it might be all that surprising that the team is struggling.  

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Is perfection contagious? Maybe, maybe not. But since 2010, there have been more no-hitters and perfect games thrown in Major League Baseball than from 2007-2009 combined. And on Saturday, Tigers‘ ace Justin Verlander added to that number.

If perfection is not contagious, then this is all a coincidence. But when you take a close look at the time-line of the no-nos thrown in the last 12 months or so, there seems to be a common link between all of them.

Verlander’s second no-hitter of his career comes five days after Francisco Liriano no-hit the Orioles. It’s also almost exactly one year to the day of Dallas Braden’s perfect game, last Mother’s Day—which was about three weeks after Ubaldo Jimenez’s no-hitter.

Exactly 20 days after Branden’s perfecto, Roy Halladay joined the parade, tossing a perfect game of his own. Edwin Jackson and Matt Garza each pitched a no-hitter, almost exactly a month after each other.

Here is an in-depth recap of the eight no-hitters thrown since last season.

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The 2010 Major League Baseball season was coined as the “Year of the Pitcher,” but after two no-hitters in a week, will 2011 be the same? Or are pitchers just taking over the MLB?

This time, Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander shut down the Toronto Blue Jays, allowing just one walk over nine innings. With his second no-hitter since 2007, Verlander has developed into one of baseball’s top pitchers.

The 2010 MLB season contained five no-hitters, including two perfect games, and after 2011’s two no-hitters thus far, Major League Baseball may experience one the greatest two-year runs in pitching.

In contrast with the League from the mid-’90s through 2000s, where hitting the home run was supreme (mostly due to a wide usage of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs, but that is another story), baseball has no changed its appearance into a lower-scoring, pitching-heavy league.

But, writers, analysts and fans should start changing the name attributed to the season of 2010, because pitching is now making its recovery to the most dominating facet of the game.

The talent level of the pitching in Major League Baseball isn’t going anywhere.

With the exception of the handling of last year’s pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg by the Washington Nationals, Major League Baseball clubs have begun to take more pride and more importantly time in developing their pitching before they approach the big leagues.

In 2003, Mark Prior of the Chicago Cubs was 22 years old and had been pitching in the Majors for just one season. He was an outstanding 18-6 before he was injured in September. And he was never the same after that.

During the next five seasons, Prior was on the disabled list an unfortunate nine times. His talent seemingly went by the wayside after he was rushed, in some respects, by the Chicago Cubs into the majors at just 21 years old.

By contrast, the Tampa Bay Rays drafted David Price with the first overall pick in the 2007 MLB Draft. He was called up to the major leagues and made some appearances for the Rays during the 2008 MLB Playoffs out of the bullpen. The next season, Price was expected to be one of the top players in the league, but the Rays conservatively held Price in the minors through the first month of the season.

Without rushing him to the big leagues too soon, the Rays and Price reaped the benefits in 2010. During the season, Price won 19 games for the Rays as they made the American League playoffs.

As both Verlander and the Minnesota Twins‘ Francisco Liriano have tossed no-hitters already this season, what was once thought as a fad in Major League Baseball has now become a reality.

Like the first decade of the 21st century was highlighted by exceptional hitting, the century’s second decade will be known as one where pitching excelled yet again.

So, instead of calling every season the “Year of the Pitcher,” save your breath and just realize this: Pitching is back at the pinnacle of Major League Baseball, and it is here to stay.

Josh Rosenblat is a high school student from Chicago looking to find a way to break into sports journalism. He often writes about the NBA (primarily the Chicago Bulls), as well as the MLB, College Basketball, and the NFL. You can email him at joshua.m.rosenblat@gmail.com or follow him on twitter @JMRosenblat. Feel free to send him comments.

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Simply amazing. The MLB season is only about two weeks old, and some teams already have big holes to fill. The Philadelphia Phillies are doing quite well and are atop the National League Eastern Division with a 7-2 record, but still are without a top offensive presence in second baseman Chase Utley (pictured at left).

Similarly, the St. Louis Cardinals stumbled out of the starting gate and now own a 3-6 record. Most shocking, however, is the situation of the Tampa Bay Rays. After winning the American League Eastern Division crown in 2010, the team has gone just 2-8 and holds the major leagues’ worst team batting average at .163.

Sure enough, people are already talking about trades that these struggling squads could make to instantly improve the team and fill any holes. Naturally, it is only April 12 and to even think about making trades this early in the season is ridiculous. Yet, one month from now, it might not be a bad idea.

Here are trades that the Phillies and some other teams should consider if their key players don’t return soon or if their records do not improve.

