Baseball Musings: Liriano's Delivery

September 14, 2006

Liriano's Delivery

Nick M. attended the Twins game yesterday and offers his thoughts on Liriano's future:

If he is going to come back and be a successful pitcher, he'll have to change his delivery motion and likely either rid himself of his slider or find a different way to throw it. It is, of course, quite difficult to know whether or not the Twins are thinking of this, but they should be. It's good that they have shut him down for the year now, but they may have wanted to be more cautious before.
When there is elbow pain in a pitcher's throwing arm, you have to consider the pitcher. A power pitcher like Liriano who throws a lot of breaking balls needs to be treated a certain way. Without his slider, he may not be as confident, so the plan of simply asking him to throw less sliders and throw more fastballs and changeups sounds a lot easier then it is in action.

Needless to say, this news sends a depressing wave through the organization and fanbase, but I am in no way surprised. When he first injured himself, I suggested that the Twins be cautious and consider revamping his delivery to take pressure of the young pitcher's left elbow. Now, with Liriano likely more hurt than he was before, they may have to do that anyway.

The Twins radio announcer described Liriano's motion as violent. He uses every muscle in his body to generate speed, putting lots of stress on the elbow. Yesterday, the elbow couldn't take it.

Purchase ALDS tickets.

Posted by David Pinto at 08:52 AM | Injuries | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Dave,

I don't know if you remember a mail I sent you earlier in the season about Liriano and if you thought his motion was messed up. You told me to ask Bob Stokes, who then told me that everything is fine. I'm not sayin I'm an expert, just that he looked like an injury waiting to happen to me back when he was dominating everyone. You're still the man, I'm just sayin I called this one back in June.

Later,

Chris

Posted by: chris at September 14, 2006 11:18 AM

I do remember that now that you remind me. Good call.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 14, 2006 12:00 PM

Talk about prognostication!

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Thornton saw Liriano exit coming

September 14, 2006

By Joe Cowley, Staff Reporter

Anaheim, Calif. -- At least for one day, Matt Thornton hated to be right.

The reliever was one of a dozen or so White Sox players watching the Minnesota-Oakland game in the visiting clubhouse Wednesday when Twins phenom Francisco Liriano injured his left elbow and had to leave the game after only 28 pitches.

It was Liriano's first game since Aug. 7, when he first had elbow problems, and the Twins were counting on the 22-year-old to help carry them to the postseason.

Thornton, however, had told teammates last week, when the Twins first announced that Liriano would be back, that Liriano would be out of the game in two innings and that further damage to the elbow was inevitable. Thornton was speaking from experience. He went through the same thing as a minor-leaguer in 2002, leading to Tommy John surgery.

''You hate to see it happen, but I could tell that it probably would just because of what I went through myself,'' Thornton said. ''I could tell by his motion, by the stress he puts on his elbow, that it was a recipe for disaster.

''You can rest and throw on the side all you want, but you will never truly test it until you get out there and throw at game speed.''

Thornton had no idea what Liriano's injury was or how serious it was, but he wasn't very optimistic.

''Once the muscle starts wearing down, the stress goes on the ligament, and that can only hold it for so long,'' Thornton said. ''I hope it's not the case, but if it is, we'll next see him in 2008 and he'll be throwing 105 because I came back with an extra 5 miles per hour on my fastball.''

Posted by: Mark at September 14, 2006 03:58 PM

Dibble related Gardenhire said Liriano was told
to take anti-inflammatory medication earlier this year, but
hadn't done so. All this might've happened anyway, but
I've been told untended inflammation can actually make an injury worse.

Posted by: susan mullen at September 14, 2006 05:36 PM

re: the slider

like the screwball, the slider exacts a price on the pitcher who lives off it.

steve carlton probably was the greatest lefthanded slider pitcher. he had great mechanics. he also had a brutal workout routine which combined martial arts, weightlifting, running and a lot of other stuff (walking through rice) that Gus Hoefling the then phils traininer worked out for him.

Liriano should hire Carlton as his personal pitching coach. Who else to instruct him in the mysteries of the slider?

--art kyriazis, philly

Posted by: art kyriazis at September 14, 2006 05:56 PM

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