Also, from the Insult to Injury Department: I woke up this morning with my big toe throbbing and swollen and hurting like a [redacted]. Symptoms are all consistent with gout. According to WebMD, it's not uncommon for people on hypertension meds and daily aspirin regimens to develop it, and I've been on both since the heart attack. So I got that going for me.
My mother-in-law has gout, and she pretty much has to avoid beef and pork. Hope you don't have the same restrictions.
For the record, I went with both the simmered-in-apple-cider and whiskey-glazed approach with the corned beef. Yeah. We'll be doing that again. Thanks guys.
No soda farts?
Screwed up the nesting. But I will make soda farts. I have two more corned beefs in the freezer.
Well, so long story short, the gathering was St Patricks/kids birthdays for the family, but the kids are both SUPER sick (which is kind of their default state these days) so we scaled down to just cake and presents. So I made our St Patrick's Day dinner on Saturday.
In fact, you could drive from Charleston, South Carolina, through Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas all the way to El Paso, and pass through only three tournament team states
Wow. You can drive through five states and only three of them have tournament teams!!!111one111!!!
Or six states.
Six states, actually. It's not that remarkable to have 3 tournament teams in 6 states, but those 6 states have 17.1% of the electoral vote (a proxy for population) and 4.7% of the tournament field. So you might (assuming the Uniform States of America instead of the United States of America) suspect that they'd have closer to 11 teams than 3.
Well, the Orioles' schedule came out first, so it seems like the NFL ought to work around that. Also, how long has the NFL opened on a Thursday? Seems like a stretch to call it a tradition for the SB champ to open the season on a Thursday.
the NFL has been doing a Thursday kickoff game for probably been 10 (maybe more) years. I probably should look it up, but from what I remember it came about because ABC was airing Monday Night Football games still and they were sick of having the last week of the season pit two terrible teams against each other (this was before Flex scheduling) so the NFL moved that last MNF game to opening weekend and have it on a Thursday.
They don't play in the same stadium. I mean they are across the street, but whats the big deal really? Can't have a baseball game and football game on the same night?
Usually I believe that law enforcement and other local authorities have some issues with two big sporting events in the same place at the same time. In Seattle, the Mariners and the Sounders generally have different start times (day/evening) when they start at the same time. And I'm not sure if this is the case in Baltimore, but in Seattle, the stadiums are near the port, and having two games on top of one another isn't great for traffic, which isn't great for the shipping industry. (This has been a point of contention with the proposed new basketball(/hockey?) arena that is supposed to go in right next to Safeco and CenturyLink fields.)
Both are near the port. But then say that in the article. Say what the fing dispute is about. I still don't see a huge disruption coming in reality but at least give that dispute.
I guess I see this more as a press release for the NFL than as an actual report. It looks pretty clear that the NFL went to the press to put pressure on the Orioles to accommodate them, since the Orioles might not want negative PR associated with the Ravens needing to start on the road or some other such nonsense.
Looks like it's the fault of both the Orioles and the Chosen People.
Partly, it's a problem of having such a packed baseball schedule that there's no room to maneuver. That Orioles game is pretty much smack in the middle of a 20-day stretch where they have no scheduled days off. If it was a getaway day game (which is usually Thursday and not Wednesday), it would probably already be scheduled as a day game, but the Orioles and MLB are correct in that there are "baseball reasons" for not wanting to play a day game on the first day that both teams fly into town after night games. Of course, no one is holding a gun to their heads to make them play night games the night before on getaway day.
Travel Tip: if you are planning a vacation in the San Diego area, you could do worse than passing through downtown La Jolla for a visit to The Public House.
I can't vouch for the food, but the beer selection (heavy on belgians and belgian-style North American ales) was excellent.
ESPN is showing Braves-Phillies this afternoon. Ben Revere!
Obviously, the Clevelands don't see what the Twins saw in Capps.
Billy Smith can bee seen sitting next to Terry Ryan trying to convince him to try to swing a trade
Is it too early to start hating Correia as a pitcher? Not for the deal, which isn't his fault, but for the fact he sucks.
I think Gleeman has a wagon ready for you.
