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August 18, 2011: Stupid Inside Jokes

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My friend Leif used to buy double strength 409 and he said it should be called 818. That was over fifteen years ago and I still think of it every year on this date.

78 thoughts on “August 18, 2011: Stupid Inside Jokes”

      1. I had high hopes since it's from the same guys who did "Archer", which I love, but it just didn't click. It was "weird" humor, rather than being as witty as "Archer".

  3. Twins Geek has a pretty good article on why Jim Thome won't get traded unless it's to the White Sox. Basically the Whities are 5th in line in the ability to claim Jimbo off of waivers. Of course AMR would like to see this happen but if Thome goes to a "contender" the White Sox are not a team I want him to end up on. Phillies? I have no problem with that, but very unlikely.

    2. Obviously, I'm for it, especially if the Twins can plunder a decent-odds lottery ticket prospect from them.

      He hit number 500 for them. Of course, the Clevelands are only 1.5 GA the ChiSox. Maybe the Twins wait to see if Cleveland would leapfrog the ChiSox in waiver priority before placing Jimmers on waivers.

      When the Twins lost game 163.1 in the South Side*, I realized that if the Twins were to lose, there'd be no worse way than a 0-1 game where the gentleman masher hit a homer.

      *Do they ever play that Moby song at Comiskey II the Cell?

  4. Rany Jazayerli points me to an undrafted nearly-23-year-old rookie-league non-prospect relief pitcher in the Royals' system, Edwin Carl.

    Year Age Tm Lev ERA G IP H R ER HR BB SO HBP WP BF WHIP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
    2010 21 Idaho Falls Rk 7.02 10 16.2 17 13 13 4 6 28 3 2 77 1.38 9.2 2.2 3.2 15.1 4.67
    2011 22 Idaho Falls Rk 1.33 18 27 14 5 4 0 3 58 1 5 101 0.63 4.7 0 1 19.3 19.33
    Career       3.50 28 43.2 31 18 17 4 9 86 4 7 178 0.916 6.4 0.8 1.9 17.7 9.56

    1. 1 walk, 58 strikeouts in 27 innings? 5 wild pitches? He must have a crazy off-speed pitch.

        1. Heh, I was looking at the BB/9. Oops. There's gotta be a pretty good story behind this guy.

            1. Doesn't seem likely, but looking at his college resume, one can see why he wouldn't have necessarily been drafted. This proficiency for destroying hitters seems to have come out of nowhere (30ks in 40 innings as a Junior).

              2. Proper instruction can do a lot for some pitchers. Change in mechanics, an added pitch, eliminating a pitch or two, proper usage. All can have a pretty big effect, especially at this level. He's also pretty old for this level.

              3. Considering all the HRs he gave up his first season, I would think he either made a pretty drastic change in how he threw or added a new pitch that has turned into his strikeout pitch. He wasn't consistent with it the first year, so his mistakes were getting hit out. Now he's more consistent, so more Ks and no homers.

                  1. all of this reminds me of a story on the front page of today's Sac Bee sports section about Vance Worley.

                    This part makes me laugh.

                    Worley always believed he was better than his statistics suggested.

                    "You know, I know the numbers didn't show exactly what I was capable of. But that's on paper," he said. "You have to see what's actually going on out there. I was never a big strikeout guy. I really don't care for strikeouts. I'd rather get people to ground out on a couple pitches or pop up.

                    In the minors, he struck out 6.9 per 9 innings. So far in the majors, he's struck out 7.5 per 9. Umm, those are pretty respectable strikeout numbers, Vance.

                    Over the last couple of years, Worley has improved his ability to locate his fastball. He's added a cutter this season. His changeup is better.

                    "I'm able to pitch. I don't have to throw," Worley said. "That's what pitching is. If you go out there and throw, you're going to get hit, because you're not locating. Pitching is being able to sink, cut, change speeds and hit your spots."

          2. The Chukars play yet in Ogden, Orem, Billings, and Great Falls.
            I seem to remember that one WGOMer lives in MT and another lives in UT. If I were close to a park where this guy might be playing, I'd try to get there, maybe get part of his story. If someone here does that, please report back.

