Latino Fantasy Baseball: The Sad Tale of Francisco Liriano (And His Owners)

Alex Ferreyra is playing a season of fantasy baseball with just Latino players. You can read his original article here, and send him tips on players or comments about how he screwed up his team here.
The Smiths once asked, “How Soon is Now?” If Morrisey went up to Minnesota Twins coach Ron Gardenhire and asked that question, he’d probably answer “Yesterday. And get out of my office you moppet-haired freak.” Why do you think he’d answer this way? Well, because of the way he and the Twins mishandled bringing back Francisco Liriano from Tommy John surgery.

Backstory: In 2006, Liriano was a pitching sensation for the Twins, starting 12-3 with a 2.19 ERA, which included two Rookie of the Month nods and a spot on the American League All-Star roster. But then he hurt his shoulder and was off-again, on-again until he decided to go under the knife late in ’06 and miss the rest of that year and all of ‘07. This season was supposed to be his return to glory for the Twins, especially with Johan Santana now pitching in Queens.
This is where I come in. When I was looking over the team I drafted, and noticing that my pitchers were going down faster than a hooker in Grand Theft Auto, I made a very strong push for Liriano. Realistically, there is only one true Latino pitching ace, and that’s Santana. Out of the top 40 pitchers in Major League Baseball (fantasy-wise, of course), only Santana, Carlos Zambrano, Felix Hernandez, Javier Vasquez and Fausto Carmona fit the bill (We’ll count Francisco Rodriguez, but he’s a reliever)—and this year, many pundits believed Liriano would take his rightful place there in that top 40.
That’s why I was offering the owner in our league everything for him—even a high/low, 2-for-1 trade that would’ve basically netted him Justin Morneau for peanuts. But nope, he didn’t want to take it. That’s why I’m a true believer in the idea that the most important things that happen to us are usually the result of things that we don’t do.
Liriano is now in the minors after four games, starting 0-3 with a 11.32 ERA—a far cry from his ’06 season. He didn’t even get out of the first inning in his last start, giving up six runs with three walks and no strikeouts to Oakland. It’s going to take some time for him to come back up, but the Twins have a few extras days off over the next couple of weeks to give him some time in AAA. Hopefully they’ll rest him properly and make sure he’s 100% (or as close as someone in that position can be) before they bring him back up. In the meantime, I wonder if now I can pick him up for someone new-up Jarrod Saltalamacchia and the human implosion Oliver Perez? I’ll let you know.
An update on Sheff’s All-Stars: I’m now in 6th place with an 18-14-13 record. It’s about 60% of where I want to be. I would’ve been in third place, but my team (at least the batters) decided to all take the day off on Sunday, which led my lead over my opponent to go from 9-2 to 6-4. I’ve been really happy with my team, however, which is hard to say about a team that’s barely above .500. My Aramis Ramirez trade seems to be going well, and I now feel really strong about the core of my batting line-up—Aramis, Hanley Ramirez, Carlos Lee and Alex Rios. If Willy Tavares can continue racking up steals and Evan Longoria, Bobby Abreu and Carlos Guillen are solid, it should be a good Summer.
The pitching’s also doing well, mainly because I’ve jettisoned Bronson Arroyo and my fortuitous nature had me missing the boat on Johnny “Hot-and-Cold” Cueto, and settling for Edinson Volquez, who in the last month has had this line: 4 wins, 33 strikeouts and a 1.23 ERA. In the same period, Cueto has been 1-2 with 31 strikeouts and a whopping 4.05. Like I said before, more often it’s the things that don’t happen to us that make us.