Pioneer Press link.
Tubby has been busy securing commitments here in the late signing period for 2010, snagging his second one in a week in 6-6 Latvian forward Oto Osenieks, late of Illinois. He's an interesting dude, given that he's a 6-9 Euro whose most often cited skills are his outside shot and his ball-handling, and that he weighs just 215 lbs. and would get snapped in half by the average big ten power forward.
I can't find a whole lot about him since he's fairly new to the national picture, playing just one year in the U.S., but it seems there are a lot of questions about his size and athleticism, but he's got a high basketball IQ and a dead-eye shot - he's also 20 years old, which I see as a positive in this type of player. He's probably already close to his overall potential, but he's also probably honed his on-court smarts more than your average freshman and knows his limits. When I picture him and try to project him into the big ten based on the limited info and few youtube highlights I've seen I'm seeing an upside of a John Shurna with the downside of can't play defense and is killer in mop-up duty.
Osenieks is the fourth player to sign for the class of 2010 and the fourth player who projects to more of a role-player/contributor than a star. Not that there is anything necessarily so bad about that. After two consecutive top-25 nationally ranked classes, sometimes you just need to fill in some gaps. But, really, it's a pretty underwhelming class so far. Mo Walker looks like the only guy who's going to be a contributor right away, so the returnees better all continue to improve or we're looking at another 10 seed at best. We can evaluate this class better down the line, obviously, so I'm not going to rip Tubby for this. I'll save my Tubby ripping for the mistakes he makes during games this season and his lineup choices.
Make sure you check out this link of Oto in action. Seriously. You need to see this (and yes, it's really him). I'd just embed it, but youtube is being a real douche right now.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Week in Review - 4/19/2009
I was really hoping to be able to write up how Cory Joseph decided to sign with the Gophers on Saturday since he had said he'd make his decision after the Jordan Brand game, but apparently "after" didn't mean right after like it did for Josh Selby and Doron Lamb, but instead means "eventually." The good news is that at least he didn't declare for somebody else yet, so the Gophers are still alive. The latest rumor is that he's already made up his mind and it's been a three team race for quite some time, which probably means it was down to Minnesota, Texas, and Villanova. I'm still guessing he ends up at Texas, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The final date to sign is May 19th, so I guess we'll know by then.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. I'm not ready to go with the whole "he's back" thing or anything, but Thursday's outing against the Gay Sox was a very good sign. Looking a bit deeper into the numbers, Liriano seems to be closer to the 2006 version of himself than last year's. After the injury, he was too reliant on his fastball, throwing the pitch over 50% of the time (54% in 2008 and 56% in 2009) compared to 44% in 2006 despite having lost velocity (90.9mph average in 2008 and 91.7 in 2009 compared to 94.7 in 2006). The good news is he's very close to recapturing his 2006 numbers so far this season. He has thrown his fastball just 46% of the time and the velocity is back up at 93.6mph on average). He's also throwing more strikes, with 64% of his pitches going for strikes compared to just 60% last year (and he was at 66% in 2006). He's also working the change up more often, throwing it 24% of the time, a career high by 4% thus far. Like I said, I'm not saying he's back, but to be able to thrown 7 shutout innings with 8 Ks and to do it throwing just 96 pitches is huge for Liriano. Backing it up with the numbers above is a good sign. Now, his overall K/9 are down, his BB/9 is up, and his BABIP is a fluky low .238 right now so I'm not jumping into the bandwagon with both feet just yet, but things are heading in the right direction.
2. Chase Utley. Hey guy. Small white second-basemen aren't supposed to rake like this, just ask Steve Lombardozzi or Wally Backman. But instead, Utley just does his own thing and continually hits the ball out of the park, something he did five times this week in six games, including four in his three games against the Nationals. This guy is just an absolute stud. If you look at his last five years, and take the worst year he had in each statistic and combined them, he still ends up at .282-22-93. Those are his worst numbers, and don't forget we''re talking about a second basemen, something that of course means nothing to Dawger who probably thinks Utley is no better than Michael Cuddyer. That is if Dawger has even heard of Utley. That guy's knowledge of national league players is on par with my cat. Oh, and I looked up Utley's height and he's actually 6-1 so he's not really all that small, just seems like it because he's so white.
3. Matt Garza. Two weeks into the season, and two weeks that Garza has made this list. On Sunday all he did was shut down the Red Sox, giving up no runs and just four hits in 8 innings of work, and that followed up his outing on Monday, where he shut down the Orioles giving up just one run and six hits in 8 more spectacular innings. That runs his season totals now to 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, and he's struck out more batters than he's allowed hits. Sigh. At least Delmon is starting to hit the ball - the numbers might not show it but he's raking the ball, just not getting hits out of it - but I think this trade goes down as a suck no matter what. Ignoring the peripheral players and just look at the main pieces, Delmon would basically have to end up hitting like Albert Pujols or A-Rod to make this into a fair deal. Seriously Garza has become a top shelf stud. He has a fastball that reaches the mid-90s and has a foot of tail, a mid-80s slider that breaks two feet, a killer slow curve and has finally developed that change-up that caused all the drama back in the day. Plus he has a cute little beard. Sigh.
4. Livan Hernandez. I'm trying to think of things that are less likely than Livan throwing a complete game shutout, which he did on Saturday against the Brewers. So far all I've come up with is a threesome with Brad Pitt, Rosie O'Donnell, and Roseanne, Al Nolen leading the conference in three point percentage, Colt Iverson hitting a shot from further than 8 feet out, and Snacks becoming a big fan of Mike Cuddyer. There are a whole lot Brewers who need to be embarrassed. Not Rickie Weeks though. That guy is the shit.
5. Ubaldo Jimenez. The funny thing about Jimenez tossing a no-hitter on Saturday against the Braves is that my co-worker, Elk, was just telling me about how he was coming around and looking really good this year. Since Elk has him on his fantasy team, I was pretty sure he was just talking up his own player, like how Gardy tries to keep telling us all that Matt Tolbert is awesome. Turns out, the guy can sling the pill. I caught the last inning of the game, and Ubaldo was still hitting 98 on the gun in the 9th. That's pretty impressive. So maybe this guy is pretty good. If only a regular reader and commenter on this blog was a Rockies' season ticket holder, maybe we could get some real insight. Oh, and you better hope Huston Street comes back quick, because Morales is freakin' terrible. You can't trust a left-handed closer, everybody knows that.
(what the holy hell is the point of this stupid thing?)
WHO SUCKED
1. Jose Mijares. If there is a dark lining to this silver cloud of a Twins season thus far, it was been the struggles of Jose Mijares to get anybody out, now culminating in a trip to the DL in what I suspect is as much of a "figure this thing out" kind of move as it is an injury move. Mijares has thrown a total of 3 innings over five appearances, and is allowing nearly three base-runners per inning (6 hits, 2 walks) and currently sports a 6.00 ERA and has struck out just two batters so far this year - not exactly the kind of numbers you want to see from an eighth inning guy. I don't know if it means anything, but his fastball is down about 1.5 mph compared to last year and he's throwing his changeup about twice as often this year as he used to. Has he lost something off his fastball and subsequently lost faith in it? I don't know, but I do hope whatever is going on this little DL trip can fix it, because as much as I like Duensing him and Mahay as the lefties out of the bullpen doesn't fill me with confidence.
2. Jason Marquis. Hey, remember when the Nationals signed Marquis to a 2-year/$15 million deal this offseason coming off a 15-win season for the Rockies? And remember how Rockies' fans were like, "take him" and everyone else was kind of like, "whoa, really? $15 million for Marquis?" Well, his living up to that this week. In his two starts this week he managed just 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing thirteen base-runners - every single one of which scored. Yes, that's 13 earned runs in 4 and 1/3 innings. His season numbers right now are and 0-3 record with a 20.52 ERA and a 2.88 WHIP. Yes, and ERA over 20. He's certainly earning that $7.5 million this year. My favorite part was when he pitched against the Brewers on Saturday and it went single-single-single-hit by pitch-walk-hit by pitch-single-Marquis yanked. Quality outing.
3. Jason Frasor. You wanted him to be a Twin, which once again proves you don't know what the holy hell you're talking about. You're also probably really impressed that he has three saves, paying little attention to the fact that he's blown two also and is currently rocking a 5.68 ERA, which is already improved from the 6+ number he was carrying at the beginning of the week. At least the Blue Jays are paying attention, and they've yanked the closer role away from Frasor and given it to the decidedly average Kevin Gregg. What this all means is that the guy you wanted to the Twins to trade precious prospects for to close games for them was beaten out for the role on a crappy Blue Jay team by a guy who put up an ERA north of 4.70 the last time he was closing games. Good call, genius.
4. Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were so awesome this week they were actually swept by the Pirates, in what was the first Pirate sweep since 1987, or so I assume without looking anything up. And it wasn't just during that series that the Reds sucked, they've been pretty rough so far this year and sit at 5-8. Out of their players who qualify for the batting title, Joey Votto is the only one hitting over .250 - Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs are hitting under .200. And it's not just the hitters. Aaron Harang looks to have fallen off the cliff, Johnny Cueto isn't developing, and speaking of not developing Homer Bailey is starting to look like the type of prospect who has all the tools on paper but can't ever pull it together - like David West but with more talent. They have yet another new little youngster arm in Mike Leake who has looked really good so far, but if the rest of the youngins' don't start playing and stay just "potentially good", it's going to be yet another losing season in Cincy.
5. Chef Boyardee. Can someone please tell me why the Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs has a different sauce than every other Chef Boyardee? The Ravioli is top notch, and the peripheral spinoffs like Beef-a-roni and Lasagna are basically the same thing, but then you get to the spaghetti and meatballs and it's like WTF, Mr. B? We shove this at WonderbabyTM every so often and she likes most of it (as do I, if we're being honest here - try the mini raviolis, top notch) but we tried the spaghetti the other day and it seriously made her angry, like an old man sending back soup at a deli. So I tried it, and it was like eating evil. Why would you use the exact same, deliciously sodium-filled sauce on the majority of your project and then detour into some sort of unholy combination of what I can only assume is fire and brimstone on what should probably be your flagship pasta variation? For shame. And did you know there isn't even an actual Chef Boyardee? So nobody actually has to answer for this abomination. Except for the sham executives. You know who you are. Between this and all the dead hookers, I bet you can't even sleep at night.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Francisco Liriano. I'm not ready to go with the whole "he's back" thing or anything, but Thursday's outing against the Gay Sox was a very good sign. Looking a bit deeper into the numbers, Liriano seems to be closer to the 2006 version of himself than last year's. After the injury, he was too reliant on his fastball, throwing the pitch over 50% of the time (54% in 2008 and 56% in 2009) compared to 44% in 2006 despite having lost velocity (90.9mph average in 2008 and 91.7 in 2009 compared to 94.7 in 2006). The good news is he's very close to recapturing his 2006 numbers so far this season. He has thrown his fastball just 46% of the time and the velocity is back up at 93.6mph on average). He's also throwing more strikes, with 64% of his pitches going for strikes compared to just 60% last year (and he was at 66% in 2006). He's also working the change up more often, throwing it 24% of the time, a career high by 4% thus far. Like I said, I'm not saying he's back, but to be able to thrown 7 shutout innings with 8 Ks and to do it throwing just 96 pitches is huge for Liriano. Backing it up with the numbers above is a good sign. Now, his overall K/9 are down, his BB/9 is up, and his BABIP is a fluky low .238 right now so I'm not jumping into the bandwagon with both feet just yet, but things are heading in the right direction.
2. Chase Utley. Hey guy. Small white second-basemen aren't supposed to rake like this, just ask Steve Lombardozzi or Wally Backman. But instead, Utley just does his own thing and continually hits the ball out of the park, something he did five times this week in six games, including four in his three games against the Nationals. This guy is just an absolute stud. If you look at his last five years, and take the worst year he had in each statistic and combined them, he still ends up at .282-22-93. Those are his worst numbers, and don't forget we''re talking about a second basemen, something that of course means nothing to Dawger who probably thinks Utley is no better than Michael Cuddyer. That is if Dawger has even heard of Utley. That guy's knowledge of national league players is on par with my cat. Oh, and I looked up Utley's height and he's actually 6-1 so he's not really all that small, just seems like it because he's so white.
3. Matt Garza. Two weeks into the season, and two weeks that Garza has made this list. On Sunday all he did was shut down the Red Sox, giving up no runs and just four hits in 8 innings of work, and that followed up his outing on Monday, where he shut down the Orioles giving up just one run and six hits in 8 more spectacular innings. That runs his season totals now to 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA and a 0.88 WHIP, and he's struck out more batters than he's allowed hits. Sigh. At least Delmon is starting to hit the ball - the numbers might not show it but he's raking the ball, just not getting hits out of it - but I think this trade goes down as a suck no matter what. Ignoring the peripheral players and just look at the main pieces, Delmon would basically have to end up hitting like Albert Pujols or A-Rod to make this into a fair deal. Seriously Garza has become a top shelf stud. He has a fastball that reaches the mid-90s and has a foot of tail, a mid-80s slider that breaks two feet, a killer slow curve and has finally developed that change-up that caused all the drama back in the day. Plus he has a cute little beard. Sigh.
4. Livan Hernandez. I'm trying to think of things that are less likely than Livan throwing a complete game shutout, which he did on Saturday against the Brewers. So far all I've come up with is a threesome with Brad Pitt, Rosie O'Donnell, and Roseanne, Al Nolen leading the conference in three point percentage, Colt Iverson hitting a shot from further than 8 feet out, and Snacks becoming a big fan of Mike Cuddyer. There are a whole lot Brewers who need to be embarrassed. Not Rickie Weeks though. That guy is the shit.
5. Ubaldo Jimenez. The funny thing about Jimenez tossing a no-hitter on Saturday against the Braves is that my co-worker, Elk, was just telling me about how he was coming around and looking really good this year. Since Elk has him on his fantasy team, I was pretty sure he was just talking up his own player, like how Gardy tries to keep telling us all that Matt Tolbert is awesome. Turns out, the guy can sling the pill. I caught the last inning of the game, and Ubaldo was still hitting 98 on the gun in the 9th. That's pretty impressive. So maybe this guy is pretty good. If only a regular reader and commenter on this blog was a Rockies' season ticket holder, maybe we could get some real insight. Oh, and you better hope Huston Street comes back quick, because Morales is freakin' terrible. You can't trust a left-handed closer, everybody knows that.
WHO SUCKED
1. Jose Mijares. If there is a dark lining to this silver cloud of a Twins season thus far, it was been the struggles of Jose Mijares to get anybody out, now culminating in a trip to the DL in what I suspect is as much of a "figure this thing out" kind of move as it is an injury move. Mijares has thrown a total of 3 innings over five appearances, and is allowing nearly three base-runners per inning (6 hits, 2 walks) and currently sports a 6.00 ERA and has struck out just two batters so far this year - not exactly the kind of numbers you want to see from an eighth inning guy. I don't know if it means anything, but his fastball is down about 1.5 mph compared to last year and he's throwing his changeup about twice as often this year as he used to. Has he lost something off his fastball and subsequently lost faith in it? I don't know, but I do hope whatever is going on this little DL trip can fix it, because as much as I like Duensing him and Mahay as the lefties out of the bullpen doesn't fill me with confidence.
2. Jason Marquis. Hey, remember when the Nationals signed Marquis to a 2-year/$15 million deal this offseason coming off a 15-win season for the Rockies? And remember how Rockies' fans were like, "take him" and everyone else was kind of like, "whoa, really? $15 million for Marquis?" Well, his living up to that this week. In his two starts this week he managed just 4 and 1/3 innings, allowing thirteen base-runners - every single one of which scored. Yes, that's 13 earned runs in 4 and 1/3 innings. His season numbers right now are and 0-3 record with a 20.52 ERA and a 2.88 WHIP. Yes, and ERA over 20. He's certainly earning that $7.5 million this year. My favorite part was when he pitched against the Brewers on Saturday and it went single-single-single-hit by pitch-walk-hit by pitch-single-Marquis yanked. Quality outing.
3. Jason Frasor. You wanted him to be a Twin, which once again proves you don't know what the holy hell you're talking about. You're also probably really impressed that he has three saves, paying little attention to the fact that he's blown two also and is currently rocking a 5.68 ERA, which is already improved from the 6+ number he was carrying at the beginning of the week. At least the Blue Jays are paying attention, and they've yanked the closer role away from Frasor and given it to the decidedly average Kevin Gregg. What this all means is that the guy you wanted to the Twins to trade precious prospects for to close games for them was beaten out for the role on a crappy Blue Jay team by a guy who put up an ERA north of 4.70 the last time he was closing games. Good call, genius.
