Notes from the weekend

Francisco Liriano threw first-pitch strikes
to18 of the 24 Cubs he faced Sunday.

Francisco Liriano didn't have a very good line at the end of his outing Sunday — four earned runs in 5.2 innings — but he probably deserved better statistically than he got.

So it's two good-to-outstanding starts since his return to the rotation, one OK one. And they've all been against bad teams, so I'm still wary of jumping on the bandwagon, and I suspect the general managers with whom Terry Ryan will be talking trade in the coming weeks will be wary also.

Which is fine. There's plenty of time between now and the trading deadline, and if Liriano is going to be worth trading, it will be after a sustained period of quality work.

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I see good and ill in baseball's new draft rules, but one thing the rules have done was speed up the signings. The Twins had 12 players inked by Sunday, and Bryon Buxton, their first-rounder (No. 2 overall) was to arrive in the Twin Cities today for his physical.

I rather expect that the Buxton signing will come Tuesday, and he'll get to take some batting practice in Target Field before reporting to Fort Myers to begin his professional career with the Twins' Gulf Coast League team.

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Liam Hendriks is apparently to be recalled to make the start on Saturday, the next time the Twins need a fifth starter. I said a while back that I expected Hendriks wouldn't be recalled until the team expected him to stick.

If so, recalling Hendriks now suggests to me that it's going to be a while before Carl Pavano comes off the disabled list.

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As a self-described "Strat nerd" — at least a sporadic one — I had to take note of the two Minnesotans who last week went for the Guinness world record for consecutive hours playing a board game. Their game was Strat-O-Matic baseball, and they topped 61 hours when they finally called it quits Sunday.

Believe it or not, they're both married.