Isn’t baseball a bitch? Minnesota Twins fans must think so. Their rookie phenom from 2006, Francisco Liriano, will likely miss all of 2007 because of continued elbow problems. He’s scheduled to undergo Tommy John surgery on Monday, which used to spell death for a pitcher’s career. Pitchers can regularly rehab from this surgery these days, but it’s gonna be a tough road back for Liriano.

Liriano’s torn elbow ligament put him out of commission for most of the last two months of the season. He only pitched twice after July 28th after putting together one of the most dominant stretches in Major League Baseball history, especially by a rookie. A 12-3 season and a 2.16 ERA indicate that. I wasn’t aware that Dusty Baker was calling the shots in Minnesota. One of the scary things about rookie phenom pitchers is the good possibility that they’ll be overworked. Just ask Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, two extremely talented pitchers that fell victim to constant injuries because of insane pitch counts.

Rod Gardenhire knew he had something special in Liriano. Why wasn’t he more conservative in Liriano’s pitch count? In Liriano pitched 7 innings or more in 8 of his 16 starts. From May 26 to July 28th, he threw over 90 pitches in 11 of his 13 starts. . I understand the Twins were in a playoff race and that Liriano’s performance in those starts was dominant. But if I was a manager and had an arm like his, I’d definitely take tons of precaution.

The good news is that Tommy John Surgery is becoming more and more advanced. Liriano should be able to rehab and may come back with even more strength because of the strenuous rehab. But the bad news is that these young pitchers are forced to undertake this surgery at such an early point in their career. So my advice to Angels manager Mike Scioscia is simply. Give Jered Weaver a break. The rookie threw over 100 pitches in 10 of his final 11 starts. Let’s hope Weaver doesn’t join Liriano on the operating table.