Twins-Devil Rays lineups
Posted on April 12th, 2007 – 6:48 PMBy La Velle
Watch how the Twins go after Casey Fossum today. Fossum throws his fastball away and tries to come inside to righties with his slider. He’s been known to hang his slider at times, so players like Torii Hunter will be looking to take the fastball to the opposite field and pound the hanging slider.
The team is REALLY loose today. All that Yankee-related stress is gone…Sorry I didn’t post the Perkins move after the game. I had a newspaper (remember those?) deadline…Carlos Silva is 1-1 with a 2.84 ERA in his career against the Devil Rays…
Tampa Bay
1. Rocco Baldelli, DH
2. Ben Zobrist, SS
3. Carl Crawford, LF
4. Ty Wigginton, 2B
5. Delmon Young, RF
6. Akinori Iwamura
7. Dioner Navarro, C
8. Carlos Pena, 1B
9. Elijah Dukes, CF
Pitching: Casey Fossum
1. Luis Castillo, 2B
2. Nick Punto, 3B
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Michael Cuddyer, RF
5. Justin Morneau, 1B
6. Torii Hunter, CF
7. Jason Kubel, LF
8. Josh Rabe, DH
9. Alexi Casilla, SS
Pitching: Carlos Silva
37 Responses to "Twins-Devil Rays lineups"
Gotta work the count on Fossum, but take advantage as you say. The guy has great stuff; control has always been his issue.
Let’s go guys!
Wow Bartlett on the bench 2 days in a row…In Gardy’s doghouse already???
I would’ve really liked to see Bartlett out there. Yeah he’s had a few errors and some trouble at the plate, but benching him isn’t going to help the problem, and I think he should get at least a month to prove himself.
LEN3 - is Bartlett benched or is the groin still bothering him?
Gardy wants to give Bart one more day off because of the groin.
EEPHUS! Oh my….
The one and only team Silva seems to have success against. Beautiful.
advice: ditch all those shares of “Silva sucks” that you got conned into
Silva’s got his groove back
maybe turn your failure hungry gaze onto Ponson
Cuddyer gets into the batter’s box, and Jim Souhan and I have the following conversation:
Souhan: Cuddy’s got to do some damage here.
Me: Yeah, he’s got to hit one out where that, `Champions,’ sign is in center.
Souhan: Right, unless (Fossum) busts him inside with something.
Me: Fossum won’t come in with the fastball, so you’ve got to look away, but he he’ll come in with the slider, and sometimes he hangs one.
Cuddyer then pounds a breaking ball into the seats for a two-run homer.
Souhan looks over a Joe Christensen and says: “We called that one.”
Trust me, it may the only time we’re right all year…
It’s a long season I’ll consider Laying off sliva at the All-star break. Maybe.
La Velle,
Dick and Bert would be proud of that call.
Please bullpen, don’t ruin this one.
Rincon gives up a HR a hit and a walk and Gardy leaves him in and now we are tied. Why do you leave a guy in!!!!!!!!!
I agree david…after the walk he has to be pulled. What a job by Neshek, though.
Thank god Neshek was ready to pitch, How can we only have 6 hits against a guy with a era of almost 18, I hope are guys start hitting we couldn’t of as for a better match up than Tampa after the Yankees to cure our hitting ….or so I thought.
Another good started wasted by Silva. We need to take advantage of the good starts that Silva has….because we do not know how long that will last. If these guys couldn’t his fossum how will they hi Kazmir
I don’t get why Rincon was put in in the first place, his mind is obviously elsewhere with his family matters.
Why do you bring Nathen in in a tie ball game? If it goes to extra innings you just wasted a pitcher weather it be Neshek or Nathen
This is why we need to beable to get the guys hitting in the # 1 and 2 spots in the lineup on base we can’t hope that someone is going to hit a homerun that’s not the kind of team we are.
Oh Canada!
Okay maybe we can wait for someone to hit a homerun. To bad we wasted Silvas great Start. But at least we won!
Unreal…if we hit we have a very good chance at being 9-3 after this home stand I think are pitching will be okay for the next 3 games We shouln’t need the bullpen in Santana’s game and then they will be rested for Sidney. Like I said unreal.
You definitely bring Nathan in for the 9th…the rule of thumb is if you’re the home team and the game is tied, use your closer for the 9th…
Theory being, A) There’s no longer a save situation to save your closer for…and B) There’s no guarantee of a 10th inning, so you might as well use your best pitcher for the 9th.
What a ball game!
1) I agree with David. I prefer not to bring Nathan into tie games. Start the inning with Neshek and go from there. If this were the playoffs, I might look at it a little differently, but use the closer for closing (with that said, I also see no reason not to bring the closer in during the 8th inning to rescue a game that is on the verge of collapse).
