I think I've solved the issue with the lack of content/posts on the site. I've decided to bring in a partner. TRE from www.stillgothope.com. He's a pretty funny dude and a good writer, he's a Twins and Gopher fan, and this should increase the amount of Gopher football coverage on this site by eleventy billion percent. He's already written one post, on a weekend no less, and basically called me stupid so he should fit in here just fine. I've always thought I had a tougher road because I'm the only Gopher blog with only one writer and especially lately I haven't been bringing the quantity or quality, but now we don't have to worry about that anymore. So welcome aboard, TRE. If you suck you won't just be fired, you'll be killed.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Justin Morneau. His batting average last week was actually pretty crappy at .240, but of his 6 hits four of them were HR bombs which is a great sign, and his batting average on balls in play was just .125 which says he was pretty damn unlucky last week, outside of hitting the ball 1000 miles a few times. If you remember last year, before captain softhead was put down for the season the big problem was that he wasn't hitting the ball with any kind of power. His ISO (which is slugging-batting average and measures raw power without it being a function of a high average) was .106, which was less than half his career average and nowhere near what he usually does and was a huge reason many people, myself included, were wondering if perhaps the head injury had broken his brain enough where he had turned into a slap hitter. Well I'm not really worried about that anymore. Now I'm just hoping they can trade him for BOATLOADS.
2. Stephen Strasburg. I've never made it a secret that I'm desperately in love with the Stras but he's kind of like Natalie Portman and the more you learn about him the more you love him and now apparently he can hit, too. No, I won't waste your time drooling over his pitching again because you already know he's basically unhittable, but after going 1-2 with a monster dinger and 2-2 in his last two games he's .389 this year with an OBP of .421, slugging of .722, and OPS of 1.143. To put that in perspective he'd lead the Twins in every offensive category and it wouldn't even be fucking close which is actually pretty depressing. I mean, it's probably a bit fluky considering he was 1-26 in his career before this year and was hitting just .143 six games ago, but since then he's gone 6-11 and four of those six hits have been for extra bases, plus he hit .400 in his (admittedly short) minor league career. I guess what this really does is beg the question, "could Strasburg get Strasburg out?" We should ask that tootsie pop owl guy, he seemed pretty sharp.
3. Mike Stanton. I'm not going to call him Giancarlo just because somebody tells me to even if it's this guy himself and even if there's a good reason. I honestly don't know if there was a good reason because I didn't really pay attention and when I first saw the Giancarlo thing I wondered if they were brothers because I'm stupid but the point of this story is that Stanton destroyed the ball this week and even broke the scoreboard off Jamie Moyer (and watch him pimp this home run):
Dude's 22 years old and hitting .291 with 12 dingers already after hitting 34 last year and 22 in his half season rookie year. Take notes, Twins' fans. This is what we need to hope Sano is.
4. Anaheim Angels. Maybe it's stupid to write nice things about the Angels on the same day Jered Weaver gets pulled because of an injury after pitching to just three batters and getting none of them out, but the Angels seem like maybe they've kind of figured this shit out - finally. Dan Haren, who had been knocked around all year by such horrendous offensive teams as the Twins and the Twins, finally looked like the Dan Haren we used to know by throwing a complete game shutout against Seattle with 14 whiffs (yes Seattle but still), Albert Pujols is hitting the ball again like a man, and Kendrys Morales is hot. If they could figure out how to get Morales, Pujols, and Trumbo in the lineup at the same time or just trade one of them they'd be in better shape, but after a pretty lackluster start to the year they've won six straight, and even if it's against crappy teams like Oakland and Seattle it still counts and those teams are in their division too so it counts double. Plus these guys used to lose to the Twins, so you know.
5. Kevin Garnett. I know he's probably always been an ass and he's definitely become an ass since he won that title with the Celtics, but for some stupid reason I find myself rooting for him, again, and he was probably the biggest reason Boston made the finals, because outside of game 4, KG was a monster in the entire series against the 76ers. He outscored his season average in six of the seven games (averaged 19.7 vs. 15.8 reg season) and grabbed more boards in six as well (11.0 vs. 8.2) and shot 50% from the floor. Basically he completely raised his game in a big spot, which is something I'm not sure he's ever done - or at least not very often. I have a feeling KG, Jesus Shuttlesworth, and Pierce know this is probably their last shot since they all have been worn down like a porn star when she hits age 30. Time for one last shot at glory, no reason to hold back now. I also predict if they get bounced at some point KG loses his mind a decks somebody - probably Rondo.
WHO SUCKED
1. Jason Marquis. We all saw this coming, right? I know it only cost $3 million or whatever, but what exactly was the point? What was his upside? He hasn't hit 150 innings since 2009, hasn't finished a year with an ERA under four since 2004, and gives up almost as many base runners as Nick Blackburn over the course of their careers. Then he missed spring training, as understandable as that was, and jesus what a disaster. An ERA of 8.47 and WHIP of 1.94 in his seven Twins' starts, which really shouldn't have been a surprise considering his performance in three starts after being traded to Arizona late last year, where he actually put up worse numbers than he did for the Twins (ERA 9.53, WHIP 2.29). I know the Twins have a tendency to try to grab guys who are looked at as old and mediocre and sign them on the cheap and hope they get solid production, but lately it always seems to be a Marquis or a Tony Bautista or a Nishioka, and I can't remember the last time they hit on somebody but I'm gonna say Chili Davis. That was 100 years ago. That was the same year Dahmer was arrested and the Super Nintendo was released. That's how long it's been since the Twins made a really good free agent signing (although Willingham seems promising at this point). Chicks who were born that year can now go out and get drunk legally. Kinda hot, now that you mention it.
2. Hakeem Nicks. Hakeem Nicks is one of my favorite receivers. In our keeper league I took him with the 3rd overall pick his rookie year and everyone was like dude what? and I was like, this guy is going to be a rock star. And mostly I was right. He's easily one of the most talented receivers in the entire NFL, and has put up over 1,000 yards each of the last two years. But there's a minor problem - he's always hurt. He has yet to play a full season (14, 13, and 15 games in his three years) and although he hasn't ever come up with a major injury that's kept him out an extended period of time he's always freaking dinged up to the point where you never know if you can put him in your lineup until like, right up until the game when they announce he's going to play and if he plays Monday night you end up starting somebody else like Mike Sims-Walker instead you sucks and then Nicks does well and you lose. Sucks. And now he's got a broken foot (suffered at an offseason workout for god's sake) and could be out up to 12 weeks which I'm not really sure when that is but it seems like it won't affect the season but whatever. He's pissing me off. I'm gonna trade him now. If you're in my league and read this blog please ignore this entry and pretend I wrote something about Jamey Carroll instead.
3. Chicago Cubs. I heard something on the radio about how the Cubs won today and it was like their first win in the last 10 games. Then I just looked it up and they did win today, but this was actually their first win in 13 games so it was even worse, which is kind of funny but makes sense because the Cubs suck and are still paying Alfonso Soriano ten trillion dollars and I can't guarantee it but I bet they're still on the hook for Zambrano as well. So yeah, they're really bad. Until today they hadn't scored more than four runs in nine straight games, which included four games with 1 or 0 runs. Earlier this week the Cubs had 10 hits in a game against Pittsburgh but managed to not have an extra base hit and got shutout. They also lost a game on a hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Things aren't going well. But this will happen when you're counting on Brian LaHair as your clean-up hitter and Paul Maholm features prominently in your rotation. Oh who am I kidding, I'd kill for Maholm on the Twins right now. He'd be the freaking ace.
4. Joe Blanton. I've always disliked Joe Blanton and routinely bet against him. He looks like a fat baby, he has one of those goatee things that's all shaggy but doesn't have the mustache part, and he's a right-handed junkballer with shitty stuff who can't break 90 but won a lot of games when the A's were good despite terrible stats and everybody thought he was good because most people are morons and now he's making $8 million per year. And then it almost kind of looked like he had maybe figured it out this year with an ERA under 3 and at least 6 innings pitched in six of seven starts this year. Then this week happened. In games against St. Louis and Boston he never made it out of the fifth with a combined statline of 8.2 ips, 19 hits, 13 earned runs, and 6 homers to balloon his ERA to a much more Blanton-like 4.55. It's kind of creepy how much better I feel now.
5. Oakland A's. I'm a Billy Beane fan and I mostly think the "moneyball" related criticisms of him are pretty ridiculous, but I just have no idea what that team is doing, and now they've lost six straight (including one to the Twins lolololol) and have gone 4-10 to suddenly drop off the map. Mostly I'm just confused with how they're handling pitching. Why trade Trevor Cahill when he's only 24 and looking like a future 2/3 type? Why trade Gio Gonzalez at age 26? Why trade Josh Outman (age 27) and Guillermo Moscoso (age 27) for Seth Smith who completely sucks? Cahill and Gonzalez, especially, and they had just hit arbitration so they weren't looking at the big-time expensive franchise killing contracts yet (Mauer -> hi). Beane used to make turning vets into prospects into an art form, but the A's won because Giambi, Tejada, Chavez, Hudson, Zito, Mulder, etc. were able to mature into great players before they were shipped out. Seems now like those same types of guys are getting moved before they even have a chance to develop. Can't win that way. Moneyball? More like Stupidball, amiright?
Showing posts with label Oakland A's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oakland A's. Show all posts
Monday, May 28, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Week in Review: 2-20-2012
Jesus what a completely pathetic defensive effort. You name it, the Gophers did or didn't do it. They didn't close out on shooters. They got confused on their defensive scheme which led to not switching when they were supposed to and open lay-ups for Northwestern. The continually went under screens instead of over the top and then made no real strong effort to get in a shooters face. They got lost on back cuts. They allowed offensive rebounds like candy, including on missed free throws which should be grounds for a lawsuit in some way I don't know I'm not a lawyer. A five foot nothin' lesbian ball boy was able to get to the rim at will. Just a completely putrid effort. Combine that with an offense that seemed confused in the second half and completely went away from what worked in the first game and the half (can anyone actually tell me why they completely quit going inside when it's the whole reason they won the first game?). Credit Northwestern with playing better defense and knocking down all those wide open shots, but this was a truly terrible game by the Gophers. Now they need to win 2 of the next three (Michigan State, Indiana, @Wisconsin). LOL. Can't wait for baseball!
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Murray State Racers. I've gone on record here as saying I'm not remotely a believer in Murray State, but after they waxed St. Mary's with ease in their Bracket Busters game on Saturday I've definitely seen a bit of a tick in the "I believe" direction on my "Do I believe in Murray State"-inator which I always wear on my wrist. They just completely dominated the game from beginning to end, and St. Mary's is a very good team. They did turn it over 15 times, but overcame that by shooting the lights out and winning by 14. I can't quite throw my support behind them yet as being for real and I'd love to see them play one more good team to get a real sense of how good they are, but sadly they won't play another good team until the tournament. The tournament which, by the way, they are an absolute lock for now no matter what else happens.
