Cup of Coffee

August 28, 2011: Back in LA

67 Comments

I don't expect it to be long. It's a long story, but as I fall more out of love with acting and more in love with writing, it's not important for me to be right here in LA incurring expenses as I work toward a deal.

67 thoughts on “August 28, 2011: Back in LA”

    1. Here's to hoping the Twins hear about that and give you a show.

      Enjoy. I think the park itself, and it being your first time there, will make up for the product on the field.

  2. cc to nibbish: I went back to Red Dead Redemption today.... and got through where I was stuck easily. It won't spoil anything if I tell you two words: "Horse Pills".

    1. Tottenham's not had a good start. Outscored 8-1 by Manchester-based teams in their first two matches. Well, at least just two of their last 36 matches are against Manchester-based teams...

      1. Fulham finally scored a goal. It only took 88 minutes into their third game, but they scored. That is a bit unfair, since they are destroying the Europa League at the moment, so it's not like they're playing horribly. But I'd rather crash out of Europe and stay up than win the EL and be in a relegation battle.

    2. Is anyone else watching ManUtd-Arsenal? Park just made it 6-1 to United in the ~70th min. I have to believe there's at least one more for United before this is done at the rate they're going.

      1. I turned it off at 4-1. The spat between Arsenal fans and Wenger is going to get worse before it gets better.

  5. The thermometer on my car got up to 107 yesterday and we're predicted to get up to 109 today. This has been one crazy year for weather.

    1. I drove through 122 yesterday, then drove smack into a little monsoon thingy and it dropped almost immediately to 76. Pulled out of it five minutes later and it shot back up to 107. I'm like, did that just happen?

      It was 105-107 in LA yesterday...definitely not typical.

      1. Definitely no. That would be like 115-117 here, usually. I live in the Inland Empire and we're usually 10-15 degrees warmer than L.A. I used to work 35 miles west of here and could count on a 7-10 degree drop in temp most days.

  6. I'm getting tired of the mainstream media stories on Joe Mauer is pu$$y. I understand they need to write about something and there is nothing positive going on at this point. I've decided to come up with some new ideas for them:

    Drew Butera is one of the worst hitters in baseball, if not the worst. Nepotism? Maybe he shouldn't spend so much time buddying up to Pavano and could spend some time in the cage.

    Danny Valencia has terrible range. I counted 5 ground balls that got by him on Friday. A good third baseman would have gotten to four of the five. An average third baseman would have gotten two of the five.

    The Twins have the worst infield defense in baseball. Valencia at 3b, Plouffe at SS, whoever at 2b. It really is brutal. I think half of our problems with pitching can be traced to infield defense. (No, I don't have any statistics to back it up. I'm too lazy but so is the MSM.)

    Morneau is also a pu$$y. 4 homers and a .220 average in 250 AB out of a first baseman?! I'm pretty sure that is much worse than .290 with 1 homer out of a catcher.

    Cuddyer is suddenly having a career year in his contract year. Team leader, steroid user, or a guy that finally came into spring training in shape for the big contract push?

    Ramos for Capps? I'd much rather have Ramos behind the plate than Butera.

    Hardy for Hoey?

    The training staff. How is Hardy finally healthy? Why are the Twins always injured? All I've seen is blame put on the players. At some point can we maybe question this team's training staff?

    There are plenty of stories to right about the Twins but every one of the STrib and Pioneer Press writers like to just write the Mauer story. Of course, it is much easier when Cuddyer's agent is constantly feeding them free info. It's the same strategy that Torii used in his final year.

    1. I'm getting tired of the mainstream media stories on Joe Mauer is pu$$y.

      Hell, I've been tired of that joke here for at least six months now. The MSM is never going to come around on this, most likely, but I'd be well in favor of retiring it.

    2. I wouldn't call it a career year for Cuddyer. He's having a good year when offense is down. He's twice had better OPS over a season and a 130 OPS+ isn't that much better than his 124 in 2009 and 2006.

      I've not heard much complaint on Valencia's range. I didn't see yesterday's game, but it always seemed to me he had average or even better range and was just inconsistent on making plays (thus all the errors). And for as much flak as he took earlier in the year for his struggles on offense, he now is ahead of Mauer in OPS and is third on the team at .699, behind Cuddyer and Kubel. He's almost right at average for third basemen in the AL. I agree the infield defense has been awful, but I think Valencia is the last one to worry about.

      1. I'm standing by my statement on Valencia's range. It is terrible. I know the fielding numbers aren't perfect but Baseball Reference has him 19 runs below average on the year. I think that makes him the worst full-time third baseman in the AL.

