Cup of Coffee, WGOM

August 09, 2011: Updates

158 Comments

I updated WordPress to 3.2.1 and Atahualpa (the theme) to 3.6.7. If you notice anything broken*, leave a comment and I'll try to fix it this evening.

* I already know about not being able to rate videos on the video page. You can/should still be able to from the front page.

I skipped a release, so you can read about 3.2.0 and 3.2.1 if curious about what changed.

158 thoughts on “August 09, 2011: Updates”

  2. Sitting in the waiting room at the hospital, just sent Mrs. Rowsdower in for her Justin Morneau approved neck surgery.

      1. I keep telling her she'll be taking ground balls in no time, but she isn't buying it.

        1. best wishes to the Mrs. No sneaking around behind her back to do stuff for the next few months!

    1. To be eligible, the person has to have been dead for at least five years, so Buck may not be eligible. He died in Oct. of 2006.

    2. Magoo, if you are going to insist on this 12-step program, you gotta post a whole pack comments during your pass-through. Think of the children.

    3. I figure the baseball detectives on WGOM can crack this, since they have already solved today's CarterHayes' challenge. When I was reading the JoePos piece, he left someone out that I was sure was the answer - was very proud of myself when I read his first update. Then it turned out that was wrong, too, but only because the parameters chanced.

      A Killer or Kirby stamp would have been very cool.

  4. Not that I think anyone's really wondering, but I've decided that my pennant race bandwagon teams will be Texas in the AL and Milwaukee in the NL.

    1. Well, sure. I mean, Josh Hamilton won that HR Derby and has a great story....

      But seriously, I can see it.

    3. I'm going to go with Texas because I don't want my neoghbors to hate me any more than they already do.

      1. I'm actually not that big a fan of donuts. Not that I dislike them, but there are a lot of other things, even in the pastry line, that I like more.

  7. Kubel approached about contract
    With the Twins also approaching Cuddyer, I was thinking how this affects others. To me, it would seem that this means:
    1. The Twins want to bring back Cuddyer and Kubel and plan on shopping Delmon or even nontendering him, or ...
    2. The Twins aren't nearly as enamored with Ben Revere as it seems, or ...
    3. The Twins are just making a public show so they can say "We tried," similar to offers to Torii and Johan.

    2. I'm hoping they're serious about bringing back Kubel. I'm too tired to elaborate, but I think it would be a really good move.

    3. 4. Twins hope to trade Span for Storen in the offseason, moving Revere to CF, keep Delmon in LF, Cuddyer in RF, Kubel as DH.

      2. I saw somewhere, and if I could remember where I'd go post it, that this was unlikely. Smith saw that trade as a "win now" move (which kind of scares me even more) rather than something long term, so it didn't seem likely that those trade talks would continue in the offseason. I really hope not.

        1. William's definition of "Win now" trading, as well as his idea of when "win now" trading is prudent, differ from mine by quite a distance.

        2. Saw that too. I think the best strategy is to cut bait with DY even if it means a non-tender, then re-sign Kubel and Cuddyer. That way we can see if Revere plus Span in the OF works. If not, there are other outfielders that should be close to ready in their system (Benson etc).

          1. I was really hoping you were joking above- I'm definitely more in favor of the toss DY to the curb than the trade Span.

    4. You must change "enamored with" to "enamored of" and then, as punishment, write "Bill Smith, please bring Kubel back" 50 times on the chalkboard.

      -- Annoying Schoolmarm

  8. Regarding the update, the default font for writing posts now seems to be something like a cross between Comic Sans and Courier. If this could be restored to Times or Helvetica or something I think that would be easier on the eyes.

        1. Hmmm. I'm guessing it's one of Consolas or Monaco that you don't like. I don't want to switch away from a fixed-width font, partially because that's what I'm used to but also because editing HTML is often easier in a fixed-width font. However, there are a lot of fixed-width fonts out there and I can certainly change it to something else. Failing that, I know it's possible to create site specific stylesheets and I can help you with that.

