111 thoughts on “March 19, 2014: Brackets”

  1. So we've been hearing that Worley was battling Deduno and Diamond for the 5th spot in the Twins' rotation. His line from last night:

    IP H R ER BB K
    2.2 11 7 7 2 1

    It's a SSS, but his spring training stat line:

    IP H R ER BB K AVG. WHIP
    10.2 22 16 16 5 5 .415 2.53

      1. I tried, but "time has elapsed to edit this comment."

        I believe he's out of options (as are the other two?) so there's a chance they'll lose him if they try to stash him with the Red Wings.
        He turns 27 in September. Deduno will be 31 in July and Diamond 28 in July.

        My initial thought is that considering they aren't expected to contend this year, the best move is to hang onto the youngest, highest potential player. On the other hand, perhaps a chance to showcase Duderino (or others) for a trade-deadline move to a contender is the better course.
        Thoughts?

        1. Worley is gone, he's finished as a major league pitcher. Diamond has an extremely low upside, but give him the ball for 30 starts this year. I am not on the Deduno train.

          None of these guys will be a part of any winning club. It doesn't matter what they do.

          1. Indeed. It makes much more sense to me to not put any of those three in the 5th spot and go with a prospect instead.

              1. I could be persuaded to him, or just about anyone who is young enough to be a factor when the Buxton's and Sano's of the world are ready.

                  1. I think Gibson is so very wrong. I would never pick Rhu_Ru either.
                    Good though that he's a Twins fan enough to suggest starters.

          2. Yeah, Worley is on the Blackburn train to nowhere. I think Diamond's smoke & mirror machine has broken down as well.

            Deduno has the most chance to do any good, but yeah, you can't hang star on any of these guys. I still have hope for Gibson.

          3. It doesn't matter what they do.

            Stick, assuming you're right about these guys, that's probably true. And assuming they won't win 70 games this year, what's the best move for the fifth spot?

            3. I'd put Deduno in the 5th spot, leave Diamond as the emergency guy in the bullpen, and have Gibson pitch a few games in AAA to see how he's doing.

              I hope Vanimal is sent to a family on a farm with lots of room for him to run around.

              1. I could go for that, too. I don't think it really matters one way or another. 90 losses are coming.

                1. Honestly if they "only" lost 89 games this year and Sano was able to start swinging the bat as a DH before the end of the calendar year I'd be real happy.

              2. I hope Vanimal is sent to a family on a farm with lots of room for him to run around.

                Heh, this is awesome.

              3. So your pitching staff is:
                Ricky Nolasco
                Kevin Correia
                Phil Hughes
                Mike Pelfrey
                Samuel Deduno

                Glen Perkins
                Jared Burton
                Anthony Swarzak
                Brian Duensing
                Scott Diamond
                Casey Fein
                Caleb Theilbar
                Ryan Pressly

                with Tonkin, Gibson, Guerrier (if he'll go), Meyer and maybe May and Oliveros waiting in Rochester or Cedar Rapids?

                1. Are they really going to go with 13 pitchers? That leaves 9 starters, a backup catcher, a backup infielder, and a fourth outfielder. That's pretty slim.

                  1. I agree, I just thought I'd read a quote from Gardy (or someone quoting Gardy) that they would consider it...seems like something he'd do.
                    However, LEN III:

                    We will operate under assumption that the Twins will take 12 pitchers north. Taking 13 makes no sense, especially since there are five off days in April and there’s not even a need for a fifth starter until the end of the month.

                    Glen Perkins will close. Jared Burton has struggled some this spring but should return as the setup man. Caleb Thielbar has pitched well in recent outings. Casey Fien gave up a homer during his first outing and has been fine since. Brian Duensing, Ryan Pressly and Anthony Swarzak made up the rest of the relief corps last season.

                    But Michael Tonkin has thrown six shutout innings, and Gardenhire wants some heat in his bullpen. And one of the starters out of options could be kept as a reliever if the Twins are worried about losing him on waivers. Someone who was a member of last year’s bullpen could be bumped out this year.