        1. Unfortunately those don't get split apart into their components, but UZR has his range as the worst component.

      1. I love how even when Gardenhire is supposedly backing Mauer, he's still throwing him under the bus. He makes it sound like all Joe does is sit around in the offseason.

        2. I was thinking about this the last couple of days.

          We've talked before about how the local media rarely strays from the company line. Given that, it seems like the Twins organization could shut down all this talk about Mauer pretty quickly if it wanted to. It probably wouldn't take all that much, just some pointed comments from people like Bill Smith and Ron Gardenhire to the effect of "This talk about Mauer being soft is ridiculous. This kid's been playing in pain all year. You guys have no idea what he has to go through every day just to get on the field."

          As far as I know, though, the organization has not chosen to do that. I wonder why.

            1. Are you implying that saying Matt Tolbert is a wuss wouldn't generate as many distractions from the on-field product?

        1. mebbe the headline writer didn't get the memo from the author?

          says he 'hopes' to be in shape next season

        2. Mauer (769) has passed Butch Wynegar (759) to move into second on the Twins career list for games caught and is all but certain to pass Earl Battey (831) and become the team's leader next season.

          That's an interesting fact I had not been informed of from any news outlet until now. How did this article, with actual facts and a toughness-neutral viewpoint, ever make it into the paper? There must have been a mistake somewhere.

      4. that's for all the Deerhoof cracks.

        In all fairness, Deerhoof is my second favorite "Deer" band you've played on this site.

    5. I'd like to second that bad infield concern and throw in the outfield too (although admittedly not as bad as infield) I would maintain that fundamentals have gotten worse every year since Gardenhire arrived. The WGOM citizens noticed it a couple of years ago now the mainstream media is picking up on it too. Is it bad training (I noticed that Gardy's going to have more fundamentals practice next ST), are we not drafting fundamentally sound players? Is it the minor league system not doing its job? I don't know but probably some of all three. But basically what was rightfully a strength of this franchise has fast become one of its weaknesses.

      1. The outfield defense has probably been the best thing about this team this year. UZR has them as the fourth-best outfield in baseball, third in the AL. B-Ref uses two metrics and no regular outfielder is below average in both metrics. Only Kubel and Cuddyer are below average in one metric and above in another. UZR shows them both below average (not surprisingly). Span and Revere have both been elite fielders. Total zone loves Span, BIS Defensive Runs loves Revere and UZR loves both. Even Delmon has been above average in all three metrics.

    6. Who knows why but it's pretty damn obvious that Mauer hasn't been healthy all year. Where the criticism loses me is when it crosses the line into calling Mauer a wimp for not playing through pain.

      If this makes Mauer realize he has to work harder in the offseason to prepare for the full season of rigors behond the plate, then that's fine, this was a lost season anyway.

  7. 2 steps forward, 2 steps back:

    Twins Minnesota Twins
    Twins recall Rene Rivera, option Matt Tolbert to Triple-A Rochester.

    1. [redacted]

      I'm a little shocked. I met her a year ago October, and she looked great. She was still a force to be reckoned with. Man, the world is a little less bright without her in it.

    2. I use a King Kooker that I've had for years. It works great, so I've had no need to see what is out there these days, so I'm afraid I can't help much other than to say that I think pretty much any burner that can be used to fry a turkey should have sufficient BTUs to boil wort.

  10. For being such a great all around guy Ms Buffalo brought this home for me last night. To age or not to age?

  11. an interesting intellectual exercise here.

    It's probably best that we don't have a discussion about this here (thoughts?), as a corollary to the Forbidden Topic rule, but I thought it worth posting for people to follow and contemplate on their own terms. (heads up to Jeff A in particular)

  12. Yesterday, WunderMaps had Hartford in the middle of the projected path of Irene, but she seemed to want to stay on a straight line versus their projected veer towards the Cape.

    After much ado, we got some rain and wind, but nothing to justify the automated phone message from our Mayor 2 hours after the hurricane had passed asking us to not drive around. Heh.

    I went out for a long run in the lite rain afterwards to check out the carnage - tired of being cooped up in the house - couple of branches on the ground, streets littered in leaves and flower petals, but no visible damage.

    1. Wow. That would be awful. That's the nice thing here is that it cools off at night. We complain if it stays in the 70s at night.

    2. That's often the Phoenix experience, too. I went out to put Skim's bike away last week and just threw up my hands. "Even now, eh? Alright."

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