Things may have started out great but once the crazy comes out it can never be truly killed off.  Every time you think you've accomplished just that she gets crazy again, only this time it lasts longer and before you know it it's 100% crazy.  There simply comes a time where the ties need to be severed.

Such is the case with Francisco Liriano.  Who didn't romanticize about his future back in 2006.  Consider the fact that his Twins teammate Johan Santana was widely considered the best pitcher in the world at the time yet Liriano out pitched his counterpart in a smaller sample size.  In just 121 innings Liriano struck out 144 batters with a 2.16 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and a microscopic .205 BAA.

As I’m sure most of you know that season ended with some mixed signals from Twins management and Liriano on the health of his arm which resulted in the quite obvious Tommy John surgery.

It's been all downhill from there, which is odd in today's baseball culture it's not nearly as big of a deal to get Tommy John as it once was.  Recently we've even seen some pitchers come back stronger than before the surgery.

After missing the entire 2007 season recovering he came back in 2008 and simply did not look the same.  His WHIP was up at 1.39 and 3.91 ERA with just under a K an inning.  Now those stats are something you can build on and even swallow as a fantasy owner.

But when Liriano regressed beyond belief in 2009 with a 5.80 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP in 136 innings that was strike one.

This landed Liriano on plenty of 2010 pre-season lists to which he responded with his best year outside of the breakout rookie season.  Numbers to the tune of a 3.62 ERA, 1.26 WHIP and 200 K's over 191 innings.

We were just beginning to trust him again, lengthening his leash a little bit and then he dropped the bombshell on us last season with a 5.09 ERA, a 1.49 WHIP well under a K per inning over 134.1.  But as usual we also saw some flashes of the former brilliance that was the regular.  Most specifically the mid-season no hitter albeit one with six walks, but a no hitter none the less.

At this point many officially wrote off Liriano for good but come on everybody deserves three strikes right?

Buried deep on 2012 sleeper lists at the onset of spring training he began the ascent up those lists.  Liriano gave us a glimpse at the brilliance with a 2.33 ERA over 27 innings with just five BB compared to 33 strikeouts.

Sure it’s just spring training but those are some solid stats and if you took a closer look he did it against some top teams regulars too.

Fast forward to his first start of the season last week in which he went just four innings and gave up five earned runs and then again to Wednesday when he gave up five earned runs over five innings this time.  This wasn't even just a case of an inflated ERA either, after two starts his WHIP is an obscene 2.22 and opposing teams are stealing on him left and right.

It's officially time to cut bait.  All of the peripherals point towards this trend maintaining itself.  It's simply not worth it anymore to continue taking the risk on him start to start.

In all honestly this is my public goodbye to you Francisco, I thought we could do great things together, we could win championships but I was sadly mistaken.  You just struck out for the third time and it's time to severe the ties forever, you will never grace this guy's sleeper list again.  Take care of yourself and never forget the good times.