                  2. As for the rest of the 25-man roster:
                    Suzuki
                    Mauer
                    Dozier
                    Plouffe
                    Florimon
                    Willingham
                    Hicks
                    Arcia

                    Presley
                    Pinto
                    Escobar
                    Herrmann
                    Parmelee
                    Colabello
                    Kubel (would need to be added to 40-man)
                    Ramirez?

                    Also from LENIII

                    If Pinto makes the team, as seems likely, the club understands that he will need to play more than twice a week.

                3. That rotation, while obviously far from stellar, gives the Twins a chance to have five starters who look like they belong in the big leagues. That would be three or four more than they had most of last season. Looks like 162-0 to me!

                4. I'm pro Duderino.
                  Would he be willing to be the swingman out of the pen until May?

                  I don't think it's a problem to DFA Worley. I might be relieved if someone claims him.
                  Likewise Diamond (probably).

                  2. If they are going to stink either way, might as well go with maximum entertainment. Deduno!

    2. Kyle Gibson should be the one to be the fifth starter but won't because he has options left. Deduno or Diamond will be the fifth starter with the other in the bullpen. Diamond has more strikeouts than innings pitched this spring after going through an offseason program developed by Tom House to improve arm strength and velocity. Pressly will be sent to to the minors to work on being a starter despite the fact he has a long history of bad at starting and decent at relieving. The Twins wouldn't even have considered drafting him from the Red Sox if he hadn't switched to the bullpen. Reusse said something about the Twins trying to trade a reliever as well, which would probably be Duensing or Burton with younger and cheaper arms ready to replace them.

      1. Well Deduno has pitched decently so I will give the Twins the benefit of doubt if he's #5. But this "options available" notion pisses me off. Twins have plenty of room for making payroll if a player gets arbitration one year early. What the Twins don't have is a roster of 25 non-AAAA players who are creating even a modicum of excitement about their chances.

      2. Interesting note on Diamond's offseason, socal. I hadn't seen that mentioned anywhere else.

        Are you still doing Yahoo contributor articles?

  2. I spent about 5 times longer figuring out how to login to yahoo than making my picks, but I am in.

    1. I'm out of Yahoo at this time, because although I've had a yahoo account since the early 2000's, they want to verify my account with phone number. Shouldn't there be a money grab button.

      1. I'm assuming you also don't have a phone number associated with any Google accounts, correct? I have yet to receive anything from them in several months. That's not a guarantee for the future, but having a phone number stored allows for improved security. Spamming it would cause such an uproar it would be suicide. I'm not sure how much of an improvement in targeted ads it would allow.

        1. Nice leading question. Without being specific, I do and I don't. If I can log into my yahoo email and a lot of other yahoo properties w/o this requirement why only fantasy? Why now? Where is the explanation? What if I don't have a phone?

          I'm not adverse to two factor auth, but there ought to be options. I'm not really worried about spam. I can work around this in a way I'm comfortable if I want, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to take the time.

          .

          1. I will note that requiring it is annoying. I use a password manager, so it is extraordinarily unlikely for the password to be guessed. I ignored their request a number of times, but I may have given in before it was required. Google started that tactic first and I also gave in after refusing many times.

              1. I've got my phone number on both my Google and Yahoo accounts, and haven't ever received a text from either of them that wasn't requested, if that helps any.

          2. I've never gotten anything from them, ever, and I've had my phone number with them for ages. This is much ado about nothing.

            I'm also not the guy who thinks it's a huge imposition to delete unwanted texts, so there's that, too. Telemarketers are way worse and I've been dealing with them for twenty years.

            1. I have no problem with 2-factor authentication either. But my complaint was that Yahoo specifically asked for my cell phone for marketing purposes. No, I don't want to give you very personal data specifically so that you can sell me sh!t or so that you can sell it to a third party to sell me sh!t.

                1. Well, I betcha most Americans thought Adolf Hitler was much ado about nothing until the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

  3. I have talked before about David Thorpe and have expressed my admiration for him as an NBA analyst. Go here and listen to this interview with Henry Abbott. Thorpe is talking about Kevin Love's game, taking plays off, etc. It's just a taste of what I like about Thorpe.

