Nightly Notes: Game #49

I'm not committed enough to have all that much to say about a game that produced a drubbing like this. Expect the notes to be short.

1.) I'll start with the positive. I love watching big league debuts, and Matt Macri had a good one tonight, going 2-for-3 with a couple of singles, a stolen base, a walk, a run scored and an RBI. That's a very nice way to start a big league career. Macri turns 26 in a couple of days, so this seems like the perfect time for him to break out a little bit. The only other comment I have is that he's a bit bigger than I thought he would be -- I never bothered to look at his height and weight before tonight, but his player file on the Twins website lists him at 6'2" and 215 lbs. I look forward to see him get some playing time in the next week or so, and am somewhat hopeful that he'll play well enough to stick around when Nick Punto comes back.

2.) When Scott Baker is ready, the Twins need to put him in Boof Bonser's spot in the rotation. Bonser's ERA now sits at over 6.00, and while everybody has a bad game once in awhile, Bonser has been bad most of the year. He managed to put together a reasonably efficient start his last time out, but that was an aberration -- most of the time, it's a struggle to get him through 6 innings in under 100 pitches. His curve ball occasionally is nasty, but too often its just a big lolling pitch that a player can time and drive. If Bonser had any options left, I don't think there's any question that he'd be on his way back to AAA. Since he's out of options, the Twins will have a tougher call to make.

I don't really want the Twins to completely give up on Bonser by trying to pass him through waivers, although it might be worth it to see what kind of offer he could fetch through a waiver trade. I guess the only real possibility would be to put him in the bullpen for awhile, but with the bullpen struggling I don't know that that's a great option either. Basically, Bonser has put the Twins in an uncomfortable position for which there isn't a great answer. I just don't think the team can afford to keep trotting him out once every five days, especially when it would be at the expense of Glen Perkins or Kevin Slowey. UPDATE: Looks like the Twins are probably thinking along the lines of putting Bonser in the bullpen when Baker is ready, according to Joe C. of the Strib. Makes sense to me.

3.) Suddenly, Brian Bass has an ERA of 5.74 and Juan Rincon has an ERA of 4.50. Going to take awhile for Bass to recover from that humdinger of a line -- 1.1 innings, 7 earned runs on 7 hits. Ugh.

4.) Tomorrow is the best day of auto racing all year. The best individual race, in my opinion, is the Daytona 500 because it marks the return of racing from a mostly barren (in a racing sense) winter, and because its just a great race to watch. However, even though Daytona is the best single race, even it can't compare with the trifecta that takes place tomorrow. Starting at 5:30 AM Mountain time, Formula 1 holds the Grand Prix of Monaco -- a great race on an extremely narrow track. That's followed up with the Indianapolis 500, and while that race isn't what it used to be it's still a great spectacle. Finally, the evening concludes with NASCAR's longest race -- the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. I will be sitting on my couch all day tomorrow watching racing (the Twins will be on my computer, and hopefully will avoid losing by 16 runs).

5.) Just for the record, I'm rooting for the Celtics and Penguins tonight. Boston looks good, but the Pens have some work to do in the third period.