Oh yeah, I forgot about him

Out of the shadows and onto ESPN.com (via the St. Paul Pioneer Press) today comes Francisco Liriano. For being the kings of legit media, ESPN.com acts more and more like a blog these days.

The man who no one knew, then everyone knew and then blew out his arm and broke some hearts in the Twin Cities is ready to pitch. Yup, no doubt about it, that arm is right as rain and if you have any doubts, just look at Kerry Wood... wait, nevermind, I'll just see all you Twins fans at church tomorrow morning.

I think the timing is comical - and this isn't an indictment of the the announcement - where as the entire eastern seaboard does the Santana hokey pokey, Liriano pokes his head out and makes his return to the national media.

In another posting from the Pioneer Press, Santana was a no show at TwinsFest. If memory serves, it wasn't always a star-studded event, but it's something to consider anyways.

Honestly, it has everything to do with TwinsFest, but it should come as a ray of sunshine to Twins fans mired in the middle of January weather. After the staff was further depleted by the exit of Carlos Silva who fled for Seattle and the Santana sweepstakes has dragged on for months on end, this has to help just a bit.

They're still having an offseason that only fans of the White Sox, Royals and Marlins can sympathize with, but at least this is a little positive.

Speaking of the Marlins, do their front office workers just put a temporarily out of order sign up at the ticket office until March? You know, after they jettison any star players who kept their heads down enough during the season to still hang around?

(Image from: WYoung.net)