          1. Yeah, I figured fixed-width would be an issue. I'm not asking specifically for Times or Helvetica, just something a bit more legible than what's currently the default. Whatever you can do in that department is appreciated, man.

      1. I'm hoping against hope that whenever the Twins draft next year there's a college pitcher who works in the mid-90s available. And that they draft him.

        1. Hey, if they finish with the worst record in the majors they'll get their pick of any player in the draft. Houston appears to have a lock on the race to the bottom, though.

          2. Houston's lousy with young talent in the minors now. They got a huge return for Pence. I'm sure the fans are restless, but they could be the turn-of-the-century Astros in a few years again if things break right.

    3. if this happens, i think i can safely bet on who won't be replacing him in the rotation.

      2. I'm thinking this will force their hand and they'll have to plug their nose and insert Slowey into the rotation. They've got to showcase him to trade him next season when they need to free up salary after they sign Cuddyer to a 4 year, $48 million deal.

            1. To be serious for a moment, has there been any indication that Gardy is about to remove them from their spots in the starting rotation? Blackburn's had one 'quality start' (for what that's worth) since the All-Star break, and has given up 35 runs in 34.1 innings since July 1st (for his part, Duensing has a 4.30 ERA in that stretch)

              The axe has to fall sometime, right?

        2. Gardy has already stated that Swarzak is next in line to be inserted into the rotation.

          1. I really don't have a problem with that. Swarzak's pitched well enough in spot starts to have earned another shot.

            2. While I don't think he'll be able to keep it up, I really don't have a problem with it, either. If nothing else, it'd be nice to see if he could pitch his way into a spot on the team for next year.

  10. The Twins haven't won a game in which they didn't score first since July 19 and that was Danny Valencia's walk-off, two-run hit with the bases loaded against his college teammate to give the Twins a 2-1 win. In general, you're not going to have a good record when the opponent scores first, but it seems like the Twins have been awful this year in that regards (They were 2-19 earlier in the year, but I can't find an updated record).

  11. You know what would help the Twins win? The pitcher who has the second best winning percentage in Twins history. Duh.

                1. I attempted to add it, but it looks like permissions need to be reset in order for me to get it in there. The snark shall go live shortly.

  12. TJ archives:

    -Two years ago, TJ got a little misty-eyed remembering the good, old days of Vikings training camp (with the good ol' boys). After writing about Jim Marshall exploding frogs and Keith Millard driving drunk and smashing his car, TJ complains, "Today's camps are shorter and easier because of roster limitations and the threat of injury. They're more humane, but today's players don't experience as many bonding, team-building experiences, like frog-launching, and they don't benefit from the cardiovascular test of sprinting from a wrecked car to a dormitory at 10:58 p.m."

    -In 2008, TJ was covering the Olympics in Beijing and "[w]hile I was walking around Beijing, a naked child just missed peeing on my foot. No one blinked." Oh, and "Everywhere there are grim-looking soldiers, thin as Corey Brewer, only better shooters."

    -Four years ago when writing about how nobody cares about Barry Bonds passing Hank Aaron, he wondered, "Does anybody really have any curiosity left about Tiger Woods, or Michael Vick, or Peyton Manning, or Shaquille O'Neal?"

    -In 2004, the Twins played (and lost) a 18-inning game to the A's the previous day. "After Joe Roa threw five shutout innings to get the Twins to the 18th and . . . , Gardenhire's choices [to pitch], besides [Terry] Mulholland, were Kyle Lohse (who is scheduled to start today) and Michael Cuddyer (who would have been stretching the definition of 'utility player')."

    -In 2000, the Twins were throwing a pitcher under the bus: " Righthander Mike Lincoln is scheduled to undergo season-ending arthroscopic elbow surgery this week, done by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. The Twins fear Lincoln's elbow has so much internal damage, apparently caused by the incessant throwing of breaking pitches, that the elbow might never be 100 percent again." Oh, and we also learned that WASTE was a consultant for that inner-city baseball movie starring Keanu. Seriously.

    2. I've noticed that professional consultants are often non-stars because they have no other commitments.

      Credit where it's due: I was amused by Shecky's Corey Brewer line.

