Starting lineups: Twins/Yankees
Posted on March 5th, 2008 – 9:57 AMBy Joe Christensen
TAMPA — Today’s game is on ESPN. The starting lineups:
TWINS
1. Carlos Gomez, CF
2. Brendan Harris, 2B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF (early typo had him at RF)
6. Brian Buscher, 3B
7. Jon Knott, DH
8. Garrett Jones, RF
9. Matt Tolbert, SS
Starting pitcher: RH Kevin Slowey.
YANKEES
1. Johnny Damon, LF
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Alex Rodriguez, DH
5. Jason Giambi, 1B
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Wilson Betemit, 3B
9. Melky Cabrera, CF
Starting pitcher: RH Ian Kennedy.
Legends Field. First pitch: 12:15 p.m. (Central)
88 Responses to "Starting lineups: Twins/Yankees"
first!
im kinda bummed ill be working so im not able to watch the game.
Looks like the Yanks are putting out their best lineup. Will be a good test for Slowey.
Whoa, nice Yankee welcoming for Slowey. That is a pretty stacked lineup for Spring Training.
Seems kinda reckless having all your heavy hitters in a early spring training game? It clearly shows that our Twins are the gys to beat this year(say what you will, I have faith).
Maybe there will be some fluke infield/outfield collision on a popup…
Yankees last in the AL east…
i like it.
Who is the home team? I need to time my lunch appropriately.
Joe: It doesn’t appear like Tommy Watkins is getting much playing time down there. Is he out of the mix?
And with Livan now wearing number 61,
what number is Watkins? Just curious because the Twins website hasn’t made the changes on their roster?
The reason the Yankees have a stacked lineup is because they don’t have any real position battles going on. They know who they have and what they can do. They don’t need to give a bunch of different guys AB’s. Plus they don’t have a lot of young prospects that are ready for this stage.
I’m interested to see how Chamberlain does. I think the Yankees are in for a big disappointment when he returns to the rotation. I think he will be back in the bullpen by the middle of the season.
So who is in LF?
TMW. They are playing at the Yankees and first pitch is 12:15
Joba has always been a starter. He was moved to the pen in AAA last year because that is where the big league club needed him. As I understand it the plan for the future has always been to use him as a starter. I think he’ll do just fine in the rotation. 
Fargo
I think it’s a fair bet to say that Delmon will be in Left since that is where he is playing this season.
So who is in LF?
Jones is so awful in right that he needs the extra help.
the game yesterday went down as a tie then right because i dont think you make up spring tranning games do you so we are 2-3-1 right?
Tuesday’s game was wiped out because of rain. Stats are not official because the game lasted only 41/3 innings. So the game never happened…just don’t say that to Boof’s right arm.
Wasn’t Damon the primary DH with Matsui in LF last year?
The Yankees do a pretty good job of rotating players through the DH spot. Matsui, Damon, and Giambi all spend time DHing. Plus either Matsui or Damon are injured for half the season.
The Yanks generally play most of their starters for the first few innings at home. Not so much for away games.
Jama, word from the yankees is that Joba will start in the BP. They plan to move him into the rotation mid year. They are hoping that some of their young pitchers are ready to take the 8th inning.
Yankees lovefest on ESPN. I suggest everyone listen to Dan and John if possible.
It’ll be interesting to see how Cabrera and Kennedy do in their first game against the Twins since potentially BECOMING Twins.
Would be fun if there was a place that was tracking the stats of the various guys that came up in the Johan trade. For the sake of comparison. Not so much frustration.
Yankees lovefest on ESPN.
That’s to be expected. Hank Steinbrenner (and perhaps a good number of Yankee fans) are the only people in the universe who actually believe that ESPN is somehow biased towards the Sox and the Sox alone.
Joe C: Go into the TV booth and tell Sutcliffe how to pronounce Morneau.
He’s only a former MVP. It’s “MORE-NO”
not “MOURN-YO.”
twins radio behind espn by about 1 hitter…
I kind of like Mourn-yo… haha
Woot! Young just took Kennedy deep. 1-0 Twins!
SteveAV
LEN III
Where do you stand on the Center field situation? Do you think the Twins should take Gomez’s experience status into account when they decide who to bring up?
Holy Moley! That throw Gomez, where were you going? Hey Joe is Gomez doin a bit of boozing out there in center because that throw in from center had to be 20 feet up the first base line?
4-1 now. What happened?
Then Gogomez barely hits the cutoff man on the scoring play. Looks like he’s throwing scared or something.