    1. I especially like his bit about taking plays off. People used to rag on Randy Moss about taking plays off. It never bothered me. He only needed to make 2 or 3 plays a game to completely change the outcome.

  4. A nice reminder about the proper role of parents in youth sports from Mike Matheny, courtesy of Kevin Seitzer.

    I believe that the biggest role of the parent is to be a silent source of encouragement. I think if you ask most boys what they would want their parents to do during the game; they would say "NOTHING". Once again, this is ALL about the boys. I believe that a little league parent feels that they must participate with loud cheering and "Come on, let's go, you can do it", which just adds more pressure to the kids. I will be putting plenty of pressure on these boys to play the game the right way with class, and respect, and they will put too much pressure on themselves and each other already. You as parents need to be the silent, constant, source of support.

  5. this may be of interest to more than just the artistes in the Nation: Prisoner’s 39-Panel Allegorical Mural Made From Bedsheets, Hair Gel and Stacks of Newspapers

    Through trial and error, Krimes discovered that he could transfer images from New York Times newspapers on to prison bedsheets. At first he used water, but the colours bled. Hair gel had the requisite viscosity. As a result, all imagery is reversed, upturned. Apokaluptein:16389067 is both destruction and creation.

    “It’s a depiction of represented reality as it exists in its mediated form, within the fabric of the prison,” says Krimes. “It was my attempt to transfer [outside] reality into prison and then later became my escape when I sent a piece home with the hopes that it could be my voice on the outside in the event that anything bad ever happened and I never made it home.”

    1. That was outstanding. I hope he has a long career with traditional and less traditional materials.

      1. That's been proven to be less than effective. Speaking of which:

        Amy Senser has shaved nearly six months off the time she must serve in prison for the hit-and-run death of a man on a Minneapolis exit ramp, state officials said Friday.

        Senser applied for and was approved for transfer to a jail or halfway house for work release, meaning she can leave the Shakopee prison on April 24, less than two years after her incarceration began, said Department of Corrections (DOC) spokeswoman Sarah Latuseck.

        I predict that Mr. Pistorius is going to spend a little more time in prison than that. Also: Amy's gonna have to get a job! I'm not sure that work release is intended for people like her.

    2. I've been following this one some. I don't think you're necessarily wrong with your final assessment, but I think what you're citing to here isn't all that strong. First, it sounds like the shots were fired through the bathroom door, which kind of undercuts the whole "deliberate shot to the head" thing. Second, previous testimony made it seem like the shots came in very quick succession. So the "four shots" thing might be better summed up as "one shooting event".

      That said, believing it's an intruder behind a locked bathroom door is kind of absurd. He's probably guilty on the total sum of what I've seen. But the ballistics reports aren't nearly as damning as the fight they had and the weak, weak excuse.

        1. An additional source leads me to believe there was a pause between first and second/third/fourth shots. I don't know how long that pause was. It seems clear the last 3 bullets were all fired very quickly. It does bolster the "heard a scream after the first shot" theory. Of course, does that mean he knew who it was? That's still a fair question.

          Also, the article I just read was the first one that pointed out Pistorious was "on his stumps" at the time of the shooting. I'd never thought about that, but I can see that it stands to reason a person in that situation would have a heightened sense of vulnerability.

          1. also also, Pistorius is apparently (a) obsessed with guns and (b) a bit paranoid. That's a bad combination. Not saying that he didn't commit murder here (I'm casually convinced). Just that the combination of being wound a little too tightly and guns is a bad combination.

    3. Put T. C. on the roster! Power plus defense. That puts him ahead of several guys who are on the roster now.

      1. Plus plus power you mean. After one midsummer game my brother and I stuck around target field and watched tc put on a batting clinic.

  10. Last night I had a dream that I was helping my ten (in-dream only) roommates move out at the same time. In reality they're the people being displaced by my company's reorganization. When we got all of their stuff out, they all stared at me, and my stuff, wondering if I wanted to move out with them and go somewhere else. If it had been a movie I would have said "This s*&^ is less subtle than Avatar." However, it's a pretty clear indicator of my headspace right now.

