Since we're at the symbolic mid-year point for the 2011 MLB season, I might as well give you some thoughts to chew on from my super smart brain. I'm going to go with the pleasant resultss so far this year today, and tomorrow I'll toss out the big disappointments. As usual, we'll be covering the entire league as well as your local nine. In no particular order:
1. Michael Cuddyer. I wrote him up glowingly just a week ago, but I'm just stunned by my own turnaround him. Thanks to his knack for picking up his hitting when the team most needs his bat as well as his willingness to play wherever and whenever he's needed (unlike many others on this sissified team) I've come around on everything I used to hate. The two things I hated most were his inability to law off the outside slider in the dirt when he had 2 strikes even though he knows it's coming and his media-whore-ishness.
At this point, however, I've just come to accept that almost everybody has a hole in their swing and that's just his, and I'm beginning to realize his mediawhoreishness is really just attempt to be a team leader. Seeing how Joe Mauer is an emotionless robot and Justin Morneau usually can no longer remember what day it is or what his name is, Cuddy's tried to become the leader the team needs. Since he's really just a country bumpkin at heart it doesn't really come off all that well but at least he's trying.
Hopefully they trade him for a prospect and then resign him at a reduced price next season. Although I want Kubel back as well. So I guess they need to trade Delmon Young, whose value is at an all-time low, and Denard Span, who looks like he may never play again. This team can't even build a roster correctly.
2. Jose Bautista. Let me guess. You, like everybody else, figured Jose Bautista for a Brady Anderson like fluke last year, whether it was due to steroids or just some weird convergence of craziness or something. I did, but after his start to this year - leading the majors with 31 homers already - I'm sold. Maybe I'm really stupid, and obviously it's not out of the questions that he's getting pharmacological help for two years rather than just the one, but I'm now a believer. Maybe I just want to believe. I don't know. It's not like this kind of neither never happens - it's just rare.
3. Ben Revere. I have to admit I was never really all that excited for Ben Revere. All I ever heard was how he was basically the next Juan Pierre, and statistically Pierre isn't all that great. He gets a lot of hits but makes a lot of outs because he never walks and he's fast with no power. I wasn't interested. But now that Revere is here, I get the good stuff.
Yeah, he'd still be better if he walked a bit more often and unless he develops some power he's going to struggle because the outfielders, especially the left-fielders, can play him shallow and take away that slap single to left, but he's fun to watch, no doubt. Incredible fast, maybe the fastest Twin on the bases I can remember along with Guzman and Gomez, hits well enough, can steal bases, and is the best defensive CFer the team has had since Puckett. I'm on board. Whether he can ever develop into a true leadoff type hitter or will be more doomed to be a #9 is yet to be seen, but his downside is an exciting bottom of the order guy with his upside an all-star lead off hitter. What's not to love?
4. Adrian Gonzalez. Remember how Gonzalez put up like sickening good numbers hitting in the grand canyon that is Petco Park while being surrounded in the lineup by guys like Chase Headley and Ryan Klesko and everybody said that he'd kill the league after he signed with Boston? Well it's happening. .354 to lead the league with 77 rbi to lead the league and 17 homers (ranks 10th). If you're curious, a season with a .350 BA, 25 homers, and 120 rbi has only been done three times since 2000 (Pujols, Larry Walker, Magglio Ordonez) and not once since 2007. Pretty crazy stuff.
5. Justin Verlander. Speaking of crazy, Verlander is having an absolute monster year of a career year, which is pretty amazing considering he's already finished in the top-11 in Cy Young voting four times in his six year career. His ERA of 2.15 is a full run better than his previous career best while his WHIP of 0.87 is 0.3 better than his career high and his 12 wins so far are nearly 2/3rds of the way to his high of 19 (that's right, somehow Verlander has never won 20 in a season). Looking at the nerd stats he's pitching nearly identically to how he usually does style wise, but the results have been better so we can expect Verlander to come back towards his career averages a bit (which is good for Twins' fans) but he's still a damn good pitcher either way wit the inside track on his first Cy Young win. I really really wish the Twins could find a way to get somebody like this someday. Come on, Kyle Gibson.
6. Jose Reyes. The Mets aren't very good or anything, but have been slightly better than expected aat around .500 and the biggest reason is that Jose Reyes has been completely and totally ridiculous. He's currently leading the NL in batting average at .354 which is made even more ridiculous by the fact that he was hitting just .310 on May 22nd but has hit .413 in the 34 games since with multiple hits in 22 of those 34 games. Basically with a crappy team whose #2 and #3 players are hurt in David Wright and Johan Santana they're in a position to get a huge return if they can find a trade partner for Reyes. He's a free agent so they need to move him (or sign him I guess since they're a New York team). Maybe the Twins could get him for a Mauer + Casilla combo. Do it.
7. Paul Konerko. Sort of lost in all the hub-bub over Jose Bautista transforming from 4th outfielder to most feared hitter in the AL has been Konerko's transformation from washed up old man to 2nd most feared hitter in the AL. Although I'm sure all Twins' fans have noticed. From 2004-2006 he was incredible with 3 top-22 MVP years, but then started a skid that looked like it was pretty much the final slide of his career. In fact, for 3 straight years from 2007-2009 he was pretty average and an average hitting first baseman isn't very good. But then last year - boom - .312 with 39 homers and he's continued it this year by hitting .319 with 22 HRs to this point. Actually, know that I think about, Konerko's resurgence should probably be more suspicious than Bautista's transformation, but it just isn't because he's a rare commodity (a non-douchey White Sock) and it's fun to say Konerko Konorked it.
8. Scott Baker. With all the hand-wringing over the Twins', and particularly over the state of the starting pitching, somehow it's been lost that Baker is having a career year. His ERA at the break is just 3.01, ranking him tenth in the AL, which is a full run better than his career mark. And, after an uncharacteristic start to the season where he was struggling to find the strike zone he's now got his walk rate down back where it traditionally belongs and is doing it while putting up a career high strikeout rate. Basically he appears to really be coming into his own and he's doing it by doing things he can control: strikeout rate, walk rate, and home run rate (which is down this year). He's shown too many flashes in the past for me to be straight up excited by this and I have to say there's a big part of me that's just waiting for the regression, but I'm definitely mildly intrigued.
9. Michael Pineda. Credit goes to Snake for drafting this guy for our fantasy team, but he's been an absolute gem. His 8 wins lead all AL rookie pitchers and he also leads in WHIP at 1.04, ERA at 3.03, and strikeouts at 103. In short, he's been a complete rookie stud who is the leading candidate to win AL Rookie-of-the-Year and a fabulous compliment to Felix Hernandez, giving Seattle an excellent 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation. Unfortunately outside of those two, Justin Smoak, Ichiro, and Dustin Ackley the entire team is worse than the worst Twin. Yeah, for real.