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Over the past nine years, the Minnesota Twins have dominated the American League Central. They have won six division titles in that span (seven if you count their tie for first in 2008), since Ron Gardenhire was named manager. Although they have not necessarily had the most talent, they play hard—and they scrap for every win possible.

Unfortunately, in that span, they have only six playoff victories. Four of them were in 2002 and their last playoff victory was in 2004. Regardless of their disappointments, the Twins have been resilient. They keep coming back for more. Their desperation for playoff victories is reminiscent of a child actor not named Neil Patrick Harris trying to hold on to Hollywood. No matter how hard they work, the big bad industry continues to shut them down.

Last year, however, they moved outside. With Target Field came a new swagger. They won 94 games and they looked poised to take down the Yankees. They had this new, beautiful stadium and they had home-field advantage over the Bronx Bombers. Unfortunately, the Yankees embarrassed the Twins, coming from behind twice at Target Field, then dismantling them at Yankee Stadium.

This year, though, was going to be the Twins year. Still, they are off to terrible start. They have lost each of their first three series—and they are sitting in last place in a division they have won six times. So, there are two main questions the Twins must answer. What is the cause for their poor start? Also, is there a legitimate cause for concern in the Twin Cities?

The Twins take pride in doing the little things right. Clutch hitting, good pitching and solid fielding will win you baseball games. Nevertheless, the Twins have been completely unable to do two of those things.

The hitting has been terrible.

Slumps happen. To have a collective batting average of .214, however, is an embarrassment to the game of baseball.

In hitter’s counts (3-1, 2-0), the team is a combined 2-19. Tsuyoshi Nishiokia and Delmon Young singles shouldn’t be all hitter’s counts accumulate to. The team is relatively patient, but when they do get ahead, they need to capitalize on it. Until they start getting hits when they are ahead in counts, the hitting woes will continue.

When teams struggle, they need their veterans to carry them through. Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Young have a combined four extra base hits. Four. Not each. Four total. That can’t happen for guys that are staples in the middle of the order. Jason Kubel and Jim Thome have played relatively well, but without the other three producing, the Twins will be in for a long, unsuccessful summer.

Sometimes, slumps can be overcome. Doesn’t good pitching out-do good hitting anyway? Well, the Twins have been unable to pitch well either.

Outside of Nick Blackburn, who has been lights out, the Twins pitching staff is in shambles. Every other starter’s ERA is over five. Francisco Liriano can’t throw a strike (eight walks in 9.1 innings)), Carl Pavano can barely keep the ball in the park (three home runs in 12 innings) and Scott Baker has been pretty brutal on both accounts (six walks and four home runs in 11 innings). When three of your starters consistently give up runs, it doesn’t matter how the team is hitting.

The bullpen has been a little brighter, but it hasn’t been that much better.

Although Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan have pitched well—and the rest of the crew has been slightly promising. Even though Jeff Manship and Dusty Hughes have been shelled, Kevin Slowey and Matt Capps have been decent.

If the pitching, especially the starters, doesn’t improve, it won’t matter how well the Twins hit; they will continue to lose games.

Another problem for the Twins is their inability to win on the road (and against certain opponents). They have a 114-130 record away from home in the last three seasons (including the playoff against the White Sox). Even though they’ve been tremendous at the Metrodome and Target Field, they need to start winning on the road to be considered a legitimate contender. Last year, they took a step in the right direction and finished above .500 (41-40), but they have returned to their losing ways on the road (2-4).

Regardless of winning or losing on the road, the Twins can’t beat the Yankees. They have only won six games in their last 26 chances and the Yankees seem bored with defeating them. The Twins had an impressive comeback win over the Bombers last Tuesday, but they followed that up by blowing an early lead on Thursday. Every time they take a step forward, they seem to take two steps back. Until they beat the Yankees, the Twins will struggle making it to the World Series.

So, is there reason to panic? No, not yet. While the early-season struggles could turn into problems, right now, the Twins have nothing to seriously worry about. They are a veteran squad that knows how to win. Gardenhire is a proven winner (in the regular season, at least) and he will right this ship by the end of the month (especially with the easy schedule they have upcoming).

Obviously, no panic should be pressed in April, but the Twins need to be aware of their issues, and they need to take the appropriate steps to correct it.

Cuddyer, Morneau and Young need to get their swing back and the offense will start working again.

Liriano and Pavano need to start throwing strikes and the pitching will start to look better.

If they figure these things out, then maybe (just maybe!), the Twins will put themselves in position to face the Yankees in the playoffs. And maybe, after all these tribulations, they will conquer the Evil Empire once and for all.

Then again, we probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

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