Fun with numbers! Escobar had 4 hits last night filling in for Florimon.
Florimon has SIX hits all year.
slash line: .115/.193/.173 /.366 OPS+ 4
Listening to today's Effectively Wild podcast in the shower this morning, I think I finally have made up my mind that the CarGo-Hardy-Hoey series of transactions have been and will continue to be far more damaging to the franchise than Ramos-for-Capps.
Whenever Gardy put Hoey in, I turned off the game. I figured that if he didn't care about the game anymore, why should I? That trade was definitely the one that broke me for the Twins.
I was going to say that didn't happen that often, but 26 games??
Doomsday had 45.
Chuck James? 8.
Anthony Slama, 7.
Agreed, though both trades (up the middle defenders for relievers) reek of the same organizational problem.
That's it in a nutshell isn't it.
What's amazing about that is that the one thing, above all else, that the Twins were successful at in the 2000s was finding good, cheap solutions for bullpen spots.
The LCS* owner here was just commenting yesterday that this year seems to have so many more "unknown" relievers, and that teams seem to be going to their farm teams more instead of retread journeymen.
*local card shop
on a different note, the Oakland A's have lost two of their starters to Tommy John surgery so far this year (Jarrod Parker and now AJ Griffin). Guess which team currently leads the AL in lowest ERA?
Someone, I think it was Verducci, once commented that the last decade success of the A's wasn't due to Billy Beane's approach, but that he got lucky to come up with Zito, Mulder, and Hudson.
I think that's borne out with the Giants acquiring Zito and then winning two world championships.
also, Sabean acquired Hudson this off-season. So that means two more WS titles for the G-men, right?
I should put Effectively Wild back into the pod rotation now that it's baseball season again. Thanks for the reminder.
Graham Womack, who writes Baseball Past & Present and does an annual piece on the fifty best players not in the Hall of Fame, caught me off guard with his piece about Josh Lueke, rape, and disgust a couple days ago. I think it says an awful lot about Womack that he chose to put that kind of story out there.
I might have missed this one making the rounds while I was waiting to fix my computer, but wanted to call attention to Graham's piece in the event that nobody else had read it yet.
Wow. Thanks for the share.
Wowzers is right. That's some heavy sh!t.
Mags, have you seen the 30 for 30 Ceasefire Massacre? I caught the opening few minutes the other night, and am looking forward to seeing the rest.
I saw that it existed and found the synopsis, but I've not seen any of the actual film. It's definitely on my list, and very high on it.
NBA Playoffs:
San Antonio won game 5 last night in a pretty close affair. I am pretty stunned that Dallas has given this club any trouble at all. Having seen the Spurs several times at the end of the season, I figured they were a prohibitive favorite in the West. This series gives me pause. If OKC gets dumped, the Spurs will be in pretty good shape, but if the Mavs can play with them, who says Porland, Houston, Memphis, and LA can't? I still think it's the Spurs.
Toronto fends off a huge comeback by the Nets. Miami will drill them in the second round, but the Nets could have been a problem for them. Everything is breaking for the Heat. KG is done. I can't believe how fast he's fallen.
Houston beats Portland to send the series back to Portland for game 6. I think Portland closes this out.
I'm so torn on the Houston-Portland series. On the one hand, I have an extreme dislike of Dwight Howard and would hate to see him move on or ever have any playoff success. But with Portland, I find myself disliking them (mostly from jealousy) because they were bad while the Wolves were bad but have managed to come out of that and be good while the Wolves franchise, after it employs a terrible coaching search process and just names either Flip or Terry Porter the coach, will continue to not win 50 games.
But ugh, Dwight Howard. Go Blazers.
I have enjoyed the resurgence of Omer Asik tremendously. Also, the Troy Daniels Experience.
I am not a huge fan of Dwight Howard, but I will say that LAST NIGHT, he showed some of the best footwork I've ever seen from him. He was aggressive and quick and actually competent on offense.
I'm also not a fan of James Harden Dribbles For 20 Seconds offense. Move the damned ball. When the ball moves, Houston is really good. Harden still scores a lot when he dominates the ball, but it is boring.
There also Harden's "defense" to contend with, as far as terrible basketball is concerned.
My beef with Howard is the Orlando situation and his public persona, which is horribly obnoxious.
