44 thoughts on “March 24, 2012: Success”

1. In which II and CudIIer both piss me off. Oh, and a great response to II.

   1. Expect a column from my avatar on this very topic, with Mauer being the player who refused to pinch hit any day now.

      1. Well, II said the young hitter was a righty- eh, Souhan will still say it was Mauer.

         1. Everyone knows that Mauer is really a righty, but selfishly insists on hitting lefty.

         2. It will be good to have it said, after all these years.

   2. If anyone was intimidated, it was Gardy. But still, II never met a teammate he couldn't talk down about.

   3. I think Hunter might be right. Like when the Yankees psyched him out into diving for that ball, and it rolled all the way to the wall, and Oakland got an inside the park HR.

      1. I see like what you did there

   4. WHO SAYS THINGS LIKE THIS? UGH.

      1. I'm sure some people thought that I went overboard in my criticisms of Hunter. I think I was... SPOT. ON.

   5. That Baseball Prospectus article is great.

      I wonder who the next blabbermouth will be on this team. Anyone have sterling enough credentials, and enough lack of respect for his teammates to become the Cuddii?

      1. How about Mauer? Dude clearly disrespects his teammates otherwise he'd of played through the pain.

         1. That would make him the anti-Cuddyer. A true Cuddyer plays through the pain no matter how crappy he plays.

   6. Well, now that the clubhouse cancer Cuddiier is gone, maybe this team will right the ship this year.

   7. Interesting.

      As of right now, it says:

      Hunter recalled one 2004 ALDS game the Twins lost where they had a runner on third with one out, down a run against the great Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, and Twins manager called on a young righty hitters to bat against Rivera, and Hunter recalled that hitter turning down the pinch-hit assignment.

      While BP's quote of that paragraph:

      Hunter recalled one 2004 ALDS game the Twins lost where they had a runner on third with one out, down a run against the great Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, and Twins manager [sic] called on a young righty-hitting Lew Ford to bat against Rivera, and Hunter recalled Ford turning down the pinch-hit assignment.

      Edit: I suppose it's prudent to edit it so you/Torii doesn't look like an idiot. But it's still wrong.

   8. .240/.301/.369 -- Torii Hunter vs. Yankees, career
      .274/.332/.467 -- Torii Hunter, career

      Well, at least we know Torii wasn't the one getting psyched out.

      1. .230/.289/.379 -- Michael Cuddyer vs Yankees, career
         .272/.343/.451 -- Michael Cuddyer, career

         They were clearly speaking from experience.

2. We spent a lovely day today seeing the sights. First we stopped at the Brahe & Kepler statue, then tried to go to Brahe's grave, but the church was closed. The Kepler Museum proved to be one room with pictures on the wall, so we didn't stay long. Then down to Vysehrad to see the amazing views. Tonight for dinner we're going to try a place that mailed us a coupon for 2-for-1 wings that's just up the street about 3 blocks.

   1. Of course, my camera decided to pick today to have some sort of read/write error where only 2 of my 30 pictures saved properly.

      1. Make sure to research defenestration while in Prague.

   2. There's a museum dedicated to Max Kepler?

      1. It's like the world revolves around him!!!!111one111!!!

3. Oh. My. God.

   "Obscene 'Borat' anthem mistakenly played for Kazakhstan athlete"

   (youtube video included)

   "Borat" does it again, but this time it was organizers of a sports event in Kuwait and not Sacha Baron Cohen who slipped up.

   The obscene anthem from the 2006 satirical film rather than the country's true national anthem was played Thursday at an awards ceremony for a Kazakhstan athlete who had won a gold medal for shooting at the 10th Arab Shooting Championship, according to media reports.

   1. I read this last night, but couldn't bring myself to watch the video.

      1. it's pretty benign, actually. the athlete doesn't react. I'm not sure whether she even understands English.

4. Buffalo bait (h/t Sullivan's Dish)

   Let’s consider the numbers for a sixteen-ounce cold-brewed coffee versus a twelve-ounce hot coffee — the best comparison, as ice displaces about four ounces of liquid. The cold one will cost anywhere from a quarter to a dollar more. But the café will hardly claim the entire difference as profit.

   Like the hot stuff, cold-brewing involves mixing pulverized beans with water, but the latter process requires about twice as much ground coffee. Those grounds infuse filtered water for 12 to 24 hours, creating iced-coffee concentrate. That liquid is cut with water to taste, at a ratio of about one to one. Yet even after all this dilution, a cup of cold-brewed joe can include 62 cents worth of ground coffee. A hot cup might include 35 cents’ worth of beans.

