FORT MYERS, FLA. – Twins righthander Kevin Correia was scratched from his scheduled batting practice session Monday because of a stiff neck.
"He said he could have pitched," pitching coach Rick Anderson said, "but why risk it?"
The Twins are confident that Correia's neck problem is very minor, to the point that he's already scheduled to pitch Thursday during an intrasquad game at the Lee County Sports Complex.
Correia was 9-13 with a 4.18 ERA in 31 starts last year.
Righthander Phil Hughes is also scheduled to pitch in that intrasquad game, with the rest of the pitching lineup to consist of young arms.
Collision decision
Major League Baseball announced the addition of experimental rule 7.13 on home plate collisions. Umpires will have the authority to declare a base- runner out if he went out of his way to make contact with whoever is covering home plate. A runner can also be called safe if the person covering home plate goes out of his way to block home plate.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire remains concerned about how the rule will be implemented.
"We need more information on it," Gardenhire said. "I need pictures. I need to see plays they're talking about. What they want our catchers to do. What we want our baserunners to do. We need video of it to give to our players instead of saying this is what we're going do and make a call on it."
