Cup of Coffee

July 9, 2013: The Upside of Creativity

37 Comments

I can't write or create in a messy house, so a few hours after I get an idea, the place is immaculate. The Milkmaid knows when the story's working.

37 thoughts on “July 9, 2013: The Upside of Creativity”

    1. I don't know that I could see any outfielder faking a catch like that. The Reds' complaints at the end seemed a little over the top.

        2. I was gone for a few days when the All Star Lineups were announced so forgive me if this has been discussed:

          AL Starters
          C Joe Mauer, Twins
          SS J.J. Hardy, Orioles
          DH David Ortiz, Red Sox

          AL Pitchers
          RHP Jesse Crain, White Sox
          RHP Joe Nathan, Rangers
          LHP Glen Perkins, Twins

          AL Reserves
          OF Torii Hunter, Tigers

          NL Reserves
          OF Michael Cuddyer, Rockies
          OF Carlos Gomez, Brewers

          Now, don't get me wrong, these players are no longer with the Twins (traded, released*, not resigned, what-have-you) for a lot of different reasons; baseball is a business and nothing in it happens in a vacuum. They have players on the current roster and in the minors that wouldn't be around or in their current role if some of these moves hadn't been made. Even still, seeing them like this turned my stomach a little. What if's...

          *what else do you call the J.J. Hardy move?

          1. *what else do you call the J.J. Hardy move?

            I have a term for it, but its NSFW.

          3. I know you said there are business reasons, etc., but here's an alternate view of that roster:

            $23M, Joe Mauer
            $7M, JJ Hardy
            $14M, David Ortiz

            $4.5M, Jesse Crain
            $7M, Joe Nathan
            $2.5M, Glen Perkins

            $12M, Torii Hunter

            $10.5M, Michael Cuddyer
            $4.3M, Carlos Gomez

            So that's basically $85M and you don't have any starting pitchers yet, are 3 infielders short, and don't have a bench. And for practical purposes, Gomez/Hardy were always going to be mutually exclusive.

            To some degree, this list encourages me--clearly the Twins as an organization are able to find talent in the minors. Most of those players made their ML debut with the Twins--how many All-Stars made their debut with the Royals? The White Sox?

            Also, I think there should be a limit of 3 relief pitchers per league in the All-Star Game. Obviously the most over-represented position.

  2. Aaron Hicks is now batting .205/.271/.372 for the season. If you count from April 16 through yesterday's game to ignore his awful start, he's batting .244/.307/.453 for a .760 OPS. The AL average OPS this year is .719.

    1. Yeah, I think he's gonna be okay. He probably could've used some more seasoning at Triple A before coming up, but he's holding his own now.

      1. If he turned his season around without going to AAA, then I would say that shows he didn't need seasoning in AAA. Hopefully, Hicks' improvement will show the Twins that players don't need to go to AAA if they feel they are ready to go, so maybe we'll see Sano, Rosario and Meyer without them being forced to go through Rochester.

          1. I think Hicks has shown himself to be good enough for the bigs this year, and I like that he's getting experience against the best pitchers around.

              1. I don't know if I would say that. He clearly had some adjustments to make when he got to the majors, and he might not have made those adjustments in the minors. Playing for a couple of months without making those adjustments could have further ingrained bad habits.

                Also, I think the biggest reason for him to start the season with the Twins is that he was the best center fielder in the organization at the time.

                1. I didn't have an issue with having Hicks in The Bigs, just wish he hadn't been anointed the leadoff batter (with no better options for one)

              2. meh. I am less enthusiastic about saving the Pohlads money. The Twins need to find some young stars a la 1982 (Bruno, 21; Hrbek, 22; Gaetti, 23; Frankie V, 22). Not every one will become a true star (e.g., Laudner, 24; Bush, 23; Eisenreich, 23) or will flop (Faedo, 22; Brad Havens, 22). But if you can't get some stars to emerge in their early 20s, it is awfully hard to compete for World Series titles.

              3. I paid an awful lot of attention to Hicks during those first weeks. He was an announcement that the future of the franchise isn't far away. That was a pretty important announcement.

  4. How not to use software to build your teeshirt business.

    Fierce public backlash brought down Solid Gold Bomb, which made headlines in March for offering shirts that said "Keep Calm and Rape a Lot." The company closed its doors last week and let go its remaining three employees.
    ...
    At the time, Fowler issued an apology and explained that the shirts never really existed. The images of offensive shirts were the result of a computer program that automatically generated random phrases and images.

    Fowler had used the program to expand his company catalog from 1,000 designs to more than 10 million, casual shirts with pithy one-liners like, "I mustache you a question." The vast number of shirts for sale rocketed him to the top of Amazon searches. By printing on demand, he reduced the risk of unsold inventory.

    Really? The software didn't have a black list of terms not to use, or he didn't bother to utilize it or some other tool to filter results?

  6. My uncle, who lived a life that would be hard to believe if boiled down to a few short nuggets (for example, he's been banned from the Vatican since the mid-1960's), passed away this morning after battling leukemia since the fall. Wherever our spirits go after this, it just got a helluva lot more interesting.

    2. Sorry for your loss. Your remarks suggest an epic obituary - we should all live so fully. If one happens, I'd like to read it.

    4. Re: Banned from the Vatican. I had bad blisters and had to hang out at the hotel whilst the wife did such. So I guess my feet were banned as it were.

  8. Spent a weekend in the Badlands and Black Hills, attending the wedding of a good friend. Had an amazing time. Hiked Harney Peak, the highest point east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrenees, apparently. Beautiful country out there. Animal highlights include: bison (both wild and on a plate, multiple times) wild ass, big horn sheep (females only), pronghorn, antelope and a marmot. Bird highlights include: sharp-tailed grouse, golden eagles, mountain bluebirds, gray jay, white-throated swift, black-headed grosbeak, a possible hybrid black-headed/rose-breasted grosbeak, a mockingbird, and a western tanager, which is probably the prettiest bird I've ever seen. Had a great time, especially since I managed to be largely away from internet and had no cell phone connection. That kind of unplugging feels good.

  9. On the way to the airport this evening, had this train of thought:

    Hmmm, is Isuzu still being manufactured?
    Wonder what ever happened to David Leisure?
    OMG, I wonder how many WGOM Citizens were too young to remember Joe Isuzu?

      1. I may have forgotten about him if not for that show. What I didn't remember at all is that they had given him his own show, which didn't work out.

    3. I remember "Joe Isuzu" and then he showed up on "Empty Nest" and the actor in the credits had a different name and I was confused.

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