  13. Last night I went fishing for the first time in 12-15 years or so. Of course I hurt myself when my line cut into my right index finger when I got a bite. (And, of course, the fish got away).

    And I've just now, being a dumbass, put a staple through my left index finger - in through the front, out through the nail.

    So I've got two worthless pointer fingers right now which makes things like typing a bit difficult.

      1. Or the wrong time if it led to a string of injuries. Sounds like someone needs to shut himself in and get back to safe internetting.

  14. to all you meat fans out there, last night's hoisin pork was a big hit, although I think I shorted the hoisin a bit (I had ~5 lbs of country-style ribs).

    I removed the meat from the crock to a platter, defatted the gravy, then reduced it by about half. It still wasn't as syrupy as I'd hoped. I then returned the meat (sans bones and big pieces of fat) to the crock, added about a quarter cup of chopped pepperoncini and a half-tsp of sesame oil, and then poured over the reduced gravy.

    it was excellent with brown rice and a dollop of mango-peach salsa (from Costco). Tonight it will be paired with baked potatoes and sauteed sugar snap peas.

    1. I have my wife on board with giving this recipe a try. Might have to do that in a couple weekends.

      1. I use low-sodium soy. This dish could go overboard on the salt easily, although the vinegar helps. Next time I will include chopped peppers from the get-go, and perhaps a tbs each of chili paste and dark soy.

        1. I tried this recipe a few weeks back with nearly identical sides:

          it was excellent* with brown & wild rice and a dollop of mango-peach salsa (from Costco Target).

          *I concur wholeheartedly

  15. Four hours of CLEs today. Procrastination ultimately sucks.

    So I brewed my first batch, a saison, three weeks ago and bottled over the weekend. I also have a pseudo-lager that I transferred to the secondary also last weekend. It's pseudo because I can't cold ferment with current equipment.

    My issue is I'm terrified by the temperature in my basement. I always thought it stayed in the 60s but I'm fermenting closer to 76 - 78. Are there any concerns I should have or what issues I should watch out for with my too-toasty basement? I have nowhere else to ferment. I'm also hopeful I can blame the hot weather and 60-degree temps return.

    1. Back when I was brewing in a small apartment with no basement, I used to put the fermenter in a cooler filled with water. I'd drape a towel over the fermenter with one end in the water. That did a pretty good job of keeping temps in check.

      That said, you will probably be ok even at those temps so long as you were able to bring the temp of the wort down before pitching your yeast. You may notice a slightly boozy-er taste, but I bet it'll still taste good.

      1. Thanks, ct. Google is telling me I may be drinking fruit beer in three weeks. I'm going to try to bring the temp down tonight but it's already been three weeks.

        1. If you have the ability, I would check the gravity to see if there is any fermentation left to accomplish. If its done, cooling it down now won't really have much effect. You're probably looking at a longer bottle condition to smooth out some of the off-flavors, unless you're fortunate and don't end up with any.

          1. Hmm. That's pretty smart. Guess I'll just do that instead. My gut says it's done.

  16. I'm sending production assistant resumes and writing samples are over the LA Craigslist-sphere. It's a much different experience than searching Craigslist for the same opportunities in Yakima. I may not love LA the city, but knowing there are more paid opportunities in any given day than I'm used to having in a year is pretty sweet.

    1. That is pretty sweet. I almost took a gig in Marina del Ray and we used craigslist to scout potential housing. The costs for housing around LA were insane although I assume that's come down some since then.

      1. I continue to be surprised by the opportunities found on Craigslist, at least in my field. I know that site can be a dead end for some, but essentially every meaningful project I've done and 80% of the useful contacts I've made, I've made through Craigslist.

      2. I just moved to MDR. Yes, housing costs are insane in LA. Even worse than they were in DC. Padmapper is a great site to check craigslist's housing posts in a visual manner.

        2. I got in on an awesome situation, because I know someone. Not going out to LA until now was pretty half-baked, but since I have a bunch of friends there, a lot of the work was done for me.

  17. apropos of the brewing thread, this sad, sad news: my local brew-on-premises place has closed.