4. Cincinnati Reds. The Reds were so awesome this week they were actually swept by the Pirates, in what was the first Pirate sweep since 1987, or so I assume without looking anything up. And it wasn't just during that series that the Reds sucked, they've been pretty rough so far this year and sit at 5-8. Out of their players who qualify for the batting title, Joey Votto is the only one hitting over .250 - Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs are hitting under .200. And it's not just the hitters. Aaron Harang looks to have fallen off the cliff, Johnny Cueto isn't developing, and speaking of not developing Homer Bailey is starting to look like the type of prospect who has all the tools on paper but can't ever pull it together - like David West but with more talent. They have yet another new little youngster arm in Mike Leake who has looked really good so far, but if the rest of the youngins' don't start playing and stay just "potentially good", it's going to be yet another losing season in Cincy.
5. Chef Boyardee. Can someone please tell me why the Chef Boyardee spaghetti and meatballs has a different sauce than every other Chef Boyardee? The Ravioli is top notch, and the peripheral spinoffs like Beef-a-roni and Lasagna are basically the same thing, but then you get to the spaghetti and meatballs and it's like WTF, Mr. B? We shove this at WonderbabyTM every so often and she likes most of it (as do I, if we're being honest here - try the mini raviolis, top notch) but we tried the spaghetti the other day and it seriously made her angry, like an old man sending back soup at a deli. So I tried it, and it was like eating evil. Why would you use the exact same, deliciously sodium-filled sauce on the majority of your project and then detour into some sort of unholy combination of what I can only assume is fire and brimstone on what should probably be your flagship pasta variation? For shame. And did you know there isn't even an actual Chef Boyardee? So nobody actually has to answer for this abomination. Except for the sham executives. You know who you are. Between this and all the dead hookers, I bet you can't even sleep at night.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Fare thee Well, Justin Cobbs
As you have probably heard by now, Justin Cobbs is "probably" transferring, presumably to be closer to home in California, and I'm pretty sure the "probably" means "definitely but not quite committing to anything just in case." I'd expect him to turn up at a second-tier school in California like Fullerton or Pepperdine and he'll probably turn out to do quite well.
I know a lot of people thought Cobbs was pretty bad and not really a Big Ten caliber point guard, but I saw a freshman with potential who never felt confident in himself. Now, by potential, I don't mean star potential, but I think he would have been a solid back-up and possible starter by his senior year. Sure, he made a good amount of mistakes, but he was a freshman. Freshman make mistakes, and when they're pulled from the game as soon as they make one it limits their minutes considerably and each miscue seems magnified. I saw the mistakes, but I also saw what looked like a smart player who understood how to play the point as a pass-first guard, to the point where he seemed to rarely even look for a shot. This, despite the fact that he won the team's preseason three-point contest.
I really do just think it was a matter of confidence and time, and Cobbs didn't have enough of either. All in all, going someplace like a Santa Clara or Long Beach will be good for him, and I wish him luck. I wouldn't rank losing Cobbs up there with losing Carter, in fact, it will probably affect the team little, if at all, so everybody wins.
Naturally, rumors abound that Cobbs decided to transfer because Cory Joseph has let it be known to the team that he's coming to the Gophers, but these reek of homerism and/or blind optimism. Cobbs seemed unhappy almost the entire season, things were pretty clearly not working out, and rumors about his transferring have been buzzing since mid-year, so I don't think this has anything to do with Cory Joseph (and please please please please please stop calling him CoJo. Please). Of course, I hope it does, but I also hope the Deschanel sisters show up at my door step one day and say "choose." (To which I'd say "both" and then they'd say "ok.")
Things do get interesting if Joseph doesn't choose the Gophers and Cobbs does end up leaving, because the academically and offensively challenged Al Nolen becomes the only actual point guard on the roster. Despite his Jacque Vaughn/T.J. Ford-level jump shot there's no doubt Nolen is a Big Ten starting point guard, and Devoe did do an admirable job filling in, but the team would be well served to get some PG-depth if not for next year, then for the future.
For 2010, it sounds like the Gophers have some interest in 3-star PG Ben Brust, a former Iowa commit who luckily escaped due to the coaching change and is also getting heat now from Wisconsin, Cal, and Wake, but he looks like one of those annoying white dudes who always go to Iowa or Purdue and he's more of a combo guard anyway, so I'll pass. There is also a rumor that Johnnie Lacy, late of Providence College, is interesting in becoming a Gopher, but he's facing assault charges for putting the beat down on some poor sap who shouldn't have been standing there so I'd imagine there's no way Tubby would be interested in dealing with another legal headache.
I'm much more intrigued by Shane Larkin, Rivals #22 point guard and #96 player for the Class of 2011 who is described as a "floor general" and a player who excels at the "drive and kick" offense. Sounds perfect. The Gophers haven't offered him yet, and right now his only high-major offer is from Clemson, but it sounds like Georgia Tech, Wake, and Cal are getting into the mix as well as the Gophers. He's from Florida and likes to play a wide-open style so I'd bet he ends up in the SEC some where (I'm going to predict Arkansas), but he's a name to remember for the future and a player I'm interested in. Not sexually, though, perv.
Oh, and if you are thinking Bryant Allen is the answer at point guard you are completely out of your damn mind.
I know a lot of people thought Cobbs was pretty bad and not really a Big Ten caliber point guard, but I saw a freshman with potential who never felt confident in himself. Now, by potential, I don't mean star potential, but I think he would have been a solid back-up and possible starter by his senior year. Sure, he made a good amount of mistakes, but he was a freshman. Freshman make mistakes, and when they're pulled from the game as soon as they make one it limits their minutes considerably and each miscue seems magnified. I saw the mistakes, but I also saw what looked like a smart player who understood how to play the point as a pass-first guard, to the point where he seemed to rarely even look for a shot. This, despite the fact that he won the team's preseason three-point contest.
I really do just think it was a matter of confidence and time, and Cobbs didn't have enough of either. All in all, going someplace like a Santa Clara or Long Beach will be good for him, and I wish him luck. I wouldn't rank losing Cobbs up there with losing Carter, in fact, it will probably affect the team little, if at all, so everybody wins.
Naturally, rumors abound that Cobbs decided to transfer because Cory Joseph has let it be known to the team that he's coming to the Gophers, but these reek of homerism and/or blind optimism. Cobbs seemed unhappy almost the entire season, things were pretty clearly not working out, and rumors about his transferring have been buzzing since mid-year, so I don't think this has anything to do with Cory Joseph (and please please please please please stop calling him CoJo. Please). Of course, I hope it does, but I also hope the Deschanel sisters show up at my door step one day and say "choose." (To which I'd say "both" and then they'd say "ok.")
Things do get interesting if Joseph doesn't choose the Gophers and Cobbs does end up leaving, because the academically and offensively challenged Al Nolen becomes the only actual point guard on the roster. Despite his Jacque Vaughn/T.J. Ford-level jump shot there's no doubt Nolen is a Big Ten starting point guard, and Devoe did do an admirable job filling in, but the team would be well served to get some PG-depth if not for next year, then for the future.
For 2010, it sounds like the Gophers have some interest in 3-star PG Ben Brust, a former Iowa commit who luckily escaped due to the coaching change and is also getting heat now from Wisconsin, Cal, and Wake, but he looks like one of those annoying white dudes who always go to Iowa or Purdue and he's more of a combo guard anyway, so I'll pass. There is also a rumor that Johnnie Lacy, late of Providence College, is interesting in becoming a Gopher, but he's facing assault charges for putting the beat down on some poor sap who shouldn't have been standing there so I'd imagine there's no way Tubby would be interested in dealing with another legal headache.
I'm much more intrigued by Shane Larkin, Rivals #22 point guard and #96 player for the Class of 2011 who is described as a "floor general" and a player who excels at the "drive and kick" offense. Sounds perfect. The Gophers haven't offered him yet, and right now his only high-major offer is from Clemson, but it sounds like Georgia Tech, Wake, and Cal are getting into the mix as well as the Gophers. He's from Florida and likes to play a wide-open style so I'd bet he ends up in the SEC some where (I'm going to predict Arkansas), but he's a name to remember for the future and a player I'm interested in. Not sexually, though, perv.
Oh, and if you are thinking Bryant Allen is the answer at point guard you are completely out of your damn mind.
FACT
FACT: It was 10 years ago today Cal Ripken Jr. got his 3,000th career hit against the Twins.
FACT #2: It was also 10 years ago that we were at that game and while everyone else was standing and applauding a great career accomplishment, Dawger was firmly planted in his seat calling everyone else a sell-out and comparing Cal Ripken to Michael Cuddyer, which also berthed one of the greatest internet cartoons ever on DWG, which I can no longer find.
I'll still have some Cobbsy talk tonight, maybe, but I wanted to give everyone the chance to celebrate this moment in history.
FACT #2: It was also 10 years ago that we were at that game and while everyone else was standing and applauding a great career accomplishment, Dawger was firmly planted in his seat calling everyone else a sell-out and comparing Cal Ripken to Michael Cuddyer, which also berthed one of the greatest internet cartoons ever on DWG, which I can no longer find.