2. Other Bracket Buster winners. Besides Murray State some other teams picked up very big wins this weekend. Wichita State moves into lock territory after knocking off Davidson, while VCU (beat Northern Iowa), Drexel (crushed Cleveland State on the road), George Mason (over Lamar), Weber State (over UT-Arlington) and Iona (beat Nevada) all jump up from "probably not" to "we better take a look" status thanks to their wins. Their were some huge wins outside of Bracket Busters as well, and probably none bigger than Kansas State's win over Baylor which is absolutely a monster for their profile. Middle Tennessee State continued to roll through the the Sun Belt (they can afford zero losses prior to the Sun Belt Championship game), while South Florida has now moved to 10-4 in the Big East after an easy win at Pitt. The overall profile is still a bit lacking but you can't ignore them anymore. And finally, although they're not in consideration for an at-large, Loyola Marymount had a huge week, beating St. Mary's and then winning their Bracket Buster match-up against Valpo and that now gives them three wins over RPI Top 50 teams. Which is pretty much their entire resume, so yeah. Oh, and Harvard beat Yale, so that was good too.
3. Oakland A's. When I first saw the news that the A's had signed Yoenis Cespedes, the cuban defecting outfielder and supposed superstar, I was just stunned and was wondering what the hell Billy Beane was doing. I mean, a team that basically just gutted it's entire roster outbidding everyone else to get a Cuban dude who has never faced major league quality pitching? Bizarre. But when I really stopped to think, it actually makes a lot of sense and is a worthwhile gamble. They got him for 4 years/$36 million which is far less than it was originally thought he'd sign for ($50 mill+), and because of their situation they don't need him to come in a play right away and he can take some time in the minors to assimilate himself. The A's suck now, but are primed to be a contender in a couple of years thanks to a farm system Keith Law ranked as the 9th best in baseball (and that was before this signing) with five guys in Law's Top 100 including three pitchers who project as top of the rotation type guys. Add some hitters, like Cespedes, and Oakland becomes a contender. And seriously, would you rather have Cespedes and his potential at $9 million per year, or Cuddyer at $10+? Cespedes is basically a bargain - a gamble, but a bargain.
4. New Mexico. I'm not entirely certain if a team has EVER had as good a week as the Lobos just did. There are two teams considered as "elite" in the MWC - San Diego State and UNLV. New Mexico, due to a couple of shitty early season losses (to New Mex State and Santa Clara) and losses to both those teams, was considered a step below. Well no more, because this week alone the Lobos beat SDSU at their place by 10 and then stomped UNLV at home by 20 to lock up a bid to the NCAA Tournament and assure the Mountain West will be sending three teams (at least) once again. They're awfully good, and have a great point guard who can control the game in Kendall Williams, plus a star in Drew Gordon (finally) who put up 27 & 20 against the Rebels. Hopefully they don't run the table and then win the MWC Tournament, because I want them to have a lower seed for sleeper potential.
5. Tyus Jones. Jones scored 45 points in a game against some team earlier this week to go along with 7 assists, 7 steals, and 7 rebounds. He also received a scholarship offer from Duke. That now means the Gophers are competing against not only Ohio State and Michigan State but now the freakin' Blue Devils, and Jones has zero interest in staying home and the Gophers' continual mediocrity isn't going to win him over any time soon. If you still believe Jones may end up a Gopher, just remember Naadir Tharpe who looked like he was all set to join the Gophers before Kansas suddenly swooped in out of nowhere with an offer which Tharpe accepted within the week. The Gophers, at present, simply cannot compete for that type of player, and when that player is from here and they still can't get him it just reinforces how big of a wasteland the program is right now. Man do I miss Clem. Sure he cheated, but at least he made the team relevant. I'd kill for relevancy. I'm going to light matches and see how long I can hold my finger in the flame, just so I can feel something.
WHO SUCKED
1. Ralph Sampson. I truly believe this is the last time I'll ever write about Sampson because I think we're pretty much done here. Whether it's his fault or Tubby's (well, probably both) nothing has changed since Day 1 and I think even his most ardent supporters, yours truly, have realized that he's going to go down with Rick Rickert as the biggest disappointment in team history. His numbers are virtually unchanged from his freshman year. He wasn't progressing as much as anybody had hoped, but there was a bit of a progression so you could still hold out hope he would have a monster senior year, and when Mbakwe went down the door was wide open. Rather than going through, however, Ralph timidly shut it and, with a shrug of the shoulders, said "No thank you."
He's never shown any drive or any aggressiveness, and never improved in any way (in fact he's regressed in every possible way other than shooting percentage). He never refined his hook shot, nor added a second move in four years. Seriously he never added another move. And, for all his outside shot promise, he never delivered on that either. I suspect Ralph had the talent, but spent his off seasons not in the gym, but playing nintendo or dominoes or dungeons and dragons or whatever kids do these days. His downside should have been Sam Perkins, but he never even got there. This pretty much sums it up. I'm just pissed I didn't think of it first.
2. Illinois Fighting Illini. As disappointing as the Tubby era has been, at least he's not Bruce Weber. After a pretty rough home loss to Purdue on Wednesday that made four straight defeats and a record of 1-7 in their last 8, Weber gave interviews where he sounded alternately confused (bad look for a coach) and defeated (even worse) and his boss gave an interview where he pretty much went out of his way to say Weber was still his guy. So, naturally, rather than rallying around their coach and coming out all fired up against Nebraska the Illini did what you'd expect them to do and rolled over like a bunch of two-bit hookers. I mean they lost to Nebraska by 23 and it wasn't even that close. The Huskers had walk-ons in with like 3 minutes left in the game. Brandon Paul shot 1-7 and scored 2 points. Terrible game, and it's basically guaranteed that Weber is gone after this year. Illinois has a continual pipeline of talent in Chicago so they'll always be dangerous, so as a Gopher fan I'm very sorry to see Weber go, because with him at the helm you always knew you never had to worry about the Illini.
3. Conference USA. When I did my bubble watch I counted both Southern Miss and Memphis as IN along with a group of other teams with the caveat that none of those teams could handle more than 1 more loss. Well, C-USA, poised to possibly get more than one team in the dance for the first time since 1998*, just kicked itself square in the balls because both Southern Miss and Memphis - the only two teams in the conference with at-large chances - both lost to bad teams this weekend. So Miss lost to Houston and their RPI of 220, while Memphis got dropped by UTEP (RPI 149). If both teams manage to get to the C-USA championship game without another loss I'd expect both to still get in. But if either picks up another loss things are going to be very dicey. I was feel bad for C-USA. It was formed to compete with the big boys and was competitive for a bit, but then was completely raided, is now losing Memphis, and will dissolve and form with the leftovers from the Mountain West and is going to be just completely brutal. Don't forget, Cincinnati, Marquette, and Louisville all used to be C-USA schools, and now the jewel will be what, Marshall? UTEP? Gross. This is like being the black sheep of your family and then quitting your shitty job to join a cult. And not one of the good ones either, more like one that forbids group sex (which I assume is the only reason anyone joins a cult).
4. Mississippi State Tigers. Remember like, not all that long ago when Mississippi State was 6-3 in SEC play and had a non-conference win over West Virginia (RPI 37) and no bad (RPI sub-100) losses and everything was hunky dorey? Well a three game losing streak has included losses to Auburn (RPI 123) and Georgia (RPI 107) and they're now 6-3 and in a wee spot of trouble. They have four games left before the SEC Tournament and one is home against Kentucky and another is on the road at Alabama (which is a very tough game if their dudes are reinstated). And it's sad because any team with Dee Bost, Arnett Moultrie, Rodney Hood, and Renardo Sidney should coast to a bid - I mean there's a reason this team was ranked 15th at one point this year. Although Sidney is still way fat and his game has taken a pretty significant step backwards this year, so that doesn't help. Of course, beating Kentucky this week will solve all ills.
5. NC State Wolfpack. This week was a monster of the Wolfpack who were right on the cusp of the bubble and just needed a marquee win or two to push them towards the top, and the opportunities were there with a game at Duke and then a home contest against Florida State. Everything was looking good as NC State raced out to a 16-point lead at the half and were up 19 with 11 minutes left to play, but then they remembered they aren't supposed to win at Cameron and the refs also must have gotten a little jolt in their brain implanted microchips because Duke ended up winning thanks in part to 16 free throw attempts in the final 10 minutes compared to just seven for NC State and three NC Staters fouled out. So that sucked, but even worse they let that hangover drift into Saturday's game against FSU and got their doors blown off. They still have UNC at home this week, but that's their last chance to get a real good win prior to the ACC Tournament. They're looking like they're a year away, and I say that because their recruiting class next year contains Rivals recruits #6, #23, and #55 and ranks as the fourth best in the country for 2012. And yet Tubby's class for that year contains two 3-star guys. It's like impossible to follow college basketball as closely as I do and not get depressed at least three times about the Gophers.
Two additional quick points and then I'll shut-up:
1. The Gophers weren't the only team who took their NCAA bid hopes and pissed all over them this week. Other than Illinois, Miss State, NC State, and the C-USA teams mentioned above, you also had Davidson (loss to Wichita) who is now done along with Akron (loss to Oral Roberts), and Nevada (loss to Iona). Long Beach is still in pretty solid shape as long as there aren't any major slip-ups, but if they had won at Creighton (lost at the buzzer) they would have punched their ticket. And a few major conference teams, although not killing their chances, hurt them badly including Texas (got smoked by a shitty Oklahoma Stat team) and Arizona (lost to Washington). That win for Washington moves them to12-3 in the Pac-10, but the conference is so incredibly shitty that doesn't guarantee them a bid, not even a little. I read somewhere that the Pac-10 overall was something like 2-25 against the RPI Top 50 outside of conference. That's ridiculous. So bad it's like Tubby Smith's record against them since coming to the Gophers. lol.
2. I really like the A.J. Burnett trade for both sides. The Pirates add a veteran arm who undeniably has some talent to a rotation where almost nobody can name a single starter while not giving up any prospects of particular note while the Yankees pay for most of the contract. The Yankees get rid of a guy who clearly struggled with both the AL East and the NY spotlight and saved enough in the process to turn around and sign Raul Ibanez - a RH DH they desperately needed. And Burnett gets out of New York into a non-pressure and no lose situation, not to mention he gets out to the AL (and specifically the AL East) which can only help. win-win-win.
* = I completely made this up because I didn't feel like actually looking it up
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Murray State Racers. I've gone on record here as saying I'm not remotely a believer in Murray State, but after they waxed St. Mary's with ease in their Bracket Busters game on Saturday I've definitely seen a bit of a tick in the "I believe" direction on my "Do I believe in Murray State"-inator which I always wear on my wrist. They just completely dominated the game from beginning to end, and St. Mary's is a very good team. They did turn it over 15 times, but overcame that by shooting the lights out and winning by 14. I can't quite throw my support behind them yet as being for real and I'd love to see them play one more good team to get a real sense of how good they are, but sadly they won't play another good team until the tournament. The tournament which, by the way, they are an absolute lock for now no matter what else happens.
