Pitcher Francisco Liriano of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic is truly a rising star on the MLB scene. He was origonally brought up by the Minnesota Twins in 2005 where he had a few relief appearances. In 2006, Liriano took the league by storm after earning a starting position over Carlos Silva of venezuela. Liriano hurled his way to an amazing record of 12-3 with a 2.19 ERA earning him a spot on the American League All-Star team and a spot on the Cy Young Award ballot. Perhaps one of his most noteworthy pitching performances came on June 22 when he faced off against the notorious Roger Clemons of the Houston Astros. Francisco struck out 11 batters on his way to his 7th win of the season, outdeuling "The Rocket." His fruitful rookie season was ended early however, because of discomfort in his elbow due to his unorthodox pitching motion. In 2007, Francisco Liriano underwent Tommy John Surgery to fix the problem in his elbow. He missed the entire Major League season. On April 11, 2008 Liriano was called up out of the minors in replace of an injured Kevin Slowey and threw 4.2 innings giving up 6 runs. He was deemed unready for Major League action and was sent back down to the minors. On August 1, Francisco was called up once again to face the Kansas City Royals. In this game, he threw 6 scoreless innings while striking out 5 batters and picking up his first win since 2006. Liriano is back and ready for action!
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