Twins win, Wild win, Chelsea beats Man U, Pacers beat Knicks.
72 thoughts on “May 6, 2013: Success!”
...And I finally made it to Bangkok. Of course, my hotel reservation had been cancelled because I had no means of contacting them to let them know I wouldn't be here one day earlier, but I was forunate that there was a room open. Now, on to the Thai food.
Jim Thompson house (silk importer) was a cool tour. Dude just disappeared.
Also, a huge reclining Buddha somewhere in town, forget where.
This morning I heard the lone guy that didn't vote for LBJ for MVP on Mike and Mike try to justify his vote with the old canard that most valuable means something different than best player. He also said that he didn't think he'd be the only one -- he figured other guys would be voting for people other than LBJ, who he admitted was clearly the best player in the game. He also said that he could win it every year, which was some sort of justification for not giving it to him. After all, Barkley won it when Jordan was better and so did Karl Malone! Yeah, don't those votes look stupid now.
In a different kind of MVP voting stupidity, 2006 always stands out to me. Both Howard and Morneau weren't even the most valuable player on their team, but managed to win the league MVP vote.
Morneau was third most valuable on that 2006 Twins team. That was a complete joke.
That season, Shaq led the league in FG, FG%, FTA, PTS, PPG, PER, effective FG pct, Win Shares, Offensive Win Shares, Defensive Win Shares, and WS/48. He was Player of the Month three times. He finished second in the voting for Defensive POY. He was 2nd in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, and total rebounds, 3rd in blocks.
That was dumb. The NBA has NEVER had a unanimous MVP. How could Jordan, at his peak, not have garnered a unanimous MVP vote?
Sportswriters are dumb.
Do you really feel that LBJ deserves to be the first unanimous MVP? If Shaq didn't win in 2000, how can LBJ claim to be better than that?
/Baseball HOF voting argument
Nicely done.
Jordan's MVP year first-place votes
1998: 92 of 116 (Karl Malone got 20, the Glove got 3, Shaq one)
1996: 109 of 113 (Penny 2, Hakeem 1, Karl 1)
1992: 80 of 96 (Clyde 12, Admiral 2, Karl 1, Scottie Pippen!!! 1)
1991: 77 of 96 (Magic 10, Admiral 6, Chuckster 2, Clyde 1)
1988: 47 of 90 (Bird 16, Magic 16, Chuckster 1)
Does this Astros team have the staying power to challenge the ’62 Mets? They did show something over the weekend, first losing a hard-fought 4-3 game to Detroit and then losing 17-2 and 9-0. They have given up seven or more runs 15 times already. Their record when they allow four-plus runs is a choice 1-23, which shows a certain team effort. But it’s a long season. And it’s hard to maintain this kind of bad.
They have a ton of games with three really good teams in the A's, Angels (yes, I know), and Rangers. This team could get to 120 losses.
And even though the Mariners aren't good, they don't seem as bad as the last couple of years and I think they could give the Astros plenty of trouble.
I don't know about their farm system, but you would think they would have some kids ready to come up June 1 after they get past the Super 2 "deadline." That could help them pick up a few extra wins.
there was some interest earlier, but i thought i'd try to drum up a little more for some sized caucus on may 18th. anytime during the day would work for me, and while i'd like to keep it in the general minneapolis area, i'd be open to most anything.
any ideas on venues? if it's evening-ish, might as well be some place with a TV.
Take Sir Ben Kingsley, for example, who plays the nefarious and mysterious international terrorist known as the Mandarin. Kingsley may have won an Oscar for playing Indian civil rights leader Mohandas Gandhi in the 1982 biopic "Gandhi," but he can't tell you how Gandhi would have thought about the Mandarin. "I haven't the faintest idea," Kingsley told us at the "Iron Man 3" press junket. "If I answered that, it would imply that I could think as my characters; I don't. I just pretend between action and cut to bring something to the screen that I hope an audience will love watching. There's no transformation at all. I'm not that kind of a method actor."
I always thought of him as just that kind of method actor, I guess because of the wide range of characters he's played.
Kingsley's career backs up this attitude. He's played some great roles, and some really dog ones (Bloodrayne? The Love Guru? etc.)
