Didn't this team just have a hot streak? They're threatening to make me care about the NFL again.
169 thoughts on “August 15, 2012: Losing Again”
Being a Twins fan is not always easy, but at least we've never had two-thirds of the players go to the front office to try to get the manager fired. What a mess the Red Sox are right now. If I ran that team, I'd have to think seriously about blowing the whole thing up and starting over.
I'm pretty happy not to be a Phillies fan this year, too. The expectations for that team was so much higher, and then they end up piecemealed at the trade deadline after the injuries had taken their toll on the season.
are you implying that someone runs that team?
I was listening to the radio and switched over to Mike & Mike after dropping my wife off at work. They recounted how they'd spent the past 3 hours talking about the mess that is the Boston Red Sox. After about 2 minutes, I was glad my wife prohibits sports talk radio while she's in the car. Greenberg says, "If it could be said that no one had seen this coming, then no one is at fault. But EVERYONE saw this coming so someone has to be at fault." He goes on to ask, "Who's to blame for this?" and they start talking circles about the ownership, the manager, the players...apparently, pretty much everyone's at fault.
I wouldn't blow that thing up ( I think the squad has a ton of talent), but I don't expect that Bobby V. is long for that clubhouse.
They do have talent. The reason I'd consider blowing it up is that last year they had a manager who they supposedly liked, but apparently didn't respect and didn't play for. This year they have a manager they don't like, apparently don't respect and won't play for. At some point you have to ask if some of these guys would rather be whiners than ball players.
I felt firing Francona & letting Theo take over the Cubs was a bit reactionary on the part of ownership. The hack job they did on Francona in the media on his way out was terrible, too. I think they're reaping what they sowed.
I also feel like maybe this is karmic retribution for 8 years of Simmonses and Fever Pitches, and the like. Oh, and pink hats.
This is neither here nor there, but my last two years of Little League I had a coach I didn't want to play for. The first one was just downright mean, and I quit before the end of the season. The second one knew absolutely nothing about baseball. She'd bat her sons near the top of the lineup even though they were awful, and she would steal constantly even with slow runners. She never complimented anyone and only pointed out mistakes. Nobody had any respect for her, so we didn't play for her. We had respect for the game, so we'd try for ourselves and each other. It probably cost us two or three wins that we had awful leadership.
Sports talk radio (and just about any talk radio for that matter) tends to violate my "no yelling in the car" rule.
Crap like that is the reason for my self-imposed sports media blackout.
I really can't stand Pedroia at this point. I can't believe he got away with the crack about the Japanese league earlier in the season. Can you imagine saying those things about your boss to the media?
Can you imagine saying those things about your boss to the media?
Every single day No.
Valencia goes to Boston, trouble follows. Terry Ryan is a genius!
was that his strategy with Liriano too? Hasn't worked yet.
I have been so out of the loop that this is the first I've heard of Valencia and Liriano being traded.
Ooh man, you should see the dandy players he got in return! 🙂
Looking at the trades, it seems like he did fine. Valencia is a pretty marginal player (right-handed platoon player without much defensive value) who is going to be arb-eligible soon, and Liriano's a two-month rental.
Pedro Hernandez's overall minor league peripherals look a lot like Scott Diamond's. Hernandez hasn't been very good this year, but that could be SSS. In the past he's been able to throw strikes, so if he has at least one above-average pitch, I could see him as a bullpen contributor at least.
Eduardo Escobar's not going to hit much, but he's kept moving up the ladder in the minors, which suggests that he's a pretty good fielder. I see that Socal compared him to Punto, and that's probably not a bad comp. If Punto wasn't such a terrible bunter and didn't slide head-first into first base, I probably would have liked him a lot more.
It's hard to say much about Pineda, given that he's only got 290 PA in his professional career, but I wasn't really expecting more than a trivial PTBNL in exchange for Valencia.
Pineda is interesting. He signed later than usual (20?), but that's still younger than college players. If he can move through the rookie levels quickly enough, he'll be able to join players with similar ages.
Even if he moves one year at a time, I wouldn't be too worried about him being 24-25 when he reaches AAA. Minor league numbers only seem to get really misleading when a player lingers at one level for a long time.
Thanks for the analysis...I actually didn't think much one way or the other about the moves, but now I'm glad you took a look. I was trying to mock the public perception that he should have gotten a lot more out of moving Liriano (despite his being a feast or famine, 2-month rental) and last years "STARTING THIRED BASEMAN!".
Aha. The public perception thing is always going to be hard to shake because most people are going to judge players on whether or not they are any good on the field, whereas GMs have to judge them just as much on cost as performance. Someone in Seattle was recently slagging the M's for not getting much in return for Cliff Lee. Well sure, Cliff Lee is a great pitcher and all, but he was only under contract for two months and two months of any player is only worth so much in return.
Ooh, I just thought of this! The Red Sox could have called it "subtraction by addition"!
It's so bad that my s-i-l, ardent Red Sox supporter and provider of The Pink Hat from Hell (TM) for my daughter (almost immediately thrown away) has been sighted sporting, gasp!, a Twins hat.
#winning
I'm going to today's game with the office. For the past few years, there have always been extra tickets, but I haven't seen any announcements of such yet. If someone wants to be on standby, let me know.
[I posted this in yesterday's COC, but I didn't get a response.
Re-posted in case someone just missed it, and wants to come to the game, but only with last-minute notice.]
And, I'm attempting to bring my kids. Offer no longer available.
Didn't this team just have a hot streak?
If they win today, then they've won the series with the Tigers and have won three out of their last four series, with the only loss being a sweep by the red-hot Rays.
As they say around here, that's about a horse apiece.
As bad as Dozier's been (and he's been quite awful, really), I don't get this move. Florimon's not anyone's idea of a prospect, does he give us some sort of flexibility that Dozier doesn't? Are they trying to get Casilla more playing time?
Dozier's fielding and offensive numbers have been trending up as well. His UZR is up to -1 and DRS has him at +1. His wOBA for May-August: .251, .249, .285, .304. Just seems like a weird move to make at this point. Rosters expand in 17 days, so he's bound to be back soon.
