Did you see the end of that Wild game? You should have.
99 thoughts on “April 25, 2014: Breathe”
Right now, I would rank the following players from the series in terms of ability to make saves:
1. Varlamov
2. Erik Johnson
3. Granlund
4, tie. Kuemper
4, tie. Bryzgalov
*Granlund sans stick
Awesome.
Saw about 6 minutes of the game because Lydia, but seeing this clip, even knowing the outcome, still made the hair on my neck stand up. httpv://youtu.be/bc7-JpY0Egw
I would bump Kuemper above Bryz based on his save on O'Reilly with about two minutes to go. Phenomenal. The Wild only allowed eight shots before the last little flurry.
1 shot for the Avs in the time between the Colorado goal and when they pulled the goalie. That's 24 minutes of game time with one shot against.
Crazy. Didn't know the Wild had it in them. Keep it going. Plus those jersey's are still the best. LOVE them. I haven't purchased a jersey since the other team went south. Those Minnesota Jerseys might change my mind; plus there is a team in 'Peg again so I have someone closer to root against than than the blackhawks. It has been a long time since I've been committed to a hockey team, this is fun so far. Moar please? I have colorado family that are in the Ave's corner. I'd like the messages to stop this year.
Yes, but that goal yesterday was ridiculously soft. Way worse than any goal Bryzgalov allowed.
I don't know. Bryzgalov let in some pretty awful ones.
Varlamov is apparently very very good, though.
Sure. But he was standing there holding his ... stick for 30 minutes of game time. As tough as it is for Varlamov to get peppered, it's tough for Kuemper to be looking at his watch.
I was on a soccer team once and they decided to put me in goalie. We outshot the other team approximately 4 billion to 3. We lost 1-0 when a lob shot bounced off my shoulders. At one point I was literally sitting down doing leg stretches I was so bored.
I think I've even seen some fancystats folks show how save percentage increases with volume of shots against. The most recent one I saw was talking about Bernier. But I googled "Bernier Maple leafs shots against" and my computer exploded.
Class A and people are complaining? This is so great on a lot of levels.
No complaint about this one in particular, but the novelty jerseys are getting a bit out of hand.
Their currency has been devalued to the point that they're no longer very special.
I think minor-league hockey has had a similar problem, but sometimes those are just warmup jerseys, IIRC.
Time and place are still matter.
I guess I thought the jerseys were kind of fun in a silly way; I don't support zombies!
Off soon for a short day trip to Mt. Pleasant, IA to visit with my parents for the afternoon. Try not to mess up the place while I'm gone.
So, Miss SBG is supposed to be having a slumber party for her birthday tonight. Alas, she has taken ill and cannot go to school today or host her party tonight. Such is life.
Don't look now, but OKC and Indiana are in serious trouble in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Indiana is flat out not going to win anything this year; the Hawks are exposing perhaps the worst #1 seed, ever. Memphis is a pretty damned good team, but OKC will be doing some serious soul searching if they don't get to at least the WCF this year, though.
Do we, as Wolves fans, root for the Hawks to win and Vogel getting fired? Do we think the Flipper would go after Vogel?
On your other point, I do not see Flip going after Vogel because I don't see him earnestly going after anyone before naming himself. This is the Wolves way.
So apparently that stun gun manufacturer is going to need to think of another name. (Link has some NSFW language in text only)
Should have just gone with "Hertz donut".
[rimshot]
This quote below would have me rolling on the floor laughing because guess what? basketball is about more than jacking up shots. But the guy who said it was The Big O. Then again, he was talking to Spike Lee, so maybe a dose of salt is required. Also, Houston is a pretty good team without Anthony, but I wonder if he and Harden could share the ball.
"If [Carmelo Anthony] goes to Houston, they're gonna win everything. You look at LeBron [James], LeBron's got a great game and the kid down at Oklahoma, [Kevin] Durant's got a great game -- they can't out-shoot Carmelo. ... I've seen him in a lot of basketball games over the years and I'm telling you right now the kid, he just can get that shot away. Now he's gotten smarter, he's going to the basket a lot. But what gets me is that everyone thinks that everything that happens bad is his fault."