  11. Did anybody watch the Phil Jackson press conference? I know James Dolan has a terrible reputation but I'd never heard him speak. What a creep! I felt like I needed a shower after hearing him.

  12. KISS and Def Leppard Presale!!!!!!!!!!

    When: March 20, 10:00a

    Password: Tongue (natch)

    Concert's sometime in August I think.

      1. When Bartlett could actually play, the Twins never really seemed to like him. Now that he apparently can't play, they seem to desperately want him on the team.

        2. I think it's mostly a matter of Gardenhire challenging players when he thinks they need it and showing that he's got their back when he thinks they need it.

          It is interesting that they kept him in Rochester because they wanted him to demonstrate more leadership in the infield and now he's getting the benefit of the doubt because of his strong leadership.

      1. Just shoot me. Here's Gardy on Bartlett:

        "He's very confident," Gardenhire said. "He's that positive attitude that we like. We'll see. There's some arguing going on (with the front office). Hope I win."

        I guess the "no scholarships" thing lasted a year.

    4. Bartlett's last year in SD ('12):
      24 games .133/.240/.193 -0.9 WAR $5.5 million

      All off-season, I've been coming back to the guy who turned down a $14.1 million qualifying offer (Boras client), knowing full well the Twins would never sign him. I never did any homework until today, just kept thinking, "Well Player A is still available." Silly Corn.

      Player A
      124 games: .253/ .333/ .443 and 3.1 WAR Salary: $9.5 million
      Player B
      134 games: .221/ .281/ .330 and 2.1 WAR Salary: $495 thousand

      Just for "fun"
      Player C
      159 games: .263/ .306/ .433 and 3.7 WAR Salary $7 million

      Player A

      'Spoiler' SelectShow

      Player B

      'Spoiler' SelectShow

      Player C

      'Spoiler' SelectShow
        1. 'Sarcastic Spoiler' SelectShow

    1. That was pretty fun. I ended up with a final four of Florida-Creighton-UCONN-Wichita St. with Creighton taking the championship over UCONN. That is roughly as informed as my WGOM bracket is. (Got the Mayor prevailing.)

      1. I ended with Florida-Michigan State-Creighton-Wichita State with Florida beating Wichita State.

      2. I just picked based on the nickname I liked best. The final was Philosofers vs. Fishmongers.

        Turns out Duke are a bunch of fishmongers.

        1. Only do that if you want to be wrong and don't want to live in a fantasy world where the reaches the pinnacle of the college game and opts to take over the wolves.

  16. As a Kafka fan, I very much enjoyed Kafka's joke book. Example:

    “Knock knock.”

    “Who’s there?”

    “Knock knock.”

    “Who’s there?” Alois asked again, more insistently.

    “Knock knock.”

    And so it went for years. It wasn’t until his deathbed Alois realized he was on the outside of the door.

    1. Those are very well done. And now I've started down the slippery slopes of archived articles, so the rest of my evening is likely shot.

  17. LEN3's pregame blog:

    This also is a big stretch for Aaron Hicks, who is starting in center field today. Hicks said recently that he's feeling better at the plate and has been working with Rod Carew on hitting the ball up the middle more and being aggressive in fastball counts. If he shows improvement in those areas he has a chance to have a decent year after floundering to a .192 batting average last season.

    LEN3's postgame blog:

    Oh. Aaron Hicks drew a walk in the third inning - his first of the spring. He'll have to do that more often if he's going to bat leadoff in this offense. The manager is fretting over the lineup right now and needs to see his leadoff hitter actually be a table-setter.

    And they wonder why some of these kids are so screwed up at the plate. Be aggressive! Be patient! Don't take so many strikes! Walk more!

    Just do what Rod tells you, Aaron.

    I just realized, with Carew and Oliva in camp, the Twins have 13 batting titles in camp between those two and Mauer. I thought it was more though because I was sure Molitor had won one or two. He finished second twice.

  19. I got the Sporting KC match for the CONCACAF champions league on en vivo on Telemundo. They are down 2-1 coming out of the half

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