Cup of Coffee

July 5, 2012: Midseason

63 Comments

With apologies to the Padre's algorithm, the Twins are on pace for a 70-win season. That's certainly better than the pace they were on through April.

If the playoffs started today:
White Sox at Yankees
Orioles vs. Angels, winner at Rangers
Pirates at Dodgers
Giants vs. Reds, winner at Nationals

I have to say, I'd be satisfied. Some interesting new faces in there.

63 thoughts on “July 5, 2012: Midseason”

    1. I have no real idea what that means, but it sounds disappointing to me. Like if Santana signs with the Yanquis after his Mets contract is up.

      1. Depends on how you look at it. It could be argued that it is a huge increase in basketball IQ. (for the Wolves.)

          1. Indeed. Beasley obviously had a negative value in that department.

            I also imagine Wes has a 0, as that fits in with his usual box score line.

  2. I guess I didn't realize how badly the Rays had fallen off. That's too bad.

    Other than that, the worst thing I can see here is that I'd have to watch a White Sox/Yankees series.

    1. I find myself liking Joe Madden less and less. The Rays were much more fun when they just beat the Yankmees and BloodySox.

      1. Right. I feel like Madden is a Scioscia whose personality traits have been tweaked to make him appealing to me. I'm not buying it, Hipster Scioscia!
        (Although Girardi is worse: Yanqui Scioscia!)

        1. Back in 2004, I remember getting a lot of angry looks when I was asked who I was cheering for during the ALCS and I responded with Al Qaeda.

  3. I really like the Pirates/Reds/Nationals mix in the NL - hope they* can stick around.

    *Bucs/Nats. I'm pretty sure we'll be watching Votto & Co. well into the fall.

    1. I'd say the Nats are for real too. They're good on both sides of the ball.

      Now, the Pirates...I wouldn't care if they were the most stacked team in baseball. I'd probably still take an "I'll believe it when I see it" approach. It's just been so long.

      1. Not that long, really. Only when they had Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan was still active, and I was still well south of 30. The universe is billions of years old, remember.

        2. Heh.

          To put it in my terms: I had a crush on Jenna von Oy from Blossom, I was a year or two away from trying the first of many, many things I have since quit and I still believed in the entertainment business.

          1. It took your terms for me to put it in context (age of the Dude/universe are incomprehensible). Also, I didn't realize that the team had finished 1st in the NL East and made it to the NLCS (and lost) three straight years (1990-1992). 1993 saw Bonds leave for SF and they fell to 5th in the NL East and haven't finished above .500 since.
            Holy Crap - Jim Leyland was their manager (for a decade, but only lasted 3 years after Bonds' departure).

            1. I remember that three-year stretch well (I have the baseball cards and everything!). I remember not wanting to face the Pirates in '91, though either possible opponent was tough.

            2. I was a huge Pirates fan those years and crushed when the Braves beat them in 92.

      2. The only big question with the Nats is their youth. They're like the OKC of the MLB. (Ooh, look at my applied NBA knowledge! Y'all are rubbing off on me!).

  4. Saw Prometheus over the weekend. While it was visually stunning, it left a lot to be desired. Including a lot of questions about motivations:

    Spoiler SelectShow

    That's just the tip of the iceberg, but the questions that are the most obvious. You may have others.

    1. Re: Question #2 and expanding upon it.

      The fact that they left directions to a WMD storehouse makes little/no sense. There are only a few options for this.

      Spoiler SelectShow

      In the end, it's probably best to take Milt's advice - don't think too much on it, and just enjoy the spectacle, because when I wasn't actively trying to shoot holes in the motivations of the engineers, I found myself having a good time with all of it. The cast was actually good, the effects and monster visuals were top notch, and logic problems aside, it was a lot of fun.

      1. Yah, don't think too hard about the plot, because it is dumb.

        Spoiler SelectShow

          1. Moss agrees with everything, except for the "enjoyable summer movie" part. That movie su-hucked.

        2. Spoiler SelectShow

  5. Jeebus, I just realized that I completely spaced out the Monday game log. Mea culpa, amigos. And thanks for covering my six.

    1. My two favorite Reggie Jackson memories are (1) his three pitches, three swings, three HRs game in the World Series, and (2) this SNL skit

      Coach: Well.. I'm not sure, exactly, but, uh.. let me tell you a story about a ballplayer I knew, who, uh.. used to buzz off five, six, seven times a day. And his teammates, they made fun of him, they razzed him all the time. And he was ashamed, and it was affecting all aspects of his game. He had trouble throwing, fielding, hitting with power, running to the bases.. And then, one day, he just accepted the fact that he was a chronic buzz off. And once he accepted that fact, he became a great ballplayer, and he went on to hit three home runs in the last game of the 1977 World Series!

      [ the team is amazed by the identity of the buzz off ]

      Team: Reggie Jackson!!

      Coach: Reggie Jackson. That's right, Alan, you're in good company.

      [ the team quickly apologizes for making fun of Alan earlier ]

      Alan: Ah, that's okay, guys..

      Coach: Now, you get back to bed, guys.

      Team: Goodnight, Coach!!

      Coach: Goodnight!

      [ Coach exits the cabin ]

      [ suddenly, all the cots in the cabin begin squeaking ]

      [ fade ]

          1. I'm with y'all. Seriously, I feel like the dude from cracker is going to be knocking on my door.

  10. Car Travails update.

    zip-tied my shifter cable together and drove in to my shop today. My guy calls me about an hour ago to tell me that the GM dealers want to sell me a PAIR of new shifter cables for ~$260, or he could (already had) gotten them from a NAPA store for ~$164. Both the dealer and the NAPA store claimed that there was no repair kit available to replace the cheap-@ss plastic bushing that had broken.

    I looked it up on teh Interwebz and found a part number, and called back. Car guy calls the NAPA store -- "oh, yea, we have THAT in stock." Peckerwads. Anyway, long story cheaper -- instead of spending upwards of $400 to replace the shifter cables (parts and labor of at least 2-2.5 hours), I'm getting a retail part for about $20 (and actually worth a few cents) and maybe half an hour of labor to install (I've already seen a youtube video of this, and could easily do it myself tonight, but am willing to pay to avoid the aggravation).

    Teh Interwebz is a series of very friendly tubes.

  11. Parmelee sent down, Deduno called up. Back to a 13-man pitching staff and a bench of Butera, Mastroanni and Casilla.

    1. Two years, ten million. If the Wolves were to sign Batum it means, according to Hollinger, Darko! has to get amnestied!

      1. Pek/Love/Batum/Roy/Rubio/Luke is a pretty awesome 6 man rotation.

  13. Gleeman got this right:

    Mauer has played 72 of 80 games while hitting .332 with a league-leading .420 on-base percentage and his Wins Above Replacement (WAR) total of 2.8 leads the Twins while ranking 10th among the league's position players. If your reaction to his being selected for the All-Star team at baseball's thinnest position was anything other than "of course he made the All-Star team" then you're likely better off booing him at Target Field than reading this blog.

  14. Oy. We just got home from Dr. Chop's farewell happy hour. The jealous colleague showed up and made a scene saying that we'd be missed. Man. I can't wait to close the door on the moving truck and peel out from under this rock.

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