My Twins Radio is slightly ahead of ESPN.
The only reason the Yanks scored their 4th run was because of the DePaola balk.
Young doesn’t have such a big butt as I thought. He looks pretty slim wasted, in good shape.
Yankees lovefest.
Yeah. I think someone should suggest to ESPN that two teams are out there; it’s not just ARod, Jeter, and Girardi.
Harris blew that. Looked slow as he dived for the grounder. Kiesler should be out of the inning.
Kiesler looks decent.
I thought Mauer should have caught that wild pitch.
i think the announcers wanna butt fu** everybody associated with the yankees..
its going to being and exciting year to watch young and gomez and mourneau and mauer just a great time to watch young talent i really like the fact that we found a everyday left field
I’m at work and haven’t been able to watch the game. Anyone want to fill me in on how the Yankees scored? How did Slowey look?
no need to panic, young players make mistakes, on occasion experianced ones do to.
espn would be happy if the yankees and sox could play 162 game schedule that way they wouldn’t have give any time to the other teams, which they barely do now anyway.
I can hardly watch ESPN anymore. Funny how Hank Steinbrenner ripped on ESPN the other saying it was full of Red Sox lovers or words to that effect. YEAH RIGHT!
jama
Slowey looked pretty good in the first inning, with good pitch placement and good command of all four pitches I noticed. In the second inning, Gomez misplayed a Cano fly ball that turned into a double, and then Betemit hit one off the wall for another double. Damon hit a single and Gomez missed the cut-off and the throw was about 20 feet up the first base line. Couple singles, and the score was 3-1.
Overall, Slowey looked pretty good. He just didn’t have the stuff to get it past some of the hitters for the Yanks.
If you’re listening to Twins Radio Net, the home run pitch to Jones wasn’t “in his eyes” as Dazzle said; it was rib high.
And Tolbert wasn’t hit “in the back”. The pitch was almost on the ground and hit his leg just above the ankle.
Gordo and Glad Man do this all the time. I never automatically believe what they say.
check out SethSpeaks.net’s comments this afternoon. He has been posting frequent updates.
Slowey didn’t exactly get the ball down in the 3rd inning either. But he SO ARod though. 2 walks on the day.
Nice to see Jones hit a HR off Joba.
BTW, Buscher scored on the HR. His swing looks REAL solid. Thought it was Kubel batting for a second……
Error on Macri. It was an easy play.
I see Morales was brought in to run for Mauer. This is interesting for two reasons.
1) I’m not waching live, so I don’t know why Mauer came out.
2) Morales PINCH RUNNING indicates his ankle is healing on schedule.
Check that. Error on 2B.
BTW, the Twins would have the lead if the balk hadn’t happened and if Morales hadn’t tried to run on Cabrera’s arm.
Morales’s ankle may be healing on schedule, but man, he really looks slow out there. He got nailed twice trying to get home on Sunday, and today, on an ill-advised attempt at third. He has to learn when to run, and when not to. Maybe it is a simple case of he isn’t as fast as he used to be with the injury.
Nice double-play there.
Man, are these announcers Yankee homers.
Obviously they are leaning towards the audience numbers, but they really seem to be biased.
Second time Giambi was thrown out (this time on the DP) because he’s a slow runner.
Reyes started out wild low-and-outside. Had to pull back a little to find his control. He then became easier to hit and got in a little jam.
But threw much better, including a great changeup.
Excellent!
does anyone know if deolis guerra is scheduled to pich today at all? i want to see this kid pitch on national tv.
Casilla made a “Punto” type play on that DP.
Pridie has a nice “beardie”. Slaps a looping liner to left for a hit.
Now he steals second and DOESN’T SLIDE. Would have been out he had slid. Is he that instantaneously smart? Could be.
Casilla comes through and hits the ball hard for an IF single.
people wouldn’t read seth speaks if it was the last site on the internet.
There’s goes Gordo again. It was not a “strike three called”. Gogomez couldn’t hold up on the low outside slider. It wasn’t a foolish swing though.
That’s why I’m here at Joe’s site!!
lol. just giving you crap. love your stuff.
Best line of the day by the shoddy ESPN announcers (while talking about things that happened in 1908, the last year that the Cubs won it all):
I think that was the year McCain was elected to the Senate.
It is always ugly when politics and sports combine.
Posada made a half-hearted wild throw to 2B, but Casilla had a clean steal easily.
