Cup of Coffee

September 20, 2011: Burnin’

101 Comments

I'm back in Phoenix, hopefully never to see LA again unless meetings demand it. I'd rather telecommute than live in that city, and I sure as hell never saw a block I'd want my kids to live on.

101 thoughts on “September 20, 2011: Burnin’”

      1. Aye. One of my best buddies is a prof at UCLA. He has a lovely little home, in a lovely neighborhood. Of course, he paid 3-4 times as much for his 1,400 square feet as I paid for my 2,400, and I have ready access to better beer. On the other hand, he's within walking distance of a killer hot dog stand.

        1. Yeah, my ability to afford those neighborhoods is years away. I'd rather try to sell my script living somewhere else where I feel my kids can be safely than be in town in the type of places we can afford.

    2. I saw a whole lot in my little time there. I think I made my decision to leave when I started seeing where famous, successful actors (not A-listers, but names) lived, and it was in neighborhoods that were completely unappealing.

      1. Oh, I totally agree. For what friends of mine paid for a home (with bars on the windows), well, yeah. I remember them asking us what our home might cost comparable to one in LA, and I told them that I had no idea because it would be difficult to find a neighborhood as nice as ours there.

      1. I was surprised it was up when there was about ten lines on it, but the boys have done an excellent job of pruning it back quickly.

    4. They're ~50 runs behind the Mariners (529) for fewest runs scored this year. It's a dogfight between PIT (572), HOU (575), and MIN (578) for second fewest.

      MIN is pretty solidly entrenched in second for most runs allowed as well (MIN - 756). I don't think they are catching BAL (813), and they have a 21-run cushion over KC (735) in third.

      If the bottom is "worst Pythagorean record" (which, I guess, looking at the sidebar, it isn't) the race is pretty much over.

      1. Well, the Twins face the M's here for three. If the M's average 17 and the Twins average 0 runs, things will get very interesting.

    2. While the Twins don't have a history of success with changing swings for the better, it should be noted that players that strikeout as often as Parmelee did (more than 25% in his first three years) in the minors often don't make to the majors, much less have success. Mark Reynolds, for instance, struck out 23% of the time in the minors, and is averaging 33% in the majors.

      1. right. I think the dearth of power prospects in the Twins system over the years makes us forget that elite power hitters usually have Nintendo minor league numbers and that lines that look like decent major league numbers don't often translate exactly

      3. Seeing what Reynolds was swinging at in Yakima, I worried very much for his abilities to reach the majors. He wanted to jack it out so badly he just swung until he hit something. I feel like now, he swings less, but strikes out due to some selectivity. That's just anecdotal, though. Maybe he's still swinging a lot and I just haven't noticed.

        1. He does walk more than average in the majors. His ratio is about 3-1. In Yakima, it actually was a little better than that, though he walked less and struck out less than he does now.

          1. Huh...I think I may have mixed up that foible with CarGo, but he wasn't exactly terrible (though he wasn't good in that respect).

            All of Yakima's players tended to look bad in the patience department compared to our leadoff hitter. I never understood why he disappeared from baseball so quickly. He was poor defensively, but surely the other stuff was enough to get them to work on him?

            1. There's some thought that maybe players that walk too much are too selective and won't make it once pitchers can actually throw strikes. Once Retrosheet makes its minor league data public, we'll be able to systemically check rather than rely on anecdotes.

            2. according to statcorner.com, Reynolds has swung at 29.1 pct of pitches out of the strike zone this year, missing 48.9 pct of the time. That's 14.2 pct of the pitches he's seen are out-of-zone swings and misses.

              for comparison, CarGo this year swung on 40 pct of pitches out of the zone and missed 36.6 pct of the time. 14.6 pct of the pitches he's seen are out-of-zone swings and misses.

    3. FWIW, he was voted team MVP over Benson, but I'm not sure if it was his teammates that voted or the local media. Plus, it probably was largely based on his RBI totals.

  4. Save 602 should not have counted. It isn't really a save when you are pitching against the Twins.

      1. Well, I'm not sure any of those runs for the Twins should have counted in the race to the worst offense, since they came against AJ Burnett.

