Cup of Coffee

August 7, 2012: Blowout

90 Comments

We haven't seen an inning like that in a while, and the Twins have only ever had a single inning where they scored more. Nishioka continues to look like single-A material, but what are ya gonna do?

90 thoughts on “August 7, 2012: Blowout”

  1. Word on the street is that Jose Berrios and Byron Buxton are getting moved up already.

      1. Get to Know 'Em!

        wasn't there a similar "we suck, but we're young!" ad campaign in 1983 or so?

    3. I can definitely see Berrios. Buxton is harder for me to understand. He's doing better than at the start of the season, but he's not exactly tearing up the league. My feeling is that Byron Buxton still has something to learn in the GCL.

      1. Yeah, it seems weird to me too. But my friend knew about the Valencia trade before it happened, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

        1. It's on Twinkie Town now, so I'd say your friend is on top of things. Or maybe your friend put up a fanshot.

          1. Hmmm, it looks like that post links to Seth, who seems to have had the news on his blog before my friend even told me. Well so much for me having a secret inside scoop!

  2. We need a .gif of the 3 or 4 seconds right before this and right after. Absolutely brutal.

      1. I believe this was the actual quote (well, should have been anyway):

        "It's not just three days for Nishi," Gardenhire said. "Nishi is here to play."

        1. Really, all you need to know about Nishioka is that he couldn't beat out Brian Dozier.

        2. This isn't Joe we're talking about - Gardy has to toe the party line and throw his full (public) support behind the kid...not throw him under the bus.

    2. Just let him play on Sunday! I haven't told HPR that Nishi is back with the team yet, hoping that it's a surprise when we get there, but also not wanting to disappoint him if Nishi sits or is sent back to Rochester.

      1. Also, if they have child-sized Nishi Tees in storage somewhere, please set them out for Sunday. I know one six year old who will want one.

  3. "I grew up watching (Morneau), and he's just been a hero of a lot of ours in the *Canadian) baseball community," Diamond said. "So the fact that I've got to know him and spend some time with him, it's almost surreal, really. He's just that great of a guy. I'm speechless, you know. He's just such a great dude."

    Do they really say "Dude" in Toronto?

    1. Now that he's on the leaderboard...

      2.91 ERA (6th)
      10 wins (10th)
      .667 W/L % (7th)
      1.172 WHIP (8th)
      1.26 BB/9 (1st)
      3.875 K/BB (5th)
      8 Wild Pitches (6th)
      141 ERA+ (8th)

      His 3.66 FIP and 3.69 xFIP suggest that he's maybe pitching over his head a smidge, but not by a whole lot. His BABIP is a maintainable .290. I've been worried all year that he's an illusion and that each next start will break that illusion, but Scott Diamond really does appear to be pretty good.

    2. I think the Twins should probably trade Morneau, but it would be a sad day because he's a guy I have really enjoyed watching play.

      Remember when Dougie M. was flapping his jaws because the Twins were moving on from him to Morneau? Yeah. The kid was all right.

      2. I'm not sure the Twins can get any worthwhile prospects for Morneau (mostly because of his contract- what is it, $14 million?), so it would just be a salary dump, and I don't think that would sit right with me. Not saying that trading him is the wrong thing to do, but I'd rather watch him play out his contract here, I guess.

      3. Listening to Morneau on the post game last night, he's really matured a lot. Had lots of nice things to say about Killebrew, brought up Votto when talking about the Canuckians hitting HRs, and deflected a lot of the to-do.

    3. I'm prepared to see Morneau go (Span too), but it will still be hard. His MVP season in 2006 was awesome to watch, and it's been unfortunate that he's been out during the last couple playoff runs. I'd like the Twins to keep him around, but I understand that he's getting a little too expensive.

      1. I have realized that Morneau is a guy I will never be prepared to see go. A lot of that is his on-field performance. Even more of it is his community performance. He and his wife seem to really be invested in the Twin Cities, and extremely charitable.

        This spring I had the opportunity to watch a game from a suite that Morneau and Mauer jointly purchased so that they could give the tickets to charity every game. It came fully stocked, etc. We were lucky enough to be there after our daughter was on the road to recovery. The other people we shared the suite with weren't so lucky. One was a fairly large family who probably wouldn't have ever been able to afford a game, much less a suite. The other was a husband and wife with their disabled preemie newborn, who had been living hours apart from each other because he had to work while she stayed at Children's with their son. It was pretty amazing to see what this gift meant to all of us. To think that they give it 81 times a year? Wow. Maybe that's common for the big stars to do in every market, but it sure felt special. I'm getting emotional just thinking about it again...

        1. I mean to say I'm prepared in the sense that if it happens, I won't be surprised. I will be sad though.

          1. If the Twins feel that Parmelee is for real and is ready, it would be a wise decision to trade Morneau for pitching and/or use use extra available payroll to sign a free agent starter or two.

    1. Absolute boo.

      I was busy watching the US/Canada replay. But I'll get to it today. really.

        1. Bite me. ALL OF YOU, BITE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111one.

    4. I just love how matter-of-fact he sounds when he says "one of the worst plays you'll ever see."

  9. So I've been given the opportunity to attend this year's Great Taste of the Midwest with a free VIP ticket, which allows us entry two hours before the masses. (I know a guy who knows a guy.) Here is the program. (Though I should warn it is a pdf... a large one.) I am mildly excited for Saturday.