Rosters expand in 17 days, so he's bound to be back soon.
That's sort of my point, really. He's back in a couple of weeks, so in the meantime he gets to learn two weeks' worth of AAA? Is this a learning experience? A punitive one? A move made to try to 'put the best team on the field'? If that's the case, does Florimon or Casilla really do that? Should that even be the point at this point?
I'd say it could be a learning experience in that Dozier may gain a little confidence facing AAA pitching for 2 weeks, succeed (hopefully) over the last month of the season, and come back next year ready for the bright lights.
I'm certainly not arguing with any vitriol that this is a bad move, just a weird and pointless one that doesn't seem like it can accomplish any particular good.
This is all about Dozier needing to be sent down. The Twins are fine with Florimon sitting on the bench, although he'll probably get plenty of playing time. Florimon was the most logical replacement for Dozier and is supposedly a very good defensive player.
This is all about Dozier needing to be sent down. This is what I was thinking as well. Look at how well it has served Parmelee!
Is Casilla an upgrade to Dozier? If Dozier's really going to be a future starter, what sort of good does it do to send him to AAA for two weeks? Like I said, Florimon is nobody's idea of a prospect, they can't possibly see him as a future starter anywhere, so giving him his shot seems like it could've been delayed two weeks.
what sort of good does it do to send him to AAA for two weeks?
I think some young players on the MLB roster need to be reminded that they DON'T have it made now that they're there. Does Dozier have anything to learn in AAA? Maybe not. Does he have anything to learn from being SENT to AAA? Yeah, maybe so.
Okay, I can see that. I guess that's about the only way this would make any sense - if they determined that he'd become complacent and needed to be joted a bit.
I hope that's why he got sent down, and I hope it does whatever it's supposed to do.
Dozier may very well have things to learn in AAA, although I doubt he'll learn them in two weeks. He's never really had any success batting above AA yet.
I wonder if they view Florimon as a future bench player and just wanted to get him some experience coming off the bench. Since they brought him up now, he certainly would have been up in September anyway. This gives him six weeks instead of four weeks to get his feet wet.
Also, even though Rochester is essentially out of the playoffs, they could make things interesting if they play well the next couple of weeks. Maybe the Twins are throwing them a bone.
looks like he had to be pried out of gardy's fingers.
Didn't seem like Gardy was a big fan of the Dozier move; he deferred questions to the front office, said it was a hard one to talk about.
...which would make it seem that it was not about giving him a jolt...which makes it inexplicable again.
If it was up to Gardy he would field 25 gritty undertalented middle infieders.
He wept for three days when they didn't resign Punto.
I think you under estimated the number of days gardy cried over that move.
I was surprised Florimon wasn't starting yesterday. Was he sent straight to Seattle?
That said, Plouffe!-Carroll-Casilla bottom of the order seems a lot nicer than Dozier-Carroll-Casilla
He was in the dugout, but Dick'n'Bert mentioned that he only arrived in town a few minutes before the game started.
In other words: he starts tomorrow night.
Hey any fans of The Replacements here in the Minneapolis area? The movie about the band, "Color Me Impressed" is playing at the Parkway Friday night at 7:00. It's a onetime showing as the movie is basically on the festival tour. Also a fundraiser for local guitarist Slim Dunlap. I'm going for sure. But thought I'd let others know about it too and wanted to give a heads up prior to Friday Music Day. Bonus: They serve beer and alcohol at the Parkway.
21-17 in the first game of a series (.552)
16-22 in the second game of a series (.421)
11-23 in the third game of a series (.324)
2-4 in the fourth game of a series.n (.333)
About what I expected, but I really expected a better W% for the first game. Felt like they've won so many more. Third game record is just awful.
In fairness, nothing could get me interested in the NFL season. But we have international friendlies today(US vs. Mexico this evening, which is never friendly), and the EPL season starts Saturday.
Dempsey isn't on the roster tonight since the EPL opener is so close. If the USa lose by less than 3-1, I'll be surprised. Coming off a gold medal at the Estadio Azteca, I just don't see the USA pulling it off with a backline with something like 6 combined caps.
I think Blatter schedules this international day just to show the clubs who's in charge.
As US fans, we know that outside of Europe it means B or C squad. It's going to be a hard game tonight, but at least there is never the expectation of winning at Azteca.
The US call-ups on defense were really underwhelming. Do many of Mexico's U23 players figure into their senior team right now? Not that I mean to underestimate Mexico, I just don't know how much winning an age-group tournament translates immediately to a senior national team.
It looks like the only non-overage player from the gold medal team with more than a handful of senior team caps is Johnny Two Saints. I wasn't necessarily talking about the team, but I was thinking maybe the fans will be all jazzed up and make Azteca even worse than normal.
True, it's not going to be much fun going up against that crowd. Unless they pull off some kind of near-miracle upset.
The US backline is getting old though. Gooch doesn't have the pace anymore. Bocanegra has been a good captain but he is getting old too. DeMerit is a favorite of mine, but he's not getting any younger either.
The defensive four in this game will all be in their mid-20s and a mix of guys playing in Mexico, Germany and the US. We'll see how terrible it is.
I didn't say terrible, just underwhelming. I understand there are reasons other players weren't selected, but I don't think the US has any particularly impressive defensive combinations at the moment.
Hey Mags, you going to do the EPL contest again this year?
Just reading the article makes me not want to eat at all.
Funny - it made me not want to get nipped by a lone star tick.
An app that'll put AMR out of the mix-tape business.
I thought that was called "Pandora"???
Have been in an 180 BPM tracklist frenzy as am training for 1/2 marathon and our running coach is preaching the gospel of high cadence.
I have a general job application question.
The job I applied for at the MN Historical Society hasn't gotten back to me about whether they've even received my application, even though the posting said "All applications will be acknowledged" at the bottom. I mailed it on the 1st, so it should have gotten there sometime around Tuesday-Wednesday last week. I'm starting to get a little edgy that maybe it got lost in the mail or something. I want to check in on my application, but the job posting also said "No phone calls please".