I'll still have some Cobbsy talk tonight, maybe, but I wanted to give everyone the chance to celebrate this moment in history.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
FACT
The Orioles lost today to the Rays 9-1. The reason? They gave Matt Wieters the day off.
Also the Gophers got the official commitment from Mo Walker today. Awesome.
[EDIT: Somebody want to explain to me why the hell they sent Alex Burnett down in exchange for the world's oldest relief pitcher]
Also the Gophers got the official commitment from Mo Walker today. Awesome.
[EDIT: Somebody want to explain to me why the hell they sent Alex Burnett down in exchange for the world's oldest relief pitcher]
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
PLACEHOLDER: Mo Walker committs to the Gophers
Star Trib Link Here
Or maybe we need to slow down on this. Despite reports from everyone from Rivals and ESPN.com that Maurice "Escalade" Walker will be committing to your Golden Gophers tomorrow when the spring signing period officially begins, there seems to be some question as to just how much of a "lock" this "lock" is.
From what I've picked up from various sources culled from the Gopher Hole posters, both Walker and his father have backed off a bit, with the dad reporting that Pitt, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky are all still in the mix and Walker himself telling GopherLady that he hasn't made a decision yet. Of course, these reports directly conflict with some earlier reports, including a text directly from Walker saying that he has decided to play for the Gophers but was asked by Tubby not to announce anything until tomorrow so "out of respect I'm waiting until tomorrow to make everything official."
There seem to be two schools of thought as to what's going on. The first, most optimistic and I think most likely is that Walker has made up his mind to play for the Gophers but for whatever reason - Tubby, his dad, wanting to make his choice a bigger media spectacle - he's backing off so he can make an official announcement with at least a little drama. The second, which seems a bit too doom and gloom even for me, is that he really is changing his mind due to Cory Joseph.
If you follow Gopher recruiting, you know that Walker and Joseph are good friends, good enough even that Walker was trying to get Joseph to come play with him wherever he signed. It was also obvious that Walker loved the Gophers and Tubby, and was basically ready to sign before he even stepped foot on campus. So the conspiracy thought is that Walker decided to be a Gopher and was expecting Joseph to follow him, but has since talked with Cory and found out that he has either decided on another team (Texas) or has eliminated the Gophers from his list without making that info public.
Personally, I think it's the first one. Or at least I hope so. Walker is a great get - 6-10, 300 lb. centers with offers from Kansas don't exactly come knocking at the door often - and I love the idea of sticking somebody with that kind of size next to Mbakwe next year at times. Hell, Ralph can play small forward.
Let's hope this is all nothing and we'll get official word tomorrow that Walker has signed and that we hear Joseph is following him here a few days later. If not, I don't know what plan B is, but the Gophers would end up with one of the worst recruiting classes in the Big Ten, and I would probably cry for three days.
Speaking of crying for three days, JaJuan Johnson has entered the NBA draft, thus ending his reign as "The college KG" and giving the NBA a Hakim Warrick clone. I won't miss him lighting up the Gophers, but I'll miss watching that sweet J and his excellent work on both ends of the floor. I won't be following his career further because I don't watch the NBA because I'm not retarded.
Or maybe we need to slow down on this. Despite reports from everyone from Rivals and ESPN.com that Maurice "Escalade" Walker will be committing to your Golden Gophers tomorrow when the spring signing period officially begins, there seems to be some question as to just how much of a "lock" this "lock" is.
From what I've picked up from various sources culled from the Gopher Hole posters, both Walker and his father have backed off a bit, with the dad reporting that Pitt, Virginia, Indiana, and Kentucky are all still in the mix and Walker himself telling GopherLady that he hasn't made a decision yet. Of course, these reports directly conflict with some earlier reports, including a text directly from Walker saying that he has decided to play for the Gophers but was asked by Tubby not to announce anything until tomorrow so "out of respect I'm waiting until tomorrow to make everything official."
There seem to be two schools of thought as to what's going on. The first, most optimistic and I think most likely is that Walker has made up his mind to play for the Gophers but for whatever reason - Tubby, his dad, wanting to make his choice a bigger media spectacle - he's backing off so he can make an official announcement with at least a little drama. The second, which seems a bit too doom and gloom even for me, is that he really is changing his mind due to Cory Joseph.
If you follow Gopher recruiting, you know that Walker and Joseph are good friends, good enough even that Walker was trying to get Joseph to come play with him wherever he signed. It was also obvious that Walker loved the Gophers and Tubby, and was basically ready to sign before he even stepped foot on campus. So the conspiracy thought is that Walker decided to be a Gopher and was expecting Joseph to follow him, but has since talked with Cory and found out that he has either decided on another team (Texas) or has eliminated the Gophers from his list without making that info public.
Personally, I think it's the first one. Or at least I hope so. Walker is a great get - 6-10, 300 lb. centers with offers from Kansas don't exactly come knocking at the door often - and I love the idea of sticking somebody with that kind of size next to Mbakwe next year at times. Hell, Ralph can play small forward.
Let's hope this is all nothing and we'll get official word tomorrow that Walker has signed and that we hear Joseph is following him here a few days later. If not, I don't know what plan B is, but the Gophers would end up with one of the worst recruiting classes in the Big Ten, and I would probably cry for three days.
Speaking of crying for three days, JaJuan Johnson has entered the NBA draft, thus ending his reign as "The college KG" and giving the NBA a Hakim Warrick clone. I won't miss him lighting up the Gophers, but I'll miss watching that sweet J and his excellent work on both ends of the floor. I won't be following his career further because I don't watch the NBA because I'm not retarded.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Week in Review - 4/12/2010
I heart baseball. And the Masters. And nice weather. Truly, this was a glorious weekend.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The Twins. A 5-2 road trip to start the season, with the two opponents being the Angels and White Sox? Hell yes, great start to the season. Rauch looks like the next Mariano Rivera but white and a foot taller. Delmon Young has improved his patience (decreased swing %) while at the same time increasing his aggressiveness (anecdotal, but it seems like he puts it all into every swing and has mostly eliminated those weak "make contact" swings he got into the habit of doing last year). The starters have been solid save the first time out from Baker, and the bullpen has been nails in front of Rauch, except for Mijares who has been brutal so far. The new guys, Hudson and Hardy, have been solid, Mauer and Morneau have picked back up as MVP candidates, and even this year's slow starters - Kubel and Span - have found ways to contribute. Assuming Hardy and Delmon are really this good and Kubel and Span are the same as last year, this lineup is absolutely loaded. With a good bullpen and above average starters, they have a very good look about them through week 1. Needless to say, I like what I'm seeing. I'm going to stop now because I'm pissing myself off with my pollyanna optimisim and I don't want to have to kick my own ass.
2. The Masters. We didn't get the drama of a playoff, but there was still plenty to enjoy at Augusta. Tiger came back and played well, only to melt down on the back 9 on Sunday with both the driver and the putter, Anthony Kim went on an Anthony Kim-like run of birdies to become a factor, Lee Westwood did what the 54-hole leader seems to do in every major and shoot right around par, and Tom Watson and Fred Couples hung around long enough to give the old-timers some hope. In the end though, Phil Mickelson managed to out last his own hitting the ball in the woodsness to play an overall brilliant back 9 at -4 while everyone else was making mistakes, including Tiger's 3-putt from 6 feet on 14 and a few makeable birdies Westwood burned by the cup. I'm not a huge Phil fan, but I'm not an anti-fan either, so overall this result pleases me. Plus that jackass Cink missed the cut, which is always a positive.
3. Matt Garza. Oh hell. Damn hell. Garza pitched the kind of game aces pitch, going 8 innings against the Orioles giving up just four hits and an earned run while striking out 9. Don't dismiss the Orioles, either, they have a pretty good lineup this year, so perhaps the Garza we were waiting for has arrived - only he's wearing a different uniform. At least Delmon is sort of starting come around. In any case, I picked Garza for runner-up in the Cy Young race, and this start shows he's got the stuff. At least we still have Scott Baker, who has the same kind of stuff and mental make up and could also end up being a shut down ace, right? Blackburn? Slowey? Crap.
