Twins vs Rays, 08-12-2012, 1:10pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Twins:
Denard Span CF
Ben Revere RF
Joe Mauer C
Josh Willingham DH
Justin Morneau 1B
Ryan Doumit LF
Alexi Casilla 2B
Brian Dozier SS
Jamey Carroll 3B
(Scott Diamond P)

Rays:
Jennings LF
Upton CF
Zobrist RF
Longoria DH
Keppinger 3B
Pena 1B
Roberts 2B
Rodriguez SS
Lobaton C
(Shields P)

[fatbeer]

Batting 10th and Catching Drew Butera

[fatbeer]

Dougout box seats for $15!!! I love rain

[Ultima Ratio]

Is Doumit in LF? (You've got two catchers listed)

[Brock Beauchamp]

Hah, RotoWorld didn't get the lineups right... I'll see if I can't find another source.

[Ultima Ratio]

Yep, Doumit is in left, Bollinger's tweet.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Good God. Just walk Jennings.

[glunn]

Damn, already trailing.

[greengoblinrulz]

Pavano scheduled to pitch for Ft Myers today (3 innings) followed by Gibson (2-3 innings) rained out, with an offday Monday.....cannot catch a break. Dont think we'll see Carl before Sept.....more Blackburn

[twinsnorth49]

Morneau......finished, lol!!!

[twinsnorth49]

Huge glove save by Diamond!!!....Ken Dryden would be proud!

[Brock Beauchamp]

I'm not big on bunting but that was a pretty nice attempt by Revere.

[greengoblinrulz]

Big Canadian started out 8-80 off lefties.....20-50 since with .500slgg
Since July 1 (before today) 32gms .....43/128 (.336BAve w/.523slgg) 5hr 21rbi
finishes strong.....can we get something good for him this offseason???

[glunn]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

[Brock Beauchamp]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

The Rays are a great organization and have done a fantastic job at almost every level.

But remember that their success is recent. They had a decade of picking in the top five every season. During that same period, the Twins rarely drafted higher than 15th. I'm not discounting the Rays' success but the real test will be their player development on the guys they draft when they had to pick 20th or later in the draft every June. Since Price was taken with the first overall pick in 2007, Tampa Bay has not had a drafted player contribute to their major league team. Not entirely unexpected but still something to consider.

[greengoblinrulz]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

they've also focused on it...their regular lineup hasnt always been the greatest. Pieced the lineup together for the most part over their run....Crawford/Longo are/were ALL Stars, but other than that Madden has shown his brilliance by putting pieces together.

[jokin]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

Yes.

[jokin]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

they've also focused on it...their regular lineup hasnt always been the greatest. Pieced the lineup together for the most part over their run....Crawford/Longo are/were ALL Stars, but other than that Madden has shown his brilliance by putting pieces together.

But...but...managers make virtually no difference to the W-L record.../s(n)arc

[jokin]

The Rays are a small market team yet always seem to have better pitching than the Twins.

Is this a matter of better scouting, better player development or something else?

The Rays are a great organization and have done a fantastic job at almost every level.

But remember that their success is recent. They had a decade of picking in the top five every season. During that same period, the Twins rarely drafted higher than 15th. I'm not discounting the Rays' success but the real test will be their player development on the guys they draft when they had to pick 20th or later in the draft every June. Since Price was taken with the first overall pick in 2007, Tampa Bay has not had a drafted player contribute to their major league team. Not entirely unexpected but still something to consider.

I think it was the TV guys who mentioned coming into this series that the Rays take pride in developing their own and that they were on a streak of 234 consecutive games starting their own signed players.

[Ultima Ratio]

Why did Span leave the game?