10. Pittsburgh Pirates. Speaking of teams that are usually really bad you have to hand it to the Pirates who, at 47-43, have a decent chance to finish over .500 for the first time in 18 years, and actually sent three players to the All-Star game. Since they hired Neal Huntington as GM in 2007 they've been very patient and have worked to build their farm system and it's now starting to pay off (not unlike what the Royals are doing). They've mainly worked through the draft (picking up Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez) that way, but have also done well in trades, nabbing Jose Tabata from the Yankees (in the Xavier Nady/Damaso Marte trade that also netted Jeff Karstens), Ronny Cedeno from the Mariners for Jack Wilson, as well as starters James McDonald (from the Dodgers) and Charlie Morton (from the Cubs) for Octavio Dotel and Nate McLouth and they signed all-star Kevin Correia as a free agent and grabbed all-star Joel Hanrahan from the Nats for nothing. They're definitely building something in Pittsburgh. Whether they can go any further or if this is it, it's gotta be exciting if you're a Pirate fan. Assuming those still exist.
Showing posts with label Rickie Weeks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rickie Weeks. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Random Thoughts on a Tuesday
A whole bunch of thoughts while watching the end of the Twins game. I'm not exactly sure what happened because it was 4-0 Yankees when I left the YMCA and I got home and put the kid to bed and now it's 4-4. So that's good. And you know this whole Yankees dominating the Twins thing does have a silver lining - this is shaping up exactly like an 80s movie. Rag tag group of misfits from the poor side of town continually beaten down by the rich, snobby, evil kids in their fancy preppy clothes, but in the end the good guys finally get over the hump and the bad guys get their comeuppance. The Twins are really just Daniel LaRusso while the Yankees are the Cobra Kai, we just need our All Valley Karate Tournament moment, and you know it's coming. Cue Bananarama.
- Well that was quite the turd sandwich on top of what might have been the most entertaining NCAA Tournament I can remember. I will say though that UCONN isn't getting nearly enough credit for Butler's poor performance. Yes, the Bulldogs missed plenty of open shots, but they also had difficulty getting good looks and the Huskies had a lot to do with that. The reason Butler only scored 2 points in the paint the entire game wasn't because they avoided getting the ball inside or because Brad Stevens made a mistake. They got the ball to Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on the block plenty of times but they just couldn't score against the height, length, and athleticism of Oriakhi, Okwandu, etc. Either there shots were blocked, altered, or they needed to do something extreme to get an open look and were at a weird angle or off balance.
Butler isn't a bad team, obviously, but this was just their second opponent of this tournament who was overwhelmingly more athletic than the Bulldogs and it showed. Old Dominion, Pitt, and Wisconsin are at about the same level as Butler, and while Florida is a more athletic squad they didn't play their best game (credit Butler) and that athleticism translates more when they have the ball rather than when they're on defense. Unfortunately for Butler, UCONN was/is playing at as high a level as anybody right now (especially defensively) and they just overwhelmed the Bulldogs, stopping basically all dribble penetration and destroying anybody who tried to score from the block.
Howard, in particular, was pretty pathetic, putting up a pretty sad 1-13 shooting performance, getting multiple shots blocked, and getting out-rebounded over and over again. For the second year in a row he looked out of place in the championship game, this time to the point that my non-basketball watching friend who I was viewing the game with picked him out as "the worst player I've ever seen." And, of course, he suckered me in and I believed in him and lost some cash on some prop bets I placed on him. I was a fool and I'm not going to let anything like that happen again. I'll be back next year to get rich. As entertaining as this year's tournament was, it was murder on the wallet.
- I'm not sure I completely understand Shaka Smart's thinking in staying at VCU. I mean I understand, I just don't know that I agree with him that he can turn VCU into a perennial powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga, and by turning down NC State's offer he's basically wagering a million dollars a year that he can do just that. Even if you just look to next year things are going to be a struggle for VCU. They're losing Joey Rodriguez, Jamie Skeen, Brandon Rozzell, and Ed Nixon off of this year's team (that's four of their top five scorers and all-around best players) and according to Rivals the only player they have coming in to replace them right now is a non-rated forward whose other offers were from Cleveland State and Northeastern. Meanwhile VCU's previous coach Anthony Grant, who jumped to Alabama after a nice little multi-year run with Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders, is making almost $2 million a year and took a team that was so bad the previous coach was fired midseason to a team that won their division of the SEC this year, went 19-0 at home, and made the NIT final after just missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid. Basically his whole team is coming back next year and he has a great class coming in with three kids ranked in the top 125, and he's thought of as a fast riser whose next job could end up being a big one. Shaka clearly knows what he's doing, but I'm thinking he's being a bit too optimistic here.
- Finally, and this probably wraps up college basketball for the year until/unless the Gophers sign somebody or Tubby Smith finally signs on with NC State, but I would love for somebody to explain to me how they selected the participants in the College 3-point contest. I thought it was kind of bizarre that Blake Hoffarber wasn't involved, but that was before I realized Jon freaking Diebler wasn't involved. I was worried that maybe I was just being Big 10-centric, so I looked it up. Diebler ranked 3rd amongst all seniors (event is only open to seniors) in three-point makes and second in 3-point percentage. Although looking at the numbers it's kind of surprising Jimmer Fredette wasn't there. Talor Battle too. I'm not saying they're screwing it up or anything but the choices for some of the players involved just seem weird, especially since Brady Morningstar made as many threes this year as
- Speaking of white guys playing basketball, when I was at the Y tonight there was no open gym because they had "special" kids playing adapted basketball and I watched for a couple of minutes. Those kids sure do hustle but man, they have no handles.
- Twins are now winning. This is unexpected, but I'm guessing this is like the part where Daniel sprays Johnny with the hose at the Halloween dance - you feel like you got the upper hand, but the night ends with you being held up against a chain link fence while you get the shit beat out of you by guys in skeleton outfits.
- A few players who have caught my eye so far this baseball season who might be worth keeping your eye on:
- Hey, the Twins actually won. Sweet. The final out came when Joe Nathan struck out Derek Jeter on a high fastball that was clocked at 89 mph. I don't know who that sentence is worse for, but Nathan's fastball is seriously only at 89 mph there are going to be some extremely ugly game endings in our future.
- Lastly, if you like golf our good buddy Grand Slam has promised me a Masters Preview at some point tomorrow, so look for that either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I'm sure it'll be epic. As for my picks I'm not exactly digging deep here but it's hard to argue with Mickelson the way he's playing, and Watney and Justin Rose are solid picks here as well. Sleeper picks could be David Toms or Sergio. I don't know. Trust Grand Slam, he's smoking everybody in our fantasy golf league.