4. C.C. Sabathia. Well I don't like him or the Yankees, but tossing a near no-hitter against a pretty good Rays squad is impressive so he probably deserves some credit. But instead of doing that, I'll just tell you how brutally homerishly awful the Yankee radio announcers are. I douwnloaded the MLB At-Bat app for Blackberry, which is awesome, and was listening to it and my god, the chick announcer on there is so rah-rah she's probably humping most of the roster. There was a play where Carl Crawford overslid second on a force play and was tagged out by Robinson Cano, and she couldn't stop talking about "what a great heads up play" and "how alert Cano is" and "how it's just instinctive." In case that wasn't enough, she drops this one, "You know who else makes plays like that? Derek Jeter. Stand next to Jeter long enough and you start making those kind of plays." Good lord, lady, he tagged a guy out, pull your dress down. Also, after a strike out looking she said that "Cervelli framed that so beautifully without moving his glove, that's why Sabathia got that call." Basically the entire time I was listening she was auditorially servicing each player - worse even than Gladden. For reals.
5. Blue Jays. The Jays are a bit surprising at 5-1 to start the year, but even more surprising has been the quality of starting pitching they have been getting. Going into the year, nobody was really worried about their lineup, but they had something like 10-12 pitchers, any of whom could have won a rotation spot and nobody was guaranteed to be there. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but they have been pretty lights out so far, holding their opponent to four runs or less four times, and never allowing more than six in a game to this point. Shaun Marcum nearly tossed a no-hitter on opening day and then followed that up with a 7 inning, 2 hit performance against the Rangers on Sunday, while Dana Eveland threw a shutout and Ricky Romero and Brian Tallet chipped in with quality starts. If this pitching is for real, and it's almost certainly not, Toronto could actually contend in the East.
WHO SUCKED
1. Matt Howard. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFf. There isn't an OOF oofy enough to quantify this oof. I swear the entire first ten minutes of the championship game was nothing more than Butler constantly dumping the ball into Howard on the block against Zoubek or a Plumlee, whereupon Howard would use some truly nifty footwork to go under/around his man and get himself in good position to score around the goal. Of course, then he would just miss. And miss. And miss. I swear he missed five shots in the first four minutes, and then decided instead of missing he would just spend the rest of the game in foul trouble. He played better in the second half, but that slow beginning really set the tone and if he had hit a few more shots Butler spends most the game ahead instead of behind. But don't cry for Butler, because they lose only one contributor and he's not all that significant - Mack, Howard, and Hayward are all back - so they have a good chance at making it here again; at which point no doubt a bunch of morons will try pegging them as a Cinderella again. God you people are dumb.
2. Jim Furyk. The good news is that Furyk shot four shots better on the second day than the first at the Masters. The bad news is that the first day was an 80. 80! A freaking 80. You know who else shot an 80 in either of the first two rounds? Michael Campbell, Ian Woosnam, Anders Hansen, Sandy Lyle, Ben Martin, and Henrik Stenson. One good player, two 100-year-olds, a flash in the pan, and two never-will-bes. Jim Furyk doesn't belong in that group (neither does Stenson, but I don't think he was considered as having a good shot to win this thing like Furyk was). This is just mind-boggling. Furyk officially finishes 91st out of 96 golfers, although one of the guys withdrew even though he had a better score, so really he was more like 92nd. Not that that distinction really matters. Just an absolute stinker by Furyk, reminiscent of watching Drew Butera try to bat. Although pretend Butera was a mult-time all-star and was still in his prime, but suddenly looked lost like he did the other night. Yuck.
3. Houston Astros. There is just one winless team remaining in MLB, and it's the lowly Astros. More impressive than the 0-6 record, however, is how they've managed to lose. Here are their run totals for the six games: 2-0-4-0-6-1. Yes, that's two shut outs mixed in there, by Barry Zito and J.A. Happ of all people. And the games where they scored 4 and 6 they actually had late leads but lost due to bullpen meltdowns, which I guess is to be expected when you sign Brandon Lyon to be your closer.
4. Mike Gonzalez. And speaking of closers, it looks like we might have the first closer demotion of the year thanks to the Orioles' Gonzalez, who blew two saves this week in three tries and blew them spectacularly, giving up two runs in each outing to not just blow the save, but lose the game as well. Even in the one game he managed to not blow he still walked two and gave up a hit in his one inning of work, and is currently rocking a 18.00 ERA and 4.50 WHIP. He's basically a pretty good set-up man, but really just not a good closer. Very LaTroy Hawkins-ish, only left-handed and less black.
5. Taylor Teagarden. With Rangers' starting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the DL, Teagarden was elevated to every day catcher for Texas. He has responded by going 0-12 with 7 strikeouts. He's a semi-well regarded prospect type, although not considered an offensive force, so he'll probably be fine, but that is not a great start to your season.
If you are going to the opener today I hate you.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. The Twins. A 5-2 road trip to start the season, with the two opponents being the Angels and White Sox? Hell yes, great start to the season. Rauch looks like the next Mariano Rivera but white and a foot taller. Delmon Young has improved his patience (decreased swing %) while at the same time increasing his aggressiveness (anecdotal, but it seems like he puts it all into every swing and has mostly eliminated those weak "make contact" swings he got into the habit of doing last year). The starters have been solid save the first time out from Baker, and the bullpen has been nails in front of Rauch, except for Mijares who has been brutal so far. The new guys, Hudson and Hardy, have been solid, Mauer and Morneau have picked back up as MVP candidates, and even this year's slow starters - Kubel and Span - have found ways to contribute. Assuming Hardy and Delmon are really this good and Kubel and Span are the same as last year, this lineup is absolutely loaded. With a good bullpen and above average starters, they have a very good look about them through week 1. Needless to say, I like what I'm seeing. I'm going to stop now because I'm pissing myself off with my pollyanna optimisim and I don't want to have to kick my own ass.
2. The Masters. We didn't get the drama of a playoff, but there was still plenty to enjoy at Augusta. Tiger came back and played well, only to melt down on the back 9 on Sunday with both the driver and the putter, Anthony Kim went on an Anthony Kim-like run of birdies to become a factor, Lee Westwood did what the 54-hole leader seems to do in every major and shoot right around par, and Tom Watson and Fred Couples hung around long enough to give the old-timers some hope. In the end though, Phil Mickelson managed to out last his own hitting the ball in the woodsness to play an overall brilliant back 9 at -4 while everyone else was making mistakes, including Tiger's 3-putt from 6 feet on 14 and a few makeable birdies Westwood burned by the cup. I'm not a huge Phil fan, but I'm not an anti-fan either, so overall this result pleases me. Plus that jackass Cink missed the cut, which is always a positive.
3. Matt Garza. Oh hell. Damn hell. Garza pitched the kind of game aces pitch, going 8 innings against the Orioles giving up just four hits and an earned run while striking out 9. Don't dismiss the Orioles, either, they have a pretty good lineup this year, so perhaps the Garza we were waiting for has arrived - only he's wearing a different uniform. At least Delmon is sort of starting come around. In any case, I picked Garza for runner-up in the Cy Young race, and this start shows he's got the stuff. At least we still have Scott Baker, who has the same kind of stuff and mental make up and could also end up being a shut down ace, right? Blackburn? Slowey? Crap.
4. C.C. Sabathia. Well I don't like him or the Yankees, but tossing a near no-hitter against a pretty good Rays squad is impressive so he probably deserves some credit. But instead of doing that, I'll just tell you how brutally homerishly awful the Yankee radio announcers are. I douwnloaded the MLB At-Bat app for Blackberry, which is awesome, and was listening to it and my god, the chick announcer on there is so rah-rah she's probably humping most of the roster. There was a play where Carl Crawford overslid second on a force play and was tagged out by Robinson Cano, and she couldn't stop talking about "what a great heads up play" and "how alert Cano is" and "how it's just instinctive." In case that wasn't enough, she drops this one, "You know who else makes plays like that? Derek Jeter. Stand next to Jeter long enough and you start making those kind of plays." Good lord, lady, he tagged a guy out, pull your dress down. Also, after a strike out looking she said that "Cervelli framed that so beautifully without moving his glove, that's why Sabathia got that call." Basically the entire time I was listening she was auditorially servicing each player - worse even than Gladden. For reals.
5. Blue Jays. The Jays are a bit surprising at 5-1 to start the year, but even more surprising has been the quality of starting pitching they have been getting. Going into the year, nobody was really worried about their lineup, but they had something like 10-12 pitchers, any of whom could have won a rotation spot and nobody was guaranteed to be there. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but they have been pretty lights out so far, holding their opponent to four runs or less four times, and never allowing more than six in a game to this point. Shaun Marcum nearly tossed a no-hitter on opening day and then followed that up with a 7 inning, 2 hit performance against the Rangers on Sunday, while Dana Eveland threw a shutout and Ricky Romero and Brian Tallet chipped in with quality starts. If this pitching is for real, and it's almost certainly not, Toronto could actually contend in the East.