Heh:
I'm telling you right now the kid, he just can get that shot away.
Durant career FGA/game: 19.2 (4.4 of those are threes)
James career FGA/game: 19.9 (4.0 of those are threes)
Anthony career FGA/game: 19.7 (a mere 3.1 of those are threes)
Stupid statistics.
Career:
Dude
FG%
3P%
Durant
.477
.377
James
.497
.341
Anthony
.455
.345
Even more fun, although it doesn't refute any of Oscar's points:
Career Assists/game:
Anthony - 3.1
Durant - 3.5
James - 6.9
And Durant's APG have been increasing every year. Carmelo Anthony is just not someone you build around.
Not to mention that LBJ is now shooting almost 60% from the floor. The idea that Anthony is a better offensive player than either of those guys is preposterous and he can't begin to touch LBJ on the other side of the court. But, again, he's talking to Spike Lee.
in four seasons with the Knicks, Melo has attempted 24.7 pct of his field goal attempts from 3pt range (5.0 per game), compared to 12.1 pct (2.3 per game) in his 8 seasons in Denver. He's making a lot more (38.5 pct vs 31.1 pct), but his game definitely has shifted outward.
But he also plays little defense. For his career, his Offensive rating is 108, Defensive rating 107 (estimates of points scored/allowed per 100 possessions). In NY, 111 ORtg, 107 DRtg. So his offense has gotten better, defense remained mediocre.
Now he's gotten smarter, he's going to the basket a lot.
Uh, no, Oscar.
what's really remarkable is the drop in his scoring around the basket. In Denver, he took 39.9 pct of his fga within 3 feet; in NY, only 24.4 pct. Wow.
I suppose if I made the comment about Durant's assists, it's fair to make it about Anthony's shots.
Just curious: What are league average ratings? (At first I assumed they might be normalized to 100, but then I re-read your description.)
Since about 2004, the league average has been about 106 to 107.
Carmelo is maybe a top 15 player in the league. James and Durant are 1-2, no question. That's just silly talk.
Since someone mentioned Fresh Prince jerseys and we're talking about Durant, this gif showed up at CH today and I enjoyed it enough to share:
This is my favorite gif on the internet. The first place I saw it refers to Westbrook as Why not? brook or YNB. It's fitting.
Simmons:
I love watching Durant and Westbrook, but Westbrook’s overcompetitiveness — the trait you want 99 percent of the time — actually hurts Oklahoma City because he’s saying “I GOT THIS!” way too much.
Put it this way: At some point, Michael Jordan never had to worry about Scottie Pippen saying, “Hey, everybody, I got this!” When you have the greatest and most efficient scorer of an entire generation — and that’s Durant right now, by every calculation — do you really want one of his teammates saying “I got this!” just as frequently? It’s starting to feel more and more like Durant and Westbrook might need their own teams.
Ricky and Pek for Russell. Get er dun, Billy Smith!
Only if the Wolves were moving to the east. A team with Ricky, Pek-smash, and KD in their starting 5 would scare the bejesus out of me.
We need to quit this. I am starting to have irrational hopes that this could happen.
One wonders how NFL franchises continue to get women to perform these jobs for so little compensation and so much indignity. They could make a lot more money stripping (er, "as exotic dancers"). Do they all think they are going to be the next Paula Abdul? Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be cheerleaders.
Miss SBG's best friend went to one of those camps for little girls. She performed at the halftime of some Vikings game. My daughter has no interest in that and that's good, because I'd have to fight her on that if she was.
there are lots of people (besides the parents of Honey Boo-Boo and JonBenet Ramsey) who work the little-girl beauty pageant circuit too.
I've never understood why people would be willing to do that for (more or less) free.