Yeah, his career is strange, and so is he. I don't really like his process (or lack of one, I guess), but I typically like him. He makes it sound so easy...there are a very small number of actors who can do that without some sort of transformation.
You forgot to say how Mauer is the worst. Seriously, though, these are good articles. Keep it up.
Thanks.
I like to read the articles for Socal's viewpoints, and then I read the comments for the laughs. Well, sometimes I just sit there in horrified silence wondering where these people come from, but most of the time, it's laughter.
Seriously- 86 comments (when I read it) is a pretty good sign that you're reaching quite a few people, right?
Hey brianS, I'm feeling this sudden need to discuss all things bookish. 😉
I stepped on bS's toes and put something up. He can feel free to delete/add to/revise it should he so desire.
no toes stepped on. My cupboard was bare. Much appreciated, DG. cheetah's CAN prosper.
Kevin Durant is 4-for-4 attempting go-ahead field goals in the final 24 seconds of 4th quarter in last 2 playoffs; rest of NBA is 2-for-23.
Slowey is 7th in the NL in ERA and 8th in WHIP. No, I don't expect him to pitch this well all season, but he's certainly not an embarrassment to have on the roster.
He's also tied for 7th in xFIP and 8th in WAR. This has been legit, at least can't really be considered all that "lucky."
That was Slowey's first win since Sept. 18, 2010.
This is classic:
How Slowey returned to the Minors is a sordid tale, one that is difficult to express clearly and without constant metaphor. A Pittsburgh-native, Slowey was known for his steely demeanor and nerdish leanings. His book learning was frowned upon and his intelligent manner of communicating was spat upon with the disdain of many generations of Proletariat backlash. That Slowey was smarter than those in the room was a demon that seethed within his belly, lashing out repeatedly when Slowey was forced to interact with members of the Media and clownish teammates.
I think what gets lost amongst a good share of Vikings fans (or at least the ones on my Twitter feed and the retweets of others) in the Kluwe move is that Kluwe makes more money than he is worth
2012 punting stats for punters with >16 punts [note: these are fast-and-dirty unweighted league stats; averages of averages]:
Dude
Gross Avg
Inside 20
Net Avg
League Avg
45.9
26.9
39.6
League Median
46.4
27
39.8
Chris Kluwe
45.0
18
39.7
Kluwe (and the Vikings) ranked 24th in gross punting average, 31st in number of punts inside the 20, and 18th in net punting average last year at 39.7 among punters with more than 16 punts (only Dallas and Philly had two punters with double-digit punts; the lesser or which had 12 and 16 punts, respectively). So, somewhat below average on the year in these three categories.
Gross is a product of Kluwe's kicking, the quality of the long-snapping, and field position, so it's not all on his shoulders. But it mostly is on his shoulders, particularly when noting that he was well below average in number of punts inside the 20, but 20th in number of punts [add: he had only 2 touchbacks on the year, which suggests that he had few "opportunities" to overkick the red zone].
Among full-time punters, Kluwe was last in the ratio of punts to punts placed inside the 20 (25 pct, compared to an average of about 35 percent). Again, without knowing field positions, it is hard to fully evaluate that number, but it doesn't look very good.
I remember a large number of "what in the heck was that?!" punts (especially at the beginning of the year). I think Kluwe is pretty awesome, but I'm not entirely sad that he's not going to be punting for the Vikings anymore.
I wish there were more stats available about punters. His numbers seem average at best, but it would be nice to know the starting point. I wonder if he started farther back due to bad offense or if it didn't matter that much.
I wonder how the Vikings ranked on 3 & outs? That could give some idea of how many opportunities he had for kicks inside the 20.
one more reason why baseball is better than football: there are 50 website devoted to breaking down statistics, creating metrics, and all that jazz. I found it really hard to find anything for advanced metrics in the NFL.
so little of the meaningful action in football results in officially recorded statistical events that can be attributed to one individual that it is really hard to collect appropriate stats. Any given running or passing play depends critically on the respective performances (and interactions) of more than half of the players on the field. Disentangling interactions to get measurable events associated with individuals is hard work.
Sure, but there are a dearth of group stats for many positions. And I think punter counts as a position that is largely just that individual.
I agree with that sentiment about punters (and kickers). But you aren't gonna easily get meaningful stats for individual linemen, especially offensive linemen. And the offensive line is almost half of the offense on the field at one time.