- Well that was quite the turd sandwich on top of what might have been the most entertaining NCAA Tournament I can remember. I will say though that UCONN isn't getting nearly enough credit for Butler's poor performance. Yes, the Bulldogs missed plenty of open shots, but they also had difficulty getting good looks and the Huskies had a lot to do with that. The reason Butler only scored 2 points in the paint the entire game wasn't because they avoided getting the ball inside or because Brad Stevens made a mistake. They got the ball to Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on the block plenty of times but they just couldn't score against the height, length, and athleticism of Oriakhi, Okwandu, etc. Either there shots were blocked, altered, or they needed to do something extreme to get an open look and were at a weird angle or off balance.
Butler isn't a bad team, obviously, but this was just their second opponent of this tournament who was overwhelmingly more athletic than the Bulldogs and it showed. Old Dominion, Pitt, and Wisconsin are at about the same level as Butler, and while Florida is a more athletic squad they didn't play their best game (credit Butler) and that athleticism translates more when they have the ball rather than when they're on defense. Unfortunately for Butler, UCONN was/is playing at as high a level as anybody right now (especially defensively) and they just overwhelmed the Bulldogs, stopping basically all dribble penetration and destroying anybody who tried to score from the block.
Howard, in particular, was pretty pathetic, putting up a pretty sad 1-13 shooting performance, getting multiple shots blocked, and getting out-rebounded over and over again. For the second year in a row he looked out of place in the championship game, this time to the point that my non-basketball watching friend who I was viewing the game with picked him out as "the worst player I've ever seen." And, of course, he suckered me in and I believed in him and lost some cash on some prop bets I placed on him. I was a fool and I'm not going to let anything like that happen again. I'll be back next year to get rich. As entertaining as this year's tournament was, it was murder on the wallet.
- I'm not sure I completely understand Shaka Smart's thinking in staying at VCU. I mean I understand, I just don't know that I agree with him that he can turn VCU into a perennial powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga, and by turning down NC State's offer he's basically wagering a million dollars a year that he can do just that. Even if you just look to next year things are going to be a struggle for VCU. They're losing Joey Rodriguez, Jamie Skeen, Brandon Rozzell, and Ed Nixon off of this year's team (that's four of their top five scorers and all-around best players) and according to Rivals the only player they have coming in to replace them right now is a non-rated forward whose other offers were from Cleveland State and Northeastern. Meanwhile VCU's previous coach Anthony Grant, who jumped to Alabama after a nice little multi-year run with Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders, is making almost $2 million a year and took a team that was so bad the previous coach was fired midseason to a team that won their division of the SEC this year, went 19-0 at home, and made the NIT final after just missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid. Basically his whole team is coming back next year and he has a great class coming in with three kids ranked in the top 125, and he's thought of as a fast riser whose next job could end up being a big one. Shaka clearly knows what he's doing, but I'm thinking he's being a bit too optimistic here.
- Finally, and this probably wraps up college basketball for the year until/unless the Gophers sign somebody or Tubby Smith finally signs on with NC State, but I would love for somebody to explain to me how they selected the participants in the College 3-point contest. I thought it was kind of bizarre that Blake Hoffarber wasn't involved, but that was before I realized Jon freaking Diebler wasn't involved. I was worried that maybe I was just being Big 10-centric, so I looked it up. Diebler ranked 3rd amongst all seniors (event is only open to seniors) in three-point makes and second in 3-point percentage. Although looking at the numbers it's kind of surprising Jimmer Fredette wasn't there. Talor Battle too. I'm not saying they're screwing it up or anything but the choices for some of the players involved just seem weird, especially since Brady Morningstar made as many threes this year as
- Speaking of white guys playing basketball, when I was at the Y tonight there was no open gym because they had "special" kids playing adapted basketball and I watched for a couple of minutes. Those kids sure do hustle but man, they have no handles.
- Twins are now winning. This is unexpected, but I'm guessing this is like the part where Daniel sprays Johnny with the hose at the Halloween dance - you feel like you got the upper hand, but the night ends with you being held up against a chain link fence while you get the shit beat out of you by guys in skeleton outfits.
- A few players who have caught my eye so far this baseball season who might be worth keeping your eye on:
- Starlin Castro, SS, Cubs - His numbers obviously stand out since they're ridiculous so far (.476/.522/.762) and of course they won't last but I've actually had a chance to watch several of his at-bats and looks awfully good. He's making solid contact and really driving the ball with some gap power (2 doubles and 2 triples already) and is looking like he could end up being a star. Ideally you'd like to see a little bit more plate discipline and more walks, but he's a 21-year old shortstop from the Dominican Republic - it kind of comes with the territory.
- Rickie Weeks, 2B, Brewers - I've talked about him on here before, but he's impressed me this year by being less of a knucklehead than I thought. He had a career year last year and was rewarded with a fat contract and I actually expected him to regress quite a bit but he's having another very good season so far. Nice work, Rick.
- Neil Walker, 2B, Pirates - Leads the league in RBI mainly due to a grandslam he hit on opening day, but has overall shown an awful lot of power (.684 slugging) for a white middle infielder. Guy must not be much of a hustler or a gamer.
- Jaime Garcia, SP, Cardinals - I don't know why his complete game 4-hitter against San Diego impressed me so much because it's not out of line based on his numbers from last year (2.70 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 3rd in NL RoY voting), but I guess I didn't really take him seriously because his name was Jamie and everyone knows that's a girl's name. I guess maybe he's good though.
- Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves - Since neither Dawger or Bogart could draft their joint team in our fantasy league we had the Bear come out and do it for them. When it suddenly came time to draft a relief pitcher Kimbrel was the #1 guy left on every list we had even though none of the three of us (me, Bear, Snake) had heard of him, and we laughed and we laughed thinking about the look on those two clowns faces when they saw this dude they'd never heard of on their team. Well, joke was on us because Kimbrel has been unhittable - almost literally. He's pitched two innings thus far (picking up 2 saves), faced just six batters and struck out five of them. Hell, Adam LaRoche is practically a hero because he managed to fly out. Look out for this kid.
- Hey, the Twins actually won. Sweet. The final out came when Joe Nathan struck out Derek Jeter on a high fastball that was clocked at 89 mph. I don't know who that sentence is worse for, but Nathan's fastball is seriously only at 89 mph there are going to be some extremely ugly game endings in our future.
