IBC

About time for him to find his way back.

Hopefully.

Francisco Liriano was named International League Pitcher of the Week for his two dominant performances last week.

The former American League Rookie of the Year beat Lehigh Valley 2-1 and Buffalo 2-0. In the two games, Liriano allowed no earned runs and struck out 16 in 13 innings.

The southpaw is 6-2 with a 3.80 ERA in 15 starts for the Wings. This is the second time in three weeks he has been named IL Pitcher of the Week.

Francisco Liriano worked his third consecutive scoreless outing for Triple-A Rochester on Thursday night, striking out eight over seven scoreless frames.
In his past three starts for Rochester, Liriano has thrown 20 scoreless innings, allowing just 10 hits and three walks while striking out 24. The Twins have reportedly had the left-hander revert to his old 3/4 arm slot after experimenting with some mechanical adjustments, and the effects have been drastically positive. He looks ready. With Livan Hernandez struggling mightily in the Twins rotation, Liriano should be up soon after the All-Star break.

Gleeman: Francisco Liriano has become sort of a forgotten man since looking horrible when rushed back from Tommy John surgery in April, but he's quietly put together an impressive three-start stretch at Triple-A. Liriano tossed seven shutout innings Thursday night, giving him 20 straight scoreless frames. After initially struggling with his velocity and command post surgery, he has 24 strikeouts and just three walks during that span. He looks ready if the Twins want him.

Jamie D'Antona's whirlwind weekend came to a booming close Monday night at Louisville Slugger Field as the Tucson Sidewinders infielder outlasted Toledo Mud Hens slugger Mike Hessman to capture the 2008 Triple-A Home Run Derby.

Chris Iannetta delivered a two-run homer, an RBI single and a walk Thursday in the Rockies' 5-3 defeat of the Pirates.
Iannetta has run away with the starting job just like the Rockies hoped he would last year. He's hitting .281 with 10 homers and 37 RBI in 171 at-bats. In 2007, he had just four homers in 197 at-bats.

Francisco Liriano won his ninth straight decision Tuesday at Triple-A, throwing seven shutout innings while striking out 10.
He gave up just two hits and issued two walks. Liriano has allowed one earned run while fanning 42 batters over his last 35 innings, and is 9-2 with a 3.13 ERA at Triple-A overall. He's clearly one of the Twins' top dozen pitchers at this point, but the team seems unwilling to dump Livan Hernandez from the rotation and have sent mixed signals about using Liriano out of the bullpen. His agent filing a grievance against the team for alleging suppressing Liriano's service time by keeping him in the minors has also upset Twins management, although their anger has seemingly been directed more at his agent.

Diamondbacks purchased the contract of catcher-infielder Jamie D'Antona from Triple-A Tucson.
It's about time D'Antona got a look as a 25th man. He's not much of a fielder anywhere, but he can serve as a third catcher and backup corner infielder. The 26-year-old was hitting .367/.407/.612 with 17 homers for Tucson.
And he singled in his first career at-bat.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune suggests the Twins could promote Francisco Liriano before his scheduled minor league start on Sunday.
The paper says the team has "discussed" promoting him and moving a starter (possibly Liriano) to the bullpen in an effort to improve its relief corps. Nick Blackburn and Glen Perkins are also candidates to join the bullpen thanks to their "experience" as relievers, which apparently outweighs Livan Hernandez's 6.31 ERA since the start of June.

Carl Pavano struck out 4 over 2 scoreless innings for Single-A Charleston Tuesday. He allowed 1 hit and 1 walk.

Jupiter (Marlins) lefthander Sean West received a lot of consideration for the honor today. He went seven innings, allowing just three hits while striking out eight and improving to 6-5, 2.51

Chris Iannetta went 3-4 yesterday, raising his career line vs. Timmy Lincecum to 5-7, with 2 2Bs and a HR, with 3 walks to only 2 strikeouts (.714/.818/1.429).

Additionally, Iannetta leads all MLB catchers with more than 50 at-bats in OPS, unfortunately he's not qualified or that statement might mean a little more. Regardless, with slightly better stats away from Coors and his numbers versus RHP on the rise, hopefully next year we'll be talking about how he's added his name to the list of elite catchers that now includes Brian McCann.

Despite all this offense, none of the above would walk away with league Most Valuable Player honors. Instead, the spot was given to Carolina Mudcats first baseman Gaby Sanchez, who obviously also ended up as the All-Star at his position. Sanchez proved one of the league's most complete players, batting .320 with a .413 on-base percentage, good for second in the league. He also is second in total bases with 242 in 129 games, thanks in no small part to a league-leading 41 doubles. For good measure, Sanchez also proved an adept basestealer, swiping 17 bags this season.

Joining Sanchez from the Mudcats, who clinched the second-half North Division title on Wednesday night, are a pair of speedsters -- second baseman Chris Coghlan and outfielder John Raynor. The latter leads the league with 47 stolen bases, and also has shown good patience (.400 OBP) and power (.491 SLG) in Carolina.

