The Twins rotation for opening day became clear after Francisco Liriano’s last spring start on Friday and Scott Baker’s minor league start on Sunday.  Ron Gardenhire announced Francisco Liriano was optioned to the Twins Class A Fort Myers to start the season. Francisco pitched well on Friday throwing 73 pitches in 5 innings with 7 strikeouts, 2 base on balls, and 3 hits, one being a homerun. Kelly Thesier wrote in her article that Francisco is expected to make one start in Class A, make a start for Class AAA Rochester, then maybe join the Twins. Gardy wants to get Liriano up to throwing around 100 pitches. It will be interesting to see if Francisco does join the Twins after two starts or if the Twins will wait to see which of the starters isn’t making the grade over the month of April.

Scott Baker pitched well enough in his minor league start on Sunday and will jump on the end of the Twins rotation and start the series against Kansas City. In his start Baker threw 71 pitches over 6 innings giving up 6 hits, no walks with 3 strikeouts. Baker should be able to get more strength back after his extended bout with the flu by the time he makes his first start,

The Twins will start the season with Livan Hernandez, Boof Bonser, Nick Blackburn, Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker.

Scott Baker’s sore back is going to keep him out longer than once thought. Ron Gardenhire said Scott would not be able to make the start in a minor league game this weekend as they had hoped. It all started in the Boston game on March 3rd he felt a tweak in his back. During his next start against Pittsburgh, Baker experienced tightness in his back and they shut him down after two innings and decided to have Nick Blackburn get the next start in Baker’s place.

This doesn’t sound like a major injury but Joe Christensen has quotes of coaches saying things like:

"Pitching coach Rick Anderson “says if this goes on for another week or so, we’re going to have to start making other plans,” Gardenhire said. “That’s what we’ve got to find out, whether, it’s going to push on.”

Hopefully he just misses the one start and can come back for the next one. Will keep you posted.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported this morning that the Minnesota Twins have signed pitcher Livan Hernandez to a one year deal worth 5 to 6 million dollars plus performance based incentives possibly adding another million or so to make the deal worth the 7 million he made last year. Livan who pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year will be 33 this season and will provide a veteran presence for the Twins young pitching staff.

The Good: Livan has pitched over 200 innings in each of his last 8 seasons. He eats up innings and has produced double digits in wins in each of these last 8 seasons. Bringing in a proven veteran can the pressure off the young Twins staff who really have no clue what the starting rotation will look like this year.

The Bad: Livan’s contract that may hit 7 million is no drop in the bucket. A 7 million dollar contract puts him only behind Morneau, Cuddyer and Mauer and just above Nathan. The Twins payroll is low this year with the departure of Santana, Hunter and Silva, but is that smart use of money for a team that many don’t think will contend?

The Ugly: In the past three years Hernandez’ stats have dropped in an ugly way.

• Wins have dropped from 15 in 2005, to 13 in 2006, and 11 in 2007
• ERA has increased from 3.98 in 2005, to 4.83 in 2006, and to 4.93 in 2007
• Home Runs allowed have increased from 25 in 2005 (.9 hr/9ip), to 29 in 2006 (1.2 hr/9ip), and to 34 in 2007 (1.5 hr/9ip)
• Strikeouts per 9 innings have decreased from 147 in 2005 (5.38 k/9ip), to 128 in 2006 (5.33 k/9ip), and to 90 in 2007 (3.97 k/9ip)

So does this mean the Livan Hernandez experiment for the Twins is likely to end up like the Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson experiments of 2007? Livan’s sliding stats sure point that way. But I guess it depends what the Twins are looking for. If they are looking for wins and someone to lead them to the Central Division Championship I think are they mistaken. If they are simply looking for someone to take the pressure off the youngsters, eat up some innings, and provide some veteran leadership, they may get that but at a very expensive price tag. I’m guessing this spending of money will take some of the heat off the Twins for the low payroll this year and PR wise with the masses it may work for the Twins if Hernandez can pitch 200 innings. But I’m also afraid it would have been wiser to stick this $5 to $7 million in the bank and save it for 2010.

Today the New York Mets organization held their press conference to introduce Johan Santana to the assembled media in New York. It looked like a packed house to meet Johan, but not so much of a top notch press conference. It seemed a bit confused and not so smooth. Johan did well though, maybe a tad nervous, but came off as a happy and down to earth guy, just as he did here in Minnesota. The Mets introduction of Johan Santana video is just about 30 minutes long and Johan appears just after the 11.00 minute mark.