It's not even college athletics with its veil of "amateurity"
This.
to a degree, I suppose, some probably see it as investment in personal brand names, hoping to leverage the, ahem, exposure, to bigger and better things. Others may be exhibitionists or groupies. Others...who knows?
They like the exercise
We had a Seattle "SeaGal" interview for an admin assistant position one time. In certain professions where it might be difficult to prove you are better than the rest, having that on your resume could help you get a foot in the door. Maybe. In this case, we hired someone else.
One of dancers for the Washington Professional Football Team was an office manager where I worked about 10 years ago. She got invited to work the Pro Bowl one year and decided not to come back from Hawaii.
The local fish wrap factory here printed a whole feature about a local girl done good. She apparently got into the Vikings cheer _training program_ where you go to maybe someday possibly eventually get to actually become a cheerleader.
I think until you get really 250-300 at-bats under your belt, the numbers are somewhat of a representation, but they're always small sample sizes.
I also found this interesting about Gibson:
"I feel like last year I definitely had paralysis by analysis," Gibson said. "I looked at the numbers on sliders down and changeups away. I feel like I ended up staying away from certain parts of my repertoire just because I thought that Eric Hosmer or whoever could hit this pitch. . . . I feel like I just kind of fell into that rut and changed the way I pitched."
This goes back to the conversation earlier this week about there possibly being too many New Hampshire legislators.
Ken Tremendous is working this into Councilman Jamm's storyline as we speak.
I would rather they never use Councilman Jamm ever again. He is truly the worst character on that show.
I like that they have an adversary for Leslie. For a while, she was portrayed as a somewhat perfect figure, unflappable and capable of anything. It was a lot more fun once she got on the council and had to deal with Jamm.
As for my least favorite character, that would be Mona Lisa, hands down. Note: I have not yet seen season 6.
since you havent seen S6, I'll second Mona Lisa
I don't disagree. One Jean Ralphio was enough (and hilarious).
On one level, it's funny I suppose that Tom finally ditched J-R only to end up with his sister. But, she is so obnoxious. Too far over the top.
that's some quality analysis. But where is rock-n-roll?
also, I love the comment thread, which is mostly about the commenters themselves (who, ah, tend to write about the Self), not the study.
seriously, people. This study is an exercise in uncovering structure in unstructured data.
Nerd. The human element is way more important than whatever number crunching some pencil pushers with pocket protectors were doing. My reviews are always well-written, humorous, and appreciated by my audience. (I should probably note that I haven't actually written any reviews.)
These days I feel like I get so bombarded with requests to complete a survey on this or that, the idea of voluntarily reviewing something is about the last thing on my mind. I might complete a survey if you offer to pay me. Maybe. And I'm not buying any of your "one in 1,000,000 survey respondents will win this worthless knick-knack!"
the only people who write Yelp reviews are failed cheerleaders.
Is anybody else having issues with spoilers? Sometimes when I click on them instead of opening, it just scrolls me to the top of the page.
I have problems with them on my droid sometimes. For example, I will open Rhu_Ru's "Hint", then try to open the answer, and the answer won't open. I have to re-load the page (using Chrome on the droid). But I have not seen the problem algonad mentions, either on the droid or on desktop.
Did some data nerd get through to the field staff? Because that would really be something.
Molitor?
I'm worried that by exposing this information, the author has ruined everything. Expect more bunts, swinging Ks and GIDPs in the coming weeks.
This isn't new to this year. The Twins faced the most pitches per PA in the AL last year. This year it's even higher, but it is translating into more walks. I think this is Brunansky changing the approach of hitters and they struggled last year with trying to be patient without putting themselves into holes. I think they're doing a better job of identifying which pitches to swing at.
Interesting. Twins were also above league-average in 2012 (ranking 4th at 3.88 pitches/PA; league average was 3.84).
