August 14, 2013
Nelson Liriano (12-5, 2.83 ERA)
The Pittsburgh Pirates certainly have a type.
Find a veteran pitcher with a successful past who is having an inconsistent present, get him on the cheap, and bring him back to his old form. That formula is one of the reasons the Pirates currently have two of the best bargains in baseball headlining their pitching staff atop the National League Central Division.
A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano are the success stories. But not even manager Clint Hurdle could have predicted the amount of success that the latter would have this season.
“To this degree, numerically, I don’t know about that,” Hurdle said. “But he was the guy. When we went out looking (this past offseason), Liriano was the top of our list.”
In 17 starts this year, Liriano is 12-5 with a 2.83 ERA. He signed with Pittsburgh in February, coming off a 2012 season split between the Twins and the White Sox, accumulating a very mediocre 6-12 record and a 5.34 ERA.
After an injury during the offseason to his non-pitching arm, he signed a two-year, incentive-laden contract with the Pirates. This season, he’s being paid $1 million. Next season, $8 million.
During his career, Liriano has been infamously inconsistent. He broke out in 2006 with the Twins, going 12-3 with a 2.16 ERA. Tommy John surgery kept him out of the 2007 season, and it took until 2010 for Liriano to regain his ace-like form. He was 14-10 with a 3.62 ERA, earning the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award. After 2010, it was back downhill for Liriano’s numbers, until he broke out once again this season.
“I think it’s being healthy,” Liriano said. “The last two years, having trouble with my (pitching) shoulder. This year, being 100 percent fine physically. That gives you more comfort to go out there and pitch, not worrying about getting hurt.”
Liriano has been dominant this season, but so has Burnett, who was the first success story in the Pirates’ offseason formula.
A.J. Burnett (5-8, 2.95 ERA)
Burnett was traded from the Yankees months before the start of the 2012 season following two lackluster years with an ERA north of five. The Yankees agreed to pay $20 million of the $33 million remaining on the two years of his contract because it looked as if the 35-year-old’s best years were far behind him.
What was New York’s trash turned into Pittsburgh’s treasure. Burnett went 16-10 with a 3.51 ERA last season,and in 21 starts this season, at 36 years old, is 5-8 with a 2.95 ERA — the lowest of his 15-year career.
“You don’t hit on every one of them,” Hurdle said when asked about the Pirates’ luck with their bargain veterans. “We thought Bedard was (going to work) too.”
Erik Bedard, a 15-game winner in 2006 for the Orioles, is one experiment that did not pan out.
He had tailed off from his success ever since his 2007 season with Baltimore, and after a trade to the Seattle Mariners and a stint with the Boston Red Sox in 2011, he could not regain his dominant form following surgery in 2009 on a torn labrum.
He was a veteran, he had past success, and he was struggling, which was the perfect combination for the Pirates. Bedard signed with Pittsburgh in December 2011 on a one-year, $4.5 million deal.
He was 7-14 with a 5.01 ERA and was released in August 2012.
Two out of three isn’t bad for the Pirates, especially considering the two pitchers they lucked out on. Liriano and Burnett have mixed in perfectly with the young Pirates pitching staff.
“We’ve hit on at least two (pitchers) big time in the last two years,” Hurdle said. “We think that a combination of things (here) can help them be better than they have been in the past.
“(Liriano) is an important part of everything we’re doing here. He’s an established major league pitcher with street cred and a résumé.”
Liriano starts tonight against the Cardinals. In his last outing against St. Louis on July 29, he went seven innings, giving up one run on four hits, striking out eight and walking two.
If he continues the season he’s having, Liriano could very well be the first pitcher in MLB history to win the Comeback Player of the Year Award twice.
That’s not a bad bargain for the first-place Pirates.
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