Hockey and basketball have similar difficulties, but have much, much richer sets of individual(ized) stats with which to evaluate individuals.
You know, it wouldn't be that hard (in principle) to measure the punting game. Just give me a big spreadsheet of Expected Points by starting field position, then calculate the reduction in Expected Points from the line of scrimmage for the punt to the line of scrimmage for the next play (crediting for punt returns for TDs, of course).
I'm not sure what this is measuring. I think bS's method would be the simplest and best way to evaluate punters.
I thin freealonzo owes us a story about how he lost all that weight on raspberry drops. 😉
Thankfully when my Facebook account gets hacked its something innocuous like raspberry drops.
I just like seeing the Fox News logo under your picture!
Totally the best way ever to avoid police detection for your anti-government violent plans is by flying the American flag upside-down.
Flag Code 8a:
"The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
Not sure if police check if they see a flag flying upside-down, but I'd think they should or at least would have a valid reason to do so.
Why is it when someone is pitching well, like Clay Buchholz, so called baseball experts say he is doctoring the ball? Verlander too?— Bert Blyleven (@BertBlyleven28) May 6, 2013
Does Bert realize the "so-called baseball expert" was Jack Morris?
I was wondering what people thought about a moratorium on critiquing the hometown announcers during the game logs. Don't get me wrong; I can't stand to listen to Bremer, Blyleven, and Dazzle as much as the next Gomer. But we already have to deal with a struggling franchise and bashing the announcers feel like piling on low-hanging fruit. The last couple of games I've watched I've resisted copy/pasting one of their comments and going all FJM on it and it's made my day more enjoyable.
Just a thought.
I'm thinking I might have difficulty honoring such a moratorium. I don't rag on Dick and Bert that often, but every once in a while one of them says something so stupid it just can't be ignored.
I never listen to them anymore - I only listen to music or other things during Twins, and almost all other sports, games - but I enjoy reading people pointing out the particularly dumb things they say.
This sounds like one of those things that is worth mentioning, but not worth trying to enforce.
I don't get too wound up about Twins games these days. Briefly excited when they do well, briefly bummed when they don't. It's just entertainment. Take the same approach to the commentary. Save your energy for correcting mistakes on the internet!
If I'm spending my time correcting people on the internet, I'm joining Paul Lukas in his cause.
...And I finally made it to Bangkok. Of course, my hotel reservation had been cancelled because I had no means of contacting them to let them know I wouldn't be here one day earlier, but I was forunate that there was a room open. Now, on to the Thai food.
Jim Thompson house (silk importer) was a cool tour. Dude just disappeared.
Also, a huge reclining Buddha somewhere in town, forget where.
This morning I heard the lone guy that didn't vote for LBJ for MVP on Mike and Mike try to justify his vote with the old canard that most valuable means something different than best player. He also said that he didn't think he'd be the only one -- he figured other guys would be voting for people other than LBJ, who he admitted was clearly the best player in the game. He also said that he could win it every year, which was some sort of justification for not giving it to him. After all, Barkley won it when Jordan was better and so did Karl Malone! Yeah, don't those votes look stupid now.
Cue the circus music, clown.
There are precedents.
In a different kind of MVP voting stupidity, 2006 always stands out to me. Both Howard and Morneau weren't even the most valuable player on their team, but managed to win the league MVP vote.
Morneau was third most valuable on that 2006 Twins team. That was a complete joke.
In 2000, Shaq received all but one first-place vote for MVP. The other went to Allen Iverson, who finished seventh in the voting.
That season, Shaq led the league in FG, FG%, FTA, PTS, PPG, PER, effective FG pct, Win Shares, Offensive Win Shares, Defensive Win Shares, and WS/48. He was Player of the Month three times. He finished second in the voting for Defensive POY. He was 2nd in offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, and total rebounds, 3rd in blocks.
That was dumb. The NBA has NEVER had a unanimous MVP. How could Jordan, at his peak, not have garnered a unanimous MVP vote?
Sportswriters are dumb.
Do you really feel that LBJ deserves to be the first unanimous MVP? If Shaq didn't win in 2000, how can LBJ claim to be better than that?
/Baseball HOF voting argument
Nicely done.
