Apr 25th 2008 6:30PM by Will Brinson
The fantastic ideas we had for Francisco Liriano’s return in 2008 were not single game pitching lines like this: 0.2 innings pitched, 35 pitches, five hits, six earned runs, three walks and zero strikeouts. But that’s exactly what he produced in an Oakland shellacking of the Twins.

Liriano’s peripherals are down across the board (BB/9 is up to 9.31 and his K/9 is down 6.10). Of course, they’re not the only things down now, as Frankie as been reassigned to Triple-A Rochester.
Liriano took the loss in all three of his starts with the Twins so far this season, including giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning Thursday afternoon at Oakland. In those three starts, Liriano has allowed 15 hits, walked 13 and struck out seven while posting an 11.32 ERA.

[…]The Twins have had problems with Liriano since Spring Training, when the pitcher arrived late to Fort Myers after having problems acquiring his visa.
Well, that seems unnecessary, doesn’t it. Sure, there may have been some mishandling on both sides of this debacle, but there’s no reason to take a shot at Liriano now. He went from “greatest pitcher of all time” hype-status to “done-cakes” in less than two years. There’s still a chance that he will be able to come back and pitch in the majors again; certainly aided by the fact that he apparently “feels no pain”, even though he has not pitched like it.

I hope he does. He was a thrill to watch in 2006 and utterly untouchable for a really brief period. But after he failed to mention the pain to the team and then the team [most likely] brought him back to early, well, it seems like too much to ask for Liriano to ever bring back 2006.

Liriano is a strong enough talent that you can’t drop him just yet, unless you’re in a small league. In fact, because of the “pain free” element to his pitching status, I almost think he’s a buy low at this point, if you already have a stout pitching staff or deep bench and can afford to take an upside-riddle risk.