Casilla isn’t nearly as terrible as I thought he would be. He made a decent play in the hole earlier and he actually seems like he knows what he is doing in the field. He might not hit more than .220 but…um…never mind.
THAT time, the Twins batter was hit in the back. Good call Gordo!
And thanks Seth….checked out your play-by-play for the first time today. As you’ve already figured out, I trust you more than Gordo & GladMan.
Nice!
Even though it is nothing but scrubs in the game, it is still nice to see a clutch hit.
I wonder what Machados chances are of making the team. I can’t remember if he was on the 40 man roster last year or if he got hurt during spring training.
Just like Machado, Pridie is overmatched on the first 2 pitches and clobbers the 3rd pitch cuz it was a “mistake”.
Another great slap to LF for Pridie for the RBI.
Machado jumped all over the ball on his hit. Now he steals 3rd easily.
Well, they weren’t overmatched. It’s just that the pitcher made good pitches, then a bad one.
Machado was supposed to be on the 25-man last year but got hurt for the year in ST. Would have replaced L-Rod and probably would have seen a lot of action because of Punto’s bad year.
You people remember all those injuries all last year? It just wouldn’t stop. And some weird injuries too…..
Maybe it is a simple case of he isn’t as fast as he used to be with the injury.
That sounds about right. It could be that since it’s Spring Training the coaches are letting him test it. What better way than to see if he can haul out that extra base?
Yanks pitcher Olendrofer (?, whatever) looks awesome throwing 97 mph with movement. Strikes out Ruiz, who had looked good in all aspects.
What the hey, ARod struck out today too.
Ruiz and Casilla look good today. 2009 looks real good for the Twins.
It sounds like Sosa has some nasty stuff but wasn’t locating it real well. I can’t believe how many pitching prospects this team has. Too bad they don’t know when to hold them and when to fold them.
So Jones was the big star, his HR video ending the ESPN signoff of the game.
Hey Joe C. and all you Twins Fans out there,
For cool New Ballpark Updates in PHOTOS, please check out my blog, 408′ at
I try to get to the ballpark site every two or three weeks or so and take all the photos myself!
I just posted some great new photos from today’s big cement pouring for the plaza.
Let me know what you think!
Does anyone here thing that Randy Ruiz has a chance to play with the Twins at any point in the next couple of years? I really don’t. I think he’s a 29 year old organizational filler who struggled at AA last year. Brock Peterson should probably be getting the Ruiz at bats. Depth is good though.
Re: Machado
He was on the 40 man last spring as he was a Rule 5 pick. He was the placed on the 60 day list at the beginning of the season.
I’m a bit unclear what happened after the season. (Was he offered back? passed through waivers? both?) If anyone has info about how that works for a Rule 5 pick please weigh in.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pridie starting in CF on opening day. Gomez may need more time at “AAA” especially if the Twins want him to possibly lead off.
a few impressions from the game (and spring training so far):
1. I know it is pretty early in the spring training, but Gomez is really trying too hard both on the field and on the plate. Maybe he just needs to quit pushing too hard; some veteran mentoring could really help… So far looks like Span might be winning the CF spot, with Pridie being a bench OF and Gomez starting in the minors
2. Slowey had a second bad outing, but his pitching was better than what the numbers indicate. He had absolutely no movement on his fastball and his off-speed stuff was all over the place. Did not help that the plate umpire had a tight strike zone in the beginning of the game.
3. Delmon Young has been a very positive surprise. I think that he might make us forget about Mr. Hunter.
4. Keisler had a very good outing. With the Twins being fairly thin from the left side and Reyes being inconsistent, if he continuous his performance, he could break in the bullpen.
5. Harris was very tentative on the field whereas Casilla made two great plays, he seemed comfortable with the bat and very confident and composed.
6. Unless Monroe comes back flying, I can see Garrett Jones getting his spot as a DH platoon/1b/of/rh pinch hitter player for a discount (he has no options left)
7. Neshek made the Yankees’ batters look like a little league baseball team
re Randy Ruiz:
at this point, he is probably behind Garrett Jones and Jon Knott and all three are competing with Craig Monroe. Unless he has a monster spring, I think that he is Rochester bound or released…
I agree with you buff i’m always a little leary about guys who are that old and still haven’t made a big league roster.
Corey, thanks for the construction photos. They are not wasting any time, are they?
So thrylos98, you’re giving a pass to Slowey for inconsistancy but not as much to Reyes.
I just think if Reyes is healthy he’ll be more than okay.