Jordan's MVP year first-place votes
1998: 92 of 116 (Karl Malone got 20, the Glove got 3, Shaq one)
1996: 109 of 113 (Penny 2, Hakeem 1, Karl 1)
1992: 80 of 96 (Clyde 12, Admiral 2, Karl 1, Scottie Pippen!!! 1)
1991: 77 of 96 (Magic 10, Admiral 6, Chuckster 2, Clyde 1)
1988: 47 of 90 (Bird 16, Magic 16, Chuckster 1)
Scottie Pippen. That's a joke, right?
It certainly reads like one.
basketball's Shannon Stewart!!
Zach Lowe knocks down the "most valuable" strawman.
RIP, Curtis "Boo-Boo" Rouse. When I heard he'd died, I thought he was younger than me, but no, slightly older.
not to make light of Boo-Boo's demise, but that story led me to this delicious one. Local newspapers really know how to get to the meat of a story.
Another former NFL player dies young. This is a trend that is getting harder and harder to ignore.
JoePos:
They have a ton of games with three really good teams in the A's, Angels (yes, I know), and Rangers. This team could get to 120 losses.
And even though the Mariners aren't good, they don't seem as bad as the last couple of years and I think they could give the Astros plenty of trouble.
I don't know about their farm system, but you would think they would have some kids ready to come up June 1 after they get past the Super 2 "deadline." That could help them pick up a few extra wins.
there was some interest earlier, but i thought i'd try to drum up a little more for some sized caucus on may 18th. anytime during the day would work for me, and while i'd like to keep it in the general minneapolis area, i'd be open to most anything.
any ideas on venues? if it's evening-ish, might as well be some place with a TV.
Interesting facts on Iron Man 3 What stood out to me though was this quote from Sir Ben Kingsley:
I always thought of him as just that kind of method actor, I guess because of the wide range of characters he's played.
Kingsley's career backs up this attitude. He's played some great roles, and some really dog ones (Bloodrayne? The Love Guru? etc.)
Yeah, his career is strange, and so is he. I don't really like his process (or lack of one, I guess), but I typically like him. He makes it sound so easy...there are a very small number of actors who can do that without some sort of transformation.
Five Reasons It's Hard Being a Fan of the Minnesota Twins
You forgot to say how Mauer is the worst. Seriously, though, these are good articles. Keep it up.
Thanks.
I like to read the articles for Socal's viewpoints, and then I read the comments for the laughs. Well, sometimes I just sit there in horrified silence wondering where these people come from, but most of the time, it's laughter.
Seriously- 86 comments (when I read it) is a pretty good sign that you're reaching quite a few people, right?
Hey brianS, I'm feeling this sudden need to discuss all things bookish. 😉
I stepped on bS's toes and put something up. He can feel free to delete/add to/revise it should he so desire.
no toes stepped on. My cupboard was bare. Much appreciated, DG. cheetah's CAN prosper.
But what if we expand the threshold to 30 seconds?
What kind of arbitrary endpoint would that be?
half(minute)-baked?
I assumed that they picked 24 because that's the length of the shot clock.
But 30 seconds is 1 and 1/4 shot clocks.
What a bum!
Slowey is 7th in the NL in ERA and 8th in WHIP. No, I don't expect him to pitch this well all season, but he's certainly not an embarrassment to have on the roster.
He's also tied for 7th in xFIP and 8th in WAR. This has been legit, at least can't really be considered all that "lucky."
That was Slowey's first win since Sept. 18, 2010.
This is classic:
Here's the link.
To the surprise of no one, Vikings cut Kluwe.
I think what gets lost amongst a good share of Vikings fans (or at least the ones on my Twitter feed and the retweets of others) in the Kluwe move is that Kluwe makes more money than he is worth
2012 punting stats for punters with >16 punts [note: these are fast-and-dirty unweighted league stats; averages of averages]:
Kluwe (and the Vikings) ranked 24th in gross punting average, 31st in number of punts inside the 20, and 18th in net punting average last year at 39.7 among punters with more than 16 punts (only Dallas and Philly had two punters with double-digit punts; the lesser or which had 12 and 16 punts, respectively). So, somewhat below average on the year in these three categories.