I have the general HR email address from their contact page. Should I just email that and see if they've received my application? How should I word it? I don't want to be pushy in case they're working on it, but haven't gotten to me yet. Also, I don't know if the acknowledgement was going to be via email, phone, or post, so something could be in the mail for me on the way.
No phone calls doesn't mean no emails. I'd drop an email and register your concern that you hadn't received an acknowledgement.
I know every place is different but if you were applying to the UMN I would say that 2 weeks is not too long to hear anything. First, I would take it that "every application will be acknowledged" doesn't necessarily mean that you will get a note saying, application received. I would read that as you will hear from us at some point in the process, even if we don't consider you further.
I'm in the middle of my 3rd employee search committee here at the UMN. First HR gets applications and deem them to meet the minimum qualifications. Then a search committee of 4-6 people go through the resume's to determine who to interview. For the job search I am currently involved in, the job was posted in early-mid July. We received 16 resumes on Monday and next Thursday we will shortlist down to 3 to interview. So if you had applied for that job right when it was posted it would literally be 6 weeks before you hear from the UMN whether or not you'd even be interviewed. Now like I said each place is different and the UMN is large, slow and bureaucratic, but also people are busy and we have to squeeze the resume reviews, shortlist, and interviews among our other day-to-day activities for which we are paid. So I would wait at least another week or so.
Also for all of you applying for jobs. Like I said, this is my 3rd search committee in the last 6 months or so. It's an interesting process as you try to figure out who to interview based on a few paragraphs on a cover letter and 2 resume pages. Your strategy should be to really structure your submitted materials to showcase how best you fit the job requirements and then get an interview. It's the resume that gets you in the door and the interview that gets you the job, at least from what I've observed.
I agree with all of this on the glacial pace of hiring in public institutions. But an acknowledgment of receipt should be made promptly. They only promised acknowledgment of receipt, in my reading.
Yeah, I wasn't so much worried about whether I've even made it past "minimum qualification" stage. I know that takes time. I just though I'd get a "Your application arrived and is being processed" from the wording on the posting. I just worry it never arrived.
I looked at the MHS website and saw a job posting. It just says "Your application will be acknowledged." It doesn't say Receipt of your application will be acknowledged. I read this to mean that someday you will learn whether or not you were considered for the position and that silence doesn't mean rejection.
OK, cool. I'll just let 'er simmer then. Thanks for easing my mind.
Of course, that also doesn't say that they would ever contact Magoo, just that his application would be acknowledged in some fashion, such as public shaming, a bonfire, or the naming of an astronomical object after him. 😉
or the naming of an astronomical object after him
I would actually be cool with that. As long as I got some sort of acknowledgement about the acknowledgement so I'd know about what I can only assume would be my own entire galaxy, thanks to my impressive resume.
There's nothing in the comment, so I'm going to say "a lot".
Award that man a point!
Yeah... when I went back to edit it, there was nothing there. But when I posted it, I just took the embed from youtube, added the "v" to the http, and clicked Mail your Letter. Hmm, let's try it again here...
Nope, didn't work. Grr.
And now I see my stupid link doesn't work any more either. Should I be using the "old embed code" on youtube?
Test:
Let's see. I couldn't load the video myself, "validation error" according to YouTube.
That's why. Your original link was missing the 'us' at the end.
httpv://youtu.be/YSeFsX2waus
Do you suspect that was the same problem for the embeds? I mean, I just take the embed script straight from youtube (including the sizing, etc?) and then change the http to httpv. Right?
Correct.
That was a lot of work (and meat with a great zinger), but the pay-off of Murray running a meeting was well worth it. I love Murray's band meetings.
Germany vs. Argentina just kicked off on ESPN2 in case anyone is watching the Twins on their laptops and/or are sick of the game.
In other soccer news, Manchester United have purchased VanPersie away from Arsenal. Make note for your Prediction entries.
BREAKING: Man Utd agree £24m deal to sign Robin van Persie from Arsenal. 4-yr deal, terms & medical in next 48 hours #bbcfootball#afc#mufc
”My positive test was the result of my use of a substance I should not have used. I accept my suspension under the Joint Drug Program and will try to move on with my life. I am deeply sorry for my mistake and I apologize to my teammates, to the San Francisco Giants organization and to the fans for letting them down.”
that's a new one.
Holy crap. He didn't even use the ARod defense.
That's oddly refreshing.
this is a huge blow to the Gigantes, who were short on offense as it was.
From the Bee story:
In a statement, Cabrera said he accepted baseball's ruling and apologized to his teammates and Giants fans.
In other words, "damn, they caught me."
You missed it by ---><--- that much, doc.
Melky "rBGH" Cabrera
I'm guessing many people will link Cabrera's improvement to this now.
It's good to see he's not giving out New York InBev product 312 anymore. Goose Island still makes great specials, but their acquisition has destroyed their wide releases for me.
I definitely hit up some damn fine non-Inbev owned breweries on Saturday. (I remembered to visit Piece at bS's recommendation). I still enjoy Goose Island brews, but I "missed" they're booth.
Damn fine Illinois breweries, that is.
Revolution, Finch's, Two Brothers, Metropolitan. Those are the four I've hit up.
The Chicago microbrew scene has exploded in the last 3 years.
my local hole has a couple wild onions (?) on tap. decent brews, those.
Oy, the comments burn my eyes.
While that is generally true and I hate you for making me read them, this comment was pretty tgood:
B T (Inked_Alice) wrote:
I'll be waiting for Romney/Ryan to push out an ad saying Obama doesn't support American businesses, since he chooses to home brew.
August 15, 2012 5:43:25 PM CDT
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You probably heard this, but Manship and Perdomo are going to Rochester, Swarzak is activated, and a position player will be added before Friday.
Interesting. That sounds like moving to a 12-man bullpen. I wonder which position player it will be.