- Lastly, if you like golf our good buddy Grand Slam has promised me a Masters Preview at some point tomorrow, so look for that either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I'm sure it'll be epic. As for my picks I'm not exactly digging deep here but it's hard to argue with Mickelson the way he's playing, and Watney and Justin Rose are solid picks here as well. Sleeper picks could be David Toms or Sergio. I don't know. Trust Grand Slam, he's smoking everybody in our fantasy golf league.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Six Very Important Things this Morning 7.28.10
1. The Twins blitzed the Royals again. Once again your beloved hometown 9 started the game strong, scoring two in the first (which could have been more but Denard Span has a serious aversion to staying on base), then coasted there way to an 11-2 win behind another offensive explosion from Danny Valencia. Another four hit game for the not-a-slap-hitter gives him back-to-back four hit outings and makes four straight games with at least 3 hits. Mauer, Hardy, Young, Cuddy, Span, and Butera each had at least two hits as well. This team is absolutely rocking the ball. Butera is nearly hitting .200 for christ's sake, what the hell is going on? Maybe most impressively, Pavano was clearly not on last night the way he has been lately, but he was able to pitch around trouble for his five innnings, allowing only one run, and the bullpen took it from there. They're really clicking right now, and if the non Pavariano starters can keep it together they could end up taking this thing. hahahahahahahahahahahamakeatrade.
2. Sticking with the Twins, apprently they're exploring Matt Capps. According to Tim K. at ESPN they aren't happy with Rauch and have looked into acquiring Capps, and learned that the Nats would want Wilson Ramos back. This is lunacy on so many levels. Capps is nearly identical to Rauch. Although he might be slighly better he's in no way Wilson Ramos better. Maybe a Matt Tolbert better. If this happens I quit being a fan. Let's hope the Twins leave the exploring of Matt Capps to either Mrs. Capps or various ladies of ill repute, ok? Speaking of which, ask me about Brendan Donnelly some time.
3. Just when you thought the Wolves offseason couldn't get any more bizarre. Newest news is that Jonny Flynn will be out 3-4 months due to hip surgery, which means the Wolves have now gone from three viable point guards to 1 + Bassy Telfair. If you're scoring at home, Kahn has now essentially cleared house, getting rid of nearly everybody from the previous regime and now getting started on moving out his own guys, as Sessions and Hollins were both Kahn signings last offseason. It's a bold move, and is it just me or does Kahn have a little Steinbrenner in him? Who else would sign someone to a four year, $16 million dollar contract just to trade him the next year for a player who was immediately cut? He basically kicked him out of bed in the middle of the night and didn't even supply cab money. Ain't right.
4. The baseball world holds its collective breath. Super phenom (and fantasy team savior) Stephen Strasburg was scratched from his start against the Braves last night after he was "unable to get loose" in the bullpen. That was the official explanation. They said there was no pain or anything, he was just unable to get loose. I usually find a couple of kamikazes does the trick. Seriously though, this could potentially kill baseball.
5. NFL Writers in Cincinnati are going to be busy. The Bengals, in keeping with their tradition of being a complete mess, have signed Terrell Owens. If you were in the same room as me right now you would see me showing how much I care about this by making fart noises with my mouth.
6. Best Second-Baseman Ever? Rickie Weeks went deep again last night, which makes three consecutive nights and gives him six home runs in his last ten games. For the year he's now up to 22 home runs, and is basically having the same season as Joe Mauer - if Mauer had 22 home runs, 7 steals, and played a god awful second-base. But who cares about fielding when you're destroying the ball? He might not have the average you'd always want and he strikes out quite a bit, but he also can take a walk and when he makes contact he hits the ball a ton. So exactly like the exact opposite of every Twins' middle infielder ever, and Gardy's worst nightmare.
I'm hoping tomorrow's post is going to be a gopher hoops recruiting rundown, something I've been really neglecting since I am spending basically all my energy on the Twins for some reason. Well, that and preparing the house for the new kid, who is really just going to be a time sink and money drain. Joy!
2. Sticking with the Twins, apprently they're exploring Matt Capps. According to Tim K. at ESPN they aren't happy with Rauch and have looked into acquiring Capps, and learned that the Nats would want Wilson Ramos back. This is lunacy on so many levels. Capps is nearly identical to Rauch. Although he might be slighly better he's in no way Wilson Ramos better. Maybe a Matt Tolbert better. If this happens I quit being a fan. Let's hope the Twins leave the exploring of Matt Capps to either Mrs. Capps or various ladies of ill repute, ok? Speaking of which, ask me about Brendan Donnelly some time.
3. Just when you thought the Wolves offseason couldn't get any more bizarre. Newest news is that Jonny Flynn will be out 3-4 months due to hip surgery, which means the Wolves have now gone from three viable point guards to 1 + Bassy Telfair. If you're scoring at home, Kahn has now essentially cleared house, getting rid of nearly everybody from the previous regime and now getting started on moving out his own guys, as Sessions and Hollins were both Kahn signings last offseason. It's a bold move, and is it just me or does Kahn have a little Steinbrenner in him? Who else would sign someone to a four year, $16 million dollar contract just to trade him the next year for a player who was immediately cut? He basically kicked him out of bed in the middle of the night and didn't even supply cab money. Ain't right.
4. The baseball world holds its collective breath. Super phenom (and fantasy team savior) Stephen Strasburg was scratched from his start against the Braves last night after he was "unable to get loose" in the bullpen. That was the official explanation. They said there was no pain or anything, he was just unable to get loose. I usually find a couple of kamikazes does the trick. Seriously though, this could potentially kill baseball.
5. NFL Writers in Cincinnati are going to be busy. The Bengals, in keeping with their tradition of being a complete mess, have signed Terrell Owens. If you were in the same room as me right now you would see me showing how much I care about this by making fart noises with my mouth.
6. Best Second-Baseman Ever? Rickie Weeks went deep again last night, which makes three consecutive nights and gives him six home runs in his last ten games. For the year he's now up to 22 home runs, and is basically having the same season as Joe Mauer - if Mauer had 22 home runs, 7 steals, and played a god awful second-base. But who cares about fielding when you're destroying the ball? He might not have the average you'd always want and he strikes out quite a bit, but he also can take a walk and when he makes contact he hits the ball a ton. So exactly like the exact opposite of every Twins' middle infielder ever, and Gardy's worst nightmare.
I'm hoping tomorrow's post is going to be a gopher hoops recruiting rundown, something I've been really neglecting since I am spending basically all my energy on the Twins for some reason. Well, that and preparing the house for the new kid, who is really just going to be a time sink and money drain. Joy!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Week in Review - 5/24/2010
How weird is it that in my very last post, the one about Justin Cobbs, I referenced 'Lil Romeo and his career at USC, and now news is breaking all over the place that Romeo is leaving the program. Some people just report the news. I create it. With great power, comes great responsibility.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Kobe Bryant. I'm pretty sure anybody arguing that Kobe isn't the best player in the NBA at this point is either retarded or a moron, and it absolutely kills me to compliment him. It's impossible not to after the games he's put together against the Suns this week. Game 1: 40 points on 13-23 shooting, 5 assists, 5 boards. Game 2: 21 points on 8-18 shooting, 13 assists, 5 rebounds. And he was masterful. Took over scoring in Game 1 when the Suns single-covered him, and then became facilitator when they doubled him in Game 2. If he played like this all the time, he'd be the clear-cut best player in the NBA (he also had 36-11-9 in Game 3 but I didn't watch it because I was watching Lost so I can't comment). Plus, he made an appearance on the awesome awesome Modern Family for their season finale, and actually seemed somewhat likable. Or at least he didn't rape anybody. That I know of.