WHO SUCKED
1. Matt Howard. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFf. There isn't an OOF oofy enough to quantify this oof. I swear the entire first ten minutes of the championship game was nothing more than Butler constantly dumping the ball into Howard on the block against Zoubek or a Plumlee, whereupon Howard would use some truly nifty footwork to go under/around his man and get himself in good position to score around the goal. Of course, then he would just miss. And miss. And miss. I swear he missed five shots in the first four minutes, and then decided instead of missing he would just spend the rest of the game in foul trouble. He played better in the second half, but that slow beginning really set the tone and if he had hit a few more shots Butler spends most the game ahead instead of behind. But don't cry for Butler, because they lose only one contributor and he's not all that significant - Mack, Howard, and Hayward are all back - so they have a good chance at making it here again; at which point no doubt a bunch of morons will try pegging them as a Cinderella again. God you people are dumb.
2. Jim Furyk. The good news is that Furyk shot four shots better on the second day than the first at the Masters. The bad news is that the first day was an 80. 80! A freaking 80. You know who else shot an 80 in either of the first two rounds? Michael Campbell, Ian Woosnam, Anders Hansen, Sandy Lyle, Ben Martin, and Henrik Stenson. One good player, two 100-year-olds, a flash in the pan, and two never-will-bes. Jim Furyk doesn't belong in that group (neither does Stenson, but I don't think he was considered as having a good shot to win this thing like Furyk was). This is just mind-boggling. Furyk officially finishes 91st out of 96 golfers, although one of the guys withdrew even though he had a better score, so really he was more like 92nd. Not that that distinction really matters. Just an absolute stinker by Furyk, reminiscent of watching Drew Butera try to bat. Although pretend Butera was a mult-time all-star and was still in his prime, but suddenly looked lost like he did the other night. Yuck.
3. Houston Astros. There is just one winless team remaining in MLB, and it's the lowly Astros. More impressive than the 0-6 record, however, is how they've managed to lose. Here are their run totals for the six games: 2-0-4-0-6-1. Yes, that's two shut outs mixed in there, by Barry Zito and J.A. Happ of all people. And the games where they scored 4 and 6 they actually had late leads but lost due to bullpen meltdowns, which I guess is to be expected when you sign Brandon Lyon to be your closer.
4. Mike Gonzalez. And speaking of closers, it looks like we might have the first closer demotion of the year thanks to the Orioles' Gonzalez, who blew two saves this week in three tries and blew them spectacularly, giving up two runs in each outing to not just blow the save, but lose the game as well. Even in the one game he managed to not blow he still walked two and gave up a hit in his one inning of work, and is currently rocking a 18.00 ERA and 4.50 WHIP. He's basically a pretty good set-up man, but really just not a good closer. Very LaTroy Hawkins-ish, only left-handed and less black.
5. Taylor Teagarden. With Rangers' starting catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the DL, Teagarden was elevated to every day catcher for Texas. He has responded by going 0-12 with 7 strikeouts. He's a semi-well regarded prospect type, although not considered an offensive force, so he'll probably be fine, but that is not a great start to your season.
If you are going to the opener today I hate you.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't know if I've mentioned it here, but Mama. W is all knocked up again and I'm pretty sure it's mine so I'm pretty interested in what's going on with this here kid, and we found out tonight that we're having a boy, which is awesome because we already have a girl named WonderbabyTM as you probably know. Since we got that bit o' good news I figured I'd celebrate by having a couple of little screwdrivers and watching the Twins. Join me, won't you, on this magical ride I call life?
8:51 - No, the Twins haven't started but I'm watching the O's/Rays thanks to the free MLB package preview Directv is nice enough to give us, and I'm torn. The Orioles are leading 5-3 in the 8th and I have the Orioles at +155 but I also have the Rays' closer on my fantasy team. Some might look at this as a win/win, but I look at it as sucky and am trying to figure out how I can cash in on both. I'm looking for the Rays to tie it up, Soriano to pitch 2 shutout innings, and then the O's win and somebody else gets the loss. Win/win.
8:57 - So we had a nice girl's name that we agreed on, but we haven't been able to come to an agreement with a boy name at all. Mrs. W wants Lucas, while I'm trying to convince her to go with a first name-middle name combo of either Optimus Prime or Matt Wieters.
9:02 - By the way that wasn't me who picked Furyk to win the Masters. I think Dr. Acula hacked my account.
9:04 - I'll be watching the game, at least for now, via internet feed and it is behind real TV by anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, so if you Tivo'd the game and play it back later to match up the times with this blog it won't work. Sorry to spoil your Friday night plans.
9:05 - Gail Simmons has large boobs, but she's no Audrina.
Audrina and Vegas in the same picture? Is this heaven?
9:11 - Good god this is a terrible internet feed. It's like watching the game through a Viewmaster.
9:17 - Morneau strikes out with runners on second and third and only one out which means all he had to do was put the ball in play and the Twins go up 1-0. And if I know one thing about facing Joel Piniero, it's that you need to score the runs when you can because a shut-down pitcher like him doesn't give you many opportunities to score.
9:19 - Text from Snacks "God Cuddyer is a fat piece of crap." Sums it up. Not much more to add.
9:20 - Oh, I forgot to mention that my soon to be son has a gigantic head. Like, their computer program actually moved up Mrs. W's due date by a full week because the kid's head was so gigantic. Apparently he's basically like a toothpick with an orange on top in there. He's pretty much either Stewie or Justin Morneau.
9:22 - Slowey strikes out the leadoff batter, Aybar, on a pitch that I have no idea what it was because I only saw the windup and then the result, but that's a good sign. I was worried about Slowey a bit because any time you miss as much time as he did I worry about rust a bit.
9:27 - So that would be back to back hits now by Fatbreau and Torii. I take it back.
9:30 - I think he got out of it. I can't tell because the feed froze. Whoever is after Matsui either popped out to Hardy or Hardy couldn't get quite get back there and Span was being not Gomez and couldn't get up there and it fell. And nevermind he caught it. I'm going to try to find another feed because this is a nightmare. And not like the new one with Kelly Leak, I mean more like Robert Englund.
9:33 - Thome again? He better not be playing for Kubel again.
9:34 - Thome walks and here comes Kubel. Sorry Delmon. And it's about time for Kubel to get a god damn hit already. It's not like he's Denard Span.
9:35 - God Kubel sucks.
9:44 - I was poking around for a different feed, which I didn't at all find, and now I come back and it's 1-0 Angels? What happened? God it's like Slowey just hates me. And also we're still watching Viewmaster style. Actually I think it's more like a flip book.
9:50 - Span grounds one back to the pitcher to officially move to 1-14 on the season. What's the deal here? Gomez gets traded, Span gets a fat contract, and suddenly he's like a big fat cat sitting on top of a swimming pool full of money? God I miss Gomez. At least he's a gamer.
9:57 - Slowey walks Torii Hunter. Isn't that kind of like some kind of reverse unstoppable force meets immovable object kind of thing?
9:58 - Hideki Matsui's eyes are really doing nothing to dispel stereotypes.
10:06 - Ok I'm on to an actual television now. We just stared the top of the fourth and it's 1-0 Angels. I can't believe they haven't scored off of Piniero yet. That guy always has a four+ run inning in him, you just have to crack the shell so it comes oozing out.
10:09 - Another 1-2-3 inning as the Twins go down meekly like a tentative high school kid. This is getting embarrassing. It's Joel Piniero for christ's sake. I'd be really upset right now but I'm seeing Clash of the Titans tomorrow so really nothing can bring me down. Also we're having a son. That too. That is also important.
10:17 - Slowey sets them down 1-2-3. I'm either going to have to get more entertaining or this game is going to have to get more interesting. Hope for the game, I think.
10:20 - Thome with a double, leaving Kubel as the only Twin without a hit this year I assume without looking anything up, not counting that fake catcher guy. And there you go, game-tying run-scoring single by Kubes, which is also worth 2 fantasy points. Our team is so good.
10:22 - Hardy, with 2 homers already this year, is ordered to bunt. Jesus christ Gardenhire, you have an actual offense this year. I know you're used to having a bunch of Matt Tolbert's in the lineup and you have to scratch and claw for every run you can get, but not this year. Just chill out, sit back, and let the Hardy boy mash like he wants
10:23 - Mama W just described Hardy as "cute."
10:26 - Holy F Brendan Harris just destroyed the ball, and the Twins are up 3-1. Can we please, please, please start Harris at 3B more than once a week? I know he never slides into first and isn't some minority scrappy guy but he's a much better hitter than Punto and doesn't exactly suck defensively. Stop being retarded, Gardy. You know you need more Harris in your life.