What is "sucks"? He seems like a 0-1 WAR/year pitcher that the Twins can run into the ground without really worrying about his future. I don't see anything in spring training that really changes that. He's getting paid about what you'd expect a decent utility infielder to get paid. He's not winning the Twins the World Series this year, but personally, I'm not letting Kevin Correia interfere with my enjoyment of baseball.
his spring ERA increased to 6.46 after five starts.
I think that qualifies as "sucks." My concern is he's switching to the AL and might be struggling to avoid a negative WAR. Also, the Twins haven't had much success even being able to run veterans into the ground that have made that switch. And this has nothing to do with his contract, but the fact that I'd much rather watch just about any other young pitcher we've got just because they can provide some hope at times.
This looks like you are quoting ubes. Which you are not.
Not pumped about the big C, but that is okay this season.
Edit: Too many Twins pitchers to not be excited about this year, especially if you only want to pick one or two.
Well, I'll be pissed if Cole misses the cut.
Duderino!
There's plenty of pitchers to be excited about. Unfortunately, most of them are in the minors.
The grass is always greener down in Rochester.
That ERA is based on 15.1 innings. I'm not suggesting he'll be anything great, but nothing in his record suggests he's likely to be that bad.
I just hope he figures out the nuances of the AL strike zone soon.
Did they use the AL or NL strike zone against Miami?
ooooh, it's an MLB strike zone issue!
I'm thinking it's a Grapefruit League strike zone issue. 🙂 5.92 is his best spring training ERA the last three seasons.
It's not encouraging.
Of course not, but if his ERA was 3.00 in fifteen innings, would you conclude he'd suddenly become an all-star? His career ERA, in over a thousand innings, is 4.54. His career ERA as a starter, in nearly 900 innings, is 4.60. I know there are better indicators than ERA, but if that's what we're going to look at, I'd suggest these numbers a better indicator of what he's likely to do this year than his ERA in fifteen innings of spring training.
More like five "starts." It does not strike me as especially unusual for a 0-1 WAR pitcher to have a 6.46 ERA over 15 innings. Last year in spring training, Correia had a 7.71 ERA and went on to a 0.9 fWAR season. Maybe he'll totally blow up this year, but the last three years, he's had a consistent FIP and xFIP, so 15 innings in spring training doesn't really change that for me. If he does blow up, then someone else will be there to take his starts. He could hardly be much worse than Blackburn was last year and life went on regardless.
I don't have hope in a young pitcher unless there's actually a good reason to believe he'll succeed, and age is no guarantee of success.
He could hardly be much worse than Blackburn was last year
Thanks for the pep talk
Always happy to help.
Blackburn last year? You could play limbo with that bar.
I couldn't. Hermes, maybe.
So, about a quarter to eleven this morning, I find out that the mother of a friend of mine has passed away. About an hour later, I find out that another friend of mine had a fire at their farm and lost a barn, some hay, and quite a number of livestock. About fifteen minutes after that, I find out that the son of another friend of mine is sitting in jail after getting into a fight with his wife. About a half hour after that, I find out that yet another friend of mine has had a stroke.
Now, none of this actually happened to me, for which I am grateful, but it seems like a lot to hear about in the space of two hours. Also, since I consider all of you my friends, you might want to be a little bit careful for a while.
so, my head cold is your fault, padre!
No, sorry, that's my bad. I had it last week and must just have a really good internet connection.
Yikes. My sympathies.
Also, I had an interview today. It seemed like it went well. So... some good news?
Sounds like a terrible spot to be in - try to be aware of an additional two hours of amazing grace at some point! Also, thanks for the heads up.
My thoughts are with you Jeff, that is quite the stretch.
Sorry to hear about the run of bad luck, Padre. But on the bright side, the doctor says I don't have gout, I just have a bad case of turf toe, so that's one less thing. I haven't even seen turf for four months now, but that's the diagnosis. Rest, ice, elevation and Tylenol. I'm always up for a few days of sitting on my ass on doctor's orders.
Stuff happens.
Another example of why Joe Posnanski is a great baseball writer:
Teams make bad decisions all the time. The very smartest baseball people will make stupefying miscalculations because baseball is a hard game to predict. But the very smartest baseball people, it seems to me, will catch their mistakes earlier than others and minimize them. The Royals, too often through the years, not only failed to catch their mistakes, they indulged their mistakes, built ad campaigns around their mistakes, wrote lyric operas to their mistakes. It hasn't been much fun to watch.