2. Other Bracket Buster winners. Besides Murray State some other teams picked up very big wins this weekend. Wichita State moves into lock territory after knocking off Davidson, while VCU (beat Northern Iowa), Drexel (crushed Cleveland State on the road), George Mason (over Lamar), Weber State (over UT-Arlington) and Iona (beat Nevada) all jump up from "probably not" to "we better take a look" status thanks to their wins. Their were some huge wins outside of Bracket Busters as well, and probably none bigger than Kansas State's win over Baylor which is absolutely a monster for their profile. Middle Tennessee State continued to roll through the the Sun Belt (they can afford zero losses prior to the Sun Belt Championship game), while South Florida has now moved to 10-4 in the Big East after an easy win at Pitt. The overall profile is still a bit lacking but you can't ignore them anymore. And finally, although they're not in consideration for an at-large, Loyola Marymount had a huge week, beating St. Mary's and then winning their Bracket Buster match-up against Valpo and that now gives them three wins over RPI Top 50 teams. Which is pretty much their entire resume, so yeah. Oh, and Harvard beat Yale, so that was good too.
3. Oakland A's. When I first saw the news that the A's had signed Yoenis Cespedes, the cuban defecting outfielder and supposed superstar, I was just stunned and was wondering what the hell Billy Beane was doing. I mean, a team that basically just gutted it's entire roster outbidding everyone else to get a Cuban dude who has never faced major league quality pitching? Bizarre. But when I really stopped to think, it actually makes a lot of sense and is a worthwhile gamble. They got him for 4 years/$36 million which is far less than it was originally thought he'd sign for ($50 mill+), and because of their situation they don't need him to come in a play right away and he can take some time in the minors to assimilate himself. The A's suck now, but are primed to be a contender in a couple of years thanks to a farm system Keith Law ranked as the 9th best in baseball (and that was before this signing) with five guys in Law's Top 100 including three pitchers who project as top of the rotation type guys. Add some hitters, like Cespedes, and Oakland becomes a contender. And seriously, would you rather have Cespedes and his potential at $9 million per year, or Cuddyer at $10+? Cespedes is basically a bargain - a gamble, but a bargain.
4. New Mexico. I'm not entirely certain if a team has EVER had as good a week as the Lobos just did. There are two teams considered as "elite" in the MWC - San Diego State and UNLV. New Mexico, due to a couple of shitty early season losses (to New Mex State and Santa Clara) and losses to both those teams, was considered a step below. Well no more, because this week alone the Lobos beat SDSU at their place by 10 and then stomped UNLV at home by 20 to lock up a bid to the NCAA Tournament and assure the Mountain West will be sending three teams (at least) once again. They're awfully good, and have a great point guard who can control the game in Kendall Williams, plus a star in Drew Gordon (finally) who put up 27 & 20 against the Rebels. Hopefully they don't run the table and then win the MWC Tournament, because I want them to have a lower seed for sleeper potential.
5. Tyus Jones. Jones scored 45 points in a game against some team earlier this week to go along with 7 assists, 7 steals, and 7 rebounds. He also received a scholarship offer from Duke. That now means the Gophers are competing against not only Ohio State and Michigan State but now the freakin' Blue Devils, and Jones has zero interest in staying home and the Gophers' continual mediocrity isn't going to win him over any time soon. If you still believe Jones may end up a Gopher, just remember Naadir Tharpe who looked like he was all set to join the Gophers before Kansas suddenly swooped in out of nowhere with an offer which Tharpe accepted within the week. The Gophers, at present, simply cannot compete for that type of player, and when that player is from here and they still can't get him it just reinforces how big of a wasteland the program is right now. Man do I miss Clem. Sure he cheated, but at least he made the team relevant. I'd kill for relevancy. I'm going to light matches and see how long I can hold my finger in the flame, just so I can feel something.
WHO SUCKED
1. Ralph Sampson. I truly believe this is the last time I'll ever write about Sampson because I think we're pretty much done here. Whether it's his fault or Tubby's (well, probably both) nothing has changed since Day 1 and I think even his most ardent supporters, yours truly, have realized that he's going to go down with Rick Rickert as the biggest disappointment in team history. His numbers are virtually unchanged from his freshman year. He wasn't progressing as much as anybody had hoped, but there was a bit of a progression so you could still hold out hope he would have a monster senior year, and when Mbakwe went down the door was wide open. Rather than going through, however, Ralph timidly shut it and, with a shrug of the shoulders, said "No thank you."
He's never shown any drive or any aggressiveness, and never improved in any way (in fact he's regressed in every possible way other than shooting percentage). He never refined his hook shot, nor added a second move in four years. Seriously he never added another move. And, for all his outside shot promise, he never delivered on that either. I suspect Ralph had the talent, but spent his off seasons not in the gym, but playing nintendo or dominoes or dungeons and dragons or whatever kids do these days. His downside should have been Sam Perkins, but he never even got there. This pretty much sums it up. I'm just pissed I didn't think of it first.
2. Illinois Fighting Illini. As disappointing as the Tubby era has been, at least he's not Bruce Weber. After a pretty rough home loss to Purdue on Wednesday that made four straight defeats and a record of 1-7 in their last 8, Weber gave interviews where he sounded alternately confused (bad look for a coach) and defeated (even worse) and his boss gave an interview where he pretty much went out of his way to say Weber was still his guy. So, naturally, rather than rallying around their coach and coming out all fired up against Nebraska the Illini did what you'd expect them to do and rolled over like a bunch of two-bit hookers. I mean they lost to Nebraska by 23 and it wasn't even that close. The Huskers had walk-ons in with like 3 minutes left in the game. Brandon Paul shot 1-7 and scored 2 points. Terrible game, and it's basically guaranteed that Weber is gone after this year. Illinois has a continual pipeline of talent in Chicago so they'll always be dangerous, so as a Gopher fan I'm very sorry to see Weber go, because with him at the helm you always knew you never had to worry about the Illini.
3. Conference USA. When I did my bubble watch I counted both Southern Miss and Memphis as IN along with a group of other teams with the caveat that none of those teams could handle more than 1 more loss. Well, C-USA, poised to possibly get more than one team in the dance for the first time since 1998*, just kicked itself square in the balls because both Southern Miss and Memphis - the only two teams in the conference with at-large chances - both lost to bad teams this weekend. So Miss lost to Houston and their RPI of 220, while Memphis got dropped by UTEP (RPI 149). If both teams manage to get to the C-USA championship game without another loss I'd expect both to still get in. But if either picks up another loss things are going to be very dicey. I was feel bad for C-USA. It was formed to compete with the big boys and was competitive for a bit, but then was completely raided, is now losing Memphis, and will dissolve and form with the leftovers from the Mountain West and is going to be just completely brutal. Don't forget, Cincinnati, Marquette, and Louisville all used to be C-USA schools, and now the jewel will be what, Marshall? UTEP? Gross. This is like being the black sheep of your family and then quitting your shitty job to join a cult. And not one of the good ones either, more like one that forbids group sex (which I assume is the only reason anyone joins a cult).
4. Mississippi State Tigers. Remember like, not all that long ago when Mississippi State was 6-3 in SEC play and had a non-conference win over West Virginia (RPI 37) and no bad (RPI sub-100) losses and everything was hunky dorey? Well a three game losing streak has included losses to Auburn (RPI 123) and Georgia (RPI 107) and they're now 6-3 and in a wee spot of trouble. They have four games left before the SEC Tournament and one is home against Kentucky and another is on the road at Alabama (which is a very tough game if their dudes are reinstated). And it's sad because any team with Dee Bost, Arnett Moultrie, Rodney Hood, and Renardo Sidney should coast to a bid - I mean there's a reason this team was ranked 15th at one point this year. Although Sidney is still way fat and his game has taken a pretty significant step backwards this year, so that doesn't help. Of course, beating Kentucky this week will solve all ills.
5. NC State Wolfpack. This week was a monster of the Wolfpack who were right on the cusp of the bubble and just needed a marquee win or two to push them towards the top, and the opportunities were there with a game at Duke and then a home contest against Florida State. Everything was looking good as NC State raced out to a 16-point lead at the half and were up 19 with 11 minutes left to play, but then they remembered they aren't supposed to win at Cameron and the refs also must have gotten a little jolt in their brain implanted microchips because Duke ended up winning thanks in part to 16 free throw attempts in the final 10 minutes compared to just seven for NC State and three NC Staters fouled out. So that sucked, but even worse they let that hangover drift into Saturday's game against FSU and got their doors blown off. They still have UNC at home this week, but that's their last chance to get a real good win prior to the ACC Tournament. They're looking like they're a year away, and I say that because their recruiting class next year contains Rivals recruits #6, #23, and #55 and ranks as the fourth best in the country for 2012. And yet Tubby's class for that year contains two 3-star guys. It's like impossible to follow college basketball as closely as I do and not get depressed at least three times about the Gophers.
Two additional quick points and then I'll shut-up:
1. The Gophers weren't the only team who took their NCAA bid hopes and pissed all over them this week. Other than Illinois, Miss State, NC State, and the C-USA teams mentioned above, you also had Davidson (loss to Wichita) who is now done along with Akron (loss to Oral Roberts), and Nevada (loss to Iona). Long Beach is still in pretty solid shape as long as there aren't any major slip-ups, but if they had won at Creighton (lost at the buzzer) they would have punched their ticket. And a few major conference teams, although not killing their chances, hurt them badly including Texas (got smoked by a shitty Oklahoma Stat team) and Arizona (lost to Washington). That win for Washington moves them to12-3 in the Pac-10, but the conference is so incredibly shitty that doesn't guarantee them a bid, not even a little. I read somewhere that the Pac-10 overall was something like 2-25 against the RPI Top 50 outside of conference. That's ridiculous. So bad it's like Tubby Smith's record against them since coming to the Gophers. lol.
2. I really like the A.J. Burnett trade for both sides. The Pirates add a veteran arm who undeniably has some talent to a rotation where almost nobody can name a single starter while not giving up any prospects of particular note while the Yankees pay for most of the contract. The Yankees get rid of a guy who clearly struggled with both the AL East and the NY spotlight and saved enough in the process to turn around and sign Raul Ibanez - a RH DH they desperately needed. And Burnett gets out of New York into a non-pressure and no lose situation, not to mention he gets out to the AL (and specifically the AL East) which can only help. win-win-win.
* = I completely made this up because I didn't feel like actually looking it up
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Twins/A's Live Blog - 7/29/11
Well let's see: kids are asleep, wife is sick and passed out in bed fro the Nyquil I slipped into a glass of wine, the Twins have a late game and I have brand new bottle of Captain Morgan, a mostly full 2-liter of ginger ale, and a few sticks of Lawry's hickory beef jerky sitting around. Yeah. I might as well blog the game. What else am I gonna do, watch it with nothing to distract me?
10:00 - We are just beginning the top of the fourth, Twins lead 3-2. And I've looked at that three times and thought maybe the 3 was a typo or a backwards E and the misspelled Twins, but apparently the Twins are actually leading. Weird.
10:02 - Two quick outs and then a single by Tolbert, who is back on the big league club because he has a pulse and Alexi Casilla is on the DL which is weird because I never even knew he was hurt. How did this happen? Is this one of those injuries where you sneeze and throw out your back or burn your hand on the grill trying to save a piece of ostrich burger from slipping through the grate onto the dirty coals below? Also, I guarantee I miss Casilla more than I ever would have thought possible right now. WAY TO BE ADEQUATE, guy.
10:04 - While I was looking up the spelling of adequate to make sure I had it right (I did) whoever was up popped out. I'm going guess it was Butera. But man can that son a bitch sling that pill. He should be a pitcher.
