MLB: Three Players Who Need to "Lock It Up"

“Lock it up”

If you are reading this and you don’t already know where that quote is from, you need to put this paper down immediately and go watch the movie “Wedding Crashers.”

On second thought…finish reading my article first, then go and watch the movie.

To those of you who have seen the film, I know you’ve quoted this hilarious Vince Vaughn line multiple times. But what’s funny is the fact that this great catch phrase actually applies to other areas besides raunchy comedy.

Heading into the 2010 MLB season, I can think of three players (two starting pitchers and one hitter) who desperately need to “Lock it up”.

Francisco Liriano

The Minnesota Twins' lefty pitcher has experienced more ups and downs in his career than a high school football player during double sessions. In his rookie season, Liriano began the year by going 12-3 with a league leading 2.19 ERA before being shut down for the rest of the season due to injury. In November of that same year, Liriano underwent Tommy John surgery and missed the entire 2007 campaign. The surgery also significantly hindered his ability to throw the slider, his best pitch, effectively.

Upon his comeback in the 2008 season, Liriano was sent down to the minor leagues due to poor performance. Last year, in the healthiest year of his career, he started a disappointing 24 games and went 5-13 with a 5.80 ERA. 

The man’s performance has been like watching an episode of “LOST”.  You sit there scratching your head in bewilderment as you view this enigma that doesn’t quite make sense, and you don’t even begin to try and predict what’s going to happen next. Liriano’s transition to a finesse pitcher, someone who works the entire plate and changes speeds frequently, has been anything but pretty and timely.

This is the last chance with the Twins for the once dominant young gun. Minnesota needs Liriano to step up and become the ace of their staff in order for the team to make any sort of progress. If he can retain his rookie year form and get some run support from this underrated lineup (assuming Justin Mourneau doesn’t fade down the stretch like last year) then the Twins can make another run in the AL Central.

Daisuke Matsuzaka

Known as “Dice-K,” the Boston Red Sox righty seriously needs to bring his A-game this year. Dice-K has dealt with multiple arm injuries and has started less games each season since entering the Majors in ’07. He’s also only had one truly successful year in that span which was the ’08 season.

Dice-K has a lot of mileage from his time pitching in Japan. His overworked arm has rendered him inconsistent and injury prone in recent years.

Can you imagine what the Red Sox are thinking right now? It’s like when you buy a new cell phone and you’re pumped and admiring how cool it looks…but then you drop it and completely scratch it up six steps out of the door. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, this fictitious phone is worth millions of dollars…upwards of $50 mill to be accurate.

Waiting for Matsuzaka to live up to his contract reminds me of watching the Oscars. You wait, irritated and bored, while the awards you don’t care about get given out and all you are thinking is “get on with it!!” The “Gordon E Sawyer Award"…really?

In 12 starts last season Matsuzaka went 4-6 with a 5.76 ERA. If he doesn’t significantly improve this season then Boston is going to be stuck paying a lot of Do Re Mi for a guy who is inconsistent and has spent more time on the disabled list then Alan at a poker table in “The Hangover.”

Jason Bay

Jason Bay is coming off the best season of all the players on this list. As an outfielder for the Red Sox last year Bay hit .267 with 36 home-runs, 119 runs batted in, and a .384 on base percentage. But, no pun intended, it became a whole new ball game for Bay after he signed a four-year deal worth around $66 million with the New York Mets.

Now in the past couple years, the Mets have become the equivalent of Alicia Keys’ solo version of “New York State of Mind” in NYC. Everyone knows it’s there…but it’s not really getting a lot of love. Sure we’ll pay attention for the first couple of bars, but eventually, we all lose interest because we know the other version is better. In baseball, that other version is the Yankees.

Bay is on this list not for performance reasons, but for the task of helping to re-establish a faltering franchise. The Mets need to win and win now if they want to avoid a re-tooling process. If the team doesn’t have a repeat of last season’s unusual injury epidemic then their lineup has the potential to be very effective despite Citi Field’s large dimensions.

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