"Matt Capps -- An Opera in Two Acts"
it has been very interesting to watch this dispute play out, and it appears we're entering a new area:
The Home Depot Center in LA (home of the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA amongst other things) is soon to be the StubHub Center, which I thought was a pretty hilarious development in the relationship between StubHub and pro sports teams.
I look forward to StubHub Field, home of the Mets. Maybe StubHub could buy naming rights to one of the Yankees' minor league team fields.
Volquez with a wild start to the game. The Dominican Republic team is better, but not sure if attempting to spot them a lead will make it a more even game.
not that anyone is still watching this dog of a game, but Ricky Rubio did something to his leg and limped back to the locker room
oh
Timberwolves PR @Twolves_PR
@rickyrubio9 has returned to the bench after doing some sprints back by the locker room to test out the groin. Available to return.
I'm happy they're realigning: 9 pm start time in Vancouver for a division-leading squad that has won 4 of it's past 5, 7 of 10 and put up an average of 3.7 goals in that span...and I have to get to bed. Bah!
holy crap, the Wild won in Vancouver! first time since the Jacques LeMaire era.
But the Wild had struggled in Vancouver for more than three years. The victory was the Wild's first in Vancouver since Jan. 31, 2009, ending an 11-game winless skid.
Also from that article:
Mike Yeo was feeling pumped after the "big" win in Vancouver for the first time under his guidance. In addition to crediting Backstrom for an "outstanding" effort, he praised rookies Coyle, 21, and Brodin, 19.
"There's a reason why they're on our team, and they're showing it," Yeo said.
Brodin is a Fletcher pick, Setoguchi and Coyle came in the deal he made for Burns, and Parise & Suter also came here following his efforts (and Leipold's ca$h). Still, pretty amazing to see what competence in the GM's office can bring.
Fletcher sure looks better now than he did when he traded Nick Leddy for Cam Barker (baseball equivalent is Ramos/Capps)
True. In hindsight - stupid move that one, but at least he admitted it and moved on.
Also, Cam was a 3rd overall pick and everyone (Lucia included) thought Leddy would stick with the Gophers for a few more years. Seemed like a case of moving future "unknown" assets (even with high potential) for an NHL player with some offense (40 pts in '08-09), rather than a solid D-man for the minor league/perpetual FA that Barker has become. So, not quite as bad as Ramos for Capps.
is there a link to join the Tournament thingy?
Everyone who was in it last year should have been invited automatically, but let me put it here:
http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup_assign_team?GID=24448&P=12346
Lovely commute this morning.
Also, from the Insult to Injury Department: I woke up this morning with my big toe throbbing and swollen and hurting like a [redacted]. Symptoms are all consistent with gout. According to WebMD, it's not uncommon for people on hypertension meds and daily aspirin regimens to develop it, and I've been on both since the heart attack. So I got that going for me.
My mother-in-law has gout, and she pretty much has to avoid beef and pork. Hope you don't have the same restrictions.
For the record, I went with both the simmered-in-apple-cider and whiskey-glazed approach with the corned beef. Yeah. We'll be doing that again. Thanks guys.
No soda farts?
Screwed up the nesting. But I will make soda farts. I have two more corned beefs in the freezer.
Well, so long story short, the gathering was St Patricks/kids birthdays for the family, but the kids are both SUPER sick (which is kind of their default state these days) so we scaled down to just cake and presents. So I made our St Patrick's Day dinner on Saturday.
cool map
Wow. You can drive through five states and only three of them have tournament teams!!!111one111!!!
Or six states.
Six states, actually. It's not that remarkable to have 3 tournament teams in 6 states, but those 6 states have 17.1% of the electoral vote (a proxy for population) and 4.7% of the tournament field. So you might (assuming the Uniform States of America instead of the United States of America) suspect that they'd have closer to 11 teams than 3.
the Baltimore Ravens might open the season on the road because of the Baltimore Orioles.
I dont know why it would be a problem. The NFL has shown no respect to the MLB in the last 15 years.