10:05 - Actually he'd be a terrible pitcher because, although he could probably touch 98 on the gun, his ball is completely straight, as it should be for a catcher, so he'd just get ripped. Although Matt Capps seems to find a modicum of success by throwing a straight ball and it's about 8 mph slower, so who knows? They should try it. Couldn't be worse than Dumatrait.
10:07 - Clearly Liriano brought his A-game tonight since he just gave up a double to Hideki freaking Matsui. Of course, even though he's having by far the worst season of his major league career he'd still be the fourth best hitter on the Twins. Seriously he'd be third in extra-base hits and fourth in OPS+. OPS+, you'll remember, takes your OPS and compares it to the league average and spits out a number where 100 = completely average hitter. Matsui's is 96 this year. And he'd be fifth on the Twins. And that's if you count Thome and Kubel. I'm moving out of state.
10:12 - Damn. Just read that Asomugha signed with the Eagles. He was almost a Jet and I wanted to see what that would be like with Asomugha and Revis on the same team. Would teams throw at all? And you could always have an extra safety to either play up to stop the run or load up against a TE or a 3rd wideout. How could anybody ever score ever? I really wanted to see that. Freaking jerks. Also the Twins turned a DP and are out of the inning.
10:15 - Ben Revere just picked up a bunt hit by making and absolutely terrible bunt that he popped up over the pitchers head but beat it out because he's so god damn fast. That was a terrible terrible play but holy god on a cracker is he fun to watch.
10:16 - Speaking of Revere I just don't know about this possible Span trade. I don't think Revere is ready to be a leadoff hitter and they don't have another one. On the other hand it's not like Span is the greatest player in the world, and he's basically an average leadoff hitter and that's it. I guess if Drew Storen is included I won't hate it hate it, but I just can't imagine loving a Span trade. He still has value for the next several years.
10:18 - Steal by Revere, base hit by Plouffe to score him, and then a single by Mauer. Shit, if I knew it was gonna be that kinda party I'd a sticked my dick in the mashed potatoes.
10:22 - Well this will shock you, but Cuddy just struck out on a ball outside of the strikezone. Honest to god it doesn't even matter how well he may be running or hot hot he is at least once a week he's going to have an at-bat where he honest to god looks like he's never played baseball before. It's a law, like water or dinosaurs.
10:25 - Dick just called Cliff Pennington "Chris" Pennington. Ha ha you're old. Serious question though, do you really think Dick knows a lot about baseball? Or John Gordon for that matter? Do you think they ever watch a game they aren't calling? Do you think either of them ever read up on what's going on around the league other than to prep for the team the Twins are about to play? How many National League players do you think they could name combined? Albert Pujols, Roy Halladay, and about 8-10 former Twins? Probably a couple of Brewers? Seriously, do you think they could tell you anything about Brian McCann? It's not like he's a household name but he's a damn good player, maybe the best catcher in baseball, and a guy any MLB fan would know, but I think if you put the two of them in a room together and asked them to tell you who McCann is they'd probably piece it together but there answers would have a lot of question marks attached. "Uh, Atlanta?" "Umm, I think he's a catcher?" Am I off here.
10:36 - By the way, we won our co-ed softball championship. It was awesome because the team we beat was a bunch of douchers, especially their pitcher, and he got doubled off first on a line drive for the last out of the game and then probably went home and killed himself. Also great was in the semifinal when we beat another douche team whose biggest douche guy was their shortstop, and in one of the last innings with two outs we had Snacks on first and another fast guy up (whose nickname is Douche, interestingly enough) and after Douche singled Snacks was on third and their doucher shortstop had the ball and we know he's dumb so Douche dances off the base just far enough to entice douchestop to throw it to first at which point Snacks takes off for home and their first base girl stands there like she's lost and the radio is playing some Sixpence None the Richer and Snacks scores. And it's great because we won by one run. Such it douche shortstop.
10:40 - Bases loaded and one out for Revere after a four-pitch walk to Butera. Think about that one. I'm thinking maybe Gio Gonzalez doesn't have it tonight. Honestly just throw the ball down the middle to Butera, even if he makes great contact it's probably still just a fly out. Sure can fire that ball though.
10:43 - And Gonzalez walks Revere to force in a run. Again, it's Ben Revere. Just throw the damn thing down the middle. The farthest he can hit it would be just short of the center fielder. It's like a real hitter try to hit a kitten ball - it's just not going to go that far. Good lord it would suck to be an A's fan. Way to go, Bear. way to go.
10:50 - Jesus Blyleven has his Joe Mauer love pants on tonight. He's complimented Mauer as a "great hitter" three times already tonight and compared him to Wade Boggs (a guy whose career average Mauer has only beaten in a season twice). The latest - Mauer is so good, he's just not afraid to get to 0-2 in the count, he knows he can hit. Ok. I'm going to go ahead and look this up. Hold on. Mauer this year: 1-29 after reaching 0-2 in an at-bat. Once again Bertram, your insight is compelling and sounds good but is completely inaccurate. Just like your face.
10:58 - Whoa, look at that. Suddenly it's the bottom of the sixth and the A's have two runners on with nobody out. This is kind of shit that happens if I don't pay attention. At least Conor Jackson is up, although thinks would be better for the Twins if it was Daric Barton. What do you think Dick could tell you about either of those guys? Seriously, am I wrong here?
11:00 - Bob Welch and Barry Zito both won Cy Young awards? Maybe we just blow that award right up.
11:01 - Wait, you're going to tell me Matsui wasn't out of the baseline there? He was on the infield grass. Clearly I don't understand the rule.
11:03 - Speaking of things I don't understand, why would anybody give WR1 money to James Jones? Apparently he's a huge target of some teams this offseason and the Vikings might be one of them. Honest to little baby mary jesus whoever gives him a truckload of cash is going to end up with nothing but blue balls from all the excitement he doesn't deliver on. The guy is absolutely freaking terrible. And for those of you in my fantasy leagues no this is not a bit or a feint to throw you off - he's awful and I'd never draft him. He catches as well as the Venus de Milo.
11:11 - Delmon Young walked. So that's weird.
11:13 - Hughesy strikes out to end the threat. Probably because Dawger loves him.
11:14 - Gotta say, I think this new Planet of the Apes movie looks kind of good. And I have no interest in any of the Planet of the Apes movies outside of Estella Warren's sweet can in the Marky Mark version. Whatever happened to that broad? She should probably do a shark movie on SyFy.
11:20 - 1-2-3 seventh for Liriano. Twins winning 5-2 still. Beef jerky gone. Still plenty of booze. Interest level = waning. Luckily Liriano is done and they're going to the pen so things are going to get interesting in a hurry. I just hope we either get some Dumatrait or some Burnett. Smells like runs!
11:24 - Bert think the reason Oakland has never had a batting champion is because of all the foul territory that's in play at their stadium. and this is the part where I feel stupid because I only wrote that prior sentence because I was sure Carney Lansford won a batting title when he was with Oakland and was going to point that out but it turns out Lansford won it when he was with Boston. Oops. He did, at least, finish second in 1989.
11:29 - Butera with a double! Don't worry, he just placed it down the line perfectly he didn't hit it to the wall or anything so you don't have to change your worldview.
11:31 - RBI Babe Plouffe. All he does is produce.
11:31 - That swing right there Cuddyer. That's pathetic. That's not an all-star swing and hell that's not even a professional swing. More of a "Joes vs. Pros" thing where this particular Joe never played baseball in his god damn life. I like Cuddy, I really do, but holy black taco does he ever frustrate.
11:33 - Well now he just hit a 3-run dong. All I do is motivate. Suck it, Bear.
11:36 - Funny thing is that this Michael Wuertz guy is supposedly one of the guys the A's should look to move because there's a lot of interest. This probably isn't going to help, especially since after that home run he's now walked Mauer and Young back-to-back. Yes that's two walks for Delmon. I'm assuming that's a career high. Also I would have bet you money that Wuertz was a lefty. I guess I don't know players as well as I thought. OH NO!! I'M DICK BREMER!!!
11:43 - 9-2 as we go to the bottom of the 8th. Boredness and tiredness levels off the charts. So instead here is a picture of Gardy at the greatest bar in the world, Roddy's in North St. Paul.
He may not have a freaking clue how to manage a game, but his taste in drinking establishments is impeccable.
11:50 - So this is interesting. No, not the game, even though Jose Mijares is just lollypopping the ball and the A's have a couple runners going. Apparently the Pirates are hard after Jason Kubel. I love Kubel and would hate to see him go (home run Josh Willingham, it's now 9-5 - trade Mijares now before he eats himself out of interest), but depending on what you get back, you never know. The Pirates are loaded with pitching prospects (always a plus) and also one of their top prospect guys is a catcher, which would give the Twins the flexibility to make Mauer play somewhere else. I don't know, but it's pretty interesting.
12:07 - Alex Burnett is so bad.
12:14 - Twins win. I'm tired. You suck.
10:00 - We are just beginning the top of the fourth, Twins lead 3-2. And I've looked at that three times and thought maybe the 3 was a typo or a backwards E and the misspelled Twins, but apparently the Twins are actually leading. Weird.
10:02 - Two quick outs and then a single by Tolbert, who is back on the big league club because he has a pulse and Alexi Casilla is on the DL which is weird because I never even knew he was hurt. How did this happen? Is this one of those injuries where you sneeze and throw out your back or burn your hand on the grill trying to save a piece of ostrich burger from slipping through the grate onto the dirty coals below? Also, I guarantee I miss Casilla more than I ever would have thought possible right now. WAY TO BE ADEQUATE, guy.
10:04 - While I was looking up the spelling of adequate to make sure I had it right (I did) whoever was up popped out. I'm going guess it was Butera. But man can that son a bitch sling that pill. He should be a pitcher.
10:05 - Actually he'd be a terrible pitcher because, although he could probably touch 98 on the gun, his ball is completely straight, as it should be for a catcher, so he'd just get ripped. Although Matt Capps seems to find a modicum of success by throwing a straight ball and it's about 8 mph slower, so who knows? They should try it. Couldn't be worse than Dumatrait.
10:07 - Clearly Liriano brought his A-game tonight since he just gave up a double to Hideki freaking Matsui. Of course, even though he's having by far the worst season of his major league career he'd still be the fourth best hitter on the Twins. Seriously he'd be third in extra-base hits and fourth in OPS+. OPS+, you'll remember, takes your OPS and compares it to the league average and spits out a number where 100 = completely average hitter. Matsui's is 96 this year. And he'd be fifth on the Twins. And that's if you count Thome and Kubel. I'm moving out of state.
10:12 - Damn. Just read that Asomugha signed with the Eagles. He was almost a Jet and I wanted to see what that would be like with Asomugha and Revis on the same team. Would teams throw at all? And you could always have an extra safety to either play up to stop the run or load up against a TE or a 3rd wideout. How could anybody ever score ever? I really wanted to see that. Freaking jerks. Also the Twins turned a DP and are out of the inning.
10:15 - Ben Revere just picked up a bunt hit by making and absolutely terrible bunt that he popped up over the pitchers head but beat it out because he's so god damn fast. That was a terrible terrible play but holy god on a cracker is he fun to watch.
