109 thoughts on “February 27, 2013: Spring Training”

      1. I'm in the minority for actually liking the movie, but even I admit all tension was lost when those guys came on the screen. Awful special effects.

        1. Which one? I thought Tremors was a lot of fun when it was on cable? Fox? UPN? WB? TV every weekend. But that was a long time ago.

          1. I already said I was in the minority. No need to kick me, too!

            I thought Dean Stockwell and Bronson Pinchot were great, and helped keep my interest. The book is better because it doesn't have bad acting or bad effects.

            1. The concept was interesting to me, and I'm always up for Dean Stockwell, but yeah, the other folk (particularly the girl) just... no.

              My views were basically a slightly less histrionic version of the Nostalgia Critic's take.

            2. Was that one a full book, or a shorter story? I remember reading it, and thinking it was one of Kings' better works. It was a fairly neat idea, the story stayed tight, the ending wasn't some awful descent away from the supernatural, etc.

              1. short story (well, "novella"). ...four past midnight? *checks* yup. that was a decent collection, but no different seasons. and agreed, i liked the concept and execution a lot.

              2. Then there's his book Rose Madder, which for some reason goes from gripping realism to supernatural and ruins everything.

  2. Based on Pos's Youk/Yank HBT article yesterday, I looked up Babe Ruth's line as a Brave (which didn't compute for me because he used 92 AB when it was 92 PA):

    28 games (26 starts but only one complete game), and two PH appearances (I assume).
    92 PA, 72 AB
    20 BB, 24 K
    13 H, 0 2B, 0 3B, 6 HR, 31 TB. 2 GIDP.
    (Averaged 2.38 bases per hit)
    13 R, 12 RBI
    .181/.359/.431/.789, 119 OPS+

  3. I don't know if anyone else is still listening, but the Heidi Klum/Holocaust joak in this week's "Gleeman and the Geek" podcast has me questioning why I'm spending that much time with those guys every week.

    2. And yet, it seems that their podcast is wildly popular.

      I must be getting too old. I'm careening toward the end of the 18-54 demographic and I guess such crap is no longer something that appeals to me.

        1. I admit I watch that show (not appointment watching, but more like there are no local sports on that night)
          the show could be very good, but it wants to be Two and a Half Men but with more hipster bashing.

      2. I'm pretty smack in the middle and I've listened to about 20 minutes of Gleeman/Geek ever.

        1. With my long car rides, I am someone who would ordinarily like this. I have listened to most episodes and I like both guys personally, but man.

          1. I've found books on tape to be a delightful alternative to podcasts. Audible's not free like most podcasts are, but considering how much time I spend in the car, I don't mind spending a little for improved content.

            1. I was going to mention this, but some around here frown on the practice...or at least give reduced credit for it during our monthly book discussion.

            2. I've tried a few books on tape- it really depends on the narrator if I enjoy them or not. My biggest issue with it is that if the narration bothers me, then I don't enjoy the book.

              Still beats the pants off listening to Colin Cowherd, though.

              1. At least on Audible, there is usually (always?) an audio sample of the book, so you can get a taste of the narrator's style. I agree that the narrator can make a big difference, and not all books are well suited to the format, but I have been a big fan of audio books over the last year or so.

                1. Also can get free from your library. At least I used to when I had a 55 min commute in Minny. Now my ride is 5 clicks.

        2. I listened to the first episode, and caught one episode that they played after one of the Twins games (the one where Clete Thomas hit the home run, I think?)

    3. I've never liked the Geek, but I really wish Aaron would stick to baseball. I love his writing and thoughts about baseball. The other stuff? Not so much at all.

      1. You mean you never eagerly anticipated Friday link day filled with videos everyone on the internet had already been watching for a week and a half and creepy obsessing over scantily clad celebrities? There's no accounting for taste, I guess.

    4. Yeah, the "joak" made me shake my head. I'll still listen, because it's one day of commuting to work that I don't have to listen to something on the radio and I also get more Twins news from it than sports radio.

  5. DPWY - How is GW doing lately? I'm asking because I'm too lazy to look it up, and if they're doing poorly, I don't want this question to be taken as a slight. Also, I'm at least a little interested in pointing out that the other NCAA basketball team from D.C. is doing well of late. But they'll probably lose their next one, now that I've said this.

    1. GW is on the upswing in year two under Mike Lonergan. After the unprecedented heights of 05-06 (a top ten ranking!), Karl Hobbs was planning to jump to a bigger school, yet no one gave him the offer he wanted. Plus, the Washington Post ran a giant expose about him recruiting ineligible players (despite not noting that a school up the street had players from the exact same "phony" prep school and that JT3 actually went out and HIRED the assistant away from GW who had been doing all that recruiting), so the school clamped down on Hobbs's recruiting. He got very petulant with their meddling, and basically went out of his way to recruit choir-boys who had no business anywhere near a DI basketball game.

      Anyway, the A10 conference is at its strongest point in twenty years (the glory days of Calipari cheating, Cheney at Temple, Xavier, Yinka!), and GW is in a giant cluster of teams battling for conference tourney positioning. About two games separate the fourth team from the thirteenth. All this, while GW is starting four freshmen. The future is brighter in Foggy Bottom now than at any point since about 2008. Of course, if the Big East poaches Butler, Xavier, and ____ (St. Louis? Dayton?) away from the A10 after already snagging Temple, GW is back to square one in a mediocre conference. Yet, one more reason to hate that entitled school up the street.

      (By the way, that was just the condensed answer!)

    1. To that end, having finished season three, Linds has proclaimed it to be her favorite comedy ever, and I'm inclined to think that season three has to be one of my favorite seasons of any TV comedy ever.