Well, the Orioles' schedule came out first, so it seems like the NFL ought to work around that. Also, how long has the NFL opened on a Thursday? Seems like a stretch to call it a tradition for the SB champ to open the season on a Thursday.
the NFL has been doing a Thursday kickoff game for probably been 10 (maybe more) years. I probably should look it up, but from what I remember it came about because ABC was airing Monday Night Football games still and they were sick of having the last week of the season pit two terrible teams against each other (this was before Flex scheduling) so the NFL moved that last MNF game to opening weekend and have it on a Thursday.
They don't play in the same stadium. I mean they are across the street, but whats the big deal really? Can't have a baseball game and football game on the same night?
Usually I believe that law enforcement and other local authorities have some issues with two big sporting events in the same place at the same time. In Seattle, the Mariners and the Sounders generally have different start times (day/evening) when they start at the same time. And I'm not sure if this is the case in Baltimore, but in Seattle, the stadiums are near the port, and having two games on top of one another isn't great for traffic, which isn't great for the shipping industry. (This has been a point of contention with the proposed new basketball(/hockey?) arena that is supposed to go in right next to Safeco and CenturyLink fields.)
Both are near the port. But then say that in the article. Say what the fing dispute is about. I still don't see a huge disruption coming in reality but at least give that dispute.
I guess I see this more as a press release for the NFL than as an actual report. It looks pretty clear that the NFL went to the press to put pressure on the Orioles to accommodate them, since the Orioles might not want negative PR associated with the Ravens needing to start on the road or some other such nonsense.
Looks like it's the fault of both the Orioles and the Chosen People.
Partly, it's a problem of having such a packed baseball schedule that there's no room to maneuver. That Orioles game is pretty much smack in the middle of a 20-day stretch where they have no scheduled days off. If it was a getaway day game (which is usually Thursday and not Wednesday), it would probably already be scheduled as a day game, but the Orioles and MLB are correct in that there are "baseball reasons" for not wanting to play a day game on the first day that both teams fly into town after night games. Of course, no one is holding a gun to their heads to make them play night games the night before on getaway day.
Travel Tip: if you are planning a vacation in the San Diego area, you could do worse than passing through downtown La Jolla for a visit to The Public House.
I can't vouch for the food, but the beer selection (heavy on belgians and belgian-style North American ales) was excellent.
ESPN is showing Braves-Phillies this afternoon. Ben Revere!
capps doesn't make major league roster.
Obviously, the Clevelands don't see what the Twins saw in Capps.
Billy Smith can bee seen sitting next to Terry Ryan trying to convince him to try to swing a trade
Is it too early to start hating Correia as a pitcher? Not for the deal, which isn't his fault, but for the fact he sucks.
I think Gleeman has a wagon ready for you.
What is "sucks"? He seems like a 0-1 WAR/year pitcher that the Twins can run into the ground without really worrying about his future. I don't see anything in spring training that really changes that. He's getting paid about what you'd expect a decent utility infielder to get paid. He's not winning the Twins the World Series this year, but personally, I'm not letting Kevin Correia interfere with my enjoyment of baseball.
I think that qualifies as "sucks." My concern is he's switching to the AL and might be struggling to avoid a negative WAR. Also, the Twins haven't had much success even being able to run veterans into the ground that have made that switch. And this has nothing to do with his contract, but the fact that I'd much rather watch just about any other young pitcher we've got just because they can provide some hope at times.
This looks like you are quoting ubes. Which you are not.
Not pumped about the big C, but that is okay this season.
Edit: Too many Twins pitchers to not be excited about this year, especially if you only want to pick one or two.
Well, I'll be pissed if Cole misses the cut.
Duderino!
There's plenty of pitchers to be excited about. Unfortunately, most of them are in the minors.
The grass is always greener down in Rochester.
That ERA is based on 15.1 innings. I'm not suggesting he'll be anything great, but nothing in his record suggests he's likely to be that bad.
I just hope he figures out the nuances of the AL strike zone soon.
Did they use the AL or NL strike zone against Miami?
ooooh, it's an MLB strike zone issue!
I'm thinking it's a Grapefruit League strike zone issue. 🙂 5.92 is his best spring training ERA the last three seasons.
It's not encouraging.
Of course not, but if his ERA was 3.00 in fifteen innings, would you conclude he'd suddenly become an all-star? His career ERA, in over a thousand innings, is 4.54. His career ERA as a starter, in nearly 900 innings, is 4.60. I know there are better indicators than ERA, but if that's what we're going to look at, I'd suggest these numbers a better indicator of what he's likely to do this year than his ERA in fifteen innings of spring training.