        1. If there's a skinny polish looking dude named gabe there punch him in the nuts and say, "how ya doin', ma boy". He'll know who it's from.

    3. I see that Piece is going to be there. Also, bourbon-barrel aged stout from Great Lakes! Three Floyds! Wow, just wowowowow. Have fun.

  10. Wow. just wow.

    Alvarez grabbed her by the neck and dragged her into the office where the store's safe was located. Taylor told him that she didn't know how to access the safe, but Alvarez told her he didn't want money.

    Taylor sat with Alvarez for the next four hours, never explaining what he wanted.

    "I knew in my mind that it would be easier for him to shoot me if I didn't look him in the eye or if I didn't talk to him, make a connection with him," Taylor said.

    But Taylor did speak with the suspect and began to reason with him about seeing his daughter. Taylor's soothing tone, coupled with calls from hostage negotiators, finally convinced Alvarez to surrender to police outside the store around 3 p.m.

  11. Guys, I just wanted to say thanks for the words of support yesterday. Coming back after that much time away to a warm, concerned welcome meant a good deal.

      1. Mrs. Hayes caught that, and we meant to talk about it this evening (she's in bed now). This will remind me to bring it up again tomorrow.

        And thanks, Bootsy.

  12. Kevin Arnovitz lists his top ten performers in Olympic basketball through the group play. Two of the players will be suiting up for the local five and an honorable mention has played for the Wolves for the last handful of years.

    1. Carmelo Anthony, United States
      Nobody is more potent when the game is easy

      LOL. I hope this wasn't just a phrasing mistake.

    1. Pffft. Bob Berman in the latest Astronomy magazine:

      The sky is blue, right? Well, buy a spectroscope on eBay. This wonderful instrument reveals what’s really in the light we see. Point it at the daytime heavens. Bam — all the colors of the rainbow. Vivid greens and oranges come from the sky. Its composition resembles sunlight, but with red scattering four times less than blue, the latter color is visually dominant. So it’s not strictly correct to say, “The sky is blue.” It would be better to say, “The sky looks blue.”

    2. That hits pretty close to home as I'm red-green (and brown) colorblind. Basically, I can see those colors, but I have a hard time distinguishing between them. Hold up a red sock and I'll tell you it's red. Hold up a green sock and I can tell it's green. Hold them up next to each other and the two look very similar though I can usually pick out the red (darker) or green/brown (lighter). When I do it, people generally scoff and tell me I'm not colorblind.

      My answer has been that the red sock doesn't look the same to me as it does to them. I learned what the color red looks like (to me) just like they've learned what the color red looks like (to them). Before I "knew" what red/green/brown were (or how to read the color name on a crayon), I'd draw what I saw. Only later did I learn that trees with a reddish brown canopy and green trunks, blue, pink and violet skies with an orangish yellow sun aren't necessarily what everyone else saw. People tell me that it sounds weird, but how would I know? I've never seen the world as they've seen it.

        2. She just gave a quick interview after the semifinals. She's cute, got a fun energy and a lock of blue hair. If I didn't know where she placed in the final, I'd be rooting for her.

          I didn't look at the rest of the results, I'm guessing that Aussie runner takes it.

    1. I will have to read that one. This is the one I recommend. It was of seminal importance to basically everything I did my 3rd year of law school. Also, Dr. Warwick, who is featured in it, happened to be my sister's doctor for a long while when she was growing up.

        1. you could do a "reading roundup" of links, sans OFGAG.com boobery, and add it to the discussion. That would be cool.

            1. This would be a great feature. If a Citizen were willing to write an intro to the post and compile the links, would others be willing to pass links along with a brief comment or précis?

          2. OFGAG?

            I don't know what I'd say without going all Kenny Loggins and taking a highway to the forbidden zone.

  18. I'm watching the Women's Gymnastics again. NBC made a big deal on the balance beam, where US competitor petitioned for an extra 0.1, which she got, effectively ripping a bronze medal out of the hands of a Romanian.

    The Romanian is right behind her as the American's crying tears over lawyer-balling her way into a medal. We get a shot of the American's parents reacting in joy to the score revision. I wanted to see how the Romanian's parents reacted to having her medal stolen. Dear NBC: non-Americans are people, too, and that would have really sucked.

    I want the Romanian to find a way to challenge this floor exercise score so she can finish above the American, on the basis of having performed later and knowing what level she needed to complain to.

    1. In a sport where the outcome is entirely decided by the officials, petitioning the officials doesn't offend me. Say for example that baseball were decided without the use of an actual ball and players just did the motions, and we relied on the umps to adjudicate the form of the pitcher to determine strike/ball and the form of the batter to determine hit/out, etc.

      Huh... I guess I've just described why gymnastics isn't really exciting for me.

      1. Unlike in baseball, they used video replay to verify their original scoring.
        I'm not into it, but their lack of concern for the Romanian disturbed me.

          1. i'm pretty surprised that's hosted on the nbcolympics site. i might check to see if it's still there tomorrow.

        2. I don't pretend to know enough about gymnastics to know whether the right decision was ultimately made, but yeah, I felt bad for Catalina Ponor. It's one thing to finish fourth, but to be told you finished third and then have it changed has to feel awful.

        3. I'm not into it, but their lack of concern for the Romanian disturbed me.

          Well, since it was the Karolyi's calling for the protest, I doubt they were unaware of the Romanian. That's just the way the "sport" works, unfortunately.

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