Cup of Coffee

July 16, 2012: Expectations

89 Comments

At work, it's clearer every day that they have plans to move me up significantly, and soon. We've had a lot of rugs pulled under us over the past year, so I hope this isn't a mirage.

89 thoughts on “July 16, 2012: Expectations”

  2. Ooh, I was a first prize winner in MLB.com All-Star Bingo and have won a free day of MLB.tv!

    I, um, have that, so if anyone wants the code, let me know. I'm not sure if it'll transfer, but hey, we can give it a whirl.

  3. Well, I'm back. It was a great trip. The Dalmatian Islands now stand as the most beautiful place I've ever been. Italy was as charming and old-world as I had imagined. It was great to have my family spend time with New Gal and get along with her so well, and the two of us being in Venice for our 1-year anniversary was borderline fairytale.

    However, I can't say enough terrible things about United Airlines. Getting home was an absolute nightmare. Due to either a computer glitch or (apparently more likely) a remarkable moment of individual incompetence, half of our return itinerary was erased with no explanation or apology. All of a sudden we were stuck in Venice with no flight home. We had to buy a Lufthansa ticket to Frankfurt, Germany just to get to a United desk so that we could talk to someone. And when we finally did, and asked what the hell had happened, they basically just shrugged their shoulders. And refused to give us a hotel voucher. We racked up about $1,000 in charges banging our heads against a wall and were still stuck in Europe. Then, after they had gotten us on flights the next day and we thought we were finally home-free, United decided to cancel our final flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis. It was about 9:30pm, and once again they did not give us a hotel voucher. We slept on the floor at the Cleveland airport. Which, honestly, I would have just brushed off as one of those things, except for the fact that we were only on that flight because United had set us back a day for no reason whatsoever. The entire experience was just one baffling screw-up after another. I sincerely hope that I never have to fly on United again.

    2. I love flying. I love looking out the window and seeing the world below. I love the exhiliration of the take off and the thump-thump of the landing.

      With that said, I absolutely hate the airport system.

      2. Ditto all of this. I don't even really hate airports, just the bureaucracy/ridiculous security that grew around it.

        1. i specifically hate laguardia. besides that, yeah, i'm pretty used to it by now.

          1. Ugh, Laguardia. I would also like to add O'Hare to that list, if I may.

            I did generally enjoy flying and traveling, for the most part. But I'm very glad to be done with O'Hare.

            1. I have to throw in: I've flown a lot and have only once had a bad flight experience: the airline booked us for a connecting flight that took off ten minutes early, leaving us behind, and forcing me to miss one of the biggest auditions of my life. So...admittedly, it was a pretty big for just having one bad flight experience.

                1. I struck up a chat with the people in front of me while I was waiting in line to deal with the United rep at the Frankfurt airport. They were a young military couple trying to rush back to the US to see their daughter who was in critical condition at the hospital. It really put my gripes in perspective.

                  1. Yikes. My dad was a random victim of a crime a few years back (a group of teens jumped him for his wallet and beat him up, actually leaving the wallet laying on the sidewalk when a car drove by), and was in pretty bad shape. I bought whatever reasonably priced ticket I could find that day to fly back the next morning. I think it was with American. There was a delay, and when I told them the story they bought me a direct flight on Northwest without hesitation. I hope this couple got some better treatment than you did.

                    1. It sounded like the military has a deal where they can just switch their tickets to any other major American airline, so I think they got out of there straightaway. If they hadn't, I would have gladly given up my seat for them.

                2. I just reread my first link there. I had forgotten half of the insanity of that trip. Wow.

                  1. That story is a doozy. I had a similar experience in that terminal on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving around 2003 or so. I was flying direct to Omaha on Midwest (scheduled to arrive around 10pm). After boarding the plane and leaving the gate, we returned because of a mechanical issue. We deboarded and milled around as they said the mechanics would have it ready in about an hour. Eventually, they decided that it couldn't fly and that they would just cancel the flight. That's when Senator Chuck Hagel approached the ticket counter and pretty much told them, "You are getting me to Nebraska tonight."

                    About three hours later, a backup plane arrived. We eventually got to Omaha around 3:15am, but we made it.

                    Sheenie and I are flying on TAM in a couple of weeks. I wonder if it'll be as great as when we flew South African a couple of years ago and got a huge, delicious meal every time no matter how short the flight.

                  2. Wow, I was in tears when you got to the driver out of Milwaukee. That story was priceless.

                3. I got stuck in a moving walkway when I was a kid. It tore up my t-shirt pretty good, and I have 4 nice vertical scars right next to my belly button. Other than that, my travels have been pretty uneventful.