10:29 - Hudson reaches on error which is apparently his best shot at getting on base. He's been bad at the plate and his defense has been less than impressive as well. Since I believe you can easily make blanket judgments about the entire season after just four days, I'm going to go ahead and say this guy sucks.
10:46 - Massive computer problems kept me off of here for the past 17 minutes. I saw some things in the game I was going to comment on but now meh and also I can't really remember. Instead I will let you know that Matt Wieters (a rich man's Joe Mauer) did not hit a home run tonight, instead electing to go 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored. I don't know why that's all he did, and you don't either, but who are we to question his plan?
10:49 - Kubel got out again. How odd.
10:50 - I'm lame. I'm too tired to keep going. I've stayed up for all three games, and with early rise times I'm just plain tuckered, so it's either keep drinking or go to bed. As much as I'd like to keep drinking, it turns out they frown upon employees who show up reeking of vodka, so it's probably in my best interests to pass. Don't judge me, I'm old. Plus I have little Optimus Prime on the way, so I need to save up my strength now.
8:51 - No, the Twins haven't started but I'm watching the O's/Rays thanks to the free MLB package preview Directv is nice enough to give us, and I'm torn. The Orioles are leading 5-3 in the 8th and I have the Orioles at +155 but I also have the Rays' closer on my fantasy team. Some might look at this as a win/win, but I look at it as sucky and am trying to figure out how I can cash in on both. I'm looking for the Rays to tie it up, Soriano to pitch 2 shutout innings, and then the O's win and somebody else gets the loss. Win/win.
8:57 - So we had a nice girl's name that we agreed on, but we haven't been able to come to an agreement with a boy name at all. Mrs. W wants Lucas, while I'm trying to convince her to go with a first name-middle name combo of either Optimus Prime or Matt Wieters.
9:02 - By the way that wasn't me who picked Furyk to win the Masters. I think Dr. Acula hacked my account.
9:04 - I'll be watching the game, at least for now, via internet feed and it is behind real TV by anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes, so if you Tivo'd the game and play it back later to match up the times with this blog it won't work. Sorry to spoil your Friday night plans.
9:05 - Gail Simmons has large boobs, but she's no Audrina.
Audrina and Vegas in the same picture? Is this heaven?
9:11 - Good god this is a terrible internet feed. It's like watching the game through a Viewmaster.
9:17 - Morneau strikes out with runners on second and third and only one out which means all he had to do was put the ball in play and the Twins go up 1-0. And if I know one thing about facing Joel Piniero, it's that you need to score the runs when you can because a shut-down pitcher like him doesn't give you many opportunities to score.
9:19 - Text from Snacks "God Cuddyer is a fat piece of crap." Sums it up. Not much more to add.
9:20 - Oh, I forgot to mention that my soon to be son has a gigantic head. Like, their computer program actually moved up Mrs. W's due date by a full week because the kid's head was so gigantic. Apparently he's basically like a toothpick with an orange on top in there. He's pretty much either Stewie or Justin Morneau.
9:22 - Slowey strikes out the leadoff batter, Aybar, on a pitch that I have no idea what it was because I only saw the windup and then the result, but that's a good sign. I was worried about Slowey a bit because any time you miss as much time as he did I worry about rust a bit.
9:27 - So that would be back to back hits now by Fatbreau and Torii. I take it back.
9:30 - I think he got out of it. I can't tell because the feed froze. Whoever is after Matsui either popped out to Hardy or Hardy couldn't get quite get back there and Span was being not Gomez and couldn't get up there and it fell. And nevermind he caught it. I'm going to try to find another feed because this is a nightmare. And not like the new one with Kelly Leak, I mean more like Robert Englund.
9:33 - Thome again? He better not be playing for Kubel again.
9:34 - Thome walks and here comes Kubel. Sorry Delmon. And it's about time for Kubel to get a god damn hit already. It's not like he's Denard Span.
9:35 - God Kubel sucks.
9:44 - I was poking around for a different feed, which I didn't at all find, and now I come back and it's 1-0 Angels? What happened? God it's like Slowey just hates me. And also we're still watching Viewmaster style. Actually I think it's more like a flip book.
9:50 - Span grounds one back to the pitcher to officially move to 1-14 on the season. What's the deal here? Gomez gets traded, Span gets a fat contract, and suddenly he's like a big fat cat sitting on top of a swimming pool full of money? God I miss Gomez. At least he's a gamer.
9:57 - Slowey walks Torii Hunter. Isn't that kind of like some kind of reverse unstoppable force meets immovable object kind of thing?
9:58 - Hideki Matsui's eyes are really doing nothing to dispel stereotypes.
10:06 - Ok I'm on to an actual television now. We just stared the top of the fourth and it's 1-0 Angels. I can't believe they haven't scored off of Piniero yet. That guy always has a four+ run inning in him, you just have to crack the shell so it comes oozing out.
10:09 - Another 1-2-3 inning as the Twins go down meekly like a tentative high school kid. This is getting embarrassing. It's Joel Piniero for christ's sake. I'd be really upset right now but I'm seeing Clash of the Titans tomorrow so really nothing can bring me down. Also we're having a son. That too. That is also important.
10:17 - Slowey sets them down 1-2-3. I'm either going to have to get more entertaining or this game is going to have to get more interesting. Hope for the game, I think.
10:20 - Thome with a double, leaving Kubel as the only Twin without a hit this year I assume without looking anything up, not counting that fake catcher guy. And there you go, game-tying run-scoring single by Kubes, which is also worth 2 fantasy points. Our team is so good.
10:22 - Hardy, with 2 homers already this year, is ordered to bunt. Jesus christ Gardenhire, you have an actual offense this year. I know you're used to having a bunch of Matt Tolbert's in the lineup and you have to scratch and claw for every run you can get, but not this year. Just chill out, sit back, and let the Hardy boy mash like he wants
10:23 - Mama W just described Hardy as "cute."
10:26 - Holy F Brendan Harris just destroyed the ball, and the Twins are up 3-1. Can we please, please, please start Harris at 3B more than once a week? I know he never slides into first and isn't some minority scrappy guy but he's a much better hitter than Punto and doesn't exactly suck defensively. Stop being retarded, Gardy. You know you need more Harris in your life.
10:29 - Hudson reaches on error which is apparently his best shot at getting on base. He's been bad at the plate and his defense has been less than impressive as well. Since I believe you can easily make blanket judgments about the entire season after just four days, I'm going to go ahead and say this guy sucks.
10:46 - Massive computer problems kept me off of here for the past 17 minutes. I saw some things in the game I was going to comment on but now meh and also I can't really remember. Instead I will let you know that Matt Wieters (a rich man's Joe Mauer) did not hit a home run tonight, instead electing to go 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored. I don't know why that's all he did, and you don't either, but who are we to question his plan?
10:49 - Kubel got out again. How odd.
10:50 - I'm lame. I'm too tired to keep going. I've stayed up for all three games, and with early rise times I'm just plain tuckered, so it's either keep drinking or go to bed. As much as I'd like to keep drinking, it turns out they frown upon employees who show up reeking of vodka, so it's probably in my best interests to pass. Don't judge me, I'm old. Plus I have little Optimus Prime on the way, so I need to save up my strength now.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Fare thee Well, Paul Carter (+ Masters Preview)
In definite bummer news, it came out early this morning from Nadine at the Gopher Hole that Paul Carter is transferring to be closer to his family. If you remember, his sister is sick with something I don't remember so I'm going to say cancer, and since Carter is close with her he feels he needs to be there for his family. While most Gopher transfers have simply been players who shouldn't have been recruited to the Big Ten in the first place (Limar Wilson, Engen Nurumbi, Aliou Kane), discipline problems (Brandon Smith), or just unhappy (Antoine Broxsie), this is a transfer that actually is a bummer, although it makes a lot of sense for him.
I was hoping Carter could be next year's Damian Johnson, and his offensive game was progressing nicely outside of the 2.5 missed layups per game. Not to mention it was always fun to debate who would win a no-rules bar fight between him and Westbrook. I wish Carter nothing but the best, and hope he has much success wherever he ends up. Whoever is lucky enough to snag him will be getting a good player, a by all accounts great person, and I assume one hell of a bar fighter. This also ensures the Gophers will have enough scholarships for Maurice Walker, Cory Joseph, and Royce White, should that come to fruition, so if you're looking for a silver lining there you go.
With that said, this weekend is of course the Return of Tiger Open held at Augusta, so I feel the need to give a bit of a preview, top ten style. If you're itching to talk Twins we'll get their eventually, but it's only been two games so settle down, nerd. I will say that Delmon looks great, not just because he slimmed down but he seems like he has an idea of what he's doing at the plate. More on that later this week or maybe next.
