Bad weather comes at good time for the Twins
Posted on April 10th, 2008 – 9:30 AMBy Joe Christensen
CHICAGO — It’s raining here now, and the forecast calls for showers all day, turning to thunderstorms tonight. But, as a cynical old colleague of mine used to say, at least it’s windy.
I will be surprised if the Twins and White Sox play tonight. Looking ahead, the forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of rain Friday in Kansas City, a 40 percent chance Saturday, and partly cloudy Sunday, with a high of 53 degrees.
For the players, that would feel like Fort Myers.
As a rule, rainouts are never good. But I don’t think the Twins would mind one or two over the next three days. They are beat up and sick right now.
Jason Kubel told us he’s been feeling flu symptoms (stomach and head), which explained why he had a full plate of food but wasn’t eating much after his six-RBI game last night. Justin Morneau didn’t feel great coming to the ballpark Wednesday, and with a 12-4 lead in the eighth inning, Manager Ron Gardenhire rested him by moving Mike Lamb from third base to first base.
Remember, when Michael Cuddyer got hurt, the Twins also lost their primary backup at first base. So when Lamb went to bat in the ninth inning, Gardenhire asked second baseman Brendan Harris if he’d ever played first.
“He said, ‘Not in a game, but yes.’ ”
Harris meant he’d never played first base in a big league game. He’d done it in winter ball.
Well, on the next pitch, Lamb fouled a ball off his right instep. It was hard enough that Lamb left the game, letting Nick Punto finish the at-bat.
Without missing a beat, Gardenhire turned to Harris and said, “Try his [first baseman’s] glove on.”
So the Twins finished their 12-5 victory with Harris at first base, Punto at second, Matt Tolbert at third and Adam Everett at shortstop.
Lamb had X-rays taken but was diagnosed with a bruise.
“That doesn’t feel good on a warm night,” Gardenhire said. “You can imagine how it feels on a cold night.”
Actually, Delmon Young fouled a pitch off his foot earlier in the game, too.
So the weather forecast is rough for the next three days of this trip, but it’s actually coming at a good time for the Twins. In today’s notebook, I noted how it might help with their pitching dilemma, too.
25 Responses to "Bad weather comes at good time for the Twins"
thanks joe
fyi….looks like the indians signed carmona to an extension. i bet this means bye, bye, CC, no?
http://mlbfleecefactor.com/2008/04/10/indians-sign-carmona-to-multiyear-extension/
i bet they will rain out today and play tomorrow.. but they are going to try even if its raining… only if it gets really bad…. or storms
i hope morneau plays today though and same with kubel if we play today.. with lamb.. you know.. he should probably be back soon
if they play today and the flu doesnt go away i see harris at first punto at 3rd tolbert at 2nd everett at ss with a lineup of this…
gomez
harris
mauer
young
tolbert
monroe
punto
everett
span
Joe: You’re all over it. Now, go have breakfast. Thanks.
do we still have guys on here who want to send gomez down to save service time? he may not be 100% ready but he seems to be in the middle of most of our scoring.
Carmona got a 7 year contract from the Indians. I don’t agree with giving a pitcher that many years, but you have to admire Cleveland for locking up its
core players. If Terry Ryan would have followed that philosophy (with Pohlad’s blessing) our 2008 Twins would look much better. However, I do like our young players and the future is still very promising.
3 of the years are options, though. that’s a great deal for cle.
we have one emergency 1st baseman and that it..
morneau 1st
cuddy backup
lamb backup
redmond emergency backup (played 3 games at 1st in 2000 and 2001 together)
On Gomez, we can still send him down for the 2 months if he hits a big slump. If not, I’d rather have him up and spend the money.
The game better not be rained out tonight. We have the Cuban defectors matchup all set: Livan Hernandez vs. Jose Contreras. All of Cuba is waiting in anticipation.
The 3 option years are a huge difference maker in favor of the team.
If Ryan/Pohlad had locked pitchers up for 7 years without options, yes, we’d still be watching Santana pitch… but most likely we’d be continuing to pay off Joe Mays and Kyle Lohse, too. Have to be careful how broad that brush is that you use to paint with. I’d never give even a 6 year guaranteed contract to any pitcher and 5 would make me nervous. But the 4 + 3 option years is getting creative. It will be interesting to see what the financial terms are (how expensive will it be to opt out of those options?)
I dont see this affecting Sabathia’s situation… he’s been destined to leave ever since they broke off talks in the spring.
gomez
harris
mauer
young
tolbert
monroe
punto
everett
span
If that’s what they gotta do, that’s what they gotta do. That would pretty much wipe the bench out too (I think just Redmond would be available)
Gardy should get creative. Put Mauer at 1st and have Redmond catch.
Gomez CF
Harris 2B
Mauer 1B
Young LF
Kubel RF
Monroe DH
Redmond C
Tolbert 3B
Everett SS
Or sometihng like that.
If nobody else is healthy…Span and Punto is your bench for the evening.
Who has the best chance between Kansas City, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Florida (who are all division leaders right now)to actually make a run at being relevant this year???
Any mentioning why Slowey is still not on DL, making this team play with 24 players? Are they expecting a miraculous recovery? From what I’ve heard he was not going to pitch anyways because he couldn’t
Jeff Reboulet, Maybe KC
St Louis, KC looks good now but they will not stick with Cleveland and Detroit is not going to be a last place team.
it would seem that anyone (position players) that has made it to the major leauges would have enough athletic ability to play a game at first base in an emergency.
thrylos,
They won’t make a decision on Slowey until they have to.
With tonight’s game looking like a rain out, that pushes the need for a 5th starter to at least Tuesday.
They are not going to call up a bat before they need a pitcher so they are just going to wait until the have to make a move.
Can anyone explain why the Twins thought Liriano needed to spend some time in the minors before joining the big club, but they kept Crain on the big league roster? I heard the Twins say they won’t pitch Crain on back to back days for a while because he isn’t ready for that yet and they want to take it slow, and that was one of the reasons for keeping 12 pitchers on the staff. Seems to me like they could have kept Crain on one of the minor league rosters until he was fully ready and that would help with having an extra bench bat in the lineup. But maybe they aren’t able to send Crain down any more without risk of losing him, I don’t know.
because sisco is are future. crain is just a reliever.
I understand that Liriano is the future, and I’m fine with their decision to take it slow with him. My point was just that, if they are concerned about not overworking pitchers early in the season (which seems to be the point of carrying 12 pitchers) then why would you keep a guy on the roster who is incapable at this point of pitching back to back days?
game postponed ….damn
thrylos98,
“Any mentioning why Slowey is still not on DL, making this team play with 24 players?”
Playing one SP short, when the schedule only requires four is no real handicap.
The position players all need more at bats instead of days off.
I guess one more reliever could be useful if the SP’s are leaving the games early. If not, that extra reliever may be starved for work also - especially with the day off and the postponements.
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