                  2. There isn't a year- a year - that goes by that I don't hear about some snot-nosed brat getting caught in some escalator...

            2. i've gotten pretty good at negotiating my way through o'hare, but it's taken practice. it seems that every early morning flight i take or am late for is buried at the end of the F terminal though.

              of course, that's if your flight is where and when it should be. that rarely happens at ORD.

              1. I've flown out of the F terminal a lot. The price you pay for leaving from Madison. I almost miss the chaos of three flights departing from F's 1a-c at the same time.

        1. I don't like flying, either, but I like the speed at which you can get from point A to point B that is made possible by air travel.

    5. When my wife used to work for Hyatt we would fly somewhat frequently and in our experience United was by far the worst airline we flew on. We got to the point we would even pay more if we could get a non-United flight.

    6. Something is quite goofy if THEY cancelled the flight and didn't give you a voucher. I could see if you had missed the flight or something, but a straight-up cancellation (which happened to Sheenie about 2 weeks ago) pretty much requires them to compensate you if you're on the road.

      1. They didn't even cancel the flights though. They just canceled our tickets. It was ridiculous. The United rep said that she couldn't give us a voucher because the problem was so unusual that there was no procedure for it. She strongly recommended sending the hotel bill to United, which I will definitely do. Along with the bill for the Lufthansa flight from Venice to Frankfurt and the bills for all of the food we ate during our two extra days.

        1. Ah ok. Bizarre, nonetheless. Glad you made it home with most of your sanity.

    1. Yeah, that's definitely where I am. They're not even being coy about their plans for me, but I'm aware that an outside applicant could come in at any time and blow their minds. I interview very well, but there are a lot of leaders in this company that just had their positions eliminated, but are looking to stay in the company.

      1. It should be trivial to convince them that you're a villager and any outside applicants are wolves, right?

        1. Heh. They've got a guy performing the duties right now, and it's assumed he'll stick.

          I still can't believe the stupid decisions the last guy made.

          1. I love his career track. Skyrocket to CFO of United Health, move over to CEO of Optum, mysteriously resign within a year to start private equity group (that doesn't exist), interim CEO of a huge corporation with no direct experience in the industry, have analysts say he sounds like he is planning on staying, permanent CEO!

            Is Sid on the board over there? Will Kirby's kid be groomed to take over some day?

            1. Yeah, there are definitely some...holes...in his history. I really don't know what goes on over in that crazy Richfield building anymore.

              1. I'm just glad to read "crazy Richfield building" and not have it refer to my parents' house.

  5. Who said it:

    The Twins' problems can't be pinned on a scapegoat or a symbol, even one as simplistic as Joe Mauer's contract. The Twins' problems are systemic.

    This franchise wins when quality young players emerge as a group. Problem is, the Twins' current Class AAA team offers little promise.

    To right this ship, the Twins will need the likes of Trevor Plouffe, Brian Dozier, Kyle Gibson, Scott Diamond, Ben Revere, Liam Hendriks, Joe Benson, Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia to create an affordable core of young talent that can blend with Mauer and Josh Willingham.

    They will need hitters such as Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario to rise quickly through the minors.

    That group of young players will also have to re-establish the Twins as a team that can play with fire and intelligence, both of which were lacking this weekend at Target Field.

    The team's current malaise is bigger than any individual or even any one category. It's big enough to ruin a decade if the organization doesn't begin drafting and properly developing power arms and power bats.

    The last outstanding power hitter drafted by the Twins was Justin Morneau, in 1999.

    The last pitcher who could be described as an ace who was drafted by the Twins was Brad Radke, in 1991.

    The Twins are overdue for more than just a win.

    Spoiler SelectShow

    1. Rick Reilly properly self-evaluates himself as an idiot and TJ makes a good point with nary a pouktry or Kardashian reference or Mauer slam? Welp, it was a good run, Earth.

    2. I disagree with Radke, since I would count Santana in the group. He wasn't drafted (signed as an amateur free agent by the Astros), but he was developed by the Twins. That is what counts I think.

          1. This is true. B-ref:
            December 13, 1999: Drafted by the Florida Marlins from the Houston Astros in the 1999 rule 5 draft.
            December 13, 1999: Traded by the Florida Marlins with cash to the Minnesota Twins for Jared Camp (minors).

            1. Technically they traded for Santana, but it was only to exhort $50k from the Marlins. Consequently, I consider Santana to be the Twins Rule 5 pick.

