48 thoughts on “May 30, 2012: Sad”

  2. Congratulations to Bob Dylan, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (and happy belated 71st birthday)

  3. The Twins lead the AL in double play percentage at 17 percent. The next best is Toronto at 14 percent. Why is this? Well, the Twins pitchers have the the highest ball in-play percentages and they get ground balls at a slightly higher rate than average (.86 GB/FB compared to .84).

  5. Melky Cabrera has 50 hits. In the month of May. Not 50 hits for the season by the end of May. 50 hits in May.

    2. Royals may be thinking they traded the wrong OF. Probably could have gotten more for Alex Gordon.

    2. Good for him. It's not impossible that he could come back. He's only 33, and he was a not-terrible pitcher for four months last year. I'm glad the Twins let him go, but he might find it again and be able to help someone.

    1. The Rochester stats given in that article are from 2011. Dumatrait has been on the disabled list and has not pitched for the Red Wings this year.

    2. Today is Doomsday for the Doomsday Machine.
      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8ATGiU1ZmM

    3. I think I'm most sad that the Doomsday Machine has retired because I chose him as one of my MLB villains just due to timing, and I enjoy having villains, especially ones I don't really have any problem with. Had Chuck James been guaranteed the bullpen spot and Doomsday left to rot in Rochester (only to be handed a poison-pilled cup of coffee), my opinions of the two may have largely been reversed.

      I don't put much effort into finding villains and it's not every year that an bona-fide despisable MLBer like Scioscia makes himself apparent.

      I really did figure, using Jeff A's constant reminder that "He's left-handed, so he may have a long and varied pro career ahead of him, until someday he'll turn 40 and strikeout two consecutive batters, and people will remark 'Wow, Phil the Doomsday Machine is still around!' like Ron Mahay before him. And then the next game he will give up two consecutive homers (to RHBs) and be DFA'd for the second time in the season. But then, he'll be signed in September by a contender and get one or two really critical playoff-chase outs but be ineligible for the postseason roster due to not being activated until after the deadline. Which will be followed with one season on a minor-league contract with constant promise of having his contract purchased, only to be disappointed more often than not, and then one final spring training, with a fifth club in three years but one that drafted him or traded for him early or something, where it's clear he just can't get batters out anymore and he decides to hang it up for good just months before he turns 42."*

      *paraphrase

      Man, do I have a soft spot for lefty relievers, even those I've deemed "villains". Enjoy your retirement, Doomsday. I'll enjoy MLB a little bit less knowing you're not out there to show up when I'm not expecting it on random teams for years to come.

  11. Rockies DFA Jamie Moyer. Should the Twins be interested? His K rate (6.0) and walk rate (3.0) are better than most pitchers the Twins have started this year.

    1. looking at his various peripherals, I'd say "yes," they should be interested in him. He's been hurt a bit by a much higher than normal (for him) HR/FB ratio, driven in significant part by getting hammered in his last start (7 runs, including 4 dongers, in 5 innings on May 28 against the Reds) and the one preceding (6 runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings against a hot Miami team on May 21).

      He's given up 13 runs and 5 HRs in his last 8 2/3 innings. Before that, he'd given up 27 runs in 45 innings (a still-unimpressive 5.40 RA/9, but a 4.20 ERA, thanks to 7 "unearned" runs)

      I'd say that he'd be worth consideration, but not a LOT of consideration.

    2. No. I wish him well, and I hope someone gives him another chance, but I don't want it to be the Twins. Even if he pitched adequately, what would that do for Minnesota? Bring them two games closer to .500? They're not going to win anything in the present regardless, and he won't be around to be part of the future. Good luck to him, but not on the Twins.

      1. I don't see how it could hurt. He would cost the minimum and it's not like the Twins have anyone really deserving of coming up. Maybe Hendricks, but he could stand to see more time in AAA. I'm just wondering what the Twins would do when/if Blackburn gets hurt or shelled again or Walters or Diamond come back to reality. The Twins have so little depth at starting pitching and I would rather not have unprepared young pitchers come up and get shelled.

      2. I'd say he's probably done, but one advantage if he could stick in the lineup is that he probably knows as much about pitching as anyone. The whole "veteran mentors the youngsters" bit can get overblown, but the Twins have a ton of not-hard throwers and Moyer is the king of not-hard throwers.

        1. He's going to be making minimum, and he couldn't possibly be worse than Blackburn/DeVries/Swarzkopf/Piece of warm buttered toast.

  13. I see that the Hornets won the lottery tonight. That's pretty definitive proof that Stern is fixing this thing, right?

    1. I followed the wolves some, but not the rest of the league. Why is that proof this time?

      Also, every single lottery in NBA history - not to mention a sizable chunk of the playoff refereeing - is proof enough of league fixing.

      1. Nevermind. I went and read a little. New owner. Big city for the NBA. Just lost their star. Yup, it's fixed.

        1. Plus there's the whole once nba-owned thing, and the trade meddling thing they needed to apologize for.

    2. I don't know about the Hornets getting the pick, but what if they designed the draft so that the bottom three teams in the league had to pick 4th or lower? The crappy teams would really have to put forth some effort at the end of the season and it's not like there's any sense of real justice in the way the picks are awarded now.

      1. What they ought to do is just assign the picks strictly by record and say to hell with being concerned with tanking. If a team wants to tank and risk annoying their fan base, let them. It's not like it's affected the upper tier teams or made the playoffs any less interesting and it removes the lottery fixing accusations from the equation.

        1. I would agree with you if the NBA had a shorter season. Teams get eliminated from contention so early that it's easy to alienate fans even if they are trying.

          What I dislike as much as anything about going strictly by record is that at some point as a fan, you'd rather have your team lose games, which seems to defeat the point of supporting a team.

          1. But it's only a short-term preference, with the constant long-term preference of winning. It doesn't feel wrong to me. At least, it doesn't feel more wrong than a rigged lottery.

            1. Is it short term if your favorite team is in the lottery for eight straight years? "Woooo! Let's make the playoffs...well, should we start losing yet? I guess we're probably out of it, here we come lottery!!!" x8

          2. I really don't disagree with you, but what I'm saying is that that sort of thing is happening right now with the current system with the added bonus of apparent draft order fixing. At least a based on record draft order would remove one area people could accuse Stern of fixing things. I really don't have any thoughts on how to fix the tanking issue, though.

  14. the Mariners have score 17 runs against the Rangers tonight. its only the 4th inning.

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