Rainout

With last night’s rain comes today’s double header starting (and on MLBTV) at 11:00. The decision-making going on last night highlights some of the difficulties in Triple-A, International League scheduling. The Bulls play out-of-division teams twice in the season a four-day home stand and a four-day away series. That’s it. There’s no return opportunity. With a rainout early in a series, every effort is made to schedule a double-header within the four-day visit. But sometimes that’s not possible (for example, when the rainout is on the last day of the series). If that happens, then they try to schedule a double-header in the next meeting. If they can’t pull that off, then the teams don’t meet again in the regular season.

Thus, last year the Durham Bulls only (only!) played 143 games instead of 144.

So, there they are in Indianapolis. Rained out in the third game. The twist is that the Bulls have a 6:00 PM flight booked for today. The Bulls rarely fly, but with a day off on Wednesday, I’m guessing the idea was to get home and take advantage of the day. I’m also guessing they are going to try to get the two 7-inning games in and make the plane. Glad I’m not the equipment guy for that rush to the airport.

While we wait for today’s game to start, a look around the web:

• Dirk Hayhurst has been using his “vacation” from the starting rotation to serve up advice to fellow minor leaguers, most recently a meditation on truck stop food.
• What happens to the wife and family when a player retires? Take a look at a recent entry on The Life of a Baseball Wife. Gotta say that business about fans chasing down addresses is a bit creepy.
• Craig Robinson, over at FlipFlopFlyBall has several new “infographics”. One of interest to Rays fans is a detailed analysis of Manny Ramirez’ contribution this season.
• Durham residents Elliot Johnson and Chris Richard get some love from local magazine.
• Stats geek alert: Interesting way of looking at FIP and ERA over at DRaysBay.