Liriano 'more of a complete pitcher now'

Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | Feedback | Print Entry

Francisco Liriano's delivery always will have mechanical potholes, the kind of flaws that can wreck the undercarriage of a long, prosperous career. The Minnesota left-hander already has had reconstructive elbow surgery, and because of the way he relies on his slider and the way he sometimes fails to finish his delivery, he probably will always be at greater risk than most pitchers.

But Rick Anderson, the Twins' pitching coach, feels Liriano's delivery has improved, and that the young pitcher has gained an understanding of his own mechanics and how he can use his slider. "Instead of throwing that slider 45 times in a game, he'll throw it 20 times in a game," Anderson said Monday morning before going to oversee a Liriano bullpen session.

It used to be that when Liriano got backed into a corner, Anderson said, he immediately leaned on the slider, his crutch, and threw it three times. But more and more, Liriano has used his changeup, and Anderson feels that because of the lefty's effort to diversify his repertoire, he has developed a pretty good change, a pitch he can use in a tough spot instead of the slider.

"He's more of a complete pitcher now than he was," Anderson said. "He's got more of an understanding of his own mechanics.

"Look, he's always going to have a violent delivery. … Every once in a while, he'll go back in his mechanics and it's still going to be violent. We're still trying to get him to finish off his pitches consistently, rather than cutting his delivery off. But he's better."

Much better than he was a year ago, in Anderson's eyes. Early in the 2008 season, Anderson did not see Liriano working with much confidence, and after the 25-year-old went 0-3 with an 11.32 ERA in April, the Twins sent him to the minors for the next three months. There was much public debate in the Twin Cities about whether the team waited too long to summon him to the big leagues, but after seeing Liriano pitch upon his return, Anderson is sure of this: Liriano benefited from his time in Triple-A. "You could see his confidence back," Anderson said.

 
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

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