Francisco Liriano was masterful against the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, with his career-high 15 strikeoutsbefore giving up a grand slam that essentially buried the Minnesota Twins. As unfortunate as that may have been for the team, it was also a carry over of how good Liriano has been lately, which is leading some experts to speculate on how much longer before the Twins trade him away.

Over his last nine starts, Francisco Liriano has a 2.82 ERA, with 67 Ks in 57.1 IP. Rival execs think MIN will trade him; now's the time.

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) July 14, 2012

Minnesota isn't going to do anything significant this season, so trading Liriano for something good would obviously make sense. And with all that recent success, you'd have to expect him to be appealing to a team that feels they're just a Liriano away from contention.

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