99 thoughts on “February 8, 2013: Let this be the day…”

  1. More Real Dick Bremer reading like Fake Dick Bremer:


    I don't know why this fascinates me so. Is he trying to neutralize Fake Bremer?

    2. I am stunned that Bremer doesn't comprehend the business side of baseball. Or, for Griffey, the talent side.

  2. The Minnesota Empire Builders got blitzed in game four of the 1978 World Series and lost, 8-6, despite a late comeback. In Game Five, Minnesota blew a 5-1 lead in the sixth inning including allowing four runs in the bottom of the eighth to lose, 8-5, and fall behind three games to two. With their backs against the wall, Bert went the distance in Game Six securing a 3-1 win. His postseason line: 5 games, 5 complete games, 4-1, 2.25 ERA, 46:5 K:BB ratio. Studly. Game Seven tonight: Steve Carlton for Denver against Steve Rogers for Minnesota.

    1. Cementing Bert's obvious HOF credentials. The only question being whether he's a first-ballotter or second.

  3. For some reason I posted this in WGOM fitness:

    If MLB jerseys were soccer kits finally hit the AL Central.

    I'm not a big jersey guy (more of a sweatshirt guy). In fact I don't think I've ever owned a jersey for any sport, but I would buy that Twins kit.

    4. that looks awesome.

      MLB should seriously look into selling these (not wearing them on the field though).

    5. I've been looking forward to this installment, and will admit I'm a little disappointed:

      First, the “fresh air” idea. I tried to represent that “breath of crisp, clean spring air” feeling with the simple, lightweight tones of white and very bright grey.

      I appreciate the intention here, but I don't know a single Minnesotan who would associate white and grey as evocative of spring.

  4. So... last night, my brother - who has Cystic Fibrosis - was told his "Make A Wish" was granted. Everyone who still lives at home is being flown to Hawaii sometime this summer (that's 7 people). Holy crap.

      1. I think my 7-year-old brother was the most excited. I've wanted to go to Hawaii for quite a while now. Oh well.

      1. Looks like they're now thinking the storm will go farther south than they thought last night. Last night, Sioux Falls TV said they didn't think they'd get much. Now, they're thinking they'll get a blizzard.

    2. If it's a monster blizzard, the names should be names of monsters.

      Animal
      Bigfoot
      Cyclops
      Dracula
      E ???
      Frankenstein's
      Godzilla
      H ???

      (Half-baked, I know of no monsters.)

    3. So, have shoveled the sidewalk 3 times already, laid down the salt, and now will just let it happen. Got the prepper station going, water, canned food, fruit, cheese, sausage, crackers... We are supposed to get high winds later with the snow. Natch.

  6. The Wolves released Lou Amundson and signed their two 10 day guys for the rest of the season. cheaptoy, I just know you are devastated.

      1. More imporantly, who ascends to the role of human victory cigar? Not that this is a problem that they will likely have too often with half the team being injured.

        1. Stiemsma? Oh please let it be Steimsma. (I imagine it'll be CJ though, what with all the recent DNPs.)

          1. I dont understand why Rick Adelman is benching Chris Johnson.
            Does he miss benching DWill that much?

    1. The speculation was that Saunders wanted a two-year deal, right? But, then he signs a one-year deal with Mariners. The Twins obviously were hoping he had no other offers so that he'd sign their low-ball offer.

      I could be wrong.

      1. I guessing you are right.

        For me, its 'meh'. If he would of signed with the Twins (for a decent price) it would of been cool. Its cool that he is signing with another team.

      2. All things being equal, if I were a pitcher, I would rather pitch for the M's on a one-year deal because of the ballpark and probably better defense. I would imagine his family is in SoCal or Arizona, so probably wanted to stay on the West Coast as well.

      1. What are the odds that Gleeman starts talking about the Kevin Correia deal in his next podcast again? I'm saying it's like 1:5.

