Should be a fun night in the chat as the Twins look to win another series from a Central Division foe AND the MLB First-Year Player Draft is in full swing.
MLB.com is running live draft coverage over at their website, and all signs point towards the Twins drafting the toolsy high school outfielder Byron Buxton out of Georgia. Baseball America rates him as the best talent available in the 2012 draft and with the Twins unlikely to turn their team around in the immediate future, fans should not be concerned about the lengthy development time of a high schooler. After the #2 pick the Twins still have 4 more of the top 75 picks, and they will likely add a couple of college arms and then look for middle infield depth.
UPDATE: TWINS TAKE BYRON BUXTON WITH THE 2ND OVERALL PICK.
Oh, and here are the line ups for the game, which is being played tonight, not 3-5 years in the future (who would have thought: the Twins have 3 hitters hitting .280+ at the top of the line up and Joe Mauer has the day off to nurse his thumb):
Minnesota Twins |
@ |
Kansas City Royals |
| Span, CF | Gordon, LF | |
| Revere, RF | Giavotella, 2B | |
| Willingham, DH | Butler, DH | |
| Morneau, 1B | Moustakas, 3B | |
| Doumit, C | Francoeur, RF | |
| Plouffe, LF | Hosmer, 1B | |
| Dozier, SS | Escobar, A, SS | |
| Casilla, A, 2B | Dyson, CF | |
| Carroll, 3B | Quintero, C | |
| _De Vries, P | _Smith, W, |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Minnesota | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 12 | 2 |
| Kansas City | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 1 |
Cole DeVries picked up his first Major League win by surviving five innings. He wasn’t great, but he also had some pretty erratic defense behind him at times. The bullpen came through yet again and the offense tagged Royals pitching for 10 runs on 12 hits.
Once again, there was no shortage of Boyfriend of the Day candidates. Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau and Trevor Plouffe went deep. But in the end, we’re going with co-BOD awards for Ben Revere (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and a stolen base) and Jamey Carroll (3 hits and a walk in four trips to the plate including a triple, 2 runs, 2 RBI, and a stolen base). Those are some good numbers! – JC
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