Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Hurricane Irma could be an issue next week

There’s still a lot of uncertainty about the future path this monster might take, but there could certainty be a few short-term impacts from the hurricane threatening the SE United States.

A bit of a topic departure for us today, but let’s get right into this – starting with the schedule.  The Atlanta Braves are continuing their homestand through this weekend, with games against the Rangers (2 more) and Marlins (3 through Sunday).

After that, there’s another one of these bizarre single-city road trips to Washington (3 games, starting next Tuesday the 12th).

For other squads in the general path:

• Miami:  The Fish are currently hosting Washington through Wednesday.  Happily for them, they will be in Atlanta this weekend, then in Philadelphia after a Monday (11th) off-day.
• Tampa Bay:  they are home with the Twins through Wednesday, have a Thursday off-day, then head to Boston for the weekend, returning home to play the Yankees starting on Monday the 11th.

Here is the latest from the National Hurricane Center on their data about Irma – currently a Category 5+ storm (it would be on the cusp of a Cat 6… if there was a ‘6’ on that scale).

The Turn

The trick with this storm is going to be in waiting out “the turn”.  Irma will be skimming by the northern shores of Puerto Rico, San Salvador, and Cuba – taking aim at the Florida Keys.

At some point near Florida, it will encounter a cold front coming across the country.  At that point, Irma’s forward progress will be halted, and a near-90° right-hand turn will take place.

Forecasters and forecast models are currently split on exactly when that turn will take place and which side of Florida will get the brunt of Irma’s (forecasted) Category 4 winds.

Right now, the ‘turn’ is forecasted to happen somewhere in the early hours of Sunday morning around Key West, Florida, which puts SW Florida in the cross-hairs of a Sunday night landfall.

The good news?  This is no Harvey.  Once Irma clears Florida, it will be off to the races – probably past Nova Scotia a day or two later.  This one won’t hang around.

If you’ve been following our stories on the subject, there’s a series of votes currently scheduled in Sarasota County to give final approval to the Braves’ new Spring Training home in North Port.  The meetings – 3 of them – are scheduled for Tuesday, September 11th. 

If Hurricane Irma hits in that area, those meetings and those votes are likely to be postponed for a while.  Even a week or two might not matter too much in terms of the construction schedule, but it’s still a delay, and that introduces more risk – particularly if the area needs workers to fix the damage to residential homes and businesses.

Certainly a new baseball facility would have to take a back seat to the needs of the local residents.

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Major League Schedules

While there might be an outside chance of rain on Sunday as the Marlins series finishes up, the Braves could be impacted a bit from the Hurricane once it leaves Florida, too.

That Tuesday game in Washington could certainly be washed out (ditto for the Marlins in Philly).  Likewise, the Rays and Yankees might even have trouble getting to the Tampa airport for their tilt on Monday.

It’s not a good time of the year to pile on double-headers (though there are some extra days off in September to try and avoid exactly such scenarios), but it’s also never a good time for a major hurricane to hit land, period.

Here’s the box score from yesterday’s bashing at the hands of the Rangers:

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Next: Full Game Recap

Y’all stay vigilant if you’re in the southern reaches of Braves Country.