It's safe to say it has been a very up-and-down season for Francisco Liriano thus far, with rough outings mixed in with flashes of the brilliant pitcher he was last season, and a six-walk no-hitter thrown in to boot.As Twins manager Ron Gardenhire told our ESPN radio affiliate in Minnesota after his third start of the season, "We understand that he can strike people out, but if he really wants to become a pitcher, pitch to contact."Liriano tried to comply with the club's wishes, but admitted recently it wasn't working for him, and of late he has tried to get back more into "attack" mode."The first couple games I was pitching different from the way I used to pitch, pitching to contact," Liriano told the St. Paul Pioneer Press early last week. "That's not the way I know how to pitch, and I wasn't feeling that good pitching like that."I followed up with him later that week. "I've always been an aggressive pitcher, and generally going to have a high pitch count," Liriano told me. "I'm trying to get back to being myself and pitching like I was last year."This includes abandoning a two-seamer he was toying with earlier in the year, and getting back to working the edges of the plate, as opposed to the contact-oriented approach, and "not throwing as many fastballs as I did in my first few starts," as Liriano put it.On top of that, Liriano has had issues with the flu, and he admitted his spring-training shoulder problems have carried into the season, noting that his shoulder has tightened up on him at times. However, he feels he has turned a corner:"Physically I'm fine now," Liriano said. "Nothing's bothering me right now. I just need to throw more strikes, make more good pitches."Thus far, whether it's because of his early-season pitching style or not, Liriano has the lowest strikeout rate of his career (6.3 strikeouts per nine innings), but the bigger issue is his walk rate (5.9 walks per nine innings). If he was supposed to be "pitching to contact," that walk rate shows he wasn't doing a very good job of it.Liriano's fastball velocity has been down about 1-2 mph for much of the season, but I'm not too concerned about that, considering he likely was not 100 percent at the start of the season. Plus, he was still able to touch 95 mph in his most recent outing.We know by now that Liriano goes as far as his secondary stuff, especially his slider, will take him. He uses his fastball to "get" to his other two pitches and set them up, as the heater is not normally his key pitch. His control problems have not allowed him to do that as well; when he's working behind in the count so often, it makes those chase pitches less effective.I saw flashes of the 2010 version of Liriano in his last start, but I also saw a pitcher who was struggling to find a consistent arm slot and was prone to overthrowing. Liriano needs to stay tall in his delivery, but sometimes he gets a little too low and opens up his front side, allowing the ball to sail, and his control problems are rooted in mechanical issues that are hopefully easier to fix now that he's healthy again.I'm cautiously optimistic that Liriano is past his early-season bumps. With improved health and a return to his comfortable pitching style, he's getting closer to where he needs to be as he irons out his delivery and works to get that wicked slider back. Though his walk rate is still a concern, if you own him, I'd stay the course, at least for now.Other notes
• Many owners are scrambling to find productive corner-infield options right now, which makes the Diamondbacks' Juan Miranda a player to keep an eye on, especially following the club's recent release of Russell Branyan, which cleared up a logjam at the position. I've seen Miranda put quite a few good swings on the ball over the past week, and it showed up in the stat sheet, with five of his past eight hits going for extra bases. He has posted a .310 AVG/.431 OBP/.595 SLG mark this month (albeit in a small 42 at-bat sample size), and he has been having good at-bats, with his approach leading to a .392 OBP overall on the season. He still will likely sit in favor of Xavier Nady against southpaws for the near future, but he has at least put himself on our radar screen in deeper mixed leagues given the sudden lack of depth at the corner position. He did take a pitch off his wrist Sunday, but X-rays were negative, and hopefully it won't slow down his hot bat.• One first baseman that is worrying me right now is Justin Morneau. I don't think anyone questions what he can do when his health is even in the vicinity of 100 percent, and he has been stringing together some base hits lately, but the power just isn't there right now. Simply put, I'm not as high on him going forward as others might be. Consider that Morneau is still taking medication to deal with the effects of the concussion that ended his 2010 season, and he also had a major bout with the flu in April that caused him to lose at least 10 pounds. On top of that, he has had two cortisone shots already -- the most recent was two weeks ago -- to deal with neck and shoulder problems. That's a lot of things adding up.The optimistic view is that all of these maladies are the reason for his slow start, and he's due to pick things up as his health improves. But that doesn't change the fact that, from what I can see, Morneau is pulling off a ton of balls lately instead of staying closed in his swing and driving the ball. I don't know how much the neck/shoulder issues have to do with that, if anything. It's a mechanical issue that can be fixed if it's not something that he's doing to compensate for discomfort, but again, it's just another thing to add to an already-long list. Morneau's proven upside might warrant taking a chance on him if you can buy low in a deal, but suffice to say, I'd want a really good value price before acquiring him.• Brett Myers' ownership is only 40 percent in ESPN standard leagues -- and I think that's too high. He's not someone I would have on my mixed-league roster right now. Myers showed a much better slider last year, which he used to significantly drop his home run rate, and that was the key to him posting a solid 2010 campaign. With his velocity down even further this year (to the 87-88 mph range), Myers needs both his slider and curve to be crisp to succeed, and neither pitch has been effective this season. Myers appears to be fighting his delivery, at times slipping into "cross-firing" (throwing across his body), which doesn't allow his breaking pitches to have the same bite or command, and he doesn't have the fastball to fall back on. As such, Myers' homer rate has doubled from last year, taking his ERA upward with it. He's a pitcher I'm avoiding for now, as there's just too little margin for error at the moment.