I agree with you about Harris though. He has to get-goin’. He and Lamb could be clunkers. If so, might as well go with Casilla and Buscher, who looks outstanding this ST.
But Young and Buscher might have great spring trainings only to bogg down during the season.
Mauer didn’t look sharp today. Only spring training……
Yanks obtained Ross Ohlendorf in the trade for Randy Johnson…
Gomez looked aweful today, but I still think he’s the guy for CF. Morneau needs to get going, Mauer looked like he’s in mid season form. Pridie looked good as well but something tells me he’ll be more of a Tyner than a Hunter. ‘Course I could be wrong, time will tell.
Yankees lose their first ST game? Uh-oh, I’d hate to see the deadlines.
“JOBA JOBBER!” “GIRADI FAILS!” “THE SKY IS FALLING!”
Shoudl be “headlines”
The HR that G. Jones hit was a total rocket shot, landing beyond the right field bleachers. I hope they keep him cuz the guy’s got serious power.
I really hope they don’t keep him, because onbase percentages below .300 don’t make for very good baseball players.
I tivo-ed the game. My thoughts.
Slowey’s pitches looked good. Consistently 92 had movenment. Slider had bite in the first inning, didn’t look as good in the second inning as he threw a few hangers. Didn’t seem like he had the feel of his change up. From what I saw, he location was off. He struck out three and walked two. Against a mostly “A” lineup. So he’s got the stuff I think he needs more work on spotting the ball better.
Casilla’s play really jumped out at me. Looked great in the field and seemed under control. Might push Everett if he (Everett) has trouble at the plate.
G Jones HR was a bomb! I still don’t think he’ll do enough to warrant making the team. Buscher looked solid. Harris doesn’t seem to be there. I really hope he picks up his play, don’t want Gardy to be tempted with Punto. I think everyone is underrating Pirdie. He has played very well and error free. He is my choice over Gomez at this point.
I am very excited to watch Young develop. He is a star in the making.
Thoughts/Opinions:
- Pridie is the most capable of the three CF candidates right now. If the Twins go by who can best handle the position opening day, it will be Pridie. Gomez will catch up to Pridie some day, but that day isn’t here yet.
- Slowey has a nice fastball with movement and he locates it well, but that’s his only major league pitch. Same problem he had last year, he has no out pitch. I don’t see a long term future as a starter.
- I concur with opinions above that Harris hasn’t looked very good so far defensively at second. I hope that changes because I do not want to see LNP suck up 500 ABs again.
- I have never understood what anybody sees in Alexi Casilla, and I still don’t. He’s a less talented Luis Rivas, IMO.
- Delmon Young looks good. I’ve seen three games on TV and he’s managed to get at least one good swing in every AB I’ve watched.
“I have never understood what anybody sees in Alexi Casilla, and I still don’t. He’s a less talented Luis Rivas, IMO”
Rivas’ minor league career .256/.311/.367
Casilla’s minor league career .298/.370/.374
Your opinon is just wrong. There is no comparison.
I watched it last night on DVR, as well. It may just be the Hi-Def, but the Twins team we fielded looked really BIG. LNP must feel like a oompa-loompa on the bench with some of these guys. Morneau looked much bigger than Giambi (guess he’s off the sauce)when they were both at first. Ruiz, Gomez, Jones, Young…some pretty big dudes. I like it!!!
I thought Casilla (or Alexa Casillo, as the ESPN guys called him) looked a lot more calm and focused and major league ready. Gomez, on the other hand, has taken his place as the jumpy, over-amped rookie.
Slowey’s got some work to do… his fastball may cut it in early spring training, but he won’t be able to just blow it by them in the season, especially if he can’t get anything else to move. Hopefully he can bring it around. Some other pitchers have been looking good, tho.
I like Pridie so far. Delmon seems to be a lock. I can’t wrap my mind around the infield — it’s a jumble of so-sos to me right now.
Anywho… it sure was fun to watch a game last night!!!!!
Slowey has put up good numbers throughout the minor leagues, but his stuff is average at best. I don’t know if he will be able to cut it in the show.
I hope I am wrong and he can turn into a Radke like guy like everyone was saying he could be. But what we have seen so far between last year and this is not anything like what we heard he was before coming up.
All we heard was that he had great control and command of his pitches. I haven’t seen it.
Might have been able to sell high on him last year and maybe that would have been the right move.
Solid Yankees team preview for 2008 season.
http://mlbfleecefactor.com/2008/03/05/the-2008-new-york-yankees-cashmans-last-stand/