10:16 - Speaking of Revere I just don't know about this possible Span trade. I don't think Revere is ready to be a leadoff hitter and they don't have another one. On the other hand it's not like Span is the greatest player in the world, and he's basically an average leadoff hitter and that's it. I guess if Drew Storen is included I won't hate it hate it, but I just can't imagine loving a Span trade. He still has value for the next several years.
10:18 - Steal by Revere, base hit by Plouffe to score him, and then a single by Mauer. Shit, if I knew it was gonna be that kinda party I'd a sticked my dick in the mashed potatoes.
10:22 - Well this will shock you, but Cuddy just struck out on a ball outside of the strikezone. Honest to god it doesn't even matter how well he may be running or hot hot he is at least once a week he's going to have an at-bat where he honest to god looks like he's never played baseball before. It's a law, like water or dinosaurs.
10:25 - Dick just called Cliff Pennington "Chris" Pennington. Ha ha you're old. Serious question though, do you really think Dick knows a lot about baseball? Or John Gordon for that matter? Do you think they ever watch a game they aren't calling? Do you think either of them ever read up on what's going on around the league other than to prep for the team the Twins are about to play? How many National League players do you think they could name combined? Albert Pujols, Roy Halladay, and about 8-10 former Twins? Probably a couple of Brewers? Seriously, do you think they could tell you anything about Brian McCann? It's not like he's a household name but he's a damn good player, maybe the best catcher in baseball, and a guy any MLB fan would know, but I think if you put the two of them in a room together and asked them to tell you who McCann is they'd probably piece it together but there answers would have a lot of question marks attached. "Uh, Atlanta?" "Umm, I think he's a catcher?" Am I off here.
10:36 - By the way, we won our co-ed softball championship. It was awesome because the team we beat was a bunch of douchers, especially their pitcher, and he got doubled off first on a line drive for the last out of the game and then probably went home and killed himself. Also great was in the semifinal when we beat another douche team whose biggest douche guy was their shortstop, and in one of the last innings with two outs we had Snacks on first and another fast guy up (whose nickname is Douche, interestingly enough) and after Douche singled Snacks was on third and their doucher shortstop had the ball and we know he's dumb so Douche dances off the base just far enough to entice douchestop to throw it to first at which point Snacks takes off for home and their first base girl stands there like she's lost and the radio is playing some Sixpence None the Richer and Snacks scores. And it's great because we won by one run. Such it douche shortstop.
10:40 - Bases loaded and one out for Revere after a four-pitch walk to Butera. Think about that one. I'm thinking maybe Gio Gonzalez doesn't have it tonight. Honestly just throw the ball down the middle to Butera, even if he makes great contact it's probably still just a fly out. Sure can fire that ball though.
10:43 - And Gonzalez walks Revere to force in a run. Again, it's Ben Revere. Just throw the damn thing down the middle. The farthest he can hit it would be just short of the center fielder. It's like a real hitter try to hit a kitten ball - it's just not going to go that far. Good lord it would suck to be an A's fan. Way to go, Bear. way to go.
10:50 - Jesus Blyleven has his Joe Mauer love pants on tonight. He's complimented Mauer as a "great hitter" three times already tonight and compared him to Wade Boggs (a guy whose career average Mauer has only beaten in a season twice). The latest - Mauer is so good, he's just not afraid to get to 0-2 in the count, he knows he can hit. Ok. I'm going to go ahead and look this up. Hold on. Mauer this year: 1-29 after reaching 0-2 in an at-bat. Once again Bertram, your insight is compelling and sounds good but is completely inaccurate. Just like your face.
10:58 - Whoa, look at that. Suddenly it's the bottom of the sixth and the A's have two runners on with nobody out. This is kind of shit that happens if I don't pay attention. At least Conor Jackson is up, although thinks would be better for the Twins if it was Daric Barton. What do you think Dick could tell you about either of those guys? Seriously, am I wrong here?
11:00 - Bob Welch and Barry Zito both won Cy Young awards? Maybe we just blow that award right up.
11:01 - Wait, you're going to tell me Matsui wasn't out of the baseline there? He was on the infield grass. Clearly I don't understand the rule.
11:03 - Speaking of things I don't understand, why would anybody give WR1 money to James Jones? Apparently he's a huge target of some teams this offseason and the Vikings might be one of them. Honest to little baby mary jesus whoever gives him a truckload of cash is going to end up with nothing but blue balls from all the excitement he doesn't deliver on. The guy is absolutely freaking terrible. And for those of you in my fantasy leagues no this is not a bit or a feint to throw you off - he's awful and I'd never draft him. He catches as well as the Venus de Milo.
11:11 - Delmon Young walked. So that's weird.
11:13 - Hughesy strikes out to end the threat. Probably because Dawger loves him.
11:14 - Gotta say, I think this new Planet of the Apes movie looks kind of good. And I have no interest in any of the Planet of the Apes movies outside of Estella Warren's sweet can in the Marky Mark version. Whatever happened to that broad? She should probably do a shark movie on SyFy.
11:20 - 1-2-3 seventh for Liriano. Twins winning 5-2 still. Beef jerky gone. Still plenty of booze. Interest level = waning. Luckily Liriano is done and they're going to the pen so things are going to get interesting in a hurry. I just hope we either get some Dumatrait or some Burnett. Smells like runs!
11:24 - Bert think the reason Oakland has never had a batting champion is because of all the foul territory that's in play at their stadium. and this is the part where I feel stupid because I only wrote that prior sentence because I was sure Carney Lansford won a batting title when he was with Oakland and was going to point that out but it turns out Lansford won it when he was with Boston. Oops. He did, at least, finish second in 1989.
11:29 - Butera with a double! Don't worry, he just placed it down the line perfectly he didn't hit it to the wall or anything so you don't have to change your worldview.
11:31 - RBI Babe Plouffe. All he does is produce.
11:31 - That swing right there Cuddyer. That's pathetic. That's not an all-star swing and hell that's not even a professional swing. More of a "Joes vs. Pros" thing where this particular Joe never played baseball in his god damn life. I like Cuddy, I really do, but holy black taco does he ever frustrate.
11:33 - Well now he just hit a 3-run dong. All I do is motivate. Suck it, Bear.
11:36 - Funny thing is that this Michael Wuertz guy is supposedly one of the guys the A's should look to move because there's a lot of interest. This probably isn't going to help, especially since after that home run he's now walked Mauer and Young back-to-back. Yes that's two walks for Delmon. I'm assuming that's a career high. Also I would have bet you money that Wuertz was a lefty. I guess I don't know players as well as I thought. OH NO!! I'M DICK BREMER!!!
11:43 - 9-2 as we go to the bottom of the 8th. Boredness and tiredness levels off the charts. So instead here is a picture of Gardy at the greatest bar in the world, Roddy's in North St. Paul.
He may not have a freaking clue how to manage a game, but his taste in drinking establishments is impeccable.
11:50 - So this is interesting. No, not the game, even though Jose Mijares is just lollypopping the ball and the A's have a couple runners going. Apparently the Pirates are hard after Jason Kubel. I love Kubel and would hate to see him go (home run Josh Willingham, it's now 9-5 - trade Mijares now before he eats himself out of interest), but depending on what you get back, you never know. The Pirates are loaded with pitching prospects (always a plus) and also one of their top prospect guys is a catcher, which would give the Twins the flexibility to make Mauer play somewhere else. I don't know, but it's pretty interesting.
12:07 - Alex Burnett is so bad.
12:14 - Twins win. I'm tired. You suck.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Week in Review - 6/13/2011
Guess who had Ruler on Ice to win the Belmont at 42-1? Yep. I know my only published pick (via Twitter) was Master of Hounds so you'll just have to take my word for it. That means I've nailed the winner in the last two triple crown races and my two picks finished 2nd and 3rd in the Kentucky (and I picked the winner of the derby last year). I think it's safe to say I'm awesome at handicapping horses. So I celebrated by cooking up some steaks, and I want to share the method here with you - the Alton Brown method. Simply salt and pepper your steak, then turn a burner on the stove up to high and preheat your oven at 500 degrees. Once everything is heated up, toss some olive oil in a cast iron pan and throw the steaks in there on the burner. 2-minutes each side to get a nice sear. Then throw them in the oven and go two minutes per side again (may have to adjust up or down for desired doneness). And that's it. Super simple and completely delicious, maybe even superior to using the grill. Give it a shot.
Now on to the boring part.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. He ended up losing the no-hitter and the shutout, but Franky's outing on Sunday against Texas was far, far more impressive than the actual no-hitter he threw earlier this year. He was actually hitting his spots (first time ever?), his fastball had some major tail action on it, his slider was basically unhittable, and he was even using his change-up effectively. He was perfect through six and didn't allow a hit until the 8th, which was almost inevitable after the Twins kept him on the bench for nearly a half-hour by battering a couple Texas pitchers for five runs in the bottom of the seventh in that rare occasion when you actually want your team to hurry up and get out. You could tell his rhythm was broken after that (that's on him, of course, you need to be able to adjust to that) but altogether his performance was nothing short of dominant. This version of Liriano is an ace, a game-changer, a slump stopper, and a potential playoff killer. It's just too bad we only see this version once a month or so.
2. Ben Revere. Snacks already claimed him as his new favorite player so I won't step on any toes, but man I really like Revere right now. He's not perfect or anything - he doesn't walk enough to be an elite leadoff guy, he has no power at all, and his arm would be better suited to playing second base - but what he does have is energy, speed, great center field instincts, and he's giving the team what they need - a jolt of energy. Infield hits, bunt hits, reaching base on a wild pitch after striking out, stealing bases, he's just really fun to watch. Now, I know this schtick will get old unless he learns to walk, learns to have a little power, or can hit .330, but for now you can put me in the "big fan" camp, and I think he has far more potential than Gomez. I don't know that he'll ever develop much power, but his plate discipline says he should learn to walk and he did hit over .300 at every minor league level, so I'm encouraged. Side note - I was going to sponsor his baseball-reference.com page, but some jackhole beat me to it.
3. Dallas Mavericks. It's tempting to give most of the credit for the big finals win to Dirk, but really there are a bunch of guys who carried this team at times. Terry had a monster game in the clinched and was their whole offense in the first half, Kidd was hitting his shots and running the offense as only an old man can, and Tyson Chandler had the kind of finals that makes guys millions, if only he was a free agent. Hell, even Deshawn Stevenson made a difference, both with his defense on baby soft Lebron and his 3 big 3-pointers in the first half tonight. I hate manufactured crap like "this is what happens when a real 'team' takes on 'superstars"", but for this series at least it was the truth. Miami had no answer for the fluid way Dallas played together and thank god. On a happiness scale I'm not sure if I'm happier that Dirk won or Lebron lost, but they both rank way up there.
4. Mike Leake. Welcome back, Mr. hippie surfer shoplifter, welcome back indeed. He had an insane rookie year that saw him skip the minor leagues entirely and get off to an absolutely blistering start (5-0, 2.22 ERA through early June), but since then things have been very rocky. He ended up burning out last year and was shut down in late August after he put up an ERA of almost six and a half in his next 10 starts and a disastrous move to the bullpen. This year has been rough as well with an injury, the whole shoplifting thing, his first ever minor league action, and a move to the bullpen, but things might be coming around now. Back-to-back 8 inning efforts with just two total runs allowed and and 11-to-2 strikeout to walk ratio this week. Love this guy, love everything about him, and very glad to see him back to makin' hitters look like fools, as well as seeing him back on our fantasy team.