        3. I don't get the obsession with the Correia deal. Is it just that not much else has happened? Or that the Revere/Span deals have pretty obvious upsides so it's not worth doting on them? While I agree that you wouldn't want to build an entire roster around giving the Kevin Correias of the world $10M/2yr, that particular deal just doesn't bother me that much. And FWIW:

          Pitcher A/B
          4.50/4.06 2009 xFIP
          4.38/4.38 2010 xFIP
          4.25/4.34 2011 xFIP
          88.9/90.3 (mph) FB speed, 2011

          The two pitchers are born within a year of each other. 589.3 IP for Pitcher A and 470.0 IP for Pitcher B. $6-7M/1yr for one of the pitchers (who will leave if he has a decent season) and $10M/2yr for the other. I just don't feel like the numbers are that strongly anti-Correia to go on and on about that contract, considering he's being paid for basically 1 WAR/year.

          The 2013 Twins aren't going to be very good, but Correia's not going to make the Top 10 list for how they came to be a poor team.

          2. You either fill 1:45 a week talking about Correia or you spend it talking about how few miles are on your car.

            I'm totally over the Correia signing, too. He's going to be sucktastic for a couple of years. So are the Twins. It's all about 2015 and beyond.

            However, if you are invested in the 2013 Twins, I could see being less than enamored with their pitching options. Plus, if you think that there are going to be young guys around to pitch in 2014, blocking them with Correia might not be a great thing. But, yes, the discussion on that deal has been disproportionate to what it deserves. I'm just saying that this signing will ignite the discussion again.

            1. I totally agree with you that this will ignite the discussion again, for those who are so inclined.

              Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age (31 revolutions around the sun as of today), but I have less time for arguments against player moves that have more to do with style than substance. Sure, Correia's going to be a pretty boring pitcher--2/3rds of his pitches last year were fastballs or cutters--but I don't really mind a boring pitcher, at least if he isn't taking an hour between pitches. Correia seems pretty similar to Jeff Suppan back in 2007 when the Brewers gave him 4yr/$42M, but that's a much different contract. Had the Brewers given Suppan $10M/2yr, it would've arguably been a great deal. Same thing with, say, Carlos Silva and the Mariners back in 2008. 4yr/$48M for that kind of pitcher is a contract worth some noise. The Mariners would've been completely justified giving Silva 2yr/$10M, though.

              You either fill 1:45 a week talking about Correia or you spend it talking about how few miles are on your car.

              He could talk about how Revere turned out to be a great pick in a year where the Twins' major league payroll constrained their draft bonus budget, and how the Revere-for-Worley/May trade is a great example of how worrying about positional needs in the draft is silly. Similarly, the Span pick was panned for years and he turned into quite a valuable player. (And how the LASIK angle is way overplayed w/r/t Span.) If the Twins turn things around it'll be because they've finally started getting some value out of the draft again. Of course, it's a harder to get really premium talent in the second half of the first round than the first half of the draft.

              '01 -- Mauer, Blackburn, Morales (remember when the world was going to end because the Twins sent Morales to Colorado?)
              '02 -- Span, Crain, Neshek
              '03 -- Baker
              '04 -- Plouffe, Perkins, Waldrop, Swarzak (who collectively haven't done much yet)
              '05 -- Garza, Slowey, Duensing
              '06 -- Valencia, Parmelee, Benson, Manship, Dinkelman (Collectively -1.4 rWAR so far)
              '07 -- Revere (not seeing anyone else coming out of that class, yuck)

              I wouldn't expect much yield yet from the more recent classes, and some of the guys from '06 have limited potential, but the Twins don't have very good lasting returns from '01 to '05. Crain, Neshek, Baker, Garza, and Slowey have no residual value to the team (the way, that say, Chuck Knoblauch had loads of value even when he was long since traded.) That leaves Mauer, Blackburn, Alex Meyer, Perkins, and if you're optimistic, Plouffe, Waldrop, and Swarzak as contributors from '01-'05.