      2. Season 2 is on par with Season 3. S2 had Louie CK, Tammy Swanson, Sweetums, and the Pit was still around. But, S2 also had my least favorite episode of the series with the Valentines Day episode that had John Larroquette.

        2. The Will Forte episode sucked. I can't remember much about (didn't it involve a book or something) besides the fact that it really sucked.

          1. he wanted a Twlight book in the Time Capsule
            that was bad, but it also had an angry mob town hall scene

            1. I always love the crazy town hall meetings. I do not love Will Forte, so I'm very glad something that sucked on the show was because Will Forte sucks.

              1. I'm not a huge Will Forte guy, but every time he ever showed up on Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job he was pretty spectacular. But that was probably the T&E influence.

        1. My wife generally doesn't laugh out loud at all (to the point where I wonder why comedy is one of her favorite genres, since even the movies that she considers funniest, she might laugh once or twice in - she's Mandy Moore from Scrubs without actually saying "that's so funny").

          So, when I say that she laughs out loud at least once or twice an episode, know that Parks and Recreation is some of the best comedy ever.

    2. Man, he was a beast last night. Feel like they could have won going away if they'd kept feeding it inside.

          1. Details, details*. On the season, they're only 32.6% from beyond the arc and 68.9% at the charity stripe. Last night they shot 20% from 3 (6.5 "missed" points) but 70.3% from the line.

            *but good points both.

        2. Here's a stat for you: Gophers missed 36 shots and collected 23 of them back with offensive rebounds.

          2. It was pretty great - so many second and third chance points...probably a big reason they won. If they can hang their hat on rebounds and defense, I'd say a good showing in the B1G and NCAA tournaments are a possibility.

            I may eat crow regarding Tubby, but if they do that; use this win to finish out the regular season on a run (2-3 or better) and play some good basketball in March, I'd say he's earned at least the first of those three years in his extension. If they come out flat against Penn State or Nebraska and the visit to the United Center is a short one, in my mind, all bets are off.

          3. At one point the Gophers led the nation in offensive rebounding percentage but were last in the B1G in defensive rebounding percentage.

  8. Third story on the 4 letter right now is about Lebron getting slammed for doing dunks during warm-ups. Seriously? This is close to Mauer bashing territory.

    1. Life is pretty awesome when it's time to complain that LeBron James is doing cool dunks before Heat games but not at the dunk competition. Personally, I feel that if he's unwilling to dunk in my driveway, I don't see why he should be doing it during his pre-game routine.

    2. Also, I really wish LeBron would just embrace villain status and start talking in the 3rd person.

      "LeBron dunks when LeBron wants to dunk," said James. "Next question."

  10. Dick Bremer in the booth with Cory Provus for the Twins game today instead of Gladden. The best parts of the standard Twins announcing teams. Could be interesting.

    1. A friend of mine hung out with him and his group in Murray's box in Charleston during a Riverdog's game. My friend has confirmed that Bill Murray is very, very awesome.

  16. This is probably not worth mentioning, but I found this and the linked article to be annoying. Call me a naive Rick Anderson fanboy, but I feel like anyone who was paying any attention knew that "pitch to contact" didn't mean "throw BP." I also don't think that the Twins were as fascinated with the idea as the media was fascinated with bringing it up as often as possible.

    1. I would agree, but I feel "pitch to contact" means emphasizing balls in play (preferably ground balls) at the expense of strikeouts, not "don't nibble" which is what Anderson actually wanted. I can understand the confusion about his usage of the phrase because of that, but the pitching to impact happened because of crappy pictures, not "pitch[ing] to contact".

      1. the pitching to impact happened because of crappy pictures

        You mean it's not just Butters who has the blackmail photos!?!?

      2. I guess it just seems clear to me that the only thing a pitcher can really influence is which pitch to throw and where he to throw it (presuming he has that ability in the first place), and "pitch to contact" can really only be reasonably interpreted by the pitcher as "throw more strikes" (or your phrase "don't nibble.") Will this increase balls-in-play at the expense of strikeouts? Sure, if the pitcher doesn't have good stuff, but the (supposedly universal) advice didn't seem to hurt Johan Santana's strikeout rate, for instance. It seems likely to me that the reporters had more difficulty conveying the meaning of the phrase than the pitchers had difficulty understanding the phrase.

        1. Yeah, I think it is idiotic to think any of the Twins actually didn't want pitchers to strike out batters. However, I still think "Pitch to contact" was a phrase poorly chosen. "Attack the strike zone" is much, much better. It conveys an aggressive attitude and has nothing to do with the batter.

          1. when your last few free agent pitching signings (Corriea, Jason Marquis, Carl Pavano), you give Nick Blackburn a long term deal, make Matt Capps a closer....well I just dont know how the 'pitch to contact' meme stuck.

  17. This is the last one, but if we were to have another kid, I Hinkle I'd try to convince my wife to skip the first trimester screening. It seems to produce more worry and stress than anything useful. She had it last week, and her blood test flagged the baby for a higher risk of Down syndrome. Yesterday, she went back in to get stuck with a 12 inch needle to get a placenta sample for additional, and more accurate testing. So, after a couple days of nervousness she got a call saying everything is fine and there are no genetic abnormalities.

    Moral of the story: it's gonna be a boy.

      2. Wowzers, that's an auto-correct I'll die never having figured out.

        But yeah, beer. Make sure you time that Milwaukee appearance right.

  23. Holy crap. Early in the third and Tyson chandler already has twenty rebounds. Also , Droid autocorrected Tyson to "rudiments." How awesome is that?

    1. Droid autocorrected Tyson to "rudiments."

      pfft, you're just making excuses for the percocet (in relation to a recent conversation, a young joe had that when he got all 4 of his wisdom teeth yanked out; i recall not really thinking it was affecting me at the time, but once it wore off wondering how the hell i thought that was normal).

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