5. Mike Moustakas. Yet another one of Kansas City's stud prospect, third baseman Mike Moustakas made his debut this past week and . Eric Hosmer looks like the real deal and Alcides Escobar is their SS of the future who is valuable even if his hitting doesn't come around, so they've got 3/4 of the infield covered. Now, Moustakas and Hosmer were generally ranked #1 and #2 in their system, so not everyone else has their pedigree, but it's notable that they have catcher covered (Wil Myers, #8 prospect in all of baseball by Keith Law) so if they can just find a few competent outfielders (I think Jarrod Dyson has a future similar to Escobar, but in CF) their future lineup should be pretty well set. The biggest question will be enough pitching will develop to make them competitive, but the minors are pretty heavily laden with big-time pitching prospects (including Danny Duffy, Jeremy Jeffress, Aaron Crow, and Tim Collins who are already up). Things better come together, because I have a $100 bet with Snacks that the Royals will win the AL Central before 2015, and god knows I can't afford to lose that kind of money. I would hate to have to choose between booze and feeding my kids. I think we all know which way that one is going to go.
WHO SUCKED
1. Colby Lewis. You remember good ole Colby, the dude who the Twins chased on Saturday after just more than an inning? You might remember him as the guy who gave up two hits each to Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young despite pitching just one and third innings. Not to mention giving up a sick number of hits/runs in between and getting run early with a final line of 1.1ip/7h/6er. Ouch. But what you might not know is that he also pitched against the Tigers earlier this week and might actually have pitched worse. Line: 3.1 ip/10 hits/9er/4 hr. Yes, that's nine earned runs and 4 homers allowed - two of which were to that piece of crap Brennan Boesch. So, in case your math skills are bad or you are a girl, that's 15 earned runs allowed in one week and that includes a game against the Twins triple A lineup. In all seriousness I really hope Mr. Lewis has been saving most of his money, because that paycheck might be drying up pretty quick here. Actually what do I care? Guy sucks. Get a real job, hippie!
2. Tim Lincecum. Since he's in the NL you probably have no idea he's been brutal. In fact, even if you're paying attention he doesn't look that bad - 3.41 ERA and 1.19 WHIP - but this week he's been completely brutal. He had two starts this week and in the longer outing he lasted five innings, and that was against the epically shitty Nationals. The Reds are at least good, but when you're Lincecum you just don't give up 7 hits and 7 runs in 4 innings to anybody - and he only struck out one guy. Very bad if you're a big fan of diminutive whirling dervish floppy haired pot-smoking hippy pitchers - or Wiley Wiggins. The good news is nerd stats (I'll spare you) don't point to anything that's significantly different that normal so this is more likely a blip on the radar rather than indicative of a Soria-style breakdown or anything, but god, getting ripped by the Nats is just freaking embarrassing. It'd be like getting busted by O'Bannion.
3. Oakland Athletics. Wow are these guys god damn awful. Look at that lineup and count the actual major league hitters. I see David DeJesus and Josh Willingham, both who would be good fourth outfielders for a team, and Coco Crisp who is a quality leadoff hitter. That's it. Their infield has to be the worst collection in the league - other contenders like Seattle and San Diego at least have one quality bat (Justin Smoak and Chase Headley), but Oakland has nothing. Throw in the injuries to starters Dallas Braden, Brett Anderson, Tyson Ross, and Brandon McCarthy and you can see why they've won just one of their last 14. Of note: they still have a better record than the Twins. FML.
4. Ryan Howard. No, not the mid-level executive from a mid-tier paper company in Pennsylvania who was addicted to cocaine and then committed fraud, I'm talking about the fat first baseman for the Phillies. You know, the guy who was inexplicably given a 5-year $125 million contract THAT DOESN'T EVEN START UNTIL NEXT SEASON despite the fact that his body type (fat to mostly fat) and playing style (high strikeout power hitter) mean that, at best, he's going to be a blacker Matt Stairs by the end of that contract. And this week was a preview, because he had three hits all week (not counting today where he had three hits and three rbi which kind of negates this point but I already typed all those words before I looked it up and saw he had a good day today). Any way the point is that Ryan Howard is fat and that was a stupid contract. Like, Mauer-stupid.
5. Lebron James. I almost feel like you could just call out the entire Heat team as sucking, but the difference is that there were games where Bosh played amazingly well (including tonight), Wade pretty much carried the team the entire series, and Lebron was straight up invisible way too often so you have to pick him as the goat. Not only did he handpick this team to win championships, but he hand picked this fucking team to win the championship. This shit was orchestrated with one goal in mind and they failed. And they didn't fail because of Wade (no surprise, the guy was nails in the playoffs and finals) and they didn't fail because of Bosh (surprisingly good this entire finals), they failed because Lebron was unable to carry the team for even small stretches and was about as valuable as that fat kid in Teen Wolf in the fourth quarter. God there is just an amazing psychology paper waiting to be written on Lebron. If I wasn't so dumb I would totally write it. That's not true. I'm too lazy. I just want to go fishing.
Lastly, just to brighten your week, here are WonderbabyTM's mad baseball skills on full display:
Now on to the boring part.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. He ended up losing the no-hitter and the shutout, but Franky's outing on Sunday against Texas was far, far more impressive than the actual no-hitter he threw earlier this year. He was actually hitting his spots (first time ever?), his fastball had some major tail action on it, his slider was basically unhittable, and he was even using his change-up effectively. He was perfect through six and didn't allow a hit until the 8th, which was almost inevitable after the Twins kept him on the bench for nearly a half-hour by battering a couple Texas pitchers for five runs in the bottom of the seventh in that rare occasion when you actually want your team to hurry up and get out. You could tell his rhythm was broken after that (that's on him, of course, you need to be able to adjust to that) but altogether his performance was nothing short of dominant. This version of Liriano is an ace, a game-changer, a slump stopper, and a potential playoff killer. It's just too bad we only see this version once a month or so.
2. Ben Revere. Snacks already claimed him as his new favorite player so I won't step on any toes, but man I really like Revere right now. He's not perfect or anything - he doesn't walk enough to be an elite leadoff guy, he has no power at all, and his arm would be better suited to playing second base - but what he does have is energy, speed, great center field instincts, and he's giving the team what they need - a jolt of energy. Infield hits, bunt hits, reaching base on a wild pitch after striking out, stealing bases, he's just really fun to watch. Now, I know this schtick will get old unless he learns to walk, learns to have a little power, or can hit .330, but for now you can put me in the "big fan" camp, and I think he has far more potential than Gomez. I don't know that he'll ever develop much power, but his plate discipline says he should learn to walk and he did hit over .300 at every minor league level, so I'm encouraged. Side note - I was going to sponsor his baseball-reference.com page, but some jackhole beat me to it.
3. Dallas Mavericks. It's tempting to give most of the credit for the big finals win to Dirk, but really there are a bunch of guys who carried this team at times. Terry had a monster game in the clinched and was their whole offense in the first half, Kidd was hitting his shots and running the offense as only an old man can, and Tyson Chandler had the kind of finals that makes guys millions, if only he was a free agent. Hell, even Deshawn Stevenson made a difference, both with his defense on baby soft Lebron and his 3 big 3-pointers in the first half tonight. I hate manufactured crap like "this is what happens when a real 'team' takes on 'superstars"", but for this series at least it was the truth. Miami had no answer for the fluid way Dallas played together and thank god. On a happiness scale I'm not sure if I'm happier that Dirk won or Lebron lost, but they both rank way up there.
4. Mike Leake. Welcome back, Mr. hippie surfer shoplifter, welcome back indeed. He had an insane rookie year that saw him skip the minor leagues entirely and get off to an absolutely blistering start (5-0, 2.22 ERA through early June), but since then things have been very rocky. He ended up burning out last year and was shut down in late August after he put up an ERA of almost six and a half in his next 10 starts and a disastrous move to the bullpen. This year has been rough as well with an injury, the whole shoplifting thing, his first ever minor league action, and a move to the bullpen, but things might be coming around now. Back-to-back 8 inning efforts with just two total runs allowed and and 11-to-2 strikeout to walk ratio this week. Love this guy, love everything about him, and very glad to see him back to makin' hitters look like fools, as well as seeing him back on our fantasy team.
5. Mike Moustakas. Yet another one of Kansas City's stud prospect, third baseman Mike Moustakas made his debut this past week and . Eric Hosmer looks like the real deal and Alcides Escobar is their SS of the future who is valuable even if his hitting doesn't come around, so they've got 3/4 of the infield covered. Now, Moustakas and Hosmer were generally ranked #1 and #2 in their system, so not everyone else has their pedigree, but it's notable that they have catcher covered (Wil Myers, #8 prospect in all of baseball by Keith Law) so if they can just find a few competent outfielders (I think Jarrod Dyson has a future similar to Escobar, but in CF) their future lineup should be pretty well set. The biggest question will be enough pitching will develop to make them competitive, but the minors are pretty heavily laden with big-time pitching prospects (including Danny Duffy, Jeremy Jeffress, Aaron Crow, and Tim Collins who are already up). Things better come together, because I have a $100 bet with Snacks that the Royals will win the AL Central before 2015, and god knows I can't afford to lose that kind of money. I would hate to have to choose between booze and feeding my kids. I think we all know which way that one is going to go.
WHO SUCKED
1. Colby Lewis. You remember good ole Colby, the dude who the Twins chased on Saturday after just more than an inning? You might remember him as the guy who gave up two hits each to Alexi Casilla and Delmon Young despite pitching just one and third innings. Not to mention giving up a sick number of hits/runs in between and getting run early with a final line of 1.1ip/7h/6er. Ouch. But what you might not know is that he also pitched against the Tigers earlier this week and might actually have pitched worse. Line: 3.1 ip/10 hits/9er/4 hr. Yes, that's nine earned runs and 4 homers allowed - two of which were to that piece of crap Brennan Boesch. So, in case your math skills are bad or you are a girl, that's 15 earned runs allowed in one week and that includes a game against the Twins triple A lineup. In all seriousness I really hope Mr. Lewis has been saving most of his money, because that paycheck might be drying up pretty quick here. Actually what do I care? Guy sucks. Get a real job, hippie!
2. Tim Lincecum. Since he's in the NL you probably have no idea he's been brutal. In fact, even if you're paying attention he doesn't look that bad - 3.41 ERA and 1.19 WHIP - but this week he's been completely brutal. He had two starts this week and in the longer outing he lasted five innings, and that was against the epically shitty Nationals. The Reds are at least good, but when you're Lincecum you just don't give up 7 hits and 7 runs in 4 innings to anybody - and he only struck out one guy. Very bad if you're a big fan of diminutive whirling dervish floppy haired pot-smoking hippy pitchers - or Wiley Wiggins. The good news is nerd stats (I'll spare you) don't point to anything that's significantly different that normal so this is more likely a blip on the radar rather than indicative of a Soria-style breakdown or anything, but god, getting ripped by the Nats is just freaking embarrassing. It'd be like getting busted by O'Bannion.