              If you compare to, say, the 2003 Twins. From '91, they had Radke, Hawkins, and Rick Reed was still around from the Lawton trade. From '93, they had Hunter. From '94, they had Pierzynski and Koskie. And from '95, they had Mientkiewicz. Roughly speaking, I'd say:

              Mauer ~= Radke after contracts are considered
              Hawkins ~= Perkins
              Rick Reed > Blackburn
              Koskie > Plouffe
              Hunter > Meyer (even though I like Meyer)
              Mientkiewicz > Waldrop
              Pierzynski > Swarzak

              That probably goes a fair bit towards explaining why 2003 was more fun than 2013 is going to be.

              Anyway, I digress.

                2. Thanks! And thanks for the enthusiasm for a podcast, but I think an ubelmann podcast would probably be either a really boring podcast or released on a really irregular basis.

              4. I was just thinking about how we hadn't heard from you in a long time, ubes. Hope this means you'll come around more often now. And, happy birthday! I'll add you to the list for next year!

            1. Thanks, life is good. I've been on one of my periodic blog-commenting hiatuses. I still lurk about these parts when I get the chance, though.

              Lots of skiing so far this winter and otherwise doing what I can to take care of myself (exercise, nutrition, etc.) Listened to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon as an audiobook in January (during my commute), big thumbs up. Other thumbs up: Lincoln and Les Miserables (though I don't think I'd really go out of my way to see either.) Didn't really care for the way that Anna Karenina was staged, though I could see it working for some. I also read David Servan-Schreiber's book Anticancer, which seemed like a worthwhile read.

        4. Funny, I just unfollowed him on Twitter (I'm sure he's broken up about it). Maybe I'll reup when baseball season starts or maybe I'll just rely on others to retweet anything worthwhile.

      1. Does the agent get his cut up front? Or would it be per-paycheck? Regardless, this makes a ton of sense for Boras to do.

      2. As someone else said in the comments:

        Old Gator - Feb 8, 2013 at 1:26 PM
        Phooey. I can get you Canadian HGH at a fraction of the price for which Boras will be selling it.

        paint771 - Feb 8, 2013 at 1:35 PM
        Poutine?

        Old Gator - Feb 8, 2013 at 2:46 PM
        The idea is to improve performance, not harden their arteries.

        hockeyflow33 - Feb 8, 2013 at 2:52 PM
        The only muscle that strengthens is your sphincter

        I had to choke back my diet coke to keep from spraying my entire cubicle.

    1. I don't know, is Anna Karenina worse as a novel than it was as a serial publication? I've thought about this before, and I think I'm kind of agnostic about it. Each format has its advantages. From the standpoint of attracting more viewers, I feel like the serial format is probably better for generating buzz, but these days I couldn't tell you the time slot of a single show in prime time, and I think I'm pretty happy with that from a personal standpoint.

    1. I always wonder about the materials that go into making solar panels and how expensive/scarce those might become if you really scale up solar power. That's not to say it has no place in our energy mix, but I do wonder.

    1. Around dawn, Visger's right arm began curling up to his armpit -- focal point paralysis. Hunched over a bowl, vomiting blood, he straightened it out with his left hand, then collapsed on his bed. I'm dying, he thought. If those guys come back, I'll let them take me to the hospital. But I won't ask.

      Why not?

      "I didn't want to be a freakin' p---y," Visger says.

    2. Holy crap. After reading a story like that, I'm not sure I can ever watch another minute of football agsin.

  12. Just got back from Normal, IL where we attended the funeral of a good friend's father. Gotta say, it's really touching when the flag is presented to the widow.

  13. Watching a Tour de France Pro-Form bike commercial.

    NBBW opines that you would need to go with the injectible saddle option. +10.

    1. thanks for the link

      does anyone play the online version? Is it worth buying?
      I own a 2007 Strat board game, but my circle of friends kinda stopped playing when they got real lives and kids and all that. I play a few games by myself (one of the great things about Strat, imo) but its not the same.

    2. I played hours and hours and hours of Strat-o-Matic when I was younger. I'd love to do it again, but I just don't have the time any more.

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