    This economy sucks. But I mainly blame the owner, who over-reached by trying to run both a fancy-schmancy restaurant and a brewing operation. The place was always jam-packed when it was a 4-kettle storefront in Davisville. The move to Sacramento was a significant gamble on a "concept" restaurant/bar. I think the concept was overly ambitious. Instead of concentrating on his core business (brewing and selling beer), he wanted to swim in the swifter waters of upscale-casual dining.

    The restaurant and do-it-yourself microbrewery closed abruptly this weekend after 15 years in business. The brewing operation started in Davis and expanded to an 8,300 square-foot city owned building at 14th and H streets in Sacramento in 2003.

    “I think the concept has merit, but we couldn’t survive this economy,” said owner Michael Costello.

    The operation was open through the weekend in hopes of selling enough food, beer and cocktails to pay the crew.

    For the past two years, dining business has been way down. The brewery had been the anchor keeping people coming through the doors, but there was not a lot of neighborhood business. The location, at the base of a parking garage, isn’t in one of the dining corridors of downtown or midtown.

    “We probably needed a location that would support the dining side better,” he said. “As it is, we are a pure-play destination.”

    This is just another serious body blow to the craft brewing business in the Sactown area (with the October 2009 closure of Sacramento Brewing Co. and the October 2008 closure of the Elk Grove Brewery.

    Thank god that Rubicon still flows.

      1. Surly has definitely been about the best thing to happen to the Minnesota beer scene pretty much ever.

        1. I don't recall whether I mentioned this before, but I had a very interesting conversation with a liquor store owner on White Bear Ave two weeks ago. He had an excellent selection, but no Surly to be seen. So I asked.

          He said no, and I never will. Why, I asked. We then chatted for a few minutes, with him telling me that the Surly guy was basically a pompous d!ck who said his store wasn't good enough to carry his products. Huh, I said. That's no way to grow a business.

          Anyway, there seems to be more to the Surly story than just really good beer.

          1. Did he say if it was just a rep, or someone more involved with the beer? Considering how well their business appears to be growing, I'm inclined to believe that is not the norm, unless it was the actual head dude.

            1. my recollection is hazy. Not sure if he was talking about the owner of Surly or not. But that was my impression.

              1. The owner, Ansari?, ran our tour and seemed to me like a kid in a candy store in his brewery, which I expected. I spoke to him for fewer than three minutes.

              2. I took the Surly tour with a few friends back in 2009. Omar (the owner) gave the tour himself. The man was simply awesome: gregarious, intelligent, well-spoken with a pretty dry sense of humor liberally dosed with snark. We walked around the brewery, drank free beer, and heard his story and long-term plans. He also introduced us to his father - who happened to be on the tour as well. Said the old man was most likely there for the free beer. Afterwards, anyone who wanted to was able to hang out and chat. The head brewer was also around and both guys answered questions and talked to people for nearly 2 hours after the tour was done. I've been back to the brewery a few times over the years (Darkness Day, Surlyfest, etc) and have never had a bad experience with Omar or any of the brewers or brewery staff.

                I know a lot can change in 2+ years and that "community outreach events" don't necessarily give an accurate picture, but after my experiences, I wonder if the rep was just having a bad day?

                Also, I do a lot of my beer shopping at liquor stores on White Bear...care to enlighten me about the location?

                1. Omar is also responsible for the greatnest that is Cafe Twenty-Eight. Best kept secret in town.

                2. I am pretty sure it was MGM Liquor Warehouse, in Maplewood.

                  Like I said, I'm a little hazy about the narrowest specifics of the conversation (e.g., who exactly he had the difficulty with at Surly). When I asked about Surly, he was initially a little abrupt, but we had a genuine conversation. I suppose there may be blame to share across both parties, but he certainly felt aggrieved.

                  also, he had a nice selection of beers. Not as extensive as that of Jerry's in Grand Rapids, MN, as it turned out, but pretty good.

                  1. Hmm, I'm sure he did. To not carry a very popular local brew (voluntarily or otherwise) certainly indicates a bad experience. I hope they're able to remedy the issue - the more places to find a Surly the better.