Nishi!!!!!
Don't think it can be, since he just went back down the other day. Do I dare hope it'll be Parmelee?
Fourth catcher.
A 12-man bullpen going into a 20-day 20-game stretch? I don't think so.
Staff*, not bullpen. Though I'm sure Gardy would like as many extra pitchers as he can get.
Right now King Felix has gone perfect through 6. Hellickson only has 4 hits and 0 BB for the Rays. What's the fewest combined baserunners in a game?
Holy crap, the bottom fell outta that one to get Longoria.
OK, I watched the 8th. How does anyone ever get a hit off King Felix?
I was just going to say, that inning looked pretty impressive on Gameday.
That was awesome.
That would have been fun to watch.
I'm guessing kindness by the King.
Perfection!
Well, how aboot that?!
USMNT is playing a friendly at Azteca tonight. The game is on ESPN2. Is anyone else going to watch?
Definitely. Mini-discussion above.
how the hell did I miss that?
Also, Galaxy @ Crew is on NBCSports starting right now.
speaking of NBCSN, I saw where they are going to start airing CFL games. All they need is Aussie Rules football!
Of all the forms of football I've played, Aussie Rules may be my favorite.
I love watching it. its fast paced, yet rough and tumble action. Its not too hard picking up the rules.
There are rules?
plus, referees wearing smart hats.
When NBC Sports was a free over the air digital channel (4-3 here in DC) They played practically any sport they could get the rights too. It was awesome.
I wonder whether climate scientists have figured out how to include this into their models?
Whale feces, it turns out, plays a substantial role in ocean ecosystems. Since it floats to the surface, it brings nitrogen whales have taken in when they fed in the ocean’s depths to shallow waters, providing a much-needed nutrient for plankton there. The massive mammals’ poop also serves as a significant carbon sink; one study estimated that excrement from sperm whales in the Southern Ocean alone sequestered 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
Answer: a qualified "yes." More evidence that the science of global warming is crappy.
This reminds me of the MythBusters episode where they tested whether it was more fuel efficient to drive with the tailgate up or down. People just assume they're smarter than the tens of thousands of other people who've worked on the problem.
King Felix's perfect game was the third time the Rays have been perfected since 2009 (4 times no hit). incredible.
For some reason, I expected to read the game story only to find out that the Mariners still lost.
So as I was watching that, I was readying a comment to complain about artistic crap that does nothing useful, then they finally got to the application of this thing and yeah, that's pretty sweet if it works consistently like it claims. I don't think it'd change the world, or any flowery bs like they implied, since regular bike helmets really aren't that inconvenient if you ask me, but still pretty neat idea.
The video was a little irritating but the technology is pretty cool.
Yeah, I watched that earlier today. I would have liked to see more about the technology and less of the fluff.
I didn't watch the credits, didn't realize it was produced by NBC.
You just said pretty much exactly what my run-on sentences implied. My only real concern is how much testing was conducted? I could see something like that getting set off in non-accident type situations, which means you gotta buy a new one, while with a regular helmet, you pretty much know when you've landed on it and need to replace it.
I can't imagine they are inexpensive either.
since regular bike helmets really aren't that inconvenient if you ask me
This. I don't see how a bulky scarf is significantly more convenient than a bike helmet. I find wearing a helmet to be a non-issue and barely noticeable. On it goes and then I forget it until I wish the sunshade was larger.
Bern makes a pretty nifty visor for their helmets that snaps free so you can wash out the sweat stains.
What you forget is the hipsters and Karl Welzien alike think scarves look bad ass. Add in that you can't look like a bad boy with a helmet and it all makes sense.
I agree with Sean.
I have enjoyed KSK's contribution to the internet world, but I think after I've gotten to this article, I'm about done there. If you're not at least questioning your football fandom based on recent head trauma related revelations (as seems to be what Leitch is advocating in the article), there's probably something wrong with you.
yea, that's a pretty horrible piece.
'MERICA!
Love Brek Shea attacking the second he gets a chance, and a lovely backheel from Boyd. Throw it on net - good things happen.
Do you think the USMNT are going to keep some players back in the last couple of minutes?
I hope not. It'd be the conventional wisdom, but I don't like prevent defenses in any sport. Plus I want a Dos a cero score line.
HOLY MERCIFUL CRAP!
That was great. Better than great. Magnificent!
And here's hoping Ian Darke dodges the pee balloons outside the stadium.
Tim. Howard.
httpv://youtu.be/eGiYEWRzTik
CC to bs: a friend of mine is in Sac-town through next week for a wedding. Any must eat/drink places for him on his trip?
If your friend enjoys the barley pop, I would recommend a stop in at Rubicon. They tap a cask on thursdays, but it rarely lasts past friday. The pub grub is decent.
Next door to Rubicon is a fine eating establishment, The Waterboy. I've had very good meals there.
the best meal I've had recently in Sac was lunch at Cafe Rolle (have some duck pate appetizer and creme brulee for dessert).
one of my favorite places is across the river in West Sac: Poojah Indian Grill. But perhaps an even better choice is just to cruise up Broadway Avenue in Sacramento. I am a fan of Fortune House Seafood Restaurant (a chinese restaurant with some but not exclusive emphasis on seafood). reasonable prices, excellent food. Get the salt shrimp (heads on!! of course). Or for the somewhat more adventurous, head down Stockton Blvd into the Little Saigon area. I had a great meal recently at Banh Cuon Tay Ho Restaurant at 65th and Stockton Blvd.
Pangea has an excellent beer selection, but is a little too hip for my age cohort. Almost as good in terms of beer selection is the Davis Beer Shoppe in Davisville, about 12 miles from downtown to the west (across the Causeway).
as for sightseeing...well...the Capitol tour is worth it, IMO. Plus, you know, free. And if your friend has the time and inclination (and the team is in town? I'd have to check), Raley Field is a great venue to enjoy some AAA baseball. The stadium is a modest walk across the beautiful Tower Bridge into West Sac. There is a very nice railroad museum in Old Sacramento, where you can burn a couple of hours if you are into that sort of thing. I'm sure I'll think of a few more things.