In 2013, Twins were second in the AL in strikes looking (30.5 pct strikes looking as a pct of all strikes) to Boston (31.2 pct, league average was 28.3 pct) and had the second lowest first pitch swinging pct (20.9 to Boston's 20.4, league average was 25.3). The Twins also had the third lowest contact pct (76 pct foul or in-play divided by foul+in-play+swinging strike; average was 78 pct).
so far this year, the Twins are second in the AL in strikes looking (32.9 pct; league avg is 29.1), have the lowest 1st pitch swinging pct (20.8 pct, avg is 25.2), and have the fifth worst contact rate (76.7 pct, avg is 78.1).
The Twins are dead last on balls in play, so if I'm playing the Twins, I put out the best offensive lineup and don't worry about defense.
Much to my dad's chagrin. **grumble grumble when did walks become the most important thing grumble grumble**
I might know the guy who wrote this (he's the lawyer on the left).
httpv://youtu.be/_jdeNVoTQxw
It always creeps me out that Bob Balaban is my father-in-law's doppelganger.
Also, we had a juror on a trial last summer 99% of the people on this website would know (although maybe not by face). That juror's answers during voir dire were amusingly vague.
Built in 2009, so not the place that had enough mold to make BRadke and his family sick.
That place is insane. He's gotta be way overextended with that. That has to be why he's selling. And since he's dropped the price by $3 million, he's gotta be taking a bath on it. Wow.
Hopefully he's only selling because he doesn't want the place, not because some kind of significant life change is underway.
His pool is bigger than my house
I don't want to say that the NBA playoffs have started off a little wacky, but here's David Thorpe's top ten players in the playoffs so far:
1. LM Aldridge
2. Nene (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
3. Tony Allen (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
4. Blake Griffin
5. Jeff Teague (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
6. Devin Harris (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
7. Damian Lilliard
8. Mike Conley (!!!!!!)
9. LBJ (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because he's so low)
10. Bradley Beal (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
No Durant. No Spurs. No Pacers.
Tony Allen was both awesome and dreadful last night down the stretch.
Simmons used to refer to him as "Trick or Treat Tony".
Ronald McDonald, the McDonald's (MCD) clown who came about 51 years ago,
This was funnier when I read that as "came out"
Fuld back in CF today against RHP Porcello. Gardy probably just riding the hot bat for now, but Hicks did hit a HR yesterday. Hopefully, he won't downgrade the OF defense when Hughes is pitching.
If been watching some old baseball games on YouTube and watching Kerry Wood's 20K game I forget that Shane Reynolds pitched a whale of a game and racked up 10 k's himself.
Right now, I would rank the following players from the series in terms of ability to make saves:
1. Varlamov
2. Erik Johnson
3. Granlund
4, tie. Kuemper
4, tie. Bryzgalov
*Granlund sans stick
Awesome.
Saw about 6 minutes of the game because Lydia, but seeing this clip, even knowing the outcome, still made the hair on my neck stand up. httpv://youtu.be/bc7-JpY0Egw
I would bump Kuemper above Bryz based on his save on O'Reilly with about two minutes to go. Phenomenal. The Wild only allowed eight shots before the last little flurry.
1 shot for the Avs in the time between the Colorado goal and when they pulled the goalie. That's 24 minutes of game time with one shot against.
Crazy. Didn't know the Wild had it in them. Keep it going. Plus those jersey's are still the best. LOVE them. I haven't purchased a jersey since the other team went south. Those Minnesota Jerseys might change my mind; plus there is a team in 'Peg again so I have someone closer to root against than than the blackhawks. It has been a long time since I've been committed to a hockey team, this is fun so far. Moar please? I have colorado family that are in the Ave's corner. I'd like the messages to stop this year.
Yes, but that goal yesterday was ridiculously soft. Way worse than any goal Bryzgalov allowed.
I don't know. Bryzgalov let in some pretty awful ones.
Varlamov is apparently very very good, though.
Sure. But he was standing there holding his ... stick for 30 minutes of game time. As tough as it is for Varlamov to get peppered, it's tough for Kuemper to be looking at his watch.
