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October 17, 2011: And your World Series Is…

55 Comments

Texas Rangers (no World Series titles) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (second-most World Series titles). Cardinals, do the right thing!

This also means LNP made the Series...

55 thoughts on “October 17, 2011: And your World Series Is…”

  1. I think the new beat reporter for the Vikings had a frustrating night in Chi town and took it out in his writing

    Yep, that's how a potentially promising road trip resulted in a startling 39-10 loss at Soldier Field, with the Vikings' persistent vows that they're close to turning a corner now seeming more hollow than ever.

    A turnaround sure doesn't seem likely. Not for a group that was outhustled, outcoached and outplayed on a prime-time stage Sunday.

        1. I was a little more surprised that anyone considered this road trip "potentially promising".

          1. Wow, even though it's right there in the first sentence, I totally missed it. I think I'm just automatically tuning out any misplaced Vikings optimism at this point.

            1. any road trip to Chicago is potentially promising. Goose Island, Clark Street Ale House, the Map Room, barbecue, blues,....

          2. Right. I was talking with my neighbor on Saturday afternoon. I said, what do you think about tomorrow night? He said, "Not a chance." "Yep," I said. This guy flies a Vikings flag every Sunday and he's saying Not. A. Chance. BTW, the guy next to him flies a Bears flag every Sunday. He's smiling today, for sure.

  4. Third, just a thought. Is the minor-league signing of Aaron Bates an indication that the Twins are planning/hoping to have Chris Parmelee in the majors next year? It's not a committment, obviously; they can always DH Bates, or just release him, if they decide Parmelee needs to go back to AAA. It could be indicative of their current thinking, though.

        1. He didn't "do alright with a lot of them," he crushed them. He's a great low-ball hitter and he seemed to look for that pitch, meaning he knows his strengths. He also has a good eye at the plate and is very patient. He has a hole in his swing up in the zone, but as long as he lays off that, he should do fine. It's better to be a low-ball hitter than a high-ball hitter because pitchers have it ingrained in their head to keep the ball down (Baker excepted).

          1. Right, he's a low ball hitter, and I hope you're right about his ability to mash the low stuff, I just have a feeling he's in for a very Valenciesque regression.

            1. Valencia went from lucky to unlucky (not just neutral) on balls in play and his career OPS+ right now (with twice as many at-bats this season) at 98, which is good for a third baseman, and even when he was lucky he didn't put up numbers close to what Parmelee did in a smaller sample size. Parmelee was lucky as well, but a .390 BABIP isn't that huge and neither is his HR/flyball rate that big (11%). Of course there will be regression, since no one believes he'll continue to be a 184 OPS+, but if he falls back to 124, then he's at Morneau's career OPS+. Morneau has a 138 OPS+ in the 4 1/2 seasons before he got his concussion. Of course, his .791 career OPS in the minors isn't nearly as good as Morneau's was, but Denard Span has shown it is possible to do better in the majors than in the minors by making adjustments, etc. Not likely, but possible.

              1. Morneau was the 16th highest prospect in baseball in the season that he came up to the majors. It wasn't a complete surprise when he figured it out and started raking.

                I don't think Parmelee's going to cool down to the 124 OPS+ range, I think it's very reasonable to think that he won't come anywhere near .390 BABIP. I hope he does well, but I'd be shocked if he put up numbers anywhere near 2006-2010 Morneau.

                1. Parmelee's wOBA+ figures:

                  Level Year wOBA+ PA
                  A 2007 99 499
                  A 2008 118 288
                  A+ 2009 113 501
                  A+ 2010 127 93
                  AA 2010 97 463
                  AA 2011 111 606

                  I think those are not really very inspiring for a first baseman, although they are very similar to those put up by Joe Benson, with whom I'm hoping to have a NSMC relationship next year.

                    1. I would look at it more as:

                      Positives: Walks a fair bit, hits for some power.

                      Negatives: Not great hitting for average (which impacts OBP)

                      Could go either way: Strikes out around 15% of PA, which sometimes is just a byproduct of good power and sometimes means a poor eye. A 2:1 SO:BB ratio isn't terrible overall. Overall OBP likely to be middling, but if power comes around, could walk more than he has in the past.

                      Overall: Seems to have a decent eye and make enough contact so that he shouldn't have a huge drop-off at the major-league level. Not a ton of upside for a first baseman unless his power really comes around and pitchers have to be more careful with him.

                      Super-rough off-the-top-of-my-head upside comparison: A lefty Richie Sexson?

                    2. Huh. I had fixed in my head that Richie Sexson was basically a poor man's Dave Kingman, but he hit waaay too much for that -- lifetime .261 and a K every 4.27 PA, compared to the King's .236 and a K every 4.09 PA.

                      Parmelee in the minors: .266 and a K every 4.755 PA. In the minors, Kingman hit .277 with a K every 6.18 PA and Sexson hit .278 with a K every 5.36 PA.

    2. I think it could definitely mean that they are comfortable with Parmelee as first base depth behind Morneau, who is no guarantee to get much, if any, playing time next year. I know, that's probably more cynical/pessimistic than most, but ending the season with another concussion is bad, bad news.

