A commenter on Tuesday inquires: Do you see any late-season consequences to having so many games rained out without being immediately made up?
Answer: I don't think it's that many right now.
Tuesday was the third postponement of the young season, but that's to be made up on Thursday evening, so that won't be a problem later in the year. It does jam up the starting rotation a bit, and I assume that if the Twins can get through the Tampa Bay series without dipping into the Eric Hacker well that he'll pick up a start this weekend.
The one that irritates is the first one, in New York. The Twins were, at least on paper, in the better position for that game in terms of pitching; it was the Yankees fifth starter (Freddie Garcia) scheduled, and fearsome late inning relievers Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera were probably both unavailable.
That game has yet to be rescheduled. The Twins had only the one trip to New York scheduled (and why a one-trip series got put in the worst weather week is one of those mysteries known only to the schedule maker), and the teams have relatively few mutual off days. There's no available makeup date that isn't quite inconvenient for one or the other. One date would have the Twins interrupting a homestand to fly to and from NYC; another would fall on a Yankee travel day to the West Coast. My guess is that it will be the Twins inconvenienced.
The other one, Friday against Cleveland, isn't a bad deal for the Twins, at least on paper. Had that game been played — or Tuesday's, for that matter — the Twins wouldn't have had Joe Mauer or Tsuyoshi Nishioka or Kevin Slowey available. The Friday game would also have been without Delmon Young.
We don't know who'll be hurt or slumping when the games are played, but those are some fairly significant people out now.
We don't know who'll be hurt or slumping when the games are played, but those are some fairly significant people out now.
Can't believe the Twins called up a left-hander hitter to replace Young. Can't believe they waited almost a week. Don't know who's responsible for the tardy decision.
ReplyDeleteThe word all weekend was that Young was sure to be ready by Tuesday; they almost played him Sunday.
ReplyDeleteAs for a left-handed OF getting the call: Joe Benson isn't coming up until he's deemed likely to stick, and the other OFs on on the 40-man roster are lefties. With Mauer on the DL and Thome hurting, another lefty bat isn't a terrible thing anyway.