I was on a soccer team once and they decided to put me in goalie. We outshot the other team approximately 4 billion to 3. We lost 1-0 when a lob shot bounced off my shoulders. At one point I was literally sitting down doing leg stretches I was so bored.
I think I've even seen some fancystats folks show how save percentage increases with volume of shots against. The most recent one I saw was talking about Bernier. But I googled "Bernier Maple leafs shots against" and my computer exploded.
The State College Spikes, a Class A affiliate of the Cardinals, will where Fresh Prince of Bel Air inspired jerseys for a game.
oh my
In West Philadelphia born and raised....
Class A and people are complaining? This is so great on a lot of levels.
No complaint about this one in particular, but the novelty jerseys are getting a bit out of hand.
Their currency has been devalued to the point that they're no longer very special.
I think minor-league hockey has had a similar problem, but sometimes those are just warmup jerseys, IIRC.
Time and place are still matter.
I guess I thought the jerseys were kind of fun in a silly way; I don't support zombies!
Off soon for a short day trip to Mt. Pleasant, IA to visit with my parents for the afternoon. Try not to mess up the place while I'm gone.
So, Miss SBG is supposed to be having a slumber party for her birthday tonight. Alas, she has taken ill and cannot go to school today or host her party tonight. Such is life.
Don't look now, but OKC and Indiana are in serious trouble in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Indiana is flat out not going to win anything this year; the Hawks are exposing perhaps the worst #1 seed, ever. Memphis is a pretty damned good team, but OKC will be doing some serious soul searching if they don't get to at least the WCF this year, though.
Do we, as Wolves fans, root for the Hawks to win and Vogel getting fired? Do we think the Flipper would go after Vogel?
I would like to see the Hawks make it past the second round as of yesterday.
On your other point, I do not see Flip going after Vogel because I don't see him earnestly going after anyone before naming himself. This is the Wolves way.
So apparently that stun gun manufacturer is going to need to think of another name. (Link has some NSFW language in text only)
Should have just gone with "Hertz donut".
[rimshot]
This quote below would have me rolling on the floor laughing because guess what? basketball is about more than jacking up shots. But the guy who said it was The Big O. Then again, he was talking to Spike Lee, so maybe a dose of salt is required. Also, Houston is a pretty good team without Anthony, but I wonder if he and Harden could share the ball.
Heh:
Durant career FGA/game: 19.2 (4.4 of those are threes)
James career FGA/game: 19.9 (4.0 of those are threes)
Anthony career FGA/game: 19.7 (a mere 3.1 of those are threes)
Stupid statistics.
Career:
Even more fun, although it doesn't refute any of Oscar's points:
Career Assists/game:
Anthony - 3.1
Durant - 3.5
James - 6.9
And Durant's APG have been increasing every year. Carmelo Anthony is just not someone you build around.
Not to mention that LBJ is now shooting almost 60% from the floor. The idea that Anthony is a better offensive player than either of those guys is preposterous and he can't begin to touch LBJ on the other side of the court. But, again, he's talking to Spike Lee.
in four seasons with the Knicks, Melo has attempted 24.7 pct of his field goal attempts from 3pt range (5.0 per game), compared to 12.1 pct (2.3 per game) in his 8 seasons in Denver. He's making a lot more (38.5 pct vs 31.1 pct), but his game definitely has shifted outward.
But he also plays little defense. For his career, his Offensive rating is 108, Defensive rating 107 (estimates of points scored/allowed per 100 possessions). In NY, 111 ORtg, 107 DRtg. So his offense has gotten better, defense remained mediocre.
Uh, no, Oscar.
what's really remarkable is the drop in his scoring around the basket. In Denver, he took 39.9 pct of his fga within 3 feet; in NY, only 24.4 pct. Wow.
I suppose if I made the comment about Durant's assists, it's fair to make it about Anthony's shots.
Just curious: What are league average ratings? (At first I assumed they might be normalized to 100, but then I re-read your description.)