                    Near as I can tell, MGM is "local" to the Twin Cities, but I've been trying to support a few of the smaller purveyors in my neighborhood. My current favorite is Heritage Liquor - directly between that Maplewood store and my house. Great selection of beer, local ownership, free weekly tastings and competitive prices.

                    1. You and brotherS are practically neighbors. He lives near McKnight and Hwy 36. As I was heading north (to Hwy 169 via 694/10) and I don't know the area, that MGM store turned out to be quite convenient. But I will mention Heritage to brotherS. He and his Mrs. are interested wine drinkers.

                      re: MGM. I hasten to add that the store owner/manager's beef was in response to (according to him) Surly's person saying they would not supply his store (and, according to the dude, included some disparagement -- implied, inferred, or actual -- of his store). Which is weird in and of itself. But his reaction might have been in the nature of sour grapes to some larger strategic decision on Surly's part.

                    2. Heh, that's also practically neighbors with my brother, as well. He lives across from the high school.

                    3. bS - Heritage has a pretty small footprint, but they manage to pack in a really good variety of beers. I drink wine, but not with the same enthusiasm as beer, so I don't know about their vino selection. As for the Surly/MGM riff, who knows...I certainly agree with your initial point: bad customer service is no way to grow a business.

                      ct - small world! If he's the brewing/visiting type, he's welcome tag along on my WI road trip.

                    4. I would say he's very much not the brewing/visiting type. We're about as different as two siblings can possibly be.

    2. That's a bummer. I've never done the brew on premises but it sounds like a good time. I think Vine Park is the only such joint in the Twin Cities but I've never been.

      1. I brewed there about a dozen times (mostly at their original location in Davisville). It was always a blast, in part because I was brewing with two other guys, in part because the staff at the old place was very friendly and easy to work with.

        when we brewed in Davisville, it was our habit to bring in a [redacted]load of beers in the style we were planning to brew to taste in order to refine our recipe. Then we may have consumed a pint or six on location whilst brewing. Brewing is thirsty work. Plus, there was a decent restaurant next door and they allowed us to bring food in.

    3. The brewing operation started in Davis and expanded to an 8,300 square-foot city owned building at 14th and H streets in Sacramento in 2003.

      If it helps, he beat the odds. Something like 60% of restaurants fail in their first three years. After five you're usually in the clear, so I'm guessing the economy plus his admitted terrible location was what eventually did him in. It's possible he took on too much debt with new equipment, too. While the concept sounds viable, so much is left up to the execution, and if anything goes wrong there's only so far one can cut food cost or labor cost before quality starts to seriously suffer.

      1. He spent a buttload of somebody's money on prettying up the interior, and probably too much on his wine list, which seemed a bit at odds with it also being a working brewery (or at least a Dude Ranch version of one).

        I should have realized something was up a year or two ago, when his beers became harder to find in the local grocery stores. They made a very, very good barleywine, russian imperial stout, and dunkelbock.

  18. SethTweets: Maybe some Twins fans gave up on him too early? RT @ nnelson9 Dusty Hughes has a 47/12 K/BB ratio over 38 IP in Triple-A? Hmm... #Twins

    1. Hasn't Hughes always had a good minors line, a la Jim Hoey, but completely sucks against Major league hitting?

      1. This is by far Hughes' best K rate and K/BB rate in the minors. His career K rate is 7.3.

    2. Admittedly Jim Hoey is pretty beastly in AAA, too. I think what's more likely is that both guys are AAAA players.

    3. Oh wow, a 29-year-old pitcher just threw 37+ good innings in AAA. How will I contain my excitement?

      1. fwiw, his ERA at Rochester is still more than nearly a run worse than his career ERA in the minors. And worse than his career ERA at AAA.

  19. Just a quick break in my internet hiatus - I just put on the Heartless Bastards' The Mountain for the first time in a couple of months. So soon as the guitar intro to "The Mountain" came out the speaker, I knew I made a good choice.