2. Dice-K. Matsuzaka almost pitched a no-hitter on Saturday night, going 7 and 2/3 before giving up a soft single to Juan Castro (yes, THE Juan Castro) to break it up. And why wouldn't he? I mean he came into that game with an ERA of 5.97 and WHIP of 1.3, and had only made it 7 innings in one of his four starts since returning from injury, so it was obvious a game like this was coming. Seriously, what is the deal with Boston and pitchers? It's like anybody who goes there suddenly has these random unhittable nights. Lester and Buchholz have no-hitters in the last couple of years, and now Dice-K with this masterful performance out of nowhere. I'd be fascinated by this and look up who the pitching coach there is, but I hate the Red Sox with all my heart so I'm not going to waste any more time here.
3. Bryce Harper. I suppose it's gotten to the point where I can't really ignore Harper anymore, especially since he's going to be the number 1 pick for the Nationals in the upcoming amateur draft, and helped propel his JC team to the JuCo World Series. How did he lead them to the NJCAA Western Division Championship? Simply by hitting for the cycle on Friday and then following that up with a 6-6 game with four home runs and ten RBIs, going 12 for 13 in the last two games. They hype on this kid has been ridiculous, but it's looking like he might actually be able to live up to it. More background here if you're interested, but in case you aren't familiar with him a quick summary is that he's a 17-year old catcher who dropped out of high school to attend the College of Southern Nevada after his sophomore year, taking the GED in order to get eligible to play and will now be eligible for the draft despite not being able to vote yet. Basically his whole life has been geared around being a professional baseball player. When this burn out comes, it's going to be spectacular. You know those repressed kids who get to college and just go insane with freedom? Like that x100.
4. Edwin Jackson. You remember this guy. Big-time prospect for the Rays, who was then a big-time prospect for the Tigers, who was then shipped to the D-backs for Max Scherzer. So far this season, it had looked like there was a reason he'd been on three teams in three years, racking up a 7.43 ERA in 8 starts, allowing 60 hits in 46 innings, and walking 18 with just 32 strikeouts. Suddenly this week, however, things look like they might be turning around. On Monday he went 8 innings, allowing 4 hits and no runs while striking out 12 and walking just two. Then on Saturday, he followed it up with a 7 and 2/3 inning performance, allowing six hits and five runs. That Saturday outing may not sound that great, but he struck out 9 and walked none, and had allowed just one run through seven innings before giving up a couple of homers in the 8th. He may very well go back to sucking, but that 21-2 K/BB ratio in his last two starts says he may have turned a corner.
5. Justin Morneau. Good god. Completely ridiculous. You know how a lot of people say Ted Williams was the best hitter ever? And others go with Ruth, or Bonds, or maybe Ty Cobb? Clearly all those people are idiots, because it's obvious Morneau is the best hitter ever. I haven't looked this up, but I'm pretty sure his line drive % this year is 100%. Or maybe like 75%, with 24% being home runs and 1% being ground balls that are hit so hard infielders are jumping out of the way. Seriously, remember how amazing Joe Mauer's season was last year? And yeah, it was pretty incredible, but this year Morneau is better than him in every single statistic. 18 points higher in batting average, 53 points higher in OBP, and 114 points better in slugging, and he's on pace to hit 15 or so more homers and walk about 60 more times. Just crazy numbers. Let's put it this way. Morneau is about 30% better this year compared to Mauer last year if we use OPS+ as our guide. To put that in perspective, last year Mauer was about 30% better than Michael Cuddyer last year. That's how good Morneau has been.
WHO SUCKED
1. Orlando Magic. There is just so much to choose from here. What's your favorite part? Vince Carter's Dajuan Wagner impression at the end of game 2? Getting smoked in an absolute must-win game by 23 in a game that wasn't nearly that close? Letting Rasheed become a major factor? Letting Big Baby become a major factor? Dwight Howard being dominated in two of the three games by a combination of Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed? Rashard Lewis taking three games to finally surpass his season per game average in scoring, and only surpassing it by a single point thanks to his 6-24 shooting? Or maybe watching as KG and Ray Allen, who had looked pretty broken down at times this season, suddenly dominating like it was 2002. Just a whole lot to love here. I suppose I could give credit to the Celtics, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's really been pretty pathetic. Orlando Tragic, indeed.
2. Tommy Hanson. There's nothing quite as exquisite as watching someone I've pimped on the record completely flame out. Except instead of exquisite I mean whatever is the exact opposite of that. Hanson is having an excellent year thus far, and will likely continue to have an excellent year, and will probably have a very good career, but for one afternoon he was doing a hell of a Jesse Crain impression if Crain was a starter. On Thursday against the Reds, Hanson couldn't even get out of the second inning. He faced a total of 16 batters, and got less than a third of them out, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs in just 1 and 2/3 innings. Ouch, Tommy. Ouch. I feel betrayed. Like Caesar. Or the Cherokee.
3. Rickie Weeks. Once a top prospect, Weeks struggled for his first four seasons a bit, being about a league average hitter and below average fielder. Then last season, he seemed to be putting it together, adding some power to his already always impressive on-base percentage, hitting 9 home runs in his first 37 games, and looked like he might fault towards the top of the second-basemen rankings if such a thing existed. Unfortunately, an injury derailed the rest of the season and he missed the rest of the year. He started off this season again like gangbusters and was kicking some ass, but the last couple of weeks he's fallen off the face of the planet. He went 3-18 this week. When added to his 3-24 week the week prior, you can see why his average has dropped from the .330s where it was earlier this season all the way down to the .230s. His power is also gone (slugging .382, lowest of his career), and he's already made five errors - which I think is more than the entire Twins team. I think his window has pretty much closed, and he's never going to end up living up to his potential. It's probably the dreadlocks.
4. Kerry Wood. Remember when I mentioned that Wood would probably be a pretty sought after closer around the trade deadline this year assuming he got healthy? Well, he got healthy. Too bad he sucks. On Friday he pitched an inning against the Reds, giving up a home run, and actually lowered his ERA by more than two runs. That's because on Wednesday he pitched against the Royals, and only managed to get one out. While trying to get that one out, he walked two batters and gave up four hits, allowing five runs to score. He did pitch a scoreless inning Sunday which lowered his ERA to 13.50 and WHIP to 2.63, and might end up being good again, but he certainly didn't get himself off to a good start.