Since about 2004, the league average has been about 106 to 107.
Carmelo is maybe a top 15 player in the league. James and Durant are 1-2, no question. That's just silly talk.
Since someone mentioned Fresh Prince jerseys and we're talking about Durant, this gif showed up at CH today and I enjoyed it enough to share:
This is my favorite gif on the internet. The first place I saw it refers to Westbrook as Why not? brook or YNB. It's fitting.
Simmons:
Ricky and Pek for Russell. Get er dun, Billy Smith!
Only if the Wolves were moving to the east. A team with Ricky, Pek-smash, and KD in their starting 5 would scare the bejesus out of me.
We need to quit this. I am starting to have irrational hopes that this could happen.
I mean, it works in the Trade Machine...
Since we're talking lawsuits, here's a fun one: five former Buffalo Jills, the cheerleading squad for the Buffalo Bills are suing the club.
Miss SBG's best friend went to one of those camps for little girls. She performed at the halftime of some Vikings game. My daughter has no interest in that and that's good, because I'd have to fight her on that if she was.
there are lots of people (besides the parents of Honey Boo-Boo and JonBenet Ramsey) who work the little-girl beauty pageant circuit too.
I've never understood why people would be willing to do that for (more or less) free.
It's not even college athletics with its veil of "amateurity"
This.
to a degree, I suppose, some probably see it as investment in personal brand names, hoping to leverage the, ahem, exposure, to bigger and better things. Others may be exhibitionists or groupies. Others...who knows?
They like the exercise
We had a Seattle "SeaGal" interview for an admin assistant position one time. In certain professions where it might be difficult to prove you are better than the rest, having that on your resume could help you get a foot in the door. Maybe. In this case, we hired someone else.
One of dancers for the Washington Professional Football Team was an office manager where I worked about 10 years ago. She got invited to work the Pro Bowl one year and decided not to come back from Hawaii.
The local fish wrap factory here printed a whole feature about a local girl done good. She apparently got into the Vikings cheer _training program_ where you go to maybe someday possibly eventually get to actually become a cheerleader.
CELEBRATE!
Colabello, still awesome:
I also found this interesting about Gibson:
This goes back to the conversation earlier this week about there possibly being too many New Hampshire legislators.
Ken Tremendous is working this into Councilman Jamm's storyline as we speak.
I would rather they never use Councilman Jamm ever again. He is truly the worst character on that show.
I like that they have an adversary for Leslie. For a while, she was portrayed as a somewhat perfect figure, unflappable and capable of anything. It was a lot more fun once she got on the council and had to deal with Jamm.
As for my least favorite character, that would be Mona Lisa, hands down. Note: I have not yet seen season 6.
since you havent seen S6, I'll second Mona Lisa
I don't disagree. One Jean Ralphio was enough (and hilarious).
On one level, it's funny I suppose that Tom finally ditched J-R only to end up with his sister. But, she is so obnoxious. Too far over the top.
Here's something fun for the Nation's foodies--a study of the linguistic structure of Yelp reviews. Check this out:
that's some quality analysis. But where is rock-n-roll?
also, I love the comment thread, which is mostly about the commenters themselves (who, ah, tend to write about the Self), not the study.
seriously, people. This study is an exercise in uncovering structure in unstructured data.
Nerd. The human element is way more important than whatever number crunching some pencil pushers with pocket protectors were doing. My reviews are always well-written, humorous, and appreciated by my audience. (I should probably note that I haven't actually written any reviews.)
These days I feel like I get so bombarded with requests to complete a survey on this or that, the idea of voluntarily reviewing something is about the last thing on my mind. I might complete a survey if you offer to pay me. Maybe. And I'm not buying any of your "one in 1,000,000 survey respondents will win this worthless knick-knack!"
the only people who write Yelp reviews are failed cheerleaders.
Is anybody else having issues with spoilers? Sometimes when I click on them instead of opening, it just scrolls me to the top of the page.