Yes, but it gave us Stan Van Gundy's Diet Pepsi press conference, so it wasn't all bad.
My computer just now came back from the dead, after being down since just before the end of the Wild game last night (I posted once or twice last night from my iPad). I guess I'll watch the end now...
I decided to not set an alarm last night because of how sleepy I was and not having anything to get up for. SleepBot says I slept for 10.6 hours and the movement graph shows almost no tossing & turning. I was out solid for a long time.
And thus I missed the presale again.
I recently took a sleep study to further an evolving VA disability claim. The sleep study technician told me at the end that I had 78 disturbances of my sleep pattern in two hours. I've been living like this since 2004-2005.
Ah, man. I am so sympathetic to poor sleep. My wife has about 78 disturbances of sleep per night, but the disturbances are her bladder or any minor noise or rustle, ever. She had a sleep study and there was nothing they could do for her. Also, over 50% of her dreams are nightmares. The other night she dreamed that she was dropping our son, and violently began clutching me.
My Dad has been a terrible sleeper for years due to his snoring, which evolved into sleep apena. It also affected Mom's sleep. She'd get the most rest between 6-9AM after Dad had gotten up for work before she had to. He finally got a CPAP a few months ago and it's been a godsend for the both of them.
I've known a ton of people where the C-PAP significant changes their life. Energy, mood, concentration. My dad probably had sleep apnea but never had it checked out. Then he had a heart attack, stopped smoking, dropped 70 pounds, began exercising, and now sleeps like a baby.
I'm strongly considering going in for a sleep study. I sleep like crap and I snore terribly at times. Even with my insurance this will cost me around $500 which is what's making me hesitate.
These are always surprisingly hard choices for people to pull the trigger on. You have to psychologically do the cost-benefit: what are the odds that the investment will give you a solution that significantly improves your quality of life, and how much would that be worth to you over the next XX years?
I see people all the time making penny-wise, pound-foolish health-related choices. Not suggesting that you are one of them (there's a lot of genuine uncertainty about the value of lots of health treatment strategies), but people are funny about out-of-pocket expenditures on health care. And at the same time will spend very freely on other things that affect their quality of life.
That's the point I'm trying to make: people are funny about how they make (or rationalize) lots of these choices.
Also, most health care facilities will allow an interest free payment plan, which makes the decision a bit easier.
As a major & ongoing direct beneficiary of these no-interest policies I'm very glad they're in place, but that these policies are essentially a necessity says an awful lot about the choices we're continuing to make about access to and paying for health care in this country.
interest-free payment plans also tell you something about their profit margins on providing service, I guess.
I've had consistently bad experiences with doctors for most of my adult life, which plays into this. The money is one thing, I suppose. It's easy for me to use that as a blockage. Mostly I'm uncomfortable with how my appointment would go. The last time I attempted to address this the doctor basically called me a fat fuck and said she'd only give me a referral to a sleep study if I went to see a nutritionist. It was one of the most demeaning, nasty things I've had happen to me at the doctor, and I'm not sure I want to go through with it again.
On the flipside, I'm tired of being exhausted half the day. I don't know. I am very, very strongly considering it.
That sounds absolutely horrible Zack. Amazing how poorly some of these 'smart' folks do with basic human interaction.
One thing to remember is that, essentially, you're a customer, and if you're unhappy with the service you should take your business elsewhere. This, of course, is easier said than done when demoralized as you're describing, but you should search out a doctor that is more compassionate.
and now sleeps like a baby
wakes up crying every four hours, wanting to be fed?
I've had a CPAP now for a couple years. Hated it at first, but now I'm consistent with it. Does help me sleep through the night pretty well, but unfortunately I stay up too late too often watching freakin' Butera hit a homer against the Twins to really be effective.
Thankfully I come from a long line of quality sleepers, and Runner daughter inherited it as well, for which I'm definitely thankful. Mrs. Runner sleeps okay, but she does have a snoring issue.
Dr. Fear had me wear a device whilst I slept to see what my night-time blood-pressure was. It is lower while I'm sleeping and elevated (after morning coffee, work stress, etc.). He's OK at this point.
TREASURE HUNT!!