      2. Whether Santana was technically traded for or selected in the Rule 5 draft, I think that you're correct in that the important thing is that the Twins developed him. The name of the game is collecting undervalued players and getting more than you paid for out of them. I'm also not a big fan of these generic categories like "outstanding power hitter" and "last pitcher who could be described as an ace." Are these new Baseball Grammies? If so, when is the awards ceremony?

        If we are to develop a Baseball Grammy for "outstanding power hitter," what about Plouffe? I'm sure there are doubts about him, but he had a .150ish ISO in the minors and since power sometimes emerges last, his MLB .200+ ISO could be real. Kubel was also a good power hitter and he was drafted after Morneau. Besides, if we're picking on contracts (and TJ clearly felt the need to point out Mauer's contract), how are we feeling about paying Justin Morneau $14M this year and $14M next year?

        It should really be no surprise--none whatsoever--that the last really good Twins drafts were back when the Twins were drafting high. It's almost as if it helps to draft in the top ten picks instead of bottom ten picks.

        1. I'm going to cut him slack on the Mauer contract mention because that's all anyone ever talks about.

          2. I find this fairly amusing/frustrating given that while yes, the offense has not been scoring all that many runs (19 runs below the league average), the pitching has been absolutely brutal (465 runs allowed, the only worse team is the Cuddyers Rockies with 494 runs allowed). If the pitching staff was at the league average (388 runs allowed), their expected pythagorean record at this point in the season is 42-46.

            The bullpen is decent. If they were actually winning games I'd be a lot more frustrated about all the appearances by Jeff Grey, Alex Burnett, et al. That starting rotation is really ugly. It's going to be hideous if/when they trade Liriano. I have no idea how the rotation stacks up next year, but it should be interesting. There's definitely a lack of MLB-ready talent, but the pitching & middle infield spots are pretty bare.

            1. Personally, I have no idea how the rotation stacks up next year, but it should be terrible one way or another. (Not sure if it will be interesting, though.) I don't know that anyone's ever built even an average rotation without returning even a single effective starter from the year before. (Sorry, I'm feeling cynical today.)

              1. Interesting was a euphemism for frightening, I suppose. I'd like them to bring back Liriano, but I don't think that's in the cards. I doubt they'll bring in a Hamels or Greinke, but that would help. So yeah, pretty much Scott Diamond plus a bunch of AAAA guys. Hopefully Gibson is ready quickly.

                Yuck. It's even more dire the more I think about it.

                1. Hamels is definitely out and almost certainly Greinke as well. Greinke already endured several losing seasons and I think he's going to look to sign with a team with a contending horizon sooner than "eventually".

                2. Interesting was a euphemism for frightening, I suppose.

                  Consult your How to Speak Minnesotan. You should have said that next year's rotation will be "different", not "interesting."

                3. My feeling is that Hendriks is going to be a good pitcher, although he's not one yet. With the Twins having no chance to win anything this year anyway, they should have Hendriks learning in Minnesota rather than dominating in Rochester. He's learning nothing there--he already knows how to get AAA hitters out. Whatever he has to learn, he should be learning it in the big leagues this year. I'd certainly rather see Hendriks in the rotation learning than Duensing in the rotation flailing.

                4. Best not to think about it. Perhaps direct your energies towards planning a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

            2. It is getting increasingly difficult for them not to try to bring Baker back next year, just so that they can attempt to field a major-league rotation.

              The starting rotation weighs in at a cumulative -58.9 pRAA (per Statcorner), "led" by Hendriks and the late, unlamented Jason Marquis at -0.43 pRAA per "expected" inning pitched. Cole DeVries's rate is even worse, but in fewer than 20 xIP. Liriano, Diamond and Pavano are the only starters in positive territory.

                  1. Thirded, though I highly doubt its possible because I can't think of any reason why he'd want to be back.

        2. *points at examples of HOFers who were drafted in the umpteenth rounds as irrefutable proof that draft order is irrelevant*

    1. I saw that. The Paterno (and many on the side of Penn State) family seems to take tin-eared dumb-f*ckery to a whole new level.

  7. Hey, Stick! Have you been holding out on us?

    The changes can be as simple as playing with grandchildren on the couch or at a table, instead of on the floor, said one knowledgeable grandfather, Dr. K[redated]th Br[redated]t, who is also an orthopedic surgeon and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

  8. **pinch hitter needed for the game recap!**

    i'll be on a prop plane to themiddleofnowhere, oregon during the game tonight.

    1. Not to laugh at someone's misfortune, but I sorta laughed at you misfortune. I'm a terrible person.

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