        1. Hey, if the BoSox runs scored against Brian Matusz count, then certainly any runs against the other AJ, the other Burnett count.

  5. What's the record for most consecutive losses at the end of a season? Do the Twins have a shot at it?

    1. We have a real shot at the Twins' record for losing streaks. The record is 14 in 1982. Two more losses and the Twins will have the third-longest losing streak in franchise history behind a 13-gamer in 1961. Before this season, the Twins hadn't had as much as a seven-game losing streak since an eight-game slide in 2003. I think that was the one just before the All-Star break when the Twins traded for Shannon Stewart and went on their first of several second-half runs under Gardy. Ah, the good, old days.

    2. Didn't the '84 or '85 team have a catastrophic game against the Indians while in a race near the end of the season, and then lose out a string to end the season? Can't look it up here in the UP Mothership, but that's the way I remember it.

      2. It was the 84 team. They had a ten run lead with Viola on the mound and lost. I believe that was the game that mathematically eliminated them (with three to play). Here.

  8. My Czech Koruna is at the bank waiting for me to pick it up. Amazing service, seeing as how I ordered it yesterday after work. Definitely making things feel more real.

        2. I took the train from Prague to Berlin in 1999, and it was an excellent trip. I'll let you know as soon as I hear from my friends there.

    2. Whilst in Prague three years ago, I stopped into an Irish pub (The Dubliner) and ordered a black and tan. The barman scratched his head - ended up with Staropramen for the tan.

      1. I haven't played a game like Mafia or this in a really, really long time, but, just for me, I'm finding it vastly different from Survivor.

        1. The vote part seems similar, but this is more tense, since there's so much more open interaction. I like them both.

        2. Certainly it's different - elimination doesn't mean not winning, for instance - but this is surely the closest I've gotten to playing Survivor. I have to remedy that.

          1. I think - this is to both of you guys - that Survivor is actually a much more straight-up game than this is because of the hidden roles. You don't always know for sure who's in what alliance in Survivor, but you can usually get a pretty good idea, and you can usually plan down the road much easier. There's only two alliances in Werewolf, but nobody in one of them has any idea who is in which one.

            1. I can agree with you on that. The fact that the alliances are set, but the majority of the players have no idea who is in their alliance, makes it very confusing. And fun.

        3. I agree with DK (no, seriously). This is way more nerve-wracking and obsessive than Survivor. I'm debating whether I should sign up for round 2, just because I'm not sure I want to get this worked up about a game twice in one week.

          1. I'm not sure I want to get this worked up about a game twice in one week.

            Jacked up is more like how I felt. I didn't sleep well last night, and I knew that I was going to get the ax.

  11. Breaking Bad was on Sunday night. It's now Tuesday afternoon, and I can't stop thinking about that damn episode.

    3. This is the first show I have watched on a week to week basis in an awfully long time. I really feel like I might have been better served waiting until the season was over.

      1. Hey, it's complex technology! (and that doesn't include the development time for the alternative rejected in 2008!!!!)

    2. I really love ketchup out of a packet, it has a slightly different taste than the stuff you get out of the pump. I hope these don't lose the awesome packet flavor.

      The only better ketchup is really cold ketchup from the fridge. Yum. There's not much better in this world than a Burger Time Bigger Burger & fries dipped into cold ketchup.

    3. I've had those packets. It was at least a year ago. I think it was a McDonald's, but I don't remember for sure where. Actually, now that I think about it, it might have been a Chick-fil-A. It worked well.

  14. From LEN3:

    The more I think about it, the more I think the Twins should go out and get a proven shortstop during the offseason to settle down the infield. Gardy needs to have someone reliable out there. The number of players to man short for the Twins since Jason Bartlett left is getting too long.

    Hmmm. Now where could the Twins have gotten a reliable shortstop? A steady influence with sure hands and experience playing shortstop in the majors? [Long sigh].

    2. I'd much rather they take the $12 million they'd like to pay Cuddyer, throw in another $4 million for whatever retread middle infielder they'd sign as a stop gap, and use that money on Jose Reyes. Get Levi Michael ramped up to play 2nd base.

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