For those with Netflix, you can stream a movie called Grassroots. Around the 1:00 hour mark, you can find something really special. If you find it, you win a WGOM dollar.
Ma Bell making a bid for DirecTV. Does this mean rising prices (due to reduced competition) or just that NFL Prime Ticket/Sunday Ticket will now be more readily available? Or both! (Because Money)
Maybe we will get NFL games 7 nights per week!!!111one111!!!!
Just what we need, more merging in the telecommunications/information/entertainment content provider industry.
In the Matrix, this would be... a non-event. Still the MainFrame.
I have a front row seat to people leaving cable in droves. I probably have six to eight people leaving to do antenna/Netflix for every one person signing up. I'm sure the overall numbers aren't quite so dire, but I think they have to do something and fast.
Yup. Everyone around me is doing the same thing and if anyone mentions it, I always urge them to do it based on my own very happy experience with saving $100/month.
NBA basketball. Can't live without that.
And that's why cable companies love sports.
Yeah. I wish the prices of the subscription services were less ludicrous; I would have done NBA League Pass this year, I think. As it is, dealing with sketchy sites is just so irritating.
Roku has three of the four major US sports streaming; I can't remember, at the moment, which one they lack (Sunday Ticket, I think?). If they could do away with exclusivity rights I think we'd see a lot more people leave cable. And that's not happening.
I've been keeping an eye out for the $57 MLB.tv Premium deal again. It was fantastic to have that last year. I watched so. much. baseball.
If you see it, let me know. I could justify that expense I think.
Oh, I most definitely will.
I do it every year at full price and I never regret it, particularly when mid-September comes and I get every playoff-implicating game.
The last couple years, they've offered it for $50 right around Father's Day.
Roku doesn't have NFL because it really doesn't have an Internet offering. You can't watch it on Internet unless you already have it on DirecTV or you can prove that you live in a place that you are unable to get DirecTV, i.e., an apartment building that doesn't allow satellite dishes. Even then, it is ridiculously expensive, as in several hundred dollars.
The only thing I can see saving cable/satellite is providing ala carte service. Why you can't just pick the channels you want and pay for just those, I'll never know. They can charge more for channels individually and then give package deals allowing people to save on groups of similar channels. It's done in just about every other industry except cable/satellite television.
This for me - I'd love to watch the locals play on television, but the upcharge from my basic package to one with Twins/Wolves/Wild is like $50+ per month and I'd get like 100 more channels I don't care about.
Why you can't just pick the channels you want and pay for just those, I'll never know.
Historically, Because Money. Pre-digital, I think there were all sorts of switching issues involved. And cable operates through local franchise arrangements with communities. I.e., there's a reason you typically do not have a choice of cable provider -- the city only grants access to ONE, and can extract rents by limiting access in this way. Good for the cable company, good for the community pols' coffers. Not necessarily good for consumers. Because federal law limits franchise fees to 5 percent of gross revenues, cities are incentivized to write franchise arrangements that lead to higher gross revenues (thus bundling and revenue maximization if not profit maximization for the provider).
I think also because media companies have merged, if a cable company wanted to carry one company's channel, it was required to buy the whole package, and so some things are "bundled" as such even before the cable company offers it.
1. Happy When It Rains -- The Jesus & Mary Chain -- Darklands
2. If You Think It's Easy -- Guided By Voices -- Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow
3. (The Moment Before) Everything's Spoiled Again -- The Wedding Present -- Tommy
4. Acuff-Rose -- Uncle Tupelo -- Anodyne
5. Anarchy in the UK -- Sex Pistols -- Never Mind the Bollacks
6. Hey, Good Lookin' -- Ray Charles -- Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music
7. Richard -- Billy Bragg -- Back To Basics
8. Any Ole Way -- Otis Redding -- Live on the Sunset Strip
9. Last Roundup -- The Feelies -- Good Earth
10. Cold Gin -- Kiss -- Alive!
B1 Either Way -- Wilco -- Sky Blue Sky
B2. Paper Planes (Remix) -- M.I.A. -- Kala
Fun with numbers! Escobar had 4 hits last night filling in for Florimon.
Florimon has SIX hits all year.
slash line: .115/.193/.173 /.366 OPS+ 4
Listening to today's Effectively Wild podcast in the shower this morning, I think I finally have made up my mind that the CarGo-Hardy-Hoey series of transactions have been and will continue to be far more damaging to the franchise than Ramos-for-Capps.