Being a Twins fan is not always easy, but at least we've never had two-thirds of the players go to the front office to try to get the manager fired. What a mess the Red Sox are right now. If I ran that team, I'd have to think seriously about blowing the whole thing up and starting over.
I'm pretty happy not to be a Phillies fan this year, too. The expectations for that team was so much higher, and then they end up piecemealed at the trade deadline after the injuries had taken their toll on the season.
are you implying that someone runs that team?
I was listening to the radio and switched over to Mike & Mike after dropping my wife off at work. They recounted how they'd spent the past 3 hours talking about the mess that is the Boston Red Sox. After about 2 minutes, I was glad my wife prohibits sports talk radio while she's in the car. Greenberg says, "If it could be said that no one had seen this coming, then no one is at fault. But EVERYONE saw this coming so someone has to be at fault." He goes on to ask, "Who's to blame for this?" and they start talking circles about the ownership, the manager, the players...apparently, pretty much everyone's at fault.
I wouldn't blow that thing up ( I think the squad has a ton of talent), but I don't expect that Bobby V. is long for that clubhouse.
They do have talent. The reason I'd consider blowing it up is that last year they had a manager who they supposedly liked, but apparently didn't respect and didn't play for. This year they have a manager they don't like, apparently don't respect and won't play for. At some point you have to ask if some of these guys would rather be whiners than ball players.
I felt firing Francona & letting Theo take over the Cubs was a bit reactionary on the part of ownership. The hack job they did on Francona in the media on his way out was terrible, too. I think they're reaping what they sowed.
I also feel like maybe this is karmic retribution for 8 years of Simmonses and Fever Pitches, and the like. Oh, and pink hats.
This is neither here nor there, but my last two years of Little League I had a coach I didn't want to play for. The first one was just downright mean, and I quit before the end of the season. The second one knew absolutely nothing about baseball. She'd bat her sons near the top of the lineup even though they were awful, and she would steal constantly even with slow runners. She never complimented anyone and only pointed out mistakes. Nobody had any respect for her, so we didn't play for her. We had respect for the game, so we'd try for ourselves and each other. It probably cost us two or three wins that we had awful leadership.
Sports talk radio (and just about any talk radio for that matter) tends to violate my "no yelling in the car" rule.
Crap like that is the reason for my self-imposed sports media blackout.
I really can't stand Pedroia at this point. I can't believe he got away with the crack about the Japanese league earlier in the season. Can you imagine saying those things about your boss to the media?
Can you imagine saying those things about your boss to the media?
Every single dayNo.Valencia goes to Boston, trouble follows. Terry Ryan is a genius!
was that his strategy with Liriano too? Hasn't worked yet.
I have been so out of the loop that this is the first I've heard of Valencia and Liriano being traded.
Ooh man, you should see the dandy players he got in return! 🙂
Looking at the trades, it seems like he did fine. Valencia is a pretty marginal player (right-handed platoon player without much defensive value) who is going to be arb-eligible soon, and Liriano's a two-month rental.
Pedro Hernandez's overall minor league peripherals look a lot like Scott Diamond's. Hernandez hasn't been very good this year, but that could be SSS. In the past he's been able to throw strikes, so if he has at least one above-average pitch, I could see him as a bullpen contributor at least.
Eduardo Escobar's not going to hit much, but he's kept moving up the ladder in the minors, which suggests that he's a pretty good fielder. I see that Socal compared him to Punto, and that's probably not a bad comp. If Punto wasn't such a terrible bunter and didn't slide head-first into first base, I probably would have liked him a lot more.
It's hard to say much about Pineda, given that he's only got 290 PA in his professional career, but I wasn't really expecting more than a trivial PTBNL in exchange for Valencia.
Pineda is interesting. He signed later than usual (20?), but that's still younger than college players. If he can move through the rookie levels quickly enough, he'll be able to join players with similar ages.
Even if he moves one year at a time, I wouldn't be too worried about him being 24-25 when he reaches AAA. Minor league numbers only seem to get really misleading when a player lingers at one level for a long time.
Thanks for the analysis...I actually didn't think much one way or the other about the moves, but now I'm glad you took a look. I was trying to mock the public perception that he should have gotten a lot more out of moving Liriano (despite his being a feast or famine, 2-month rental) and last years "STARTING THIRED BASEMAN!".
Aha. The public perception thing is always going to be hard to shake because most people are going to judge players on whether or not they are any good on the field, whereas GMs have to judge them just as much on cost as performance. Someone in Seattle was recently slagging the M's for not getting much in return for Cliff Lee. Well sure, Cliff Lee is a great pitcher and all, but he was only under contract for two months and two months of any player is only worth so much in return.
Ooh, I just thought of this! The Red Sox could have called it "subtraction by addition"!
It's so bad that my s-i-l, ardent Red Sox supporter and provider of The Pink Hat from Hell (TM) for my daughter (almost immediately thrown away) has been sighted sporting, gasp!, a Twins hat.
#winning
I'm going to today's game with the office. For the past few years, there have always been extra tickets, but I haven't seen any announcements of such yet. If someone wants to be on standby, let me know.
[I posted this in yesterday's COC, but I didn't get a response.
Re-posted in case someone just missed it, and wants to come to the game, but only with last-minute notice.]
And, I'm attempting to bring my kids. Offer no longer available.
If they win today, then they've won the series with the Tigers and have won three out of their last four series, with the only loss being a sweep by the red-hot Rays.
Dozier sent down, Florimon ? up to the bigs,
As they say around here, that's about a horse apiece.
As bad as Dozier's been (and he's been quite awful, really), I don't get this move. Florimon's not anyone's idea of a prospect, does he give us some sort of flexibility that Dozier doesn't? Are they trying to get Casilla more playing time?
Dozier's fielding and offensive numbers have been trending up as well. His UZR is up to -1 and DRS has him at +1. His wOBA for May-August: .251, .249, .285, .304. Just seems like a weird move to make at this point. Rosters expand in 17 days, so he's bound to be back soon.
