Saturday news, notes, rain and brushes with rock stars

Update…The game has been called and no make up date has been set as of yet. They will not play a double header tomorrow. Pineda will start and we should know tomorrow if they adjust the pitching beyond that.

And a very rainy Saturday it is. The skies are starting to brighten up however. Hopefully we will be able to finish this game and not have to play a getaway double header tomorrow. That makes for a loooonnnggg day.

If you follow me on Twitter (@shannondrayer ) and you should, you heard that we had a little fun last night. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has opened a Women in Rock exhibit, and to kick it off they are having a series of concerts this weekend. A bunch of the traveling party saw Cyndi Lauper in the lobby bar last night. Kind of a strange sight to say the least.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were at the hotel as well. I believe they are the backup band for the events this weekend at the RR HOF. The group is from New York and the guitarist is a huge baseball fan. He told me he spent some time talking to one of the relievers last night and he asked what they do to pass the time in the bullpen. Apparently someone has been making claymation characters out of bubble gum. You heard it here first…

On to the pregame notes…As I mentioned on the pre game show Brandon League is getting the day off. Hey may get more than one but Eric Wedge did assert that he is still the closer of this team.

“Today it is a good day for him to watch a ballgame and go from there. We will see how it is tomorrow and take it day by day.”

What does that mean? I have no doubt we will see League closing again soon but depending on what they see and hear from him tomorrow they could opt to get in a bullpen session to address some of the problems we have been seeing, namely, letting the ball get up.

Wedge also said that he would have liked to see him mix in his splitter a bit more last night. I asked if he has been mixing it in enough before then and Wedge said that he actually has been throwing it more than perhaps we have been able to tell.

“He’s been throwing it quite a bit actually. Sometimes I think he throws it so hard people don’t think it is a split because he really throws it hard, but for some reason we didn’t see it as much yesterday.”

So League sits today.

Sitting on a plane today is Dan Cortes who was sent back to Tacoma to make room for Jeff Gray. While it is tough to be sent back it is the best move. He needs to pitch.

Shawn Kelley will pitch soon in AA. His bullpen session went well yesterday and he will head out tomorrow on his rehab assignment.

Franklin Gutierrez continues to make progress at AAA. I asked if they were getting close to making a decision about a return date and Wedge said they were not quite ready to do that.

“Not yet,” he said. “He felt good last night and will be back in the field for nine innings tonight. He still needs to play.”

At this point it is about getting out there back to back to back and feeling strong. Wedge said that his weight is not an issue, he has regained what he lost.

That’s it for now. Looking more and more like we will play 2 tomorrow.