5. Channing Frye. As far as NBA players go, Frye is not a particularly good one, although he's not terrible either. He does have one particularly valuable skill however, and that is being 6-11 and being able to make three-pointers. In fact, he made them at a 44% clip, good enough for 6th in the league, was in the All-Star 3-point contest, and takes more than half his attempts from behind the arc. He's basically a more accurate Rick Rickert, except in the NBA it's a valuable skill and doesn't necessarily mean you're a big baby who is afraid to play inside. Anyway, when a guy with one skill can't pull off that skill in the Western Conference Finals, it ain't pretty. Through three games he's 1-14 from three, and 1-20 overall from the floor. Somehow, the Suns are only down 2-1 despite this. Just a brutal choke job. Also, can somebody please tell Jared Dudley to stop cheering for himself so hard every time he makes a shot? It's really irritating. Like watching some chowder at open gym who finally hits a shot after clanging ten in a row off the side of the backboard.
Special mention for suckitude to Todd Coffey. What a spaz. I'm surprised they don't make him wear a helmet out there.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Kobe Bryant. I'm pretty sure anybody arguing that Kobe isn't the best player in the NBA at this point is either retarded or a moron, and it absolutely kills me to compliment him. It's impossible not to after the games he's put together against the Suns this week. Game 1: 40 points on 13-23 shooting, 5 assists, 5 boards. Game 2: 21 points on 8-18 shooting, 13 assists, 5 rebounds. And he was masterful. Took over scoring in Game 1 when the Suns single-covered him, and then became facilitator when they doubled him in Game 2. If he played like this all the time, he'd be the clear-cut best player in the NBA (he also had 36-11-9 in Game 3 but I didn't watch it because I was watching Lost so I can't comment). Plus, he made an appearance on the awesome awesome Modern Family for their season finale, and actually seemed somewhat likable. Or at least he didn't rape anybody. That I know of.
2. Dice-K. Matsuzaka almost pitched a no-hitter on Saturday night, going 7 and 2/3 before giving up a soft single to Juan Castro (yes, THE Juan Castro) to break it up. And why wouldn't he? I mean he came into that game with an ERA of 5.97 and WHIP of 1.3, and had only made it 7 innings in one of his four starts since returning from injury, so it was obvious a game like this was coming. Seriously, what is the deal with Boston and pitchers? It's like anybody who goes there suddenly has these random unhittable nights. Lester and Buchholz have no-hitters in the last couple of years, and now Dice-K with this masterful performance out of nowhere. I'd be fascinated by this and look up who the pitching coach there is, but I hate the Red Sox with all my heart so I'm not going to waste any more time here.
3. Bryce Harper. I suppose it's gotten to the point where I can't really ignore Harper anymore, especially since he's going to be the number 1 pick for the Nationals in the upcoming amateur draft, and helped propel his JC team to the JuCo World Series. How did he lead them to the NJCAA Western Division Championship? Simply by hitting for the cycle on Friday and then following that up with a 6-6 game with four home runs and ten RBIs, going 12 for 13 in the last two games. They hype on this kid has been ridiculous, but it's looking like he might actually be able to live up to it. More background here if you're interested, but in case you aren't familiar with him a quick summary is that he's a 17-year old catcher who dropped out of high school to attend the College of Southern Nevada after his sophomore year, taking the GED in order to get eligible to play and will now be eligible for the draft despite not being able to vote yet. Basically his whole life has been geared around being a professional baseball player. When this burn out comes, it's going to be spectacular. You know those repressed kids who get to college and just go insane with freedom? Like that x100.
4. Edwin Jackson. You remember this guy. Big-time prospect for the Rays, who was then a big-time prospect for the Tigers, who was then shipped to the D-backs for Max Scherzer. So far this season, it had looked like there was a reason he'd been on three teams in three years, racking up a 7.43 ERA in 8 starts, allowing 60 hits in 46 innings, and walking 18 with just 32 strikeouts. Suddenly this week, however, things look like they might be turning around. On Monday he went 8 innings, allowing 4 hits and no runs while striking out 12 and walking just two. Then on Saturday, he followed it up with a 7 and 2/3 inning performance, allowing six hits and five runs. That Saturday outing may not sound that great, but he struck out 9 and walked none, and had allowed just one run through seven innings before giving up a couple of homers in the 8th. He may very well go back to sucking, but that 21-2 K/BB ratio in his last two starts says he may have turned a corner.
5. Justin Morneau. Good god. Completely ridiculous. You know how a lot of people say Ted Williams was the best hitter ever? And others go with Ruth, or Bonds, or maybe Ty Cobb? Clearly all those people are idiots, because it's obvious Morneau is the best hitter ever. I haven't looked this up, but I'm pretty sure his line drive % this year is 100%. Or maybe like 75%, with 24% being home runs and 1% being ground balls that are hit so hard infielders are jumping out of the way. Seriously, remember how amazing Joe Mauer's season was last year? And yeah, it was pretty incredible, but this year Morneau is better than him in every single statistic. 18 points higher in batting average, 53 points higher in OBP, and 114 points better in slugging, and he's on pace to hit 15 or so more homers and walk about 60 more times. Just crazy numbers. Let's put it this way. Morneau is about 30% better this year compared to Mauer last year if we use OPS+ as our guide. To put that in perspective, last year Mauer was about 30% better than Michael Cuddyer last year. That's how good Morneau has been.
WHO SUCKED
1. Orlando Magic. There is just so much to choose from here. What's your favorite part? Vince Carter's Dajuan Wagner impression at the end of game 2? Getting smoked in an absolute must-win game by 23 in a game that wasn't nearly that close? Letting Rasheed become a major factor? Letting Big Baby become a major factor? Dwight Howard being dominated in two of the three games by a combination of Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed? Rashard Lewis taking three games to finally surpass his season per game average in scoring, and only surpassing it by a single point thanks to his 6-24 shooting? Or maybe watching as KG and Ray Allen, who had looked pretty broken down at times this season, suddenly dominating like it was 2002. Just a whole lot to love here. I suppose I could give credit to the Celtics, but that's not nearly as fun, and it's really been pretty pathetic. Orlando Tragic, indeed.
2. Tommy Hanson. There's nothing quite as exquisite as watching someone I've pimped on the record completely flame out. Except instead of exquisite I mean whatever is the exact opposite of that. Hanson is having an excellent year thus far, and will likely continue to have an excellent year, and will probably have a very good career, but for one afternoon he was doing a hell of a Jesse Crain impression if Crain was a starter. On Thursday against the Reds, Hanson couldn't even get out of the second inning. He faced a total of 16 batters, and got less than a third of them out, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks, and 8 earned runs in just 1 and 2/3 innings. Ouch, Tommy. Ouch. I feel betrayed. Like Caesar. Or the Cherokee.