Rosters expand in 17 days, so he's bound to be back soon.
That's sort of my point, really. He's back in a couple of weeks, so in the meantime he gets to learn two weeks' worth of AAA? Is this a learning experience? A punitive one? A move made to try to 'put the best team on the field'? If that's the case, does Florimon or Casilla really do that? Should that even be the point at this point?
I'd say it could be a learning experience in that Dozier may gain a little confidence facing AAA pitching for 2 weeks, succeed (hopefully) over the last month of the season, and come back next year ready for the bright lights.
I'm certainly not arguing with any vitriol that this is a bad move, just a weird and pointless one that doesn't seem like it can accomplish any particular good.
This is all about Dozier needing to be sent down. The Twins are fine with Florimon sitting on the bench, although he'll probably get plenty of playing time. Florimon was the most logical replacement for Dozier and is supposedly a very good defensive player.
This is all about Dozier needing to be sent down. This is what I was thinking as well. Look at how well it has served Parmelee!
Is Casilla an upgrade to Dozier? If Dozier's really going to be a future starter, what sort of good does it do to send him to AAA for two weeks? Like I said, Florimon is nobody's idea of a prospect, they can't possibly see him as a future starter anywhere, so giving him his shot seems like it could've been delayed two weeks.
what sort of good does it do to send him to AAA for two weeks?
I think some young players on the MLB roster need to be reminded that they DON'T have it made now that they're there. Does Dozier have anything to learn in AAA? Maybe not. Does he have anything to learn from being SENT to AAA? Yeah, maybe so.
Okay, I can see that. I guess that's about the only way this would make any sense - if they determined that he'd become complacent and needed to be joted a bit.
I hope that's why he got sent down, and I hope it does whatever it's supposed to do.
Dozier may very well have things to learn in AAA, although I doubt he'll learn them in two weeks. He's never really had any success batting above AA yet.
I wonder if they view Florimon as a future bench player and just wanted to get him some experience coming off the bench. Since they brought him up now, he certainly would have been up in September anyway. This gives him six weeks instead of four weeks to get his feet wet.
Also, even though Rochester is essentially out of the playoffs, they could make things interesting if they play well the next couple of weeks. Maybe the Twins are throwing them a bone.
looks like he had to be pried out of gardy's fingers.
...which would make it seem that it was not about giving him a jolt...which makes it inexplicable again.
If it was up to Gardy he would field 25 gritty undertalented middle infieders.
He wept for three days when they didn't resign Punto.
I think you under estimated the number of days gardy cried over that move.
I was surprised Florimon wasn't starting yesterday. Was he sent straight to Seattle?
That said, Plouffe!-Carroll-Casilla bottom of the order seems a lot nicer than Dozier-Carroll-Casilla
He was in the dugout, but Dick'n'Bert mentioned that he only arrived in town a few minutes before the game started.
In other words: he starts tomorrow night.
Hey any fans of The Replacements here in the Minneapolis area? The movie about the band, "Color Me Impressed" is playing at the Parkway Friday night at 7:00. It's a onetime showing as the movie is basically on the festival tour. Also a fundraiser for local guitarist Slim Dunlap. I'm going for sure. But thought I'd let others know about it too and wanted to give a heads up prior to Friday Music Day. Bonus: They serve beer and alcohol at the Parkway.
http://www.theparkwaytheater.com/calendar.php?id=474&cmd=view
2012 Twins record for each game in a series
21-17 in the first game of a series (.552)
16-22 in the second game of a series (.421)
11-23 in the third game of a series (.324)
2-4 in the fourth game of a series.n (.333)
About what I expected, but I really expected a better W% for the first game. Felt like they've won so many more. Third game record is just awful.
In fairness, nothing could get me interested in the NFL season. But we have international friendlies today(US vs. Mexico this evening, which is never friendly), and the EPL season starts Saturday.
Dempsey isn't on the roster tonight since the EPL opener is so close. If the USa lose by less than 3-1, I'll be surprised. Coming off a gold medal at the Estadio Azteca, I just don't see the USA pulling it off with a backline with something like 6 combined caps.
I think Blatter schedules this international day just to show the clubs who's in charge.
As US fans, we know that outside of Europe it means B or C squad. It's going to be a hard game tonight, but at least there is never the expectation of winning at Azteca.
The US call-ups on defense were really underwhelming. Do many of Mexico's U23 players figure into their senior team right now? Not that I mean to underestimate Mexico, I just don't know how much winning an age-group tournament translates immediately to a senior national team.
It looks like the only non-overage player from the gold medal team with more than a handful of senior team caps is Johnny Two Saints. I wasn't necessarily talking about the team, but I was thinking maybe the fans will be all jazzed up and make Azteca even worse than normal.
True, it's not going to be much fun going up against that crowd. Unless they pull off some kind of near-miracle upset.
The US backline is getting old though. Gooch doesn't have the pace anymore. Bocanegra has been a good captain but he is getting old too. DeMerit is a favorite of mine, but he's not getting any younger either.
The defensive four in this game will all be in their mid-20s and a mix of guys playing in Mexico, Germany and the US. We'll see how terrible it is.
I didn't say terrible, just underwhelming. I understand there are reasons other players weren't selected, but I don't think the US has any particularly impressive defensive combinations at the moment.
Hey Mags, you going to do the EPL contest again this year?
Sure, why not. Post to follow.
Here's the page for the 2012-13 Prediction Contest.
Vegetarianism is a disease.
Just reading the article makes me not want to eat at all.
Funny - it made me not want to get nipped by a lone star tick.
An app that'll put AMR out of the mix-tape business.
I thought that was called "Pandora"???
Have been in an 180 BPM tracklist frenzy as am training for 1/2 marathon and our running coach is preaching the gospel of high cadence.
I have a general job application question.