Gross is a product of Kluwe's kicking, the quality of the long-snapping, and field position, so it's not all on his shoulders. But it mostly is on his shoulders, particularly when noting that he was well below average in number of punts inside the 20, but 20th in number of punts [add: he had only 2 touchbacks on the year, which suggests that he had few "opportunities" to overkick the red zone].
Among full-time punters, Kluwe was last in the ratio of punts to punts placed inside the 20 (25 pct, compared to an average of about 35 percent). Again, without knowing field positions, it is hard to fully evaluate that number, but it doesn't look very good.
I remember a large number of "what in the heck was that?!" punts (especially at the beginning of the year). I think Kluwe is pretty awesome, but I'm not entirely sad that he's not going to be punting for the Vikings anymore.
I wish there were more stats available about punters. His numbers seem average at best, but it would be nice to know the starting point. I wonder if he started farther back due to bad offense or if it didn't matter that much.
I wonder how the Vikings ranked on 3 & outs? That could give some idea of how many opportunities he had for kicks inside the 20.
one more reason why baseball is better than football: there are 50 website devoted to breaking down statistics, creating metrics, and all that jazz. I found it really hard to find anything for advanced metrics in the NFL.
so little of the meaningful action in football results in officially recorded statistical events that can be attributed to one individual that it is really hard to collect appropriate stats. Any given running or passing play depends critically on the respective performances (and interactions) of more than half of the players on the field. Disentangling interactions to get measurable events associated with individuals is hard work.
Sure, but there are a dearth of group stats for many positions. And I think punter counts as a position that is largely just that individual.
I agree with that sentiment about punters (and kickers). But you aren't gonna easily get meaningful stats for individual linemen, especially offensive linemen. And the offensive line is almost half of the offense on the field at one time.
Hockey and basketball have similar difficulties, but have much, much richer sets of individual(ized) stats with which to evaluate individuals.
Jason Lisk has a pretty good article about punting
You know, it wouldn't be that hard (in principle) to measure the punting game. Just give me a big spreadsheet of Expected Points by starting field position, then calculate the reduction in Expected Points from the line of scrimmage for the punt to the line of scrimmage for the next play (crediting for punt returns for TDs, of course).
I'm not sure what this is measuring. I think bS's method would be the simplest and best way to evaluate punters.
I thin freealonzo owes us a story about how he lost all that weight on raspberry drops. 😉
Thankfully when my Facebook account gets hacked its something innocuous like raspberry drops.
I just like seeing the Fox News logo under your picture!
Sad news about ex-Twin Otis Nixon.
"...he appears to be 104..."? Really, Aaron, have you actually looked at many 104 yr olds? Even Shecky wouldn't say something like that. Well, maybe.
Yes, Aaron Gleeman says something. It must be immature, misogynistic, just unfunny, or some combination of the three.
It's hyperbole, not his millionth weird poultry reference... (see what I did there?)
Ugh. I was afraid that's where it was headed.
It's such a hard thing to beat.
Potential terrorist attack foiled in Montevideo, MN.
Totally the best way ever to avoid police detection for your anti-government violent plans is by flying the American flag upside-down.
Flag Code 8a:
"The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
Not sure if police check if they see a flag flying upside-down, but I'd think they should or at least would have a valid reason to do so.
Does Bert realize the "so-called baseball expert" was Jack Morris?
I was wondering what people thought about a moratorium on critiquing the hometown announcers during the game logs. Don't get me wrong; I can't stand to listen to Bremer, Blyleven, and Dazzle as much as the next Gomer. But we already have to deal with a struggling franchise and bashing the announcers feel like piling on low-hanging fruit. The last couple of games I've watched I've resisted copy/pasting one of their comments and going all FJM on it and it's made my day more enjoyable.
Just a thought.
I'm thinking I might have difficulty honoring such a moratorium. I don't rag on Dick and Bert that often, but every once in a while one of them says something so stupid it just can't be ignored.
I never listen to them anymore - I only listen to music or other things during Twins, and almost all other sports, games - but I enjoy reading people pointing out the particularly dumb things they say.
This sounds like one of those things that is worth mentioning, but not worth trying to enforce.
I don't get too wound up about Twins games these days. Briefly excited when they do well, briefly bummed when they don't. It's just entertainment. Take the same approach to the commentary. Save your energy for correcting mistakes on the internet!
If I'm spending my time correcting people on the internet, I'm joining Paul Lukas in his cause.