2) Again, I have to agree with David. Gardy went back to his unwavering faith in Rincon as the man whether or not he has his good stuff or not. This seems like a broken record, but if Rincon doesn’t have it, it inevitably spells disaster. We usually know after one or two batters. (He usually walks at least one hitter at least.) Whenever Rincon is in the meltdown mode, I can’t help thinking back to that collapse against the Yankees in the playoffs back in 2004 when Gardy left Rincon in until four runs had scored in the eighth. Don’t get me wrong; when Rincon has good stuff and good control, he is tough, but when he doesn’t have it, he needs to be yanked.
3) Concerning Silva, I am here eating my crow sandwich, but I am happy (and surprised) that he has turned in two good starts.
4) The hitting hasn’t been impressive so far. I keep thinking that Iwamura (which translates into Rock-Town…what a great nickname) could be playing 3rd for the Twins. I was really hoping that the Twins would make a play for him. He doesn’t command the attention of Matsuzaka, but he also doesn’t command the price tag.
5) Morneau’s bat has basically won two games for the Twins already.
Skippy, pass that crow sandwich over here. Good job Carlos. I have this weird feeling that Sid will pitch really well this week. Anyway, we won an ugly one. Go Twins!
You put in Nathan because you don’t lose in Extra innings with your best pitcher on the bench. The odds are the game won’t go past the 11th inning anyway nathan pitches the 9th and 10th then you start to worry about who comes in if you haven’t won yet.
I understand your point Paul; however, I don’t agree with it. I have always believed tie games are a completely different animal than being ahead by a run. This is an overgeneralization, but closers tend to pitch better when they come in to close games (there are exceptions: Mariano Rivera for example) out. They thrive on holding that one run lead. I agree that Nathan is the best pitcher that the Twins have if he comes in as a closer or in a situation of desperation. Neither was the case today, and Nathan wasn’t his usual nasty self on the mound. (He didn’t exactly fool anyone.)
There’s no save to be had in the 9th inning (and beyond) in a tied home game.
If the manager puts anyone besides Nathan on the mound for the 9th in a tie game, and they give up a run (and the lead), there’d be a lot of squawking about why Nathan was left on the bench.
The team had the lead in the bottom of the 8th, so Nathan was ready to start the 9th anyhow. Might as well put him out there, even if the Rays did tie it and take away the save opportunity.
Paul is 100% right. This is a no-brainer….everyone in baseball knows you use your best pitcher for the 9th (and maybe 10th as well) in a tie game when you’re the home team.
All that said Garza not Silva so vehemently and without a doubt, are you ready to start trusting the twins decision making? When they do bring Garza up, odds are it will be better for Garza and the twins, because he will have had the additional experience they felt he needed. And Silva has made a lot of people eat crow so far. Who knows if that will continue, but at this point in the season, I score another one for Gardy, Ryan, and the coaches who make the decisions. A couple KFAN broadcasters need to eat the crow with the feathers still on it!!! GO TWINS!!!!
It was good to see a different team have a brain fart running the bases.
I believe the Twins are waiting to see who Garza will replace (Silva or Ponson)…it’s a matter of when, not if.
And that said, Silva has a huge early lead in that race.
So, should we just give Silva his 2007 Cy Young award the same night as Johan gets his from last year, or wait until later in the year?
Maybe we can do it when the Tigers come into town, and he can get it when Chris Shelton gets his MVP award from last year.
A few games doesn’t mean anything guys. Give it until June, then bring out your “I heart Silva” signs.
enjoying my crow as well….either way we need to start to put some hits together, time to shake up that lineup perhaps….punto to 8 hole, and move everyone else up one spot? i kinda like Rabe in there too!!
Agreed, Yoke. But Silva did buy himself at least a two-month review.
If he started out with two bad outings, he’d be a start or two away from leaving the team at this point…so as far as that goes, you have to feel good for him and the team.
Yoke: You can say it’s early all you want, but if he’d had two bad starts you and everyone else would be calling to have him pulled ASAP.
If he’d started badly, would you want to wait until June to see if it would continue?
Nobody’s saying Silva is Cy Young. It’s just that some people are glad he’s doing well, rather than hoping he starts to suck again by June so their doomsaying turns out to be right.
Garza’s not ready
he relies too heavily on his fastball in tight situations
that works in the minors, but the bigs are well stocked with players that can hit above average heat
throw in contract considerations, and I’ll be surprised to see Garza get called up before the rosters expand in the fall
Perkins is up now, if a starter falters he’ll get the shot at the rotation, not Garza
I’m glad he’s doing well, and I’m not trying to rip him, but I’m not going to tell anyone that he’s back to how he was a couple years ago.
The reason he would be on such a short leash is because of last season. Not just a couple weeks in spring. Bad springs happen. Bad seasons is what makes me not buy in until June (just like I’m not going after Punto and Bartlett quite yet).
Make it a trend, and I’ll be on the Silva bandwagon, giggling and high fiving, but it’s going to take more than 2 good starts to get me on there.