The job I applied for at the MN Historical Society hasn't gotten back to me about whether they've even received my application, even though the posting said "All applications will be acknowledged" at the bottom. I mailed it on the 1st, so it should have gotten there sometime around Tuesday-Wednesday last week. I'm starting to get a little edgy that maybe it got lost in the mail or something. I want to check in on my application, but the job posting also said "No phone calls please".
I have the general HR email address from their contact page. Should I just email that and see if they've received my application? How should I word it? I don't want to be pushy in case they're working on it, but haven't gotten to me yet. Also, I don't know if the acknowledgement was going to be via email, phone, or post, so something could be in the mail for me on the way.
No phone calls doesn't mean no emails. I'd drop an email and register your concern that you hadn't received an acknowledgement.
I know every place is different but if you were applying to the UMN I would say that 2 weeks is not too long to hear anything. First, I would take it that "every application will be acknowledged" doesn't necessarily mean that you will get a note saying, application received. I would read that as you will hear from us at some point in the process, even if we don't consider you further.
I'm in the middle of my 3rd employee search committee here at the UMN. First HR gets applications and deem them to meet the minimum qualifications. Then a search committee of 4-6 people go through the resume's to determine who to interview. For the job search I am currently involved in, the job was posted in early-mid July. We received 16 resumes on Monday and next Thursday we will shortlist down to 3 to interview. So if you had applied for that job right when it was posted it would literally be 6 weeks before you hear from the UMN whether or not you'd even be interviewed. Now like I said each place is different and the UMN is large, slow and bureaucratic, but also people are busy and we have to squeeze the resume reviews, shortlist, and interviews among our other day-to-day activities for which we are paid. So I would wait at least another week or so.
Also for all of you applying for jobs. Like I said, this is my 3rd search committee in the last 6 months or so. It's an interesting process as you try to figure out who to interview based on a few paragraphs on a cover letter and 2 resume pages. Your strategy should be to really structure your submitted materials to showcase how best you fit the job requirements and then get an interview. It's the resume that gets you in the door and the interview that gets you the job, at least from what I've observed.
I agree with all of this on the glacial pace of hiring in public institutions. But an acknowledgment of receipt should be made promptly. They only promised acknowledgment of receipt, in my reading.
Yeah, I wasn't so much worried about whether I've even made it past "minimum qualification" stage. I know that takes time. I just though I'd get a "Your application arrived and is being processed" from the wording on the posting. I just worry it never arrived.
I looked at the MHS website and saw a job posting. It just says "Your application will be acknowledged." It doesn't say Receipt of your application will be acknowledged. I read this to mean that someday you will learn whether or not you were considered for the position and that silence doesn't mean rejection.
OK, cool. I'll just let 'er simmer then. Thanks for easing my mind.
Of course, that also doesn't say that they would ever contact Magoo, just that his application would be acknowledged in some fashion, such as public shaming, a bonfire, or the naming of an astronomical object after him. 😉
or the naming of an astronomical object after him
I would actually be cool with that. As long as I got some sort of acknowledgement about the acknowledgement so I'd know about what I can only assume would be my own entire galaxy, thanks to my impressive resume.
What did I do wrong?
Just go here: http://youtu.be/YSeFsX2wa
There's nothing in the comment, so I'm going to say "a lot".
Award that man a point!
Yeah... when I went back to edit it, there was nothing there. But when I posted it, I just took the embed from youtube, added the "v" to the http, and clicked Mail your Letter. Hmm, let's try it again here...
Nope, didn't work. Grr.
And now I see my stupid link doesn't work any more either. Should I be using the "old embed code" on youtube?
Test:
Let's see. I couldn't load the video myself, "validation error" according to YouTube.
Yeah, doesn't work for me.
Here's the link again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSeFsX2waus
That's why. Your original link was missing the 'us' at the end.
httpv://youtu.be/YSeFsX2waus
Do you suspect that was the same problem for the embeds? I mean, I just take the embed script straight from youtube (including the sizing, etc?) and then change the http to httpv. Right?
Correct.
That was a lot of work (and meat with a great zinger), but the pay-off of Murray running a meeting was well worth it. I love Murray's band meetings.
Germany vs. Argentina just kicked off on ESPN2 in case anyone is watching the Twins on their laptops and/or are sick of the game.
In other soccer news, Manchester United have purchased VanPersie away from Arsenal. Make note for your Prediction entries.
What's it called when one team you don't like buys a player you don't like from another team you don't like?
Arsenal are toast.
Yanquis.
And in the breaking news bar, it says that Melky Cabrera has been suspended 50 days after testing positive for testosterone.
That seems like an appeal in the making.
The announcement isn't supposed to happen until after the appeals have finished. Not that it actually happens that way though.
he's not appealing. he accepted the judgment:
that's a new one.
Holy crap. He didn't even use the ARod defense.
That's oddly refreshing.
this is a huge blow to the Gigantes, who were short on offense as it was.
From the Bee story:
In other words, "damn, they caught me."
You missed it by ---><--- that much, doc.
Melky "rBGH" Cabrera
I'm guessing many people will link Cabrera's improvement to this now.
Oooh, I know who I'm voting for in November.
It's good to see he's not giving out New York InBev product 312 anymore. Goose Island still makes great specials, but their acquisition has destroyed their wide releases for me.
I definitely hit up some damn fine non-Inbev owned breweries on Saturday. (I remembered to visit Piece at bS's recommendation). I still enjoy Goose Island brews, but I "missed" they're booth.
Damn fine Illinois breweries, that is.
Revolution, Finch's, Two Brothers, Metropolitan. Those are the four I've hit up.
The Chicago microbrew scene has exploded in the last 3 years.
my local hole has a couple wild onions (?) on tap. decent brews, those.
Oy, the comments burn my eyes.
While that is generally true and I hate you for making me read them, this comment was pretty tgood:
You probably heard this, but Manship and Perdomo are going to Rochester, Swarzak is activated, and a position player will be added before Friday.
Interesting. That sounds like moving to a 12-man bullpen. I wonder which position player it will be.
Nishi!!!!!