If you're looking to wager on the tournament, your best bets (for the money) are Furyk at 15-1, Dustin Johnson at 33-1, Nick Watney at 45-1, Mike Weir at 50-1, and Zach Johnson at 55-1. Anyway, here are your top 11, much like I do with NFL odds:
1. Jim Furyk. More of a hunch than anything specifically pointing to him as the favorite, but it's not as if it's a total shot in the dark. Furyk won just a few weeks ago at the Transitions, which, granted, isn't the most high-profile of tournaments but there is still a pretty decent field and it was Furyk's first win since 2007 so he's got momentum. He followed that up with an 11th at the Arnie Palmer against a very good field, and he's always been pretty good at Augusta with four top tens in his career (T-10 last year) and has only missed the cut here once. Plus, there's nothing better than watching that sweet, fundamental swing of Furyk's. That's why they call him "The Big Fundamental."
2. Lee Westwood. Nobody hates it more than me when a dirty Euro comes over here and tramps all over our country and steals our women and our green jackets, but Westwood has the look of a player who is ready to finally win his first major. Also the look of someone with terrible teeth, dumbo ears, and who needs a shower.
3. Ernie Els. With the way this jackass is playing he should probably be your favorite to win this week, but he's played as many holes on the weekend at Augusta the last three years as I have (hint: it's zero). Prior to those missed cuts, however, Els had five top tens from 2000-2004. How much of his crappy play the last few years was due to injury and how much was just being bad? Is he back and awesome or was it all kind of a fluke? I don't know. You tell me.
4. Tiger Woods. God, I don't know where to slot him. I'm not worried about him mentally since he's basically a robot programmed soley to golf and have sex with whores, but he hasn't played competitive golf in months, and playing practice rounds isn't the same thing. I think he's a lot more likely to blow away the field and set a course record than he is to implode and miss the cut. Plus it would be kind of sweet to watch/listen to all the spazzes who hate him cry.
5. Ian Poulter. Poulter is a dingleberry who wears hot pink pants and he missed the cut in his last start, but I can't help but shake the feeling that he's going to be in the mix on Sunday. He seems to live for the big events, even though as I now look at his career in majors it really isn't all that impressive. Huh. This could be one of those "perception isn't reality" kind of things. I guess we'll find out how stupid I am by Sunday. Or, god forbid, Friday.
6. Retief Goosen. He seems to be popping up on a lot of lists as a favorite, and why not? He's playing as well as he has in years with five top-10s already this year, and he's an absolute majors horse. He has four career top-3s at Augusta, and prior to missing the cut last year he had finished top-20 seven consecutive years at the Masters. He's almost certainly going to be a factor again this year.
7. Delmon Young. Is there anything he can't do?
8. Nick Watney. I love this guy. He's just a solid all-around player with no major holes in his game and who rarely seems intimidated by a strong field, a famous course, or a big tournament. He's been solid, if unspectacular this year, but has shown in the past that he can get around at Augusta. In his two career appearances here he's finished 11th and 19th. I think things are lining up for him to jump up and surprise this weekend.
9. Charl Schwartzel. Kind of a sleeper pick, but when he's everybody's big sleeper is he really a sleeper anymore? Schwartzel has played in four tournaments in the States and has three top 10s (including two WGC events) and has two wins on the European Tour to boot. His name is retarded, but he can clearly play and he's from South Africa where apparently everyone is good at golf and racism.
10. Steve Stricker. He has to be on this list because he's just so damn good and consistent, mostly because he's so good with the putting stick. Now that Adam Scott died, he's clearly the best golfer without a major victory and he's been in such a zone that he's almost certainly going to get one this year. Why not now?
11. Padraig Harrington. He's so good in majors that you can't possibly discount him, even if he sort of seems like he's been coasting since that incredible run where he won 3 out of 6 majors. But like I said, you can't discount him. Like an Ipod on Black Friday.
I was hoping Carter could be next year's Damian Johnson, and his offensive game was progressing nicely outside of the 2.5 missed layups per game. Not to mention it was always fun to debate who would win a no-rules bar fight between him and Westbrook. I wish Carter nothing but the best, and hope he has much success wherever he ends up. Whoever is lucky enough to snag him will be getting a good player, a by all accounts great person, and I assume one hell of a bar fighter. This also ensures the Gophers will have enough scholarships for Maurice Walker, Cory Joseph, and Royce White, should that come to fruition, so if you're looking for a silver lining there you go.
With that said, this weekend is of course the Return of Tiger Open held at Augusta, so I feel the need to give a bit of a preview, top ten style. If you're itching to talk Twins we'll get their eventually, but it's only been two games so settle down, nerd. I will say that Delmon looks great, not just because he slimmed down but he seems like he has an idea of what he's doing at the plate. More on that later this week or maybe next.
If you're looking to wager on the tournament, your best bets (for the money) are Furyk at 15-1, Dustin Johnson at 33-1, Nick Watney at 45-1, Mike Weir at 50-1, and Zach Johnson at 55-1. Anyway, here are your top 11, much like I do with NFL odds:
1. Jim Furyk. More of a hunch than anything specifically pointing to him as the favorite, but it's not as if it's a total shot in the dark. Furyk won just a few weeks ago at the Transitions, which, granted, isn't the most high-profile of tournaments but there is still a pretty decent field and it was Furyk's first win since 2007 so he's got momentum. He followed that up with an 11th at the Arnie Palmer against a very good field, and he's always been pretty good at Augusta with four top tens in his career (T-10 last year) and has only missed the cut here once. Plus, there's nothing better than watching that sweet, fundamental swing of Furyk's. That's why they call him "The Big Fundamental."
2. Lee Westwood. Nobody hates it more than me when a dirty Euro comes over here and tramps all over our country and steals our women and our green jackets, but Westwood has the look of a player who is ready to finally win his first major. Also the look of someone with terrible teeth, dumbo ears, and who needs a shower.
3. Ernie Els. With the way this jackass is playing he should probably be your favorite to win this week, but he's played as many holes on the weekend at Augusta the last three years as I have (hint: it's zero). Prior to those missed cuts, however, Els had five top tens from 2000-2004. How much of his crappy play the last few years was due to injury and how much was just being bad? Is he back and awesome or was it all kind of a fluke? I don't know. You tell me.
4. Tiger Woods. God, I don't know where to slot him. I'm not worried about him mentally since he's basically a robot programmed soley to golf and have sex with whores, but he hasn't played competitive golf in months, and playing practice rounds isn't the same thing. I think he's a lot more likely to blow away the field and set a course record than he is to implode and miss the cut. Plus it would be kind of sweet to watch/listen to all the spazzes who hate him cry.
5. Ian Poulter. Poulter is a dingleberry who wears hot pink pants and he missed the cut in his last start, but I can't help but shake the feeling that he's going to be in the mix on Sunday. He seems to live for the big events, even though as I now look at his career in majors it really isn't all that impressive. Huh. This could be one of those "perception isn't reality" kind of things. I guess we'll find out how stupid I am by Sunday. Or, god forbid, Friday.
6. Retief Goosen. He seems to be popping up on a lot of lists as a favorite, and why not? He's playing as well as he has in years with five top-10s already this year, and he's an absolute majors horse. He has four career top-3s at Augusta, and prior to missing the cut last year he had finished top-20 seven consecutive years at the Masters. He's almost certainly going to be a factor again this year.
7. Delmon Young. Is there anything he can't do?
8. Nick Watney. I love this guy. He's just a solid all-around player with no major holes in his game and who rarely seems intimidated by a strong field, a famous course, or a big tournament. He's been solid, if unspectacular this year, but has shown in the past that he can get around at Augusta. In his two career appearances here he's finished 11th and 19th. I think things are lining up for him to jump up and surprise this weekend.
9. Charl Schwartzel. Kind of a sleeper pick, but when he's everybody's big sleeper is he really a sleeper anymore? Schwartzel has played in four tournaments in the States and has three top 10s (including two WGC events) and has two wins on the European Tour to boot. His name is retarded, but he can clearly play and he's from South Africa where apparently everyone is good at golf and racism.
10. Steve Stricker. He has to be on this list because he's just so damn good and consistent, mostly because he's so good with the putting stick. Now that Adam Scott died, he's clearly the best golfer without a major victory and he's been in such a zone that he's almost certainly going to get one this year. Why not now?
11. Padraig Harrington. He's so good in majors that you can't possibly discount him, even if he sort of seems like he's been coasting since that incredible run where he won 3 out of 6 majors. But like I said, you can't discount him. Like an Ipod on Black Friday.
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