  7. The Wife and I went to see the live Rifftrax simulcast (Jack the Giant Killer) at a local theater last night. It reminded me why we don't go out to movies very often. The film was hilarious but $25 to get in, sheesh. I can wait and buy it for less than that and watch it in the comfort of my own home without having to deal with all the loudmouths, people getting up and down in front of you and kicking the back of your chair. Plus for the price of a vat of pop I could get a whole 12-pack or a sixer of brewskies. Now GOML.

    1. I'm pretty GOML about movie theater prices too (sort of a conflict of interest there, I suppose, but oh well) so I understand. Still, I think I would've had to spring for a Rifftrax simulcast.

      1. During the summer Mrs. Hayes gets Friday afternoons off (unpaid). It's the perfect time to go catch a movie. Unfortunately, most of the movies we're likely to be interested in seeing don't come out in the summer.

      2. I paid $8.50 each for matinee tickets to Cap'n America last saturday. The theater has $5 Tuesday tickets, but I'm just not that into going out on a "school night".

  8. Shameless plug: If any of the WGOM tribe will be in town 8/25 -- we are having another one of our Tiny Bikeshop Concerts at Now Sports 75 N. Snelling Ave. There'll be a 1 hour free concert featuring Brianna Lane. One of the sponsors is Artisanal Imports, who will be sampling some of their fine wares. A special Happy Hour is planned for show attendees at the Muddy Pig after the show.

    ** We have another show planned for 9/8 back at Calhoun Cycle with Ann Reed and Dan Chouinard.

    1. Banjo: I'm still waiting to hear the blow-by-blow from your family cookoff competition. Details, and, preferably, pictures!!!

      1. Oh boy..this could be a novella. Long story short - even colonel sanders could not save us. The six teams really raised their game. In addition to some out of control good food, the winning team had a multi-media presentation intro to their meal. There was a full-on peach cake in the shape of an Armadillo, Photoshopped collages with Anthony Bourdain, cocktail pairings with dessert, double-deep frying and 3 ice cream machines...I'll have to find some time to spell it all out. It was great fun and I can tell you this, we won't be denied in 2012.

  10. Seemingly every day for the past few weeks, JeffA's minor league notes include "Miguel Sano hit a home run, his Nth." I am not ready to switch allegiance from my boy Oswaldo, but Thome, watch your back!

  11. I was just notified that I'm going to be included in a fairly prestigious traveling exhibition. I've been needing a win in my professional life for a while and this will do.

    3. double plus awesome. let us know if it comes anywhere near any of us.

      (i'll see if they'll put up a copy of some of those heart prints when i got to the IMSS)

      1. I'm in the middle of an exhibition proposal for IMSS with two of my friends. If selected I'll be in touch for some brewskies.

    1. Hughes missed his flight, Span and Cuddyer not available, Kubel left for a family emergency. Twins have no bench other than pitchers.

      1. Holy Crap, that is between a rock and a hard place. There is no good way to re-jigger that line-up. Who's pitched the least lately?

        1. Those three sentences were my thoughts, exactly. Even when having a mediocre season, the Twins are not boring.

        1. He's probably got an invisible fence set up, that way he can get to the bullpen to warm up and everything!

      2. Too bad the Twins don't still have Jesse Crain. He could be an infielder. I'm sure Smokestack has already volunteered to play anywhere in the field.

    3. hilarious

      PMac21 Phil Mackey
      Luke Hughes was at the wrong gate for his flight. He'll arrive to mpls in a couple hours. #Twins

    1. If I was manager, I'd try the hidden-ball trick at least once per game. It would rarely work, of course, but that just puts it in the same category as calling for sac bunts and the fake to first-throw to third pickoff play.

  14. We knew this already, but it's still nice to see the data plot.

    once we get past the Yankees, there is little correlation between market size and payroll. This can be seen in the strong disparity in payrolls for teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox (big payrolls) and the Oakland A's and Florida Marlins, who have similar market sizes but much smaller payrolls.

    And just by looking at the chart, we can see that if we eliminate the New York, Chicago and LA teams, the rest of baseball just makes a big jumbled mess.

    1. He failed to mention that Oakland's similar market has two teams, while Boston and Philly only have one. Back in the day, Boston and Philadelphia both used to have two.

  15. My own interview got pushed back to Saturday at noon, so I spent the last few hours sending resumes absolutely everywhere. Some of these things are so long I feel like I should be getting paid to fill them out.

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