5. You know what this Peyton Manning/Tim Tebow thing needs? Comments from Pat Robertson!!!!!1111one1111!!!!

   1. Former Gopher Adam Weber is the Broncos' backup QB. If Robertson gets his wish, Weber could find himself starting. The Broncos would give him everything the Gophers didn't (a real coach to teach him, a good defense to make up for his mistakes, and a good running game and offensive line to take the pressure off him) and he would have the one good the Gophers had as well, Eric Decker as his prime target.

   2. Back in August, Michael Silver reported that someone with the Broncos thought Weber was better than Tebow.

6. Morneau with a bomb in the first. That's a good sign.

   1. And in the fourth!

      1. meh, big deal -- EVERYONE'S hitting HRs in this one.

7. Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot appear to be available. The Twins are looking for a utility infielder. Both get on base enough to be useful. Theriot has played more shortstop but Fontenot bats left and has more pop. Both are on minimal nonguaranteed contracts, but if the Twins are patient, either could be a free agent if the Giants choose to release them before March 29 instead of pay them. Ideally, I think the Twins would be best off if they start Dozier and make Carroll or Casilla the utility infielder with the other player starting at second, but I doubt that will happen till at least June. Theriot or Fontenot could be a decent stopgap and better than any in-house options other than Dozier.

   1. Theriot's UZR/150 was worse than Nishioka's last year, and he's been worse than Cap'n Dreamboat by the same metric the last two seasons. Actually, looking at Theriot's fielding numbers pretty much reinforces my hunch that he has no business playing anywhere other than second base anymore.

      If the Twins trade for Fontenot, I hope they issue him #37 (free after Hoey's departure).

8. Morneau with a walk and another home run. Very nice. J.R. Towles with a home run and a double that was inches away from a second homer. All this off Jeremy Hellickson. Twins leading 10-2. Towles also walked against a reliever just now. 11-2 after Hughes' third hit scored Valencia.

   1. When the hell did we sign JR Towles?

      1. He's been playing with the Twins all Spring, what country are YOU in??

9. This would be a shocker. If someone was going to skip AAA and start the season with the Twins, I thought for sure it would be Dozier, not Parmelee. I did find it interesting that Parmelee started in RF and Willingham was in LF. Gardy doesn't usually shift around his regular players. He likes to keep them in the same place every day, so Willingham in LF would only make sense if he's considering letting Willingham play his more comfortable position every day, which only makes sense if Revere is not going to be a starting outfielders. If Parmelee makes the team as the regular first baseman, that means Morneau (presuming he's healthy) is the DH, which means Doumit needs a place to play. The Twins may want his strong arm in RF, then when he shifts to catcher, Mauer can go to first base and then Parmelee needs a place to play, so he could go to RF, which is the OF position he has played in the minors. That would mean Revere would be the fourth OF and pinch runner and defensive replacement late in games for Willingham or Doumit depending on the circumstances. It also could mean that Plouffe's injury will prevent him from making the team. Gardy has talked about trying Hughes in the outfield as well, which doesn't make much sense unless Plouffe is not on the roster.

   1. Dozier has 78 games at AA, compared to Parmelee's 253. He's not an elite prospect either, so skipping a level now seems a bit silly.

   2. It's kind of funny that it would be considered such a shock for Parmelee to skip AAA and play in the majors--he already did that last year. Position-wise, sure, Morneau's a first baseman, but he's not exactly the returning champ there and he has something to prove himself. I don't see Parmelee as a world-beater, but I think he can be replacement level or a bit above.

   3. I've had the feeling all off-season that the Twins were planning/hoping that Parmelee would make the big club this spring.

      1. This. They seem to have been finding ways for him to stick - going out of their way at times. I figured this was almost a sure thing.

   4. Parmelee never hit better than .287 in six minor league seasons, but there's no escaping the fact he has raked major league pitching.

      266/355/436 in 600+ games in the minors. Are we really to believe that something has clickedLASIK'd for him?

      I'd like to hope so, but this smells a lot more like Glenn Williams to me.

      1. Parmelee did make a pretty big swing adjustment last year two years ago, and he has shown a lot of proficiency at hitting pitches low in the strike zone, which he's going to see more consistently in the bigs than he did in the minors. I'm not expecting All-Star from him, but I think ube's expectation of replacement level or slightly above is realistic.

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