3. Oakland Athletics. Wow are these guys god damn awful. Look at that lineup and count the actual major league hitters. I see David DeJesus and Josh Willingham, both who would be good fourth outfielders for a team, and Coco Crisp who is a quality leadoff hitter. That's it. Their infield has to be the worst collection in the league - other contenders like Seattle and San Diego at least have one quality bat (Justin Smoak and Chase Headley), but Oakland has nothing. Throw in the injuries to starters Dallas Braden, Brett Anderson, Tyson Ross, and Brandon McCarthy and you can see why they've won just one of their last 14. Of note: they still have a better record than the Twins. FML.
4. Ryan Howard. No, not the mid-level executive from a mid-tier paper company in Pennsylvania who was addicted to cocaine and then committed fraud, I'm talking about the fat first baseman for the Phillies. You know, the guy who was inexplicably given a 5-year $125 million contract THAT DOESN'T EVEN START UNTIL NEXT SEASON despite the fact that his body type (fat to mostly fat) and playing style (high strikeout power hitter) mean that, at best, he's going to be a blacker Matt Stairs by the end of that contract. And this week was a preview, because he had three hits all week (not counting today where he had three hits and three rbi which kind of negates this point but I already typed all those words before I looked it up and saw he had a good day today). Any way the point is that Ryan Howard is fat and that was a stupid contract. Like, Mauer-stupid.
5. Lebron James. I almost feel like you could just call out the entire Heat team as sucking, but the difference is that there were games where Bosh played amazingly well (including tonight), Wade pretty much carried the team the entire series, and Lebron was straight up invisible way too often so you have to pick him as the goat. Not only did he handpick this team to win championships, but he hand picked this fucking team to win the championship. This shit was orchestrated with one goal in mind and they failed. And they didn't fail because of Wade (no surprise, the guy was nails in the playoffs and finals) and they didn't fail because of Bosh (surprisingly good this entire finals), they failed because Lebron was unable to carry the team for even small stretches and was about as valuable as that fat kid in Teen Wolf in the fourth quarter. God there is just an amazing psychology paper waiting to be written on Lebron. If I wasn't so dumb I would totally write it. That's not true. I'm too lazy. I just want to go fishing.
Lastly, just to brighten your week, here are WonderbabyTM's mad baseball skills on full display:
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
MLB Preview: American League
After I won multiple awards for my NL preview yesterday, I couldn't very well ignore the American League, especially since that's all anybody around here cares about. So that's what we got goin' down here tonight, a little American League chatter.
Also I want to mention as a public service announcement that although the 5-8 Club is famous for their Juicy Lucys you shouldn't ignore the broasted chicken. It's not quite as good as any random place at least 1 hour north of the cities (and the more norther the better), but for a city joint it's very good.
Anyway, here you go.
AL EAST
1. Boston Red Stockings. There's a reason all thdork Red Sox fans are so excited for their team - they're going to be really god damn good. They signed the top 2 free agent position players available who filled holes for them in Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, have an excellent rotation 1-5, a bullpen good enough that they can ship Hideki Okajima to triple-A, and, lest you think their 3rd place finish last year means they're overrated, they still won 89 games and several key players (Pedroia, Ellsbury, Youkilis) missed substantial time last season. In short, no matter how much you hate them and their fans (and I do with one exception) this team is going to be a monster. The shark move here would be to make sure and get Papelboner as your fantasy closer, since he's going to get a ridonkulous amount of save opps.
2. New York Yankees. They're lucky that the offense is loaded up because that rotation is brutal. Sabathia is good, I guess, but AJ Burnett is terrible, Phil Hughes is a dandy, Freddy Garcia is dead, and Ivan Nova will be in AAA ball by June. That said, they're going to be tough to beat and should win a lot of 8-6 ball games, plus with Soriano setting up for Rivera they essentially just have to outscore you through 7 innings. Side note: if you look at the lineup there's absolutely no reason Derek Jeter should be hitting anything other than 8th or 9th. Other than the intangibles of course. And those piercing blue eyes.
3. Tampa Bay Rays. Whoever stocked up the Rays farm system did one hell of a job, because it seems no matter who leaves there is always a hot young prospect ready to step in, and that especially includes the pitching staff. This year those guys will have to be dead on, because behind provens David Price and James Shields are a bunch of youngins - talented youngins in Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, and Jeremy Hellickson - but young just the same. Two other things: 1. FREE DESMOND JENNINGS! and 2. Kyle Farnsworth as your closer? Seriously? I dropped them from #2 to #4 for that reason alone. Then bumped them back to #3 because Evan Longoria is both awesome and sexy.
4. Baltimore Orioles. I feel bad for these guys, I really do. After years of throwing good money after bad, making poor decisions, and decimating the farm system they're finally starting to do things right. They got a solid manager (Buck Showalter), good young talent (Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta), with more on the way (Zach Britton, Manny Machado, Chris Tillman), and are signing reasonable free agents who make sense and fit with the roster (Derrek Lee, Mark Reynolds, Kevin Gregg, and trading for JJ Hardy). Really they're doing a lot right and in any other division they'd be a sleeper to win it. Here, however, fourth place is their absolute upside.
5. Toronto Blue Jays. This is definitely a fun team if you like a youth movement - the oldest pitcher in the rotation is 26. They also have fun prospects like LF Travis Snider and C JP Arencibia who are going to be handed starting jobs and told to run with them. If the youth is good and crap factories Adam Lind and Aaron Hill - two of the biggest disappointments in all of baseball last year - can bounce back this team might be able to threaten for fourth place. That being said, this team would be a contender in the AL Central. Thank god the Twins are in such a shitty division.
AL CENTRAL
1. Minnesota Twins. Hey, speaking of the Twins being in a shitty division, here I am picking them to win again even though I'm not remotely impressed with this team. If you're reading this you probably know everything you need to about the Twins so all I'm going to say is I hate hate hate hate hate the middle infield and I still don't understand the Hardy trade, but my biggest question is how they handled the whole Scott Diamond thing. Trading Billy Bullock, he of the 150 strikeouts in 108 innings in two years at age 22 and the Twins second-round pick just TWO FUCKING YEARS AGO means that Diamond better be the best god damn reliever in history. AGAGDASHKJ the season hasn't even started yet and I'm already mad. Let's just move on.
2. Detroit Tigers. You know who I love this year? Justin motherfuckin' Verlander. He's been awesome the last several years, no doubt, but I think this is the year he goes from awesome to AWESOME. I also love Austin Jackson, and I think if he can just have half of Delmon Young's plate discipline he's got super star written all over him, and the youngster SP duo of Scherzer and Porcello has got potential. That's it that I like on that team because I hate everybody else including fat alcoholic and girl hair McGee. I guess I don't hate Will Rhymes, but that's not because of his play (Punto-esque) but because of his sweet name. If Snow had just called himself Will Rhymes Informer would have hit #1 on the charts.
3. Chicago Gay Sox. Ever have a player you love (Adam Dunn) who goes to a team you hate with every fiber of your being? I always loved Mike Mussina and it broke my heart when he signed with the Yankees, but I never really really cared because it was AL East crap. This time it's really going to test me. I harbor no ill will towards Dunnsy right now, but I'm pretty sure the first time he takes a Nick Blackburn 88 mph heater 500 feet the other way (and you know it's coming) I'm pretty sure the hatred will rise up quickly. Looking forward to the Twins facing Jesse Crain though, pretty sure we have some guys who will return that 500 foot favor. Of course I'm assuming/hoping they got old Crain, not fancy new Crain from the second half of last season. Because that guy was good. Ah god dammit. This is going to be so frustrating.
4. Kansas City Royals. Holy shit you guys are these last two teams brutal. Honestly these might be the two worst teams in the entire league. I'm going to throw the Royals in the lead because I like that fat doubles machine and $nake has a shirt of the Mexecutioner. There's your upside, plus that Hawai'ian dude who's slugging like 3 in spring training. The future is supposedly very bright here, which is good because the present is full of Jason Kendall and Bruce Chen. No shit. The Chenner. Want to know how fucked up the Royals' are? ESPN lists Melky Cabrera as their starting CF and starting RF, and that seems like it might be accurate.
5. Cleveland Indians. Carlos Santana is going to be awesome. That's the entire list of positives I can come up with unless you believe in Justin Masterson (kind of sort of) or think Matt LaPorta might still be good (no chance). Since I got nothin' else to say, here's a picture of a naked Grady Sizemore:
You know you love it.
AL WEST
1. Oakland Athletics. Ok fine, I'm buying in. If San Francisco can win an entire World Series on the strength of their pitching staff, why can't Oakland win a crappy AL West on the strength of theirs? Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson are studs in the making, Gio Gonzalez is nasty, and Dallas Braden has the soft-tossing lefty thing down pat. Add in bullpen additions in Brian Fuentes and Grant Balfour and I really like the pitching they've got here. The offense was downright dreadful last year, and although the pick-ups of David DeJesus, Josh Willingham, and Godzilla will help it still isn't going to be pretty. This is going to be another team that's going to have to win those 3-2 ball games quite a bit if they're going to contend.
2. Texas Rangers. These guys are the opposite of Oakland with their potent lineup that gets more potenter with Adrian Beltre at the hot corner, but with Cliff Lee gone the entire rotation is rather underwhelming, especially if you're like me and think they all suck outside of C.J. Wilson. With such a shaky staff I don't understand why they're so strident in keeping Neftali Feliz as their closer. Yes he was good last year, but he's easily the most talented pitcher on the team and came up through the minors as a starter, and since that's where they could maximize his value I'm baffled at the choice to keep him closing games. Good for the rest of the AL, I suppose.
3. Los Angeles Angels. Just a massive pile of meh, which seems odd because these guys were perennial contenders not that long ago, but I guess missing out on Carl Crawford and having a back-up plan of standing around doing nothing will generally drag you down a smidge. Jered Weaver and Dan Haren are a great 1-2 punch, especially since it turns out Weaver is actually good which shocked the hell out of me, but after that everybody is boring unless you think 1B Mark Trumbo can win rookie of the year. I don't, because I have never heard of him. When the left-side of the diamond is made up of Maicier Izturis, Erick Aybar, and Alex Rios you know damn well you aren't competing for anything, and don't forget their still trying to force Fernando Rodney to be a closer so they'll lose their share of close games as well.
4. Seattle Mariners. I picked these guys as my sleeper team last year. Turns out I'm an idiot. Good news though, they've taken major steps to turn this thing around by acquiring Jack Cust, Gabe Gross, Adam Kennedy, Miguel Olivo, and Brendan Ryan. Jesus Christ guys, you only won 61 games last year and THIS is how you address your issues? How can you be this shitty and only have three young, high upside guys in the entire system (Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, Michael Pineda)? At least the Pirates and Royals look like they have a plan, and don't forget they had Cliff Lee! What did they get for him, Smoak and a bag of balls? This is terrible. I can't wait until Felix forces his way out, maybe the Twins can get him for Cuddyer and Dusty Hughes.