I have problems with them on my droid sometimes. For example, I will open Rhu_Ru's "Hint", then try to open the answer, and the answer won't open. I have to re-load the page (using Chrome on the droid). But I have not seen the problem algonad mentions, either on the droid or on desktop.
Arm Side Run on the power of secrets in sports. Really fascinating stuff.
Hey, Fangraphs noticed the Twins are doing something!
Or not doing something, I guess...
Ho Lee Balls.
Did some data nerd get through to the field staff? Because that would really be something.
Molitor?
I'm worried that by exposing this information, the author has ruined everything. Expect more bunts, swinging Ks and GIDPs in the coming weeks.
This isn't new to this year. The Twins faced the most pitches per PA in the AL last year. This year it's even higher, but it is translating into more walks. I think this is Brunansky changing the approach of hitters and they struggled last year with trying to be patient without putting themselves into holes. I think they're doing a better job of identifying which pitches to swing at.
Interesting. Twins were also above league-average in 2012 (ranking 4th at 3.88 pitches/PA; league average was 3.84).
In 2013, Twins were second in the AL in strikes looking (30.5 pct strikes looking as a pct of all strikes) to Boston (31.2 pct, league average was 28.3 pct) and had the second lowest first pitch swinging pct (20.9 to Boston's 20.4, league average was 25.3). The Twins also had the third lowest contact pct (76 pct foul or in-play divided by foul+in-play+swinging strike; average was 78 pct).
so far this year, the Twins are second in the AL in strikes looking (32.9 pct; league avg is 29.1), have the lowest 1st pitch swinging pct (20.8 pct, avg is 25.2), and have the fifth worst contact rate (76.7 pct, avg is 78.1).
The Twins are dead last on balls in play, so if I'm playing the Twins, I put out the best offensive lineup and don't worry about defense.
Much to my dad's chagrin. **grumble grumble when did walks become the most important thing grumble grumble**
I might know the guy who wrote this (he's the lawyer on the left).
httpv://youtu.be/_jdeNVoTQxw
It always creeps me out that Bob Balaban is my father-in-law's doppelganger.
Also, we had a juror on a trial last summer 99% of the people on this website would know (although maybe not by face). That juror's answers during voir dire were amusingly vague.
I'm guessing Vikings football player.
Radke is selling his house. It's bigger than mine.
Built in 2009, so not the place that had enough mold to make BRadke and his family sick.
That place is insane. He's gotta be way overextended with that. That has to be why he's selling. And since he's dropped the price by $3 million, he's gotta be taking a bath on it. Wow.
Hopefully he's only selling because he doesn't want the place, not because some kind of significant life change is underway.
His pool is bigger than my house
I don't want to say that the NBA playoffs have started off a little wacky, but here's David Thorpe's top ten players in the playoffs so far:
1. LM Aldridge
2. Nene (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
3. Tony Allen (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
4. Blake Griffin
5. Jeff Teague (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
6. Devin Harris (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
7. Damian Lilliard
8. Mike Conley (!!!!!!)
9. LBJ (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because he's so low)
10. Bradley Beal (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
No Durant. No Spurs. No Pacers.
Tony Allen was both awesome and dreadful last night down the stretch.
Simmons used to refer to him as "Trick or Treat Tony".
Colabello and Pinto, probably the two biggest reasons for the Twins' offensive turnaround, are not on the AL All-Star ballot. Write them in, people!
Colabello's gotta be the Fan Vote extra this year, right?
The Timberwolves have been around for 25 years. Both them and the New York Knicks have won the same amount of championships in that time.
I missed this news somehow.
This was funnier when I read that as "came out"
Fuld back in CF today against RHP Porcello. Gardy probably just riding the hot bat for now, but Hicks did hit a HR yesterday. Hopefully, he won't downgrade the OF defense when Hughes is pitching.
If been watching some old baseball games on YouTube and watching Kerry Wood's 20K game I forget that Shane Reynolds pitched a whale of a game and racked up 10 k's himself.