81 thoughts on “July 19, 2013: Too Old”

1. @spooky

   I just got back from four days in ATL. We spent a couple of days at a retreat and my colleagues and I had time to socialize. We were talking about this and that and it came out that I was fairly close to 50 years old. Wow, they said I looked very good for my age. Sigh. That's what passes for a compliment.

   1. and you said, "well, that's like, your opinion, maaan."

   2. A girl at my store said "You're too cool to be 35 and married." She really thought she was complimenting me.

      1. Heh...my wife just now IMed me...she found the site and said "We're way too old for this."

         1. Give me my gentlemen's hat or give me death.

            1. Which style of Gentleman's Hat do you prefer?

               1. I feel like if spooky doesn't show up with one of those hats and makes a drink about it, it's a wasted opportunity.

               2. As long as you keep it to one fedora per crew, you should be OK (dress codes not withstanding)

               3. Got to go with the trapper hat. Also, I just figured out where Trapper John got his nickname.

                  

               4. Pork pie.

               5. Yeah, I gotta go with Pork Pie also.

               6. What's this? No Boater? I'm outraged!

         2. Yeah, that looks like a real strict dress code--for a Paula Deen Restaurant, maybe.

            1. I might not be worried if I hadn't heard about the place from people who've been there since. It sounds like the guy at the door is a hardass for no reason.

               Are Paula Deen restaurants still going to be a thing?

               1. As pretentious as the name of the bar is, I can totally see a self-important bouncer.

                  1. That's what I'm thinking, and the dress code might not look like much, but I've never known of a club with a dress code that didn't take beauty way too seriously. The existence of any dress code sends up red flags.

                     1. I don't think I've ever been to a bar with a dress code other than no short, no shoes, no service. Best of luck. On the bright side, the drinks will probably be so overpriced that you won't have any problem behaving yourself.

                        1. If course, this conversation is probably turning you guys not having any fun into a self fulfilling prophecy.

2. a freaking dress code.

   Don't you have to wear a blue polo shirt and khakis to work every day?

   I'm the same way, though- we had a company-wide managerial training session we were supposed to dress "business casual" for. I wore the blue jeans/denim shirt combo that the plant issues. My plant manager wasn't sure if he should be amused or pissed.

   1. Black pants now, actually. Switched over from the khakis about a month ago.

      I don't mind a dress code at work, though I'd love to work in a job without one. But for a place I'm attending with fun in mind? Meh. If I've already got someone I go home to every night, I'm not sure I get the point of even going to a club full of 21-year-olds. I feel like I'm going to have to dye my temples.

3. Semi-Bold Second Half Twins Predections
   1. The Twins will finish the last 70 games 25-45
   2. Joe Mauer will have 25 more runs scored than the next highest Twins player (He is at 50 right now, the next closest has 38)
   3. Miguel Sano will not be called up in September
   4. Samuel Deduno will reach double digit wins
   5. the Twins will have a better record than the White Sox, much to the dismay of people wanting the team to tank for a higher draft pick.

   1. I like these predictions except for 3 and 5. I think Sano's batting average will round out and he'll get a call in September. and if the Twins do finish 25-45 that will give them 64 wins, it'll be tough for the Sox to lose to that while playing the Twins 11 more times. Though not impossible.

      1. 3 is probably right. Sano will most likely improve the rest of the way, but I think he'd have to really go on a tear for the Twins to give him a September call-up.

         1. Yeah, they didn't give Mauer or Arcia September call-ups despite doing very well in AA. They did give Parmelee and Joe Benson September call-ups from AA, but both probably would have been in AAA by then if New Britain wasn't in a pennant race and/or Rochester didn't suck so much. That year, the Twins really didn't have anyone else to promote from AAA. At this point, the likely call-ups, if they aren't up already, could include Tonkin, Albers, Worley, Parmelee and Arcia. Also, Mastroianni should be healthy by then. Many or all of these could be up before then, but whoever they replace could be a candidate to return if they are still in the organization.

            1. speaking of Worley, he is going on the DL with shoulder inflammation.

               1. How long before the TJ is announced?

                  1. I give it three weeks

                  2. Wow. Shoulder inflammation is a really bad misdiagnosis of a torn UCL.

                  3. They do TJs on shoulders now?

      2. these are semi-bold predictions, they dont have to make sense.

         1. I'm sure there's a TV job waiting for you somewhere!

   2. 1. The Twins will finish the last 70 games 25-45

      Baseball Prospectus is predicting 29-41, so you're a bit more pessimistic than they are.

4. Minnesota Twins' Prospects Rank High in Midseason Rankings. I give a rundown of the rankings by Law, Sickels and Baseball America.

   1. what will it take to deem this batch of prospects a success? 2 players turn into All Star level players? 1 superstar and 2 good players? all 5 make it to the majors at a replacement level?

      1. three consecutive World Series victories over the Yankees

         1. Alternatively, leading to the fiering of Gary and the trading of Maurer might work for some.

         2. I don't think these prospects are good enough to force the Twins to the National League.

            1. Maybe the Yankees will move. Did you think of that??????//??

               1. The Yankees will move to form their own league--in the future the World Series will be contested between the YL champ and the AL/NL champ.

5. Miggy Cabs is now 500% more likeable.
   

   1. This can't make me like Miggy, just dislike him less. But Pedroia's reaction is priceless.

      1. Agreed, this certainly doesn't make up for the whole wife-beating thing.

      2. Buchholz right in front of him and Jesse right behind both enjoyed it.

   2. 500% improvement on zero is still zero.