Whenever Gardy put Hoey in, I turned off the game. I figured that if he didn't care about the game anymore, why should I? That trade was definitely the one that broke me for the Twins.
I was going to say that didn't happen that often, but 26 games??
Doomsday had 45.
Chuck James? 8.
Anthony Slama, 7.
Agreed, though both trades (up the middle defenders for relievers) reek of the same organizational problem.
That's it in a nutshell isn't it.
What's amazing about that is that the one thing, above all else, that the Twins were successful at in the 2000s was finding good, cheap solutions for bullpen spots.
The LCS* owner here was just commenting yesterday that this year seems to have so many more "unknown" relievers, and that teams seem to be going to their farm teams more instead of retread journeymen.
*local card shop
on a different note, the Oakland A's have lost two of their starters to Tommy John surgery so far this year (Jarrod Parker and now AJ Griffin). Guess which team currently leads the AL in lowest ERA?
Someone, I think it was Verducci, once commented that the last decade success of the A's wasn't due to Billy Beane's approach, but that he got lucky to come up with Zito, Mulder, and Hudson.
I think that's borne out with the Giants acquiring Zito and then winning two world championships.
Oh, well played.
also, Sabean acquired Hudson this off-season. So that means two more WS titles for the G-men, right?
I should put Effectively Wild back into the pod rotation now that it's baseball season again. Thanks for the reminder.
Graham Womack, who writes Baseball Past & Present and does an annual piece on the fifty best players not in the Hall of Fame, caught me off guard with his piece about Josh Lueke, rape, and disgust a couple days ago. I think it says an awful lot about Womack that he chose to put that kind of story out there.
I might have missed this one making the rounds while I was waiting to fix my computer, but wanted to call attention to Graham's piece in the event that nobody else had read it yet.
Wow. Thanks for the share.
Wowzers is right. That's some heavy sh!t.
Mags, have you seen the 30 for 30 Ceasefire Massacre? I caught the opening few minutes the other night, and am looking forward to seeing the rest.
I saw that it existed and found the synopsis, but I've not seen any of the actual film. It's definitely on my list, and very high on it.
NBA Playoffs:
San Antonio won game 5 last night in a pretty close affair. I am pretty stunned that Dallas has given this club any trouble at all. Having seen the Spurs several times at the end of the season, I figured they were a prohibitive favorite in the West. This series gives me pause. If OKC gets dumped, the Spurs will be in pretty good shape, but if the Mavs can play with them, who says Porland, Houston, Memphis, and LA can't? I still think it's the Spurs.
Toronto fends off a huge comeback by the Nets. Miami will drill them in the second round, but the Nets could have been a problem for them. Everything is breaking for the Heat. KG is done. I can't believe how fast he's fallen.
Houston beats Portland to send the series back to Portland for game 6. I think Portland closes this out.
I'm so torn on the Houston-Portland series. On the one hand, I have an extreme dislike of Dwight Howard and would hate to see him move on or ever have any playoff success. But with Portland, I find myself disliking them (mostly from jealousy) because they were bad while the Wolves were bad but have managed to come out of that and be good while the Wolves franchise, after it employs a terrible coaching search process and just names either Flip or Terry Porter the coach, will continue to not win 50 games.
But ugh, Dwight Howard. Go Blazers.
I have enjoyed the resurgence of Omer Asik tremendously. Also, the Troy Daniels Experience.
I am not a huge fan of Dwight Howard, but I will say that LAST NIGHT, he showed some of the best footwork I've ever seen from him. He was aggressive and quick and actually competent on offense.
I'm also not a fan of James Harden Dribbles For 20 Seconds offense. Move the damned ball. When the ball moves, Houston is really good. Harden still scores a lot when he dominates the ball, but it is boring.
There also Harden's "defense" to contend with, as far as terrible basketball is concerned.
My beef with Howard is the Orlando situation and his public persona, which is horribly obnoxious.
Yes, but it gave us Stan Van Gundy's Diet Pepsi press conference, so it wasn't all bad.
At least his mom has his back.
My computer just now came back from the dead, after being down since just before the end of the Wild game last night (I posted once or twice last night from my iPad). I guess I'll watch the end now...