POSTSEASON AND AWARDS:
NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzki (alternate: Buster Posey)
AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez (Evan Longoria)
NL Cy Young: Clay Kershaw (Roy Halladay)
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (Jon Lester)
NL Rookie: Domonic Brown (Freddie Freeman)
AL Rookie: JP Arencibia (Desmond Jennings)
NL Division Winners: Phillies, Reds, Giants
NL Wild Card: Brewers
AL Division Winners: Red Sox, Twins, A's
AL Wild Card: Yankees
World Series: Reds over Red Sox
Also I want to mention as a public service announcement that although the 5-8 Club is famous for their Juicy Lucys you shouldn't ignore the broasted chicken. It's not quite as good as any random place at least 1 hour north of the cities (and the more norther the better), but for a city joint it's very good.
Anyway, here you go.
AL EAST
3. Tampa Bay Rays. Whoever stocked up the Rays farm system did one hell of a job, because it seems no matter who leaves there is always a hot young prospect ready to step in, and that especially includes the pitching staff. This year those guys will have to be dead on, because behind provens David Price and James Shields are a bunch of youngins - talented youngins in Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, and Jeremy Hellickson - but young just the same. Two other things: 1. FREE DESMOND JENNINGS! and 2. Kyle Farnsworth as your closer? Seriously? I dropped them from #2 to #4 for that reason alone. Then bumped them back to #3 because Evan Longoria is both awesome and sexy.
5. Toronto Blue Jays. This is definitely a fun team if you like a youth movement - the oldest pitcher in the rotation is 26. They also have fun prospects like LF Travis Snider and C JP Arencibia who are going to be handed starting jobs and told to run with them. If the youth is good and crap factories Adam Lind and Aaron Hill - two of the biggest disappointments in all of baseball last year - can bounce back this team might be able to threaten for fourth place. That being said, this team would be a contender in the AL Central. Thank god the Twins are in such a shitty division.
AL CENTRAL
2. Detroit Tigers. You know who I love this year? Justin motherfuckin' Verlander. He's been awesome the last several years, no doubt, but I think this is the year he goes from awesome to AWESOME. I also love Austin Jackson, and I think if he can just have half of Delmon Young's plate discipline he's got super star written all over him, and the youngster SP duo of Scherzer and Porcello has got potential. That's it that I like on that team because I hate everybody else including fat alcoholic and girl hair McGee. I guess I don't hate Will Rhymes, but that's not because of his play (Punto-esque) but because of his sweet name. If Snow had just called himself Will Rhymes Informer would have hit #1 on the charts.
3. Chicago Gay Sox. Ever have a player you love (Adam Dunn) who goes to a team you hate with every fiber of your being? I always loved Mike Mussina and it broke my heart when he signed with the Yankees, but I never really really cared because it was AL East crap. This time it's really going to test me. I harbor no ill will towards Dunnsy right now, but I'm pretty sure the first time he takes a Nick Blackburn 88 mph heater 500 feet the other way (and you know it's coming) I'm pretty sure the hatred will rise up quickly. Looking forward to the Twins facing Jesse Crain though, pretty sure we have some guys who will return that 500 foot favor. Of course I'm assuming/hoping they got old Crain, not fancy new Crain from the second half of last season. Because that guy was good. Ah god dammit. This is going to be so frustrating.
4. Kansas City Royals. Holy shit you guys are these last two teams brutal. Honestly these might be the two worst teams in the entire league. I'm going to throw the Royals in the lead because I like that fat doubles machine and $nake has a shirt of the Mexecutioner. There's your upside, plus that Hawai'ian dude who's slugging like 3 in spring training. The future is supposedly very bright here, which is good because the present is full of Jason Kendall and Bruce Chen. No shit. The Chenner. Want to know how fucked up the Royals' are? ESPN lists Melky Cabrera as their starting CF and starting RF, and that seems like it might be accurate.
5. Cleveland Indians. Carlos Santana is going to be awesome. That's the entire list of positives I can come up with unless you believe in Justin Masterson (kind of sort of) or think Matt LaPorta might still be good (no chance). Since I got nothin' else to say, here's a picture of a naked Grady Sizemore:
AL WEST
2. Texas Rangers. These guys are the opposite of Oakland with their potent lineup that gets more potenter with Adrian Beltre at the hot corner, but with Cliff Lee gone the entire rotation is rather underwhelming, especially if you're like me and think they all suck outside of C.J. Wilson. With such a shaky staff I don't understand why they're so strident in keeping Neftali Feliz as their closer. Yes he was good last year, but he's easily the most talented pitcher on the team and came up through the minors as a starter, and since that's where they could maximize his value I'm baffled at the choice to keep him closing games. Good for the rest of the AL, I suppose.
4. Seattle Mariners. I picked these guys as my sleeper team last year. Turns out I'm an idiot. Good news though, they've taken major steps to turn this thing around by acquiring Jack Cust, Gabe Gross, Adam Kennedy, Miguel Olivo, and Brendan Ryan. Jesus Christ guys, you only won 61 games last year and THIS is how you address your issues? How can you be this shitty and only have three young, high upside guys in the entire system (Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley, Michael Pineda)? At least the Pirates and Royals look like they have a plan, and don't forget they had Cliff Lee! What did they get for him, Smoak and a bag of balls? This is terrible. I can't wait until Felix forces his way out, maybe the Twins can get him for Cuddyer and Dusty Hughes.
POSTSEASON AND AWARDS:
NL MVP: Troy Tulowitzki (alternate: Buster Posey)
AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez (Evan Longoria)
NL Cy Young: Clay Kershaw (Roy Halladay)
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (Jon Lester)
NL Rookie: Domonic Brown (Freddie Freeman)
AL Rookie: JP Arencibia (Desmond Jennings)
NL Division Winners: Phillies, Reds, Giants
NL Wild Card: Brewers
AL Division Winners: Red Sox, Twins, A's
AL Wild Card: Yankees
World Series: Reds over Red Sox
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Quick News
Just a quick break from fixing this blog's appearance and links and my, you know, real job, to hit a couple of things in case you haven't heard already.
- In really bad news, Pat Neshek of the Twins will need surgery and is likely out for all of next season. After sitting out nearly all of last year with this same injury, he re-injured his elbow last week throwing and will now need Tommy John surgery and will be down for the count. This makes an already high priority, getting bullpen help, the absolute number 1 priority no doubt. Forget Atkins or Blake or whoever else to play third base, get a top notch reliever. I have no idea who is out there, but if I feel like it later I'll get more into this. This sucks.
- One possibility would be Trevor Hoffman, who was unable to reach a deal with San Diego and will never play for the Padres again. He's a big name, and his entry music of Hells Bells is the best ever, but he's also 41 and has lost a lot of velocity. The good news for him is that his changeup has also been his out pitch. Can he become the Jamie Moyer of relievers? A quick look at his numbers says it's possible. He's just two seasons removed from finishing as runner-up for the NL Cy Young award, and last season posted a 1.04 WHIP and a 3.77 ERA, with opponents hitting just .229 against him. He would be a good fit with the Twins, as he doesn't walk anybody and his home run rate jumped through the roof last season. I think he would be a great get for the Twins, except for the pesky little salary problem. He made $7 million last year, and the Padres offered him $4 million plus incentives which he turned down in a huff. Even if the Twins were able to offer him a $4 million or so salary, doubtful at best, he would have to accept, also doubtful at best. I would love too see the Twins make an effort to get the future Hall of Famer, but fully expect someone like the Yankees to swoop in and offer him a contract more to his liking.
- Billy Beane is at it again, defying "conventional" logic and seemingly trading prospects for an expensive star player in the Rockies' Matt Holliday. Holliday is an awesome player, but you kind of have to wonder how inflated his numbers are playing in Coors (Sidler?) The A's are (allegedly) sending over Huston Street (established high-end closer), pitcher Greg Smith (highly regarded prospect) and OF Carlos Gonzalez (super highly regarded prospect) for a guy with only one year left on his contract at $13.5 million. I'll assume they won't make the trade unless they get a long term deal in place, but I still don't understand why the A's are making this move. I'm not going to question Billy Beane, but I'm very curious to see what the plan is here. If they don't get a long term deal done, my best guess is Beane thinks the pieces are there to make a run at the playoffs this season, and wanted a bat to put them over the top. If things don't work out he will just trade him again at the deadline.
- Lastly, as I'm sure everyone has already heard, Eric Decker won't be playing at Wisconsin this weekend because of that ankle injury. This is, once again, a huge blow to the offense and Adam Weber's radar lock. I'll also go ahead and take this time to officially admit I was very, very wrong about Decker. I thought his early season success was more a product of the talent on the other side of the ball that his own talent, but he's won me over. Hell, he could be the next Wes Welker.
- In really bad news, Pat Neshek of the Twins will need surgery and is likely out for all of next season. After sitting out nearly all of last year with this same injury, he re-injured his elbow last week throwing and will now need Tommy John surgery and will be down for the count. This makes an already high priority, getting bullpen help, the absolute number 1 priority no doubt. Forget Atkins or Blake or whoever else to play third base, get a top notch reliever. I have no idea who is out there, but if I feel like it later I'll get more into this. This sucks.
- One possibility would be Trevor Hoffman, who was unable to reach a deal with San Diego and will never play for the Padres again. He's a big name, and his entry music of Hells Bells is the best ever, but he's also 41 and has lost a lot of velocity. The good news for him is that his changeup has also been his out pitch. Can he become the Jamie Moyer of relievers? A quick look at his numbers says it's possible. He's just two seasons removed from finishing as runner-up for the NL Cy Young award, and last season posted a 1.04 WHIP and a 3.77 ERA, with opponents hitting just .229 against him. He would be a good fit with the Twins, as he doesn't walk anybody and his home run rate jumped through the roof last season. I think he would be a great get for the Twins, except for the pesky little salary problem. He made $7 million last year, and the Padres offered him $4 million plus incentives which he turned down in a huff. Even if the Twins were able to offer him a $4 million or so salary, doubtful at best, he would have to accept, also doubtful at best. I would love too see the Twins make an effort to get the future Hall of Famer, but fully expect someone like the Yankees to swoop in and offer him a contract more to his liking.
- Billy Beane is at it again, defying "conventional" logic and seemingly trading prospects for an expensive star player in the Rockies' Matt Holliday. Holliday is an awesome player, but you kind of have to wonder how inflated his numbers are playing in Coors (Sidler?) The A's are (allegedly) sending over Huston Street (established high-end closer), pitcher Greg Smith (highly regarded prospect) and OF Carlos Gonzalez (super highly regarded prospect) for a guy with only one year left on his contract at $13.5 million. I'll assume they won't make the trade unless they get a long term deal in place, but I still don't understand why the A's are making this move. I'm not going to question Billy Beane, but I'm very curious to see what the plan is here. If they don't get a long term deal done, my best guess is Beane thinks the pieces are there to make a run at the playoffs this season, and wanted a bat to put them over the top. If things don't work out he will just trade him again at the deadline.
- Lastly, as I'm sure everyone has already heard, Eric Decker won't be playing at Wisconsin this weekend because of that ankle injury. This is, once again, a huge blow to the offense and Adam Weber's radar lock. I'll also go ahead and take this time to officially admit I was very, very wrong about Decker. I thought his early season success was more a product of the talent on the other side of the ball that his own talent, but he's won me over. Hell, he could be the next Wes Welker.
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