      1. Up to 5 iotas.

6. Top Jimmy laments the inevitable, and seems to fault the front office for the poor return Morneau's decline will net.

   1. David Ortiz is, to many, a symbol of Twins’ negligence, but the Twins made the same judgment on Ortiz as 31 other teams.

      Here I thought those plans to expand in Montreal and Brooklyn were all in my head--but it turns out MLB's had 32 teams for some time now!

      1. I feel like someone else recently made that mistake (and was called out here). Get football off of your brains, sportswriters.

   2. trading for Johan Santana in the Rule V draft were the kinds of deals that led to a decade of success.
      While the Twins did trade for Santana, it was really because they wanted to force $25,000 out of the Marlins (which I suppose is impressive in itself).

   3. They allowed Michael Cuddyer to leave at the end of a 99-loss season. They should have traded him.

      and most likely would have got the same return that Justin Morneau will get.

      1. Cuddyer would have most likely brought a bigger return. He had a much better season than Morneau is having, plus he can play first base and the outfield and even third base or second base in an emergency or a late double switch for an NL team. The problem for the Twins in that season is they had cut a 16.5-game deficit to 6 games on July 30. The Twins weren't convinced they were out of it, but they didn't trade for help either. The Twins took a nosedive after that. They went 13-41 after the trade deadline.

         1. If the Twins had traded Cuddyer, Top Jimmy would have had an exploded head.

            1. WORTH IT THEN!

   4. More idiocy from TJ. Morneau's trade value now is as high as its been since he got hurt. Were they supposed to trade him during 2010? Santana was supposed to be traded for young quality pitching? They got three pitching prospects from the Mets. They just didn't pan out. That's the problem with prospects. Yes, they should have traded Cuddyer, but they replaced him with Willingham for $10M less.

   5. I actually agree with Souhan on some of the trades, but I don't think he makes any good points when it comes to Morneau. For one:

      He’s a great competitor and teammate who was on his way to becoming one of the best Twins of all time before taking a knee to the helmet in 2010.

      On his way to becoming one of the best Twins of all time? Morneau's at about 22 rWAR. Bb-ref's list is polluted by some Senators, but Morneau's closest Twins comparable by style is Kent Hrbek, and he's 16 rWAR short of Hrbek. Morneau was on his way to being a Torii Hunter-level Twin, and despite the great first half he was having in 2010, he was always likely to be declining by this part of his career, if perhaps not this dramatically.

      Anyway, say you accept TJ's above premise--how could the Twins be faulted for keeping such a player before he took a knee to the helmet? You can't. So if you like pre-concussion Morneau, then you're faulting the Twins for not getting more for him after the concussion, but he's been untradeable essentially since he took that knee to the head. There was a long period of time when he wouldn't have passed any team's physical and he's playing better this year than he was last year.

      1. and he’s playing better this year than he was last year.

         Actually, his power is down this year from last and his K/BB ratio is worse.

         1. It depends on how you view his fielding. He has 0.6 fWAR in half a season this year compared to 0.3 fWAR in all of last year. His hitting has not been as good as last year, but it's not a huge difference (.330 wOBA vs. .322 wOBA).

      2. Morneau was on his way to being a Torii Hunter-level Twin

         So, you agree with TJ!!!1111one111!!!

7. Tachinu Wind, AMR...
   httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3AekHQy6lc

   1. I think I may watch that some day...

8. Where do you live?

   1. I never considered the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma or Texas to be in the Midwest. Those are Great Plains states.

      1. Ugh, I hate to hear you lump the Dakotas in with Texas. Can't we just give Texas in its own region?

         1. I don't like to hear people lump "the Dakotas" together, but that's just me.

            1. I cringe a bit at it, but at least they share a border. I can't think of hardly anything that South Dakota shares with Texas besides cows.

               1. Ugly-ass and relentless billboards.

                  1. Heh, relentless. Did you know that you're getting closer to Wall Drug?

                     I was gonna say that every state has a sh*t-ton of billboards, but after thinking about your word choice, I think I know what you mean.

                     1. Don't forget the Corn Palace.

                  2. A few years ago the Mrs. & I drove through SD on our way to Mt Rushmore. We came up with the theory that the worthiness of an attraction has an inverse relationship with the volume of billboards advertising said attraction. We found that this held up pretty well.

         2. I consider Texas (and Oklahoma for that matter) to be Western states, though not Southwestern states or even Southern states.

      2. Growing up, Ohio always seemed too far east to be Midwest.

         1. My sentiments exactly. I get that OH, IN and MI aren't East Coast, but I just don't think of those three states as Midwest.

            1. Yea. How can you be "midwest" and be in the eastern time zone? How can you be "midwest" and be a former Confederate state or slave state, or hotbed of the Klan?

               1. I was trying to reason out why/how I mentally group the Southern states the way I do, and that's it- they're the former Confederate states.

   2. I just saw someone refer to Las Vegas as being in the midwest the other day. Oy.

   3. Is there a difference between the Midwest and the Upper Midwest. I always thought of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois as the Upper Midwest. Maybe the Upper Midwest is part of a larger Midwest?

      1. I always thought of the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois as the Upper Midwest.

         Yeah, that makes sense to me. I tend to throw Nebraska into that group as well.

9. I see the Twins are going with a Clete-Hicks-Doumit outfield tonight. That seems... less than optimal.

   I do like to see that Colabello is at DH- I hope he gets some regular at-bats for the rest of the season.

   1. The left and center part should be okay.

      1. Defensively, yeah.

         And as bad as Doumit is at framing, if he has to play defense, I'd rather see him in the outfield than catching.

         1. Yes, especially if Pelfrey can get into ground ball mode. I also noticed Plouffe is batting second. I approve against a lefty. Hopefully, Gardy doesn't ask him to bunt or steal a base.

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