Don't think it can be, since he just went back down the other day. Do I dare hope it'll be Parmelee?
Fourth catcher.
A 12-man bullpen going into a 20-day 20-game stretch? I don't think so.
Staff*, not bullpen. Though I'm sure Gardy would like as many extra pitchers as he can get.
Right now King Felix has gone perfect through 6. Hellickson only has 4 hits and 0 BB for the Rays. What's the fewest combined baserunners in a game?
Two.
Danke
Seven innings and one manager ejection complete.
It's free on MLB.tv for interested viewers
F-Her!
Holy crap, the bottom fell outta that one to get Longoria.
OK, I watched the 8th. How does anyone ever get a hit off King Felix?
I was just going to say, that inning looked pretty impressive on Gameday.
That was awesome.
That would have been fun to watch.
I'm guessing kindness by the King.
Perfection!
Well, how aboot that?!
USMNT is playing a friendly at Azteca tonight. The game is on ESPN2. Is anyone else going to watch?
Definitely. Mini-discussion above.
how the hell did I miss that?
Also, Galaxy @ Crew is on NBCSports starting right now.
speaking of NBCSN, I saw where they are going to start airing CFL games. All they need is Aussie Rules football!
Of all the forms of football I've played, Aussie Rules may be my favorite.
I love watching it. its fast paced, yet rough and tumble action. Its not too hard picking up the rules.
There are rules?
plus, referees wearing smart hats.
When NBC Sports was a free over the air digital channel (4-3 here in DC) They played practically any sport they could get the rights too. It was awesome.
I wonder whether climate scientists have figured out how to include this into their models?
Answer: a qualified "yes." More evidence that the science of global warming is crappy.
This reminds me of the MythBusters episode where they tested whether it was more fuel efficient to drive with the tailgate up or down. People just assume they're smarter than the tens of thousands of other people who've worked on the problem.
King Felix's perfect game was the third time the Rays have been perfected since 2009 (4 times no hit). incredible.
For some reason, I expected to read the game story only to find out that the Mariners still lost.
I am enjoying these USA kits.
cc to free other bikers: cool helmets?
So as I was watching that, I was readying a comment to complain about artistic crap that does nothing useful, then they finally got to the application of this thing and yeah, that's pretty sweet if it works consistently like it claims. I don't think it'd change the world, or any flowery bs like they implied, since regular bike helmets really aren't that inconvenient if you ask me, but still pretty neat idea.
The video was a little irritating but the technology is pretty cool.
Yeah, I watched that earlier today. I would have liked to see more about the technology and less of the fluff.
I didn't watch the credits, didn't realize it was produced by NBC.
You just said pretty much exactly what my run-on sentences implied. My only real concern is how much testing was conducted? I could see something like that getting set off in non-accident type situations, which means you gotta buy a new one, while with a regular helmet, you pretty much know when you've landed on it and need to replace it.
I can't imagine they are inexpensive either.
since regular bike helmets really aren't that inconvenient if you ask me
This. I don't see how a bulky scarf is significantly more convenient than a bike helmet. I find wearing a helmet to be a non-issue and barely noticeable. On it goes and then I forget it until I wish the sunshade was larger.
Bern makes a pretty nifty visor for their helmets that snaps free so you can wash out the sweat stains.
What you forget is the hipsters and Karl Welzien alike think scarves look bad ass. Add in that you can't look like a bad boy with a helmet and it all makes sense.
I agree with Sean.
I have enjoyed KSK's contribution to the internet world, but I think after I've gotten to this article, I'm about done there. If you're not at least questioning your football fandom based on recent head trauma related revelations (as seems to be what Leitch is advocating in the article), there's probably something wrong with you.
yea, that's a pretty horrible piece.
'MERICA!
Love Brek Shea attacking the second he gets a chance, and a lovely backheel from Boyd. Throw it on net - good things happen.
Do you think the USMNT are going to keep some players back in the last couple of minutes?
I hope not. It'd be the conventional wisdom, but I don't like prevent defenses in any sport. Plus I want a Dos a cero score line.
HOLY MERCIFUL CRAP!
That was great. Better than great. Magnificent!
And here's hoping Ian Darke dodges the pee balloons outside the stadium.
Tim. Howard.
httpv://youtu.be/eGiYEWRzTik
CC to bs: a friend of mine is in Sac-town through next week for a wedding. Any must eat/drink places for him on his trip?
If your friend enjoys the barley pop, I would recommend a stop in at Rubicon. They tap a cask on thursdays, but it rarely lasts past friday. The pub grub is decent.
Next door to Rubicon is a fine eating establishment, The Waterboy. I've had very good meals there.
If you are looking for a burger, The Squeeze Inn is legendary. Nationwide is excellent.
the best meal I've had recently in Sac was lunch at Cafe Rolle (have some duck pate appetizer and creme brulee for dessert).
one of my favorite places is across the river in West Sac: Poojah Indian Grill. But perhaps an even better choice is just to cruise up Broadway Avenue in Sacramento. I am a fan of Fortune House Seafood Restaurant (a chinese restaurant with some but not exclusive emphasis on seafood). reasonable prices, excellent food. Get the salt shrimp (heads on!! of course). Or for the somewhat more adventurous, head down Stockton Blvd into the Little Saigon area. I had a great meal recently at Banh Cuon Tay Ho Restaurant at 65th and Stockton Blvd.
Pangea has an excellent beer selection, but is a little too hip for my age cohort. Almost as good in terms of beer selection is the Davis Beer Shoppe in Davisville, about 12 miles from downtown to the west (across the Causeway).
as for sightseeing...well...the Capitol tour is worth it, IMO. Plus, you know, free. And if your friend has the time and inclination (and the team is in town? I'd have to check), Raley Field is a great venue to enjoy some AAA baseball. The stadium is a modest walk across the beautiful Tower Bridge into West Sac. There is a very nice railroad museum in Old Sacramento, where you can burn a couple of hours if you are into that sort of thing. I'm sure I'll think of a few more things.
I have passed the info on, thanks.