3. Rickie Weeks. Once a top prospect, Weeks struggled for his first four seasons a bit, being about a league average hitter and below average fielder. Then last season, he seemed to be putting it together, adding some power to his already always impressive on-base percentage, hitting 9 home runs in his first 37 games, and looked like he might fault towards the top of the second-basemen rankings if such a thing existed. Unfortunately, an injury derailed the rest of the season and he missed the rest of the year. He started off this season again like gangbusters and was kicking some ass, but the last couple of weeks he's fallen off the face of the planet. He went 3-18 this week. When added to his 3-24 week the week prior, you can see why his average has dropped from the .330s where it was earlier this season all the way down to the .230s. His power is also gone (slugging .382, lowest of his career), and he's already made five errors - which I think is more than the entire Twins team. I think his window has pretty much closed, and he's never going to end up living up to his potential. It's probably the dreadlocks.
4. Kerry Wood. Remember when I mentioned that Wood would probably be a pretty sought after closer around the trade deadline this year assuming he got healthy? Well, he got healthy. Too bad he sucks. On Friday he pitched an inning against the Reds, giving up a home run, and actually lowered his ERA by more than two runs. That's because on Wednesday he pitched against the Royals, and only managed to get one out. While trying to get that one out, he walked two batters and gave up four hits, allowing five runs to score. He did pitch a scoreless inning Sunday which lowered his ERA to 13.50 and WHIP to 2.63, and might end up being good again, but he certainly didn't get himself off to a good start.
5. Channing Frye. As far as NBA players go, Frye is not a particularly good one, although he's not terrible either. He does have one particularly valuable skill however, and that is being 6-11 and being able to make three-pointers. In fact, he made them at a 44% clip, good enough for 6th in the league, was in the All-Star 3-point contest, and takes more than half his attempts from behind the arc. He's basically a more accurate Rick Rickert, except in the NBA it's a valuable skill and doesn't necessarily mean you're a big baby who is afraid to play inside. Anyway, when a guy with one skill can't pull off that skill in the Western Conference Finals, it ain't pretty. Through three games he's 1-14 from three, and 1-20 overall from the floor. Somehow, the Suns are only down 2-1 despite this. Just a brutal choke job. Also, can somebody please tell Jared Dudley to stop cheering for himself so hard every time he makes a shot? It's really irritating. Like watching some chowder at open gym who finally hits a shot after clanging ten in a row off the side of the backboard.
Special mention for suckitude to Todd Coffey. What a spaz. I'm surprised they don't make him wear a helmet out there.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
DFW, Take 2
After driving around the Dallas/Fort Worth area for a second day, I realized I wasn't nearly harsh enough before about what a squalid shitbox this area really is. I want to paint a really vivid picture, but I can't come up with the words and you probably wouldn't believe me if I did (we saw a store that advertised two things - Donuts and Jewelry, we saw two guys riding horses on the side of the freeway, and at one place on a road they didn't have stop signs, they instead had painted stop lines on the ground (red lines that said STOP), and another place the stop sign was an octagonal white sign with the word STOP spray painted in green - I swear I'm not making this up).
The best I can do is read this post about Dumpster Arena in Chicago. Now imagine that arena was expanded to the size of two cities, filled with poor people, people who wear cowboy hats, poor people who wear cowboy hats, and people with obscenely large trucks that are older than dirt, and then give everybody a gun and a horse and dump a whole bunch of oppressive heat on them. That's Dallas/FW. Except it's also under construction so badly there is a giant hole in the middle of the main freeway. Anonymous's joke in the comments below is dead on accurate, and I laughed out loud. I can't wait to get out of here. Did you know at the Walgreen's here the Axe Body Spray is under lock and key? Like you have to ask someone to get it out if you want to buy it? Freaking unreal.
Luckily the night ended up pretty well. We had a nice dinner (prime rib, steak fries, and a ceasar salad with a couple vodka & tonics) and then found a Texas dive bar 0.5 miles from our hotel that had cheap booze, golden tee, pool, and alternated between twangy country and eminem. The moral of the story is I'm a little bit drunk right now and have 6.5 beers in the sink with ice that I plan to finish. Rock and roll.
- As good as the news is from Chicago with the Twins breaking their losing streak by stomping the Sox 20-1, there's bad news for Twins fans as well. It seems the Sox and the Padres have agreed to a trade which would bring super stud Jake Peavy over to Chicago, and are just waiting for Peavy to waive his no-trade clause. Reports say it's 50/50 for him, since he loves the west coast and the national league, but with the Padres sucking year-after-year and his former teammate and good friend Scott Linebrink on the Sox, I'm guessing he goes.
And the Padres are getting a pretty good haul. Reportedly it's four players, and the two confirmed already are pitcher Aaron Poreda, Chicago's #2 prospect by Baseball America and a first round pick in 2007, and another pitcher Clayton Richard, their number 3 prospect. It's unknown who the other two might be, but San Diego is looking for a shortstop and with Alexei Ramirez and #1 prospect Gordon Beckham in his way, former top prospect Brett Lillibridge would be a great get for the Padres. He was Atlanta's #6 prospect in 2008, and came over in the Javier Vazquez trade, but has been less than stellar on a pro level. A change to San Diego might do him well, and would sweeten the deal for the Padres.
Also never mind all of this, because I just saw it come across on ESPN that Peavy vetoed the deal so this is all pointless now.
- I love Mila Kunis so much. There are no words.
- Speaking of awesome, did you see that Ricky Weeks is out for the year for the Brewers with a wrist injury? Guy has been pretty hardily maligned in his big league career because he hasn't really lived up to his lofty projections, but I've always been a fan, mostly because I really dig guys with plate discipline. And Weeks has it big time - he was in the top 10 in walk percentage two years ago and in the top 30 last year. He had been more of a Rickey Henderson without the hitting in those years, but this season was finally hitting the ball, putting up 9 homers and a line of .272/.340/.517. Unfortunately, you can forget it, as he's on the shelf for the season. Bummer.
- So let's look at this NBA draft we have upcoming here. It's a pretty big one for the hapless Wolfies, with three first round picks. According to ESPN.com, they will end up with Demar Derozan, BJ Mullens, and Patty Mills. According to NBADraft.net, they will end up with Derozan, Mills, and Terrence Williams. Hopefully, they will end up with Earl Clark, Mills, and Sam Young. Unfortunately, the wolves have a fairly detailed history of screwing this all up, and so I expect them to come out of this with Brandon Jennings, a foreigner, and a trade that gets them Zach Randolph. God I couldn't be less interested in a Minnesota team. Talk about mismanagement. I think I read that they actually hired a new GM so hopefully this guy has his shit together. Somebody has to at some point, right? RIGHT?