Roy Oswalt hurled a three-hit shutout as the Astros cruised past the Pirates 6-0 on Thursday night.
Oswalt struck out four and issued zero walks in the gem, his second straight complete-game shutout. All three hits he allowed were singles. Oswalt has now worked 32 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, and has allowed only 11 hits during that span. He had a rough first half, but has been amazing since the All-Star break, going 8-1 with a 1.94 ERA in 10 starts.

Despite tossing eight innings of two-run ball yesterday, Francisco Liriano was unable to pick up a win against the Royals thanks to an inept showing by the Twins offense. Liriano gave up some hard hits early in the game, but settled in after the Royals scored their second run in the third inning to retire 15 batters in a row. In total, he allowed six hits in the outing while striking out six and walking none, and remains undefeated in eight starts since being recalled from Triple-A. During that span, he's 5-0 with a 1.57 ERA and 44-to-12 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 51 2/3 innings of work.

Liriano has shown steady progress in his first season back from Tommy John surgery. He looked downright horrible during a three-start stint with the Twins in April, unable to find the strike zone or get his fastball over 90 miles per hour with any kind of regularity. He was sent down to Class-AAA Rochester, and the three months he spent there clearly did him a lot of good. Since being recalled to replace Livan Hernandez in the Twins rotation in the beginning of August, Liriano has been a vastly different pitcher. Most noticeably, his control has greatly improved -- he has now handed out just two free passes in his last four starts, and in conjunction with a low hit rate he's made it very difficult for opponents to reach base against him, as his 0.95 WHIP will attest. His strikeout and ground ball rates aren't quite where they were in 2006, but based on results, Liriano has been every bit as effective as he was during that magical rookie campaign.

At 6-foot, 225 pounds, Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta is built like brick house.

Bricks don't wear down easily, and neither does Iannetta, who said he is ready for the stretch run in his first full Major League season.

"I feel good," said Iannetta, who made his 78th start of the season on Saturday. "I feel like I have the whole year. Obviously, it's the end of the season, so everyone's kind of feeling the same way. But I feel fine."

That's just fine with Iannetta, who has been one of the most productive catchers in the Majors this season. Entering Saturday, the University of North Carolina graduate had reached base in 37 of his past 38 games and led all big league catchers with a .906 OPS [on-base plus slugging percentage].

Iannetta has also been a solid field general from behind the plate. He's one of only three Major League catchers without an error this season, and he has deftly handled an inconsistent pitching staff.

Hurdle didn't think Iannetta was out of line. He said Iannetta's performance on the field has warranted his increased leadership in the clubhouse.

"Once he got into a comfort zone and got his hands around the staff, he became more than qualified to challenge them and get them to perform at their peak levels," Hurdle said.

Iannetta has performed at his peak level throughout the season, and he has no intentions of slowing down.

"Right now, I'm ready to do whatever the team needs me to do," he said. "If they want me to play, I'm ready."

Mark Reynolds fanned for the 199th time on Wednesday, tying the major league record set by Ryan Howard last season.
Reynolds is three ahead of Howard this year, so it's no lock that he'll finish the season with the record. Still, we're guessing that it'll be a long time before anyone tops his total of strikeouts plus errors in the same season. He committed his 34th error at third base tonight.

He does have 28 homers...anybody need a bench bat or an AL team need a DH?

Righthander Jarrod Parker, the D-Backs' first-round pick last June, was named the most valuable pitcher in their instructional league program.

Fernando Martinez went 3-for-4 and homered in a second straight game Saturday for Escogido of the Dominican Winter League.
Martinez hasn't been an everyday player for Escogido, but he's more than justified what at-bats he has gotten. He's hitting .341/.404/.610 with a couple of steals in 41 at-bats. A strong winter should guarantee that he moves up to Triple-A for the beginning of next year, though the Mets were probably leaning in that direction anyway.

Dodgers wrote:Fernando Martinez went 3-for-4 and homered in a second straight game Saturday for Escogido of the Dominican Winter League.
Martinez hasn't been an everyday player for Escogido, but he's more than justified what at-bats he has gotten. He's hitting .341/.404/.610 with a couple of steals in 41 at-bats. A strong winter should guarantee that he moves up to Triple-A for the beginning of next year, though the Mets were probably leaning in that direction anyway.

I like seeing this. Didn't know he was having such a good "winter."

A former Japanese Central League Rookie of the Year and a three-time Gold Glove winner, Kawakami was the ace of his staff in Japan, but scouts have said he'd likely fill a No. 2 or No. 3 spot in most Major League rotations.

I thought about grabbing Kawakami with my last pick but figured he'd slip another round due to the straight fastball and the Ishii comps. Good pick (unless the Ishii comps are right which I hope they're not since he sounds like he's bound for Boston)

I don't get that signing for the Sox one bit, seems like Ben Sheets is a much better idea.

I've heard far more Kuroda comps than Ishii.

I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of it either, largely due to the Ishii comps, but it sounds like they've had their eye on him for a while and it sounds like coming to the Sox (and pitching with Dice-K) is a factor to him. If he signs really cheap, well, it's worth a shot. Personally I'd prefer they sign Lowe, as talented as Sheets is, he's an even bigger injury risk than Burnett, although Sheets' potential IS intriguing as a #4/5.