34 thoughts on “August 19, 2012: Options”

    1. Ooh, goody. Jeff Novitzky is on the case. I can't wait for this to now drag on for a decade and cost a billion dollars while ultimately accomplishing nothing. I wonder which laws Novitzky will violate in his mission to nail Cabrera.

      1. Oh, come on. Let's keep this in perspective. It's not like the country or any professional sports organization has bigger problems to deal with right now.

    2. I think it's funny that for decades and decades, the conventional wisdom in baseball was that strength training was bad, and getting stronger would get you hurt. Now if you try to get stronger using drugs, the conventional wisdom is that you've given yourself a huge advantage over everyone else.

  1. At least I've got a winning team there to tide me over until basketball season.

    Shhh, don't tell Meat, Homer Dome, FTLT, or Pirate. Or Mags.

      1. watched the replay of West Bron vs. Liverpool last night when I was, umm, excused from the computer by the Girl and therefore could not listen to the Twins game. West Bron pretty much abused the puddlians.

    1. Scratched off one trip to the northeast at least. Newcastle and Sunderland are both hard places to play.

      And Mags's team is well on their way to a title with a 5-0 victory yesterday. 🙂

  2. I happen to have SportsCenter on this morning while reading the paper, and they did a story about how bad it is for the Red Sox right now (boo hoo). Its nothing new or ESPN of course, but something in the story made me angry. The narrator said 'The Red Sox mean so much to the fans...blah blah blah' Oh, so the Red Sox are the only team in baseball that fans are allowed to happen deep passion about. I see. I'll turn in my Twins Fan Club membership card right away.

    ESPN is the worst.

    1. I don't really mind when sports commentators are fans of certain teams, but when an entire company that bills itself as "the worldwide leader in sports" shows such favoritism, I lose a lot of interest in anything they have produce.

  3. Foot and Ballers, I moved the draft to two weeks from tonight (September 2nd). FTLT, I hope it doesn't interfere. I figured moving it to another Sunday night made the most sense for us.

  4. Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony saw (Barrios) pitch in the GCL, and liked what he saw from the 18-year-old Puerto Rico native.

    "He's the best-looking pitching prospect that we've drafted in a long time, for me," Antony said. "He pitches and has a mound presence of a college guy. He's got good stuff, really good. He was sitting at 93-94 and touching 96. He's got a good breaking ball. Throws strikes, gets ahead in the count, can put people away, he doesn't pick at the zone at all."

    Comparing him to a college guy is huge. The Twins have never had a problem moving a college pitcher quickly through the system. Barrios could easily start next season in Beloit. Do I dare dream of him being up in 2014? That would be sweet.

    1. Another thought. The Twins have had a hard time keeping top pitching prospects from college healthy. I wonder if there is an abuse of young arms in college that you wouldn't see if the guy skips college and goes directly to the pros where they can ease him in and make sure he's using proper mechanics.

      1. I don't think anyone really has the secret to injury-free mechanics, but I'm sure that minor league pitchers have their workload managed a lot better than many college pitchers.

        1. A co-worker of mine in Omerha played college ball, and he MUCH prefers pitchers to go through college before hitting pros; it's his opinion that their arms are more prepared for the increased innings going that route. He seems to trust the colleges more than the minor league system.

          1. No way. The colleges are only thinking of winning. In the minor leagues, development comes first. Pitchers are put on strict pitch counts. The major league teams have invested in the long-term future of these players. They want to make sure they are healthy and productive through their arbitration years.

    2. He's only got 25 innings pitched so far, but it'd be hard not to like 15 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 with no HR allowed.

    3. He's been awesome in two starts at Elizabethton, too (9 IP, 0 R, 3H, 1W, 16K). It's only nine innings, of course, but unless something happens to him, I'd say Beloit is the lowest he'll be starting next year.

    1. Reading that Ron Coomer is friends with Eddie Vedder had to be the most shocking thing I read in the Sunday paper.

  5. I rode a used Specialized Sirrus Sport at the bike store today when I was in Des Moines. It was easily the nicest bike I've ever ridden in my life, and it's not even really that high-end. Just better than a used mountain bike from the bike collective. I fear I'm a bit spoiled now.

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