- The TV wants me to know that for a good time I should text 55425 for a good time and to talk to hot girls. $20 says The Todd actually tries this.
- Have you heard about this Greg Paulus shit? He's seriously going to go play the football at the Syracuse. I guess when you're a top prospect in both football and basketball, and then it turns out you suck at basketball, you must be a super star in football. Jesus talk about getting the superstar treatment. I have never rooted for Greg Paulus in anything, ever, but I am really hoping he gets the starting job since the Cuse opens against the Gophers next year. I'm sure some guy in the secondary and that one guy who is a corner on the team will be licking their chops going against Paulus. Seriously I can't name one defensive player on the Gopher football team. I'm a very robust Gopher blog.
- HBO Family is showing Fletch. Looks like I will be up for a while.
- You know who was awesome in the 80s? Roy Marble and Jeff Moe from Iowa. What a perfect pairing. Marble was the slasher type, and Moe was what Hoffarber wants to be, the perfect dead-eye shooter. I'm trying to research more info on Moe, and all I can find is that he was coked our of his gourd most of his career. Works for me man, shine on you crazy diamond.
- Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you about Dallas is how freaking ugly Texas Stadium (home of the Cowboys) is. Serously it's very dumpster area-like, and essentially looks like an old rundown warehouse but in a football stadium form. It looks about 100 years old, and I think bricks are actually falling out every single day. Seriously, don't ever visit Dallas. I'm doing you a favor.
- Dr. Rosenpenis. Classic.
The best I can do is read this post about Dumpster Arena in Chicago. Now imagine that arena was expanded to the size of two cities, filled with poor people, people who wear cowboy hats, poor people who wear cowboy hats, and people with obscenely large trucks that are older than dirt, and then give everybody a gun and a horse and dump a whole bunch of oppressive heat on them. That's Dallas/FW. Except it's also under construction so badly there is a giant hole in the middle of the main freeway. Anonymous's joke in the comments below is dead on accurate, and I laughed out loud. I can't wait to get out of here. Did you know at the Walgreen's here the Axe Body Spray is under lock and key? Like you have to ask someone to get it out if you want to buy it? Freaking unreal.
Luckily the night ended up pretty well. We had a nice dinner (prime rib, steak fries, and a ceasar salad with a couple vodka & tonics) and then found a Texas dive bar 0.5 miles from our hotel that had cheap booze, golden tee, pool, and alternated between twangy country and eminem. The moral of the story is I'm a little bit drunk right now and have 6.5 beers in the sink with ice that I plan to finish. Rock and roll.
- As good as the news is from Chicago with the Twins breaking their losing streak by stomping the Sox 20-1, there's bad news for Twins fans as well. It seems the Sox and the Padres have agreed to a trade which would bring super stud Jake Peavy over to Chicago, and are just waiting for Peavy to waive his no-trade clause. Reports say it's 50/50 for him, since he loves the west coast and the national league, but with the Padres sucking year-after-year and his former teammate and good friend Scott Linebrink on the Sox, I'm guessing he goes.
And the Padres are getting a pretty good haul. Reportedly it's four players, and the two confirmed already are pitcher Aaron Poreda, Chicago's #2 prospect by Baseball America and a first round pick in 2007, and another pitcher Clayton Richard, their number 3 prospect. It's unknown who the other two might be, but San Diego is looking for a shortstop and with Alexei Ramirez and #1 prospect Gordon Beckham in his way, former top prospect Brett Lillibridge would be a great get for the Padres. He was Atlanta's #6 prospect in 2008, and came over in the Javier Vazquez trade, but has been less than stellar on a pro level. A change to San Diego might do him well, and would sweeten the deal for the Padres.
Also never mind all of this, because I just saw it come across on ESPN that Peavy vetoed the deal so this is all pointless now.
- I love Mila Kunis so much. There are no words.
- Speaking of awesome, did you see that Ricky Weeks is out for the year for the Brewers with a wrist injury? Guy has been pretty hardily maligned in his big league career because he hasn't really lived up to his lofty projections, but I've always been a fan, mostly because I really dig guys with plate discipline. And Weeks has it big time - he was in the top 10 in walk percentage two years ago and in the top 30 last year. He had been more of a Rickey Henderson without the hitting in those years, but this season was finally hitting the ball, putting up 9 homers and a line of .272/.340/.517. Unfortunately, you can forget it, as he's on the shelf for the season. Bummer.
- So let's look at this NBA draft we have upcoming here. It's a pretty big one for the hapless Wolfies, with three first round picks. According to ESPN.com, they will end up with Demar Derozan, BJ Mullens, and Patty Mills. According to NBADraft.net, they will end up with Derozan, Mills, and Terrence Williams. Hopefully, they will end up with Earl Clark, Mills, and Sam Young. Unfortunately, the wolves have a fairly detailed history of screwing this all up, and so I expect them to come out of this with Brandon Jennings, a foreigner, and a trade that gets them Zach Randolph. God I couldn't be less interested in a Minnesota team. Talk about mismanagement. I think I read that they actually hired a new GM so hopefully this guy has his shit together. Somebody has to at some point, right? RIGHT?
- The TV wants me to know that for a good time I should text 55425 for a good time and to talk to hot girls. $20 says The Todd actually tries this.
- Have you heard about this Greg Paulus shit? He's seriously going to go play the football at the Syracuse. I guess when you're a top prospect in both football and basketball, and then it turns out you suck at basketball, you must be a super star in football. Jesus talk about getting the superstar treatment. I have never rooted for Greg Paulus in anything, ever, but I am really hoping he gets the starting job since the Cuse opens against the Gophers next year. I'm sure some guy in the secondary and that one guy who is a corner on the team will be licking their chops going against Paulus. Seriously I can't name one defensive player on the Gopher football team. I'm a very robust Gopher blog.
- HBO Family is showing Fletch. Looks like I will be up for a while.
- You know who was awesome in the 80s? Roy Marble and Jeff Moe from Iowa. What a perfect pairing. Marble was the slasher type, and Moe was what Hoffarber wants to be, the perfect dead-eye shooter. I'm trying to research more info on Moe, and all I can find is that he was coked our of his gourd most of his career. Works for me man, shine on you crazy diamond.
- Oh, one thing I forgot to tell you about Dallas is how freaking ugly Texas Stadium (home of the Cowboys) is. Serously it's very dumpster area-like, and essentially looks like an old rundown warehouse but in a football stadium form. It looks about 100 years old, and I think bricks are actually falling out every single day. Seriously, don't ever visit Dallas. I'm doing you a favor.
- Dr. Rosenpenis. Classic.
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