50 thoughts on “November 19, 2011: Happy 5th, Part Two”

        1. That never would have happened anyways unless they were blocked long-term by someone on the Twins, which is what happened with Ramos. Ramos was going to be traded regardless of who was in charge, it was just a question of what the Twins would get for him.

            2. Yeah, Ramos was our prime trading option and we totally blew it by getting nothing more than a second-rate bullpen arm.

          2. Why you'd even want to trade a 22-yr old catcher with plus defense and power potential at all is beyond me. Especially when the star blocking his way already had some history of injury.

            1. Yeah, there was certainly no rush, unless Ramos was eager to go somewhere that he'd be starting. I get the feeling BS was looking for solutions and saw what he thought was an unnecessary player, and he made no attempt to account for value. It's like he figures a trade is a trade; if we both have what the other wants, don't hesitate!

  4. I just looked at the football scores. Looks like Clemson's gonna fall off the shortlist, down 31 points with one quarter to play. That hurts VTech as well (as defeating Clemson in the ACC Championship game won't be as impressive).

    1. Oregon is now losing by 17 points (though its only early in the third quarter). No one must want to play LSU in the BCS Championship.

      Maybe LSU should play the game unopposed, or with, like nominal opposition, like an election in a politically homogeneous district. The more I think about it that way, if Houston goes undefeated, they could play the role of a third-party candidate in a race that the second party isn't even bothering to contest.

  5. Printing update. I spent the better part of the day drawing on stones that someone else prepared for me, and then stumbled onto a map from 1870 on the back of a stone the owner has hanging out in his studio. He told me that he tried to get a good impression out of that map for several days and finally gave up. I'm going to pull an edition of the map for him tomorrow as a gesture of my appreciation for his kindness.

    I've never quite had an experience like this. I've lost faith in humanity before, but these strangers have taken me into their home, fed me, and continue to insist that I make the most of their personal art studios while asking nothing in return - well, they do want an impression from every edition I make here, and really that's not enough -

    It's a crazy world.

    1. It can be a lousy world, and then all of a sudden it can be an awesome world. Glad you seem to have landed on your feet.

    2. The kindness of strangers is a beautiful thing. I try to practice that, myself.

      (Outside of the interwebs, of course.)

      1. i thought the interwebs was built on the kindness of strangers...

        anyway, glad to see your luck's turning around, meat.

    4. I am heartened to hear of your positive change of events. Congrats on taking your lemons and making meringue pie. Hope you can really make something good of that map.

  6. It looks like won't have to give up a draft pick for signing a Type A reliever now, so the Twins can be more aggressive now in improving their bullpen.

    2. I like it that this is retroactive: it screws the Phils on the Paplbone signing.
      I dislike that this is not retroactive: it benefits the BoSox on the Paplbone departure.

    3. The type A/B thing is also in its last year. Next year, it will be dependent upon the size of the contract. Greater than $12M and compensatory picks are moving. I expect a lot of players will be signed for $11.95 M, plus likely-to-vest options, or performance bonuses, or whatever doesn't count. Maybe options will need to be valued using Black-Scholes. And peformance bonuses should be valued at their expected value. Also, all future cash flows should be discounted at an appropriate interest rate to determine if the contract truly has $12M present value.

      Allan,
      I'll volunteer to start working on Baseball Actuarial Mathematics for a modest stipend (major-league minimum!). I prefer to remain in the Twin Cities, but if it's important, I'll temporarily relocate to Milwaukee for each offseason. My address is the same one that all of the vaguely (but unactionably!) threatening e-mails are coming from.

    1. Last-second missed Figgie. Oregon loses.
      Is that the fourth top-five team to lose due to a missed last-second field goal over the last three weeks?
      Alabama vs LSU
      Boise vs TCU
      OK St at ISU
      Ore vs SoCal

      Oklahoma's losing by 7 with the ball and 3.5 minutes left.

      Teams left in the hunt:
      LSU, Bama, Ark (Same as last night's analysis).
      Oregon Stanford (leading Cal-Berkley tonight by 1 point at halftime)
      Ok. St., Oklahoma?
      V Tech, Clemson
      Houston

      Boise State is going to be 9-1, but can't win their conference (even if TCU loses against UNLV, TCU still has the tiebreaker). I think that disqualfies them.

      1. No one can play defense in Big 12. RG3 goes for 480 Landry Jones about 430

        the way its going, Stanford is going to lose tonight

      2. Gol' Dang.
        Oklahoma scored a TD with a Tebow-like Cannonball QB. Stoops is gonna go for 2 (and the lead) with the same QB, but a false start pushes them back five yards, so they take the point and hope for OT.

        Kickoff is a touchback. Baylor takes a weak run up the middle and looks to play for OT. But Stoops calls a TO, so Baylor goes for the win and ends up going down the field in about 6 plays (without a timeout), and scores a TD. Their squib kickoff is mishandled and Baylor even recovers it.

        Stanford's up by fifteen midway through the third quarter.

        VTech vs Ark is still a possibility.
        That would require Ark over LSU next week, and either Auburn over Alabama or some weird confluence of tiebreakers.
        VTech needs to beat UVA next week. Both would need to then win their Conference Championship games.

        I'd say Oklahoma's out of it, so the OK-OKSt game in two weeks will keep OKSt out of the NCG without OK staying alive for it.

        For Stanford to even play in the Pac12 championship game, Oregon will have to lose to ORSt.

        Houston needs the SEC West champion to lose to Georgia (whose losses are to South Carolina and Boise, I don't think there's any way they get into the Champ game, but anything has been happening).

        I don't really even like the sport that much, but I do like watching this type of Chaos.

          1. (Heh. You law talkin' guys.)

            You're good people, sir--as are the rest of you Corn Husker Dudes. I only like seeing the Big Red Nation lose. It goes way back.

            (DETEST was from a DPWY LTE offering his 2 cents worth on Mr Saban--someone I have no opinion of. I'm not a libel lawyer.)

              1. With a nearly insufferable fan-base

                no, I'm pretty sure that I'm sufferable. I've been married for 23 years.

            2. Nebraska blew hard today. I don't want to think about it too much, but there it was.

              I did seem to miss all the Saban reference points, though.

              I try not to be a jerk about the fandoms I hold when I'm in a clear minority, and if I ever have been a jerk about being a Nebraska fan, I apologize (in general, I mean). It's obviously easier to be a jerk about being a Twins fan on occasion around here. Anyway, I know how to take pleasure in particular fanbases losing, so if you get that from the Big Red, by all means, enjoy it. I'm glad to know you and I are good.

              2. One of my best friends from college was a Lincoln native who lived just down the block from Bob Devaney as a teenager. We were simpatico in almost all matters, other than his almost irrational love of the big red N.

                (I witnessed the 80-something-to-13 beatdown the Huskers laid on the gophers in'83 with this guy.)

                1. I wasn't able to be at that game, but my father was. I am told he enjoyed it.

                  Husker-Gopher games, for me, are ones I'll be able to be happy about either side winning (I try not to talk too much about being a Gopher alumnus around here, either). I am hopeful (irrationally, perhaps) that the Gophers will be able to knock off the Huskers on more than the rare occasion in the coming years.

                2. wait, what? We might have met, because I was at that game (84-13). Minnesota had more possession time in the game. It was like watching an NFL team play a jr. high team. The speed difference was ginormous.

                  Nebraska's scoring plays: 27, 68, 70, 41, 12, 7, 1, 12, 71, 51, 44, 1.

Comments are closed.