I'm not going to hide my actual feelings behinds a spoiler wall. Now that the snowflakes are out of the playoffs I'm a happy camper.
this
Programming Note: Jeff A is trying his best to drown us in content today.
Hope I haven't done this one before...
ID the AU -- which Twins player (current or former) fist-pumps his way through this signature?
I don't know if you had but I had it.
I decided to not set an alarm last night because of how sleepy I was and not having anything to get up for. SleepBot says I slept for 10.6 hours and the movement graph shows almost no tossing & turning. I was out solid for a long time.
And thus I missed the presale again.
I recently took a sleep study to further an evolving VA disability claim. The sleep study technician told me at the end that I had 78 disturbances of my sleep pattern in two hours. I've been living like this since 2004-2005.
Ah, man. I am so sympathetic to poor sleep. My wife has about 78 disturbances of sleep per night, but the disturbances are her bladder or any minor noise or rustle, ever. She had a sleep study and there was nothing they could do for her. Also, over 50% of her dreams are nightmares. The other night she dreamed that she was dropping our son, and violently began clutching me.
My Dad has been a terrible sleeper for years due to his snoring, which evolved into sleep apena. It also affected Mom's sleep. She'd get the most rest between 6-9AM after Dad had gotten up for work before she had to. He finally got a CPAP a few months ago and it's been a godsend for the both of them.
I've known a ton of people where the C-PAP significant changes their life. Energy, mood, concentration. My dad probably had sleep apnea but never had it checked out. Then he had a heart attack, stopped smoking, dropped 70 pounds, began exercising, and now sleeps like a baby.
I'm strongly considering going in for a sleep study. I sleep like crap and I snore terribly at times. Even with my insurance this will cost me around $500 which is what's making me hesitate.
These are always surprisingly hard choices for people to pull the trigger on. You have to psychologically do the cost-benefit: what are the odds that the investment will give you a solution that significantly improves your quality of life, and how much would that be worth to you over the next XX years?
I see people all the time making penny-wise, pound-foolish health-related choices. Not suggesting that you are one of them (there's a lot of genuine uncertainty about the value of lots of health treatment strategies), but people are funny about out-of-pocket expenditures on health care. And at the same time will spend very freely on other things that affect their quality of life.
That's the point I'm trying to make: people are funny about how they make (or rationalize) lots of these choices.
Also, most health care facilities will allow an interest free payment plan, which makes the decision a bit easier.
interest-free payment plans also tell you something about their profit margins on providing service, I guess.
I've had consistently bad experiences with doctors for most of my adult life, which plays into this. The money is one thing, I suppose. It's easy for me to use that as a blockage. Mostly I'm uncomfortable with how my appointment would go. The last time I attempted to address this the doctor basically called me a fat fuck and said she'd only give me a referral to a sleep study if I went to see a nutritionist. It was one of the most demeaning, nasty things I've had happen to me at the doctor, and I'm not sure I want to go through with it again.
On the flipside, I'm tired of being exhausted half the day. I don't know. I am very, very strongly considering it.
That sounds absolutely horrible Zack. Amazing how poorly some of these 'smart' folks do with basic human interaction.
One thing to remember is that, essentially, you're a customer, and if you're unhappy with the service you should take your business elsewhere. This, of course, is easier said than done when demoralized as you're describing, but you should search out a doctor that is more compassionate.
wakes up crying every four hours, wanting to be fed?
I've had a CPAP now for a couple years. Hated it at first, but now I'm consistent with it. Does help me sleep through the night pretty well, but unfortunately I stay up too late too often watching freakin' Butera hit a homer against the Twins to really be effective.
Thankfully I come from a long line of quality sleepers, and Runner daughter inherited it as well, for which I'm definitely thankful. Mrs. Runner sleeps okay, but she does have a snoring issue.
Dr. Fear had me wear a device whilst I slept to see what my night-time blood-pressure was. It is lower while I'm sleeping and elevated (after morning coffee, work stress, etc.). He's OK at this point.
TREASURE HUNT!!
For those with Netflix, you can stream a movie called Grassroots. Around the 1:00 hour mark, you can find something really special. If you find it, you win a WGOM dollar.
