Delmon's streak ends

Delmon Young has been bad so far, and there have been calls to give him a day off. Ron Gardenhire continued to resist, saying Delmon "likes to play".
I probably don't need to point out what a lame cop-out that is. I'd like to play LF every day for the Twins, too. That's not a good enough reason to put a guy in the lineup.

It sure smelled a lot like Gardy was afraid of Delmon. The young Young has a history of losing his temper on occasion, and while he's behaved for the most part since joining the Twins, his short and curt interviews suggested that there was still something of a loose cannon sizzling beneath the surface.
But after a really rough couple of weeks, it was clear that Delmon could probably benefit from a day or three to take a step back and watch things, so Gardy sucked it up and wrote out a lineup card that didn't have Delmon's name on it, ending his streak of 217 consecutive games played.
Reporters requested to visit with Young before the game, and he refused. This smelled like trouble. But after the game, Young seemed to be responding the way you'd hope.

"I’ll take a day off any time,” he told the Strib. “I’ve been having days off (playing badly), except my stats keep going down,” he said. “This one, stays even.”

Asked if Tuesday’s inside-the-park play was on his mind when he missed Alex Gordon’s fly ball Wednesday, he said, “I just flat-out missed that ball. The night before doesn’t really bother me after about 30 seconds go by.”

Whether or not Delmon Young is nice to reporters has nothing to do with whether or not he'll ever realize his potential, but the fact that he took his first benching well is definitely a good sign. I know I'm not alone in having sensed recently that Delmon's cranky attitude was starting to become a concern, and that could be a factor in his development as a player.

I feel a little better today about his chances of figuring it out. Maybe he gets it after all.