  5. Since we are in the 2nd half of October, my bike riding season is pretty much over. I was going to ride to work today but then chickened out because the winds were suppose to pick up later today (of which I am kicking myself). Anyway, here's my 2011 bike report:

    Miles Rode: 1,275
    Days bike commuted to work: 43
    Mountain Biked: 5
    Bike Accidents: 2
    Longest trip: 70 miles

    I am particularly proud of getting up to 1,275 miles. Remember the Spring was terrible weather and I had to spend much of May and June getting ready for the girl's graduation. I would say that on July 1st I had less than 350 miles logged.

    70 miles for longest trip is my shortest in a couple of years but I did a lot more 45-60 rides than I have in the past. I really want to ride to bike and camp up to Duluth, maybe next year. My average speed also increased by 3-4 mph. Part of that was a new, faster bike, part was stronger legs.

    One bike accident was mountain biking and I got up over my handlebars too much and fell down a ravine. Just some bumps and bruised ego. The other one was nasty and truly believe my helmet saved my life or a life of brain damage. My left knee and wrists are still F'd up from that fall. If you ride over 12 mph and are not wearing a helmet, you really are putting your life in danger.

    Bike held up real well and no changes there over the winter. Need a new helmet because of the accident. Also I used to listen to my i-pod when riding. I don't do that anymore.

    Finally actually talked the wife to go to a resort this weekend near Cable, WI. Well, talking her into going to a resort wasn't too tough, but I get to bring my mountain bike and weather looks decent so I will probably get one more mountain bike ride in and Cable has some nice MT bike trails. Unless there is some nice weather on a weekend after that, it's doubtful I'll get another long bike ride logged.

    1. Nice, all the way around!

      Moss got in more biking this year than in recent years, but only 2-300 miles' worth. But Moss did buy a "new" road bike at the end of the year. (New for Moss; several years old though.) Last road bike was a great early-nineties Klein Quantum with a stiff frame. (Recall that Moss is quite tall so good frames are hard to find.) Love the bike. But it had downtube shifting and didn't have very low gearing. Moss found it was getting to be 1) dangerous to take the hands off the bars to shift, and 2) tough to climb hills pulling two kids with no low gearing.

      The "new" bike is a steel-frame Bianchi with carbon fork, brifters and a triple chainring in front. Dura-Ace on rear, Ultegra and 105 everywhere else. It should do the trick. Much less harsh ride than the Klein, but there's something lost in stiffness too. But that should be OK for the type of riding Moss does these days.

      Looking forward to putting a good number of miles on it next summer...

      1. Got a Cervelo S2 at the beginning of the season when I decided to go Tri. Did 4 Sprint Tri's and really enjoyed the competitive aspect of each event, especially the bike. Adding aero bars and the Zipps 404's really finished things well.

        Bottom line, the S2 is a great Tri bike - the Zipps are fantastic, without too much cross-wind.

  7. Wife to me just now: When is our anniversary again?

    This cannot be good, can it?

    Spoiler SelectShow

    1. I always think my wife's birthday is May 5th, but it's May 7th. To make it more complicated, our firstborn arrived 3 weeks early, on May 4th. Thankfully, I don't think there's any way our next one can arrive in early May (Due March 28).

  8. The tension has come to a head. If STL wins the series, zooomx.2 takes home the prize. If Texas wins in exactly 6, its a tie between MoT and hungry joe. If Texas wins in 7, 5 or 4, bS declares victory and brags about it until spring (at least).

    special kudos to nibbish for his perfect brackef.

      1. It certainly seemed like a bracket that could do well at the time. Instead, it was as big a fail as the bracket system allowed.

      1. While not unexpected, I think they should weight recent performance more heavily. Way more than regular season at least.

    3. I am feeling very confident going into this series. brianS- maybe a little a lil ol' side wager? I was thinking a round of hopped up malt, or fermented grapes next time I head out your way? (probably next fall btw).

    4. Milwaukee screwed me pretty badly after my hot start. This is just like in March when I usually get about 29 of 32 first round games right and then end up with only one Final Four team.

    5. If you give each team a 50 percent chance of winning any game and the series, zooomx.2 is favored at 50 percent. brianS has a 37.5 percent chance of winning and MoT and hungry joe each have a 12.5 percent chance of ending up tied for the win.

  9. While gathering a lot of dudes already for Werewolf Five, I've found that there's a lot of interest in another few turbo games.

    To be honest, this very moment would be perfect for me. I finished some screenplay coverage I did and I'm good to go. Otherwise, several folks have also mentioned tonight (I'm down with both - I also just finished a writing project so I can afford to goof around a bit) so there's that, too.

      1. A bummer, but we'll make sure we get you in some more turbos.

        I don't even know if this will happen, but it seems like we have more than a few folks available tonight.

    2. I found it slightly intriguing until I saw the "highlight". Bleah. Nothing to see there, folks, moving on with bS.

    3. Huh, Jim Harbaugh's not at Stanford anymore? I guess football hasn't exactly been on my radar...

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