Ma Bell making a bid for DirecTV. Does this mean rising prices (due to reduced competition) or just that NFL Prime Ticket/Sunday Ticket will now be more readily available? Or both! (Because Money)
Maybe we will get NFL games 7 nights per week!!!111one111!!!!
Just what we need, more merging in the telecommunications/information/entertainment content provider industry.
In the Matrix, this would be... a non-event. Still the MainFrame.
I have a front row seat to people leaving cable in droves. I probably have six to eight people leaving to do antenna/Netflix for every one person signing up. I'm sure the overall numbers aren't quite so dire, but I think they have to do something and fast.
Yup. Everyone around me is doing the same thing and if anyone mentions it, I always urge them to do it based on my own very happy experience with saving $100/month.
NBA basketball. Can't live without that.
And that's why cable companies love sports.
Yeah. I wish the prices of the subscription services were less ludicrous; I would have done NBA League Pass this year, I think. As it is, dealing with sketchy sites is just so irritating.
Roku has three of the four major US sports streaming; I can't remember, at the moment, which one they lack (Sunday Ticket, I think?). If they could do away with exclusivity rights I think we'd see a lot more people leave cable. And that's not happening.
I've been keeping an eye out for the $57 MLB.tv Premium deal again. It was fantastic to have that last year. I watched so. much. baseball.
If you see it, let me know. I could justify that expense I think.
Oh, I most definitely will.
I do it every year at full price and I never regret it, particularly when mid-September comes and I get every playoff-implicating game.
The last couple years, they've offered it for $50 right around Father's Day.
Roku doesn't have NFL because it really doesn't have an Internet offering. You can't watch it on Internet unless you already have it on DirecTV or you can prove that you live in a place that you are unable to get DirecTV, i.e., an apartment building that doesn't allow satellite dishes. Even then, it is ridiculously expensive, as in several hundred dollars.
The only thing I can see saving cable/satellite is providing ala carte service. Why you can't just pick the channels you want and pay for just those, I'll never know. They can charge more for channels individually and then give package deals allowing people to save on groups of similar channels. It's done in just about every other industry except cable/satellite television.
This for me - I'd love to watch the locals play on television, but the upcharge from my basic package to one with Twins/Wolves/Wild is like $50+ per month and I'd get like 100 more channels I don't care about.
Historically, Because Money. Pre-digital, I think there were all sorts of switching issues involved. And cable operates through local franchise arrangements with communities. I.e., there's a reason you typically do not have a choice of cable provider -- the city only grants access to ONE, and can extract rents by limiting access in this way. Good for the cable company, good for the community pols' coffers. Not necessarily good for consumers. Because federal law limits franchise fees to 5 percent of gross revenues, cities are incentivized to write franchise arrangements that lead to higher gross revenues (thus bundling and revenue maximization if not profit maximization for the provider).
I think also because media companies have merged, if a cable company wanted to carry one company's channel, it was required to buy the whole package, and so some things are "bundled" as such even before the cable company offers it.
Candle Clock ... science is cool.
No one has addressed the fact that this cup of coffee is from the future?
a-hahahaha!
No, because It Is Thursday!
I'll be honest, I rarely read the CoC intros. I'm always last in on these sorts of jokes until people point out the errors.
Impossibly incompetent quality assurance lackies
Gotta be careful not to run into our future selves...
Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.
Pelfrey's rotation spot is in jeopardy.
Here's the link.
1. Happy When It Rains -- The Jesus & Mary Chain -- Darklands
2. If You Think It's Easy -- Guided By Voices -- Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow
3. (The Moment Before) Everything's Spoiled Again -- The Wedding Present -- Tommy
4. Acuff-Rose -- Uncle Tupelo -- Anodyne
5. Anarchy in the UK -- Sex Pistols -- Never Mind the Bollacks
6. Hey, Good Lookin' -- Ray Charles -- Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music
7. Richard -- Billy Bragg -- Back To Basics
8. Any Ole Way -- Otis Redding -- Live on the Sunset Strip
9. Last Roundup -- The Feelies -- Good Earth
10. Cold Gin -- Kiss -- Alive!
B1 Either Way -- Wilco -- Sky Blue Sky
B2. Paper Planes (Remix) -- M.I.A. -- Kala
Ooops. Wrong section.