Improbables (let's face it, it's going to snow tonight)
- Monday, 7:10pm, FSN: Kevin Correia vs. Ricky Nolasco, 35 degrees, 2-5" of snow
- Tuesday, 12:10pm, NO TV: Mike Pelfrey vs. Jose Fernandez, 43 degrees, partly sunny
Marlins Notes
- As we will mention roughly 1,398 times on this site over the next two days, former Twins catcher Mike Redmond is now managing the Marlins. We loved Red Dog here at TT, for being tough and crusty and because all of that and his penchant for nudity led to us making thousands of jokes about him, some of them even good ones. (As an example, this.) We miss him, and we're glad to see him back in Minneapolis, if even for two days.
- That said: the Marlins are straight-up awful. They lost again Sunday, making them 4-15 for the year. Extrapolated out to a full season, that's - gulp - 34-128. And it's not like they're unlucky; they've scored just 43 runs while allowing 89, which works out to an expected W-L of, you guessed it, 4-15.
- Giancarlo Stanton was supposed to be the one bright spot on the team, but he's been awful. He's hitting .188, has driven in just one run, hasn't hit a home run, and has made three errors. "I probably could have batted left-handed and done the equivalent of what I’ve done so far this year," Stanton told the Miami Herald. "Like I said, I couldn’t play worse if I tried."
- Our guy Jon Rauch was in the headlines yesterday, as he got two outs in the eighth inning against Cincinnati, while allowing five runs on four hits and a walk. He also allowed three inherited runners to score.
- Kevin Slowey is also now a Marlin, and he's actually been quite good, with a 1.90 ERA in four starts. This being Miami, of course, he's still 0-2, as they've managed to score three runs total in those four starts.
Twins Notes
- Both teams have off days on Wednesday, and I wouldn't be surprised if Monday's game ends up on Wednesday instead.
- Injury report: Samuel Deduno threw 50 pitches in extended spring training, on his way to building up to 90 or so, the first step in eventually replacing a struggling Mike Pelfrey in the Twins rotation. Tim Wood pitched his first inning at Triple-A on Saturday, striking out two. Darin Mastroianni is in a walking boot and is on the disabled list until early May. Cole De Vries may be on his way to Fort Myers for a rehab assignment (strangely, the team website is unclear on this.)
- I know it seems impossible, but the Twins - winners of four straight - had three winning streaks of four games or more last year. The last one was July 27-July 30, as they swept the Indians and then beat the White Sox. Their longest streak of the year was five games; to find a longer one, you have to go back to their eight-game streak in June 2011.