More like five "starts." It does not strike me as especially unusual for a 0-1 WAR pitcher to have a 6.46 ERA over 15 innings. Last year in spring training, Correia had a 7.71 ERA and went on to a 0.9 fWAR season. Maybe he'll totally blow up this year, but the last three years, he's had a consistent FIP and xFIP, so 15 innings in spring training doesn't really change that for me. If he does blow up, then someone else will be there to take his starts. He could hardly be much worse than Blackburn was last year and life went on regardless.
I don't have hope in a young pitcher unless there's actually a good reason to believe he'll succeed, and age is no guarantee of success.
Thanks for the pep talk
Always happy to help.
Blackburn last year? You could play limbo with that bar.
I couldn't. Hermes, maybe.
So, about a quarter to eleven this morning, I find out that the mother of a friend of mine has passed away. About an hour later, I find out that another friend of mine had a fire at their farm and lost a barn, some hay, and quite a number of livestock. About fifteen minutes after that, I find out that the son of another friend of mine is sitting in jail after getting into a fight with his wife. About a half hour after that, I find out that yet another friend of mine has had a stroke.
Now, none of this actually happened to me, for which I am grateful, but it seems like a lot to hear about in the space of two hours. Also, since I consider all of you my friends, you might want to be a little bit careful for a while.
so, my head cold is your fault, padre!
No, sorry, that's my bad. I had it last week and must just have a really good internet connection.
Yikes. My sympathies.
Also, I had an interview today. It seemed like it went well. So... some good news?
Sounds like a terrible spot to be in - try to be aware of an additional two hours of amazing grace at some point! Also, thanks for the heads up.
My thoughts are with you Jeff, that is quite the stretch.
Sorry to hear about the run of bad luck, Padre. But on the bright side, the doctor says I don't have gout, I just have a bad case of turf toe, so that's one less thing. I haven't even seen turf for four months now, but that's the diagnosis. Rest, ice, elevation and Tylenol. I'm always up for a few days of sitting on my ass on doctor's orders.
Stuff happens.
Another example of why Joe Posnanski is a great baseball writer:
"Matt Capps -- An Opera in Two Acts"
it has been very interesting to watch this dispute play out, and it appears we're entering a new area:
The Yankees sue StubHub over store near Yankee Stadium
The Home Depot Center in LA (home of the LA Galaxy and Chivas USA amongst other things) is soon to be the StubHub Center, which I thought was a pretty hilarious development in the relationship between StubHub and pro sports teams.
I look forward to StubHub Field, home of the Mets. Maybe StubHub could buy naming rights to one of the Yankees' minor league team fields.
Scott Baker has a sore elbow
eeep
The billy goat got him.
Volquez with a wild start to the game. The Dominican Republic team is better, but not sure if attempting to spot them a lead will make it a more even game.
not that anyone is still watching this dog of a game, but Ricky Rubio did something to his leg and limped back to the locker room
oh
I'm happy they're realigning: 9 pm start time in Vancouver for a division-leading squad that has won 4 of it's past 5, 7 of 10 and put up an average of 3.7 goals in that span...and I have to get to bed. Bah!
holy crap, the Wild won in Vancouver! first time since the Jacques LeMaire era.
Awesome - 8 of 11 and 3 more goals! To your point:
Also from that article:
Brodin is a Fletcher pick, Setoguchi and Coyle came in the deal he made for Burns, and Parise & Suter also came here following his efforts (and Leipold's ca$h). Still, pretty amazing to see what competence in the GM's office can bring.
Fletcher sure looks better now than he did when he traded Nick Leddy for Cam Barker (baseball equivalent is Ramos/Capps)
True. In hindsight - stupid move that one, but at least he admitted it and moved on.
Also, Cam was a 3rd overall pick and everyone (Lucia included) thought Leddy would stick with the Gophers for a few more years. Seemed like a case of moving future "unknown" assets (even with high potential) for an NHL player with some offense (40 pts in '08-09), rather than a solid D-man for the minor league/perpetual FA that Barker has become. So, not quite as bad as Ramos for Capps.