    1. From Joe C.:

      The Twins returned Scott Baker to the 15-day disabled list with a strained flexor muscle in his right elbow and recalled Kevin Slowey, who is scheduled to start Sunday in Cleveland.

      (emphasis mine)
      Maybe Smith stepped in and told Gardy and Slowey to play nice?

      1. That would be the most positive thing he's done all summer (other than not trading Span, but I don't know how much credit I'm going to give him for deeds of inactivity. After all, Toronto doesn't get credit for not waiving Bautista).

        1. other than not trading Span, but I don't know how much credit I'm going to give him for deeds of inactivity.

          i most definitely don't give him credit for that. if anything, the nationals made the same mistake as he did and faaaar overvalued storen. they inadvertently saved him from himself.

          1. We really don't know all that went on there, if anything. There was enough talk to make me think that there was some truth to the rumors but how much is difficult to tell. One report had the Twins holding out for Storen and Lombardozzi for Span or possibly even Storen, Lombardozzi and Bernardina. What they all seemed to agree on was the Nats approached the Twins about Span and the Twins said no to their offers.

      2. Possibly. They also might have decided that no one was ready to come up and be the long reliever in the bullpen, so it was best to leave Swarzak there at least until after Blackburn gets slapped around by the Red Sox. If he has another short outing, he could be banished to the bullpen and Swarzak could take his place in the rotation.

  21. Twins going for fourth! losing streak of at least six games this season with the following lineup vs. Erik Bedard.

    1. Ben Revere, CF
    2. Joe Mauer, 1B
    3. Michael Cuddyer, 2B
    4. Jason Kubel, RF
    5. Jim Thome, DH
    6. Danny Valencia, 3B
    7. Delmon Young, LF
    8. Tsuyoshi Nishioka, SS
    9. Drew Butera, C

    I was going to complain about having four of the first five batters being lefthanded until I realized that Bedard has a reverse split for his career that is more pronounced this year. This may just be happenstance as a left-handed CF, Mauer and Kubel will pretty much always be in there and Thome is most likely being given an opportunity to hit historic HRs at home. My biggest complaint is Butera in there instead of Plouffe (can you follow the logic or do I have to spell it out?).

      1. Take Butera out, Mauer catches, Cuddyer moves to first and Plouffe plays second. Alternatively, Mauer catches and Plouffe plays first.

          1. Well, if someone doesn't know what logic is, then they certainly can't follow it.

          2. hj had it right...I'm certainly on board with figuring out whether Plouffe! deserves a spot on the team long-term. I just felt obligated to poke fun at the idea of logic playing into the decision making tonight (or any night).

  23. JoeCStrib: Casilla ran the bases hard today, on pace to come off DL on Friday. Morneau could return Monday in Detroit, Gardy said. #Twins

  25. so, I'm passing through the cbsnews.com website, reading an article. On the right-hand side are teases for other articles.

    the 4th most popular article is:
    # 04 NOW joins chorus slamming Newsweek Bachmann cover
    ...

    and the most popular video article is:
    # 01 Olivia Wilde's CGI Nipples: Like or Dislike

    What a world we live in, that an allegedly legitimate news site can juxtapose those two articles (or even have the second one at all).

  26. So, I guess I'm not real worried about failed hard drives anymore. My central AC seems to have failed.

    what a summer this has been. We are going to have to cash out some stocks or a mutual fund to pay to replace the AC and the furnace (basically, gotta replace both at once; the furnace and the blower are both in the attic). Good timing on that. At least this didn't happen in 2009.

      1. Well, it does cool down at night. Upper 50s/low 60s at night, low 90s for highs for the next week. So our house shouldn't get much above the low 80s on the main floor.

  27. Hilarity ensues in Cleveland: the Clevelands walk off in the 14th when Detroit intentionally loads the bases (with no outs!) and then hits Kosuke Fukudome for a game-winning HBP.

    Seriously, with runners at the corners and no outs in the 14th, intentionally loading the bases is a ridiculous move. I can't believe I have to say this to Leyland, but here we are.

    1. It changed the win expectancy by 0.9%, so not a big deal.. unless your pitcher has poor control.

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