As speculated here yesterday, the Twins have moved Francisco Liriano into their starting rotation, moving Carlos Silva to the bullpen. Liriano has been pretty dominant in most of his appearances this season, and having another powerhouse southpaw in the rotation will be useful later on in the season. The demotion of Silva merits more discussion, however.
For the past two seasons, Silva has been arguably the second best starting pitcher the Twins have had, but this year his sinking fastball has ceased sinking, which has led to some horrible outings where he has been little more than a batting practice pitcher. It's difficult to know what to do about Silva at this point; I don't know enough about pitching mechanics to understand if he's doing something different this year, but the results he's getting this year have been abysmal. What will be equally important is taking care of his psyche. Silva gives the impression of being a very conscientious guy and he has worried aloud about how he has been letting down the team as he struggles through this slump. Taking responsibility is an admirable trait, but at times he's looked and acted a bit hang-dog on the mound. Pitching is about confidence as much as anything else; you do not have to be an intimidating physical specimen or throw 100 miles per hour to get major league batters out, as Jamie Moyer and Greg Maddux have conclusively demonstrated in their careers. Right now Silva doesn't look like he believes he can. He'd better, though, because the Twins will need about 140 quality innings from him for the rest of the season if they want to contend.
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