53 thoughts on “June 26, 2014: Goodnight Noises Everywhere”

  2. Travelling for work this week. On the evening phone call, the wife suggests I not work too late as is must already be, what, 11:00pm where I am?

    Me: You don’t know where I am, do you?
    Her: I thought you were in Alabama.
    Me: That’s ALBERTA. Canada.

    She wanted partial credit for the answer.
    This would explain why she found the texts about moose crossing and 11PM sunsets confusing.

  3. Handy dandy chart to keep track of scores and whether or not the USA will advance.

    1. I find this one easier to read:
      Moar Culurz!!!111!!oneone!!!
      (via Will Leitch's twitter)
      Ties are condensed, and it shows who gets in, not just outcomes for US.
      But it only covers scores up to 3-2.

  4. This guy is my second favorite fan (behind the Ghanaian in whiteface with dreads) from the World Cup:

    Looks like Recife got the rain we had last week.

  5. This image doesn't seem to be available without a watermark, but if you're jonesing for a cup of Margaret Wise Brown-style coffee, here ya go:

    1. That was a sparse look at his struggles. The focus on batting average was disappointing and the cursory examination of his walk and strikeout rates left me unimpressed. Yes Mauer had his highest strikeout rate last year. He also had his highest wOBA since 2009 and he significantly improved his ISO over the previous year. The walk rate example was even worse. His career rate is 12.1%. Last year was 12.0%. 2012 was the outlier at 14.0%.

  7. For those paying attention, or even kind of paying attention ... or not paying attention at all but looking to be reminded, tonight is the NBA Draft. I don't know who the Wolves should take tonight and frankly, I don't really have enough invested in this team to care. However, with a draft this "stocked with high-end talent," it should be fun to see how badly they slaughter the hopes of those who do care. What has been fun (for me anyway) is the discussions about the draft generally. Two that have stuck with me are a review/redraft of the past 19 drafts by Simmons, and an interesting conglomeration of six NBA scout's takes on 54 NBA prospects.

    Both are basically opinion pieces, the first from a guy who annoys most of us but has consolidated some interesting information in a fairly comprehensive manner. The second is from 6 guys who are paid to have opinions about NBA prospects. I read the second before the first but I think Simmons' point - that the NBA Draft is essentially a crap-shoot - is even more amusing when read in turn with what guys who are supposed to know what they're looking at think about the guys who'll one day end up on a list like Simmons'.

    Another thing that's 'amusing' is how many "Lottery Whiffs" the Wolves have had.

    1. I think the only hope I have for the Wolves is that Flip outsmarts himself somehow and manages to draft actual contributing players and not trade them away.

      This may require another GM (or two) to do something really stupid. Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee- there could be a chance of this happening.

      1. Its kind of depressing that we have to hope for an "outsmarting himself" type of scenario for him to hopefully do the right thing. That said, other than keeping Love and rolling with the kahntract, I don't know what the right thing is because the draft talk at CH turned into nothing but a wall of text for me. I don't remotely trust Flip in this, so I'm guessing whatever they do will be the wrong thing to do.

        1. I really wanted to trust Flip. I really, really hoped that his experience in the league would translate into competent front office moves. Who knows, maybe he just didn't have enough time before last year's draft to really get a handle on things. Who knows, Shabazz could conceivably end up being a better choice than Carter-Williams, Giannis, Burke & McCollum ... I doubt it, but who knows?!

          1. maybe Flip will go after the Cajun Ricky:

            Elfrid Payton, 6-4 guard, Louisiana. "He must be doing well in workouts because I hear his name rising big time, but I'm not as impressed as most people. Can't shoot a lick -- like at all. That's a huge glaring negative. He'll be one of the better defenders in this draft. Gets into the paint whenever he wants. He's getting a lot of buzz, but I'm not big on the guy. Point guards that can't shoot, that's a tough thing."

      2. I might question Simmons' grasp of basic math.

        That’s 57 picks in all. Twelve of 57 were drafted first overall; 18 of 57 were drafted 2-through-5; 16 of 57 were drafted 6-through-14; and 10 of 57 were drafted 15th or later. Even if you don’t land a top-five pick, there remains a 40 percent chance of drafting a top-three player. If you don’t get a top-three pick, you maintain about a SIXTY percent chance of landing one of the best three players. But hey, keep tanking your buns off, everybody.

        ummm. No. There's a 60 percent chance (on average) of someone picked lower than the top 3 ending up as one of the top 3 players from a draft. That's not the same thing as saying you have a 60 pct chance of landing a top-3 player with a lower pick. Really, really, really not the same.

        1. Phfft! Details, details. Besides, he covered his a** by stating it wasn't being all FiveThirtyEight! You can say anything you want so long as there's a disclaimer, right?

        2. Yeah. It's like the replacing of "What are the odds that someone I remember from somewhere being near me on some mode of conveyance of people or at some destination away from home this decade?" (Pretty good, probably)
          vs "What are the odds of you being right behind me on this flight today?" (Pretty scant).

          1. or replacing "what are my odds of dying today?" with "what are my odds of dying?"

    2. Heh. "Finch" said this about a dozen different ways.

      The weed thing, that's three-quarters of the NBA right there.

  8. Sooo... ok!

    Dustin Morse ‏@Twins_morsecode
    The #MNTwins have optioned RHP Yohan Pino & recalled INF Jorge Polanco from Ft. Myers. Polanco (20) youngest player since Mauer in 2004.

    2. Back to baseball, sounds like Samuel Dedunois likely candidate to make YohanPino's next start.— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) June 26, 2014

      Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

      2. I guess the Pino/Pinto battery will have to be in Rochester instead of Minnesota.

    3. Since Polanco is a middle infielder, I assume he'll play center field for the Twins.

  9. There are a good 50 people or more standing around in the UP HQ atrium watching the soccer match on the huge screen down there...

    edit: on this guy

  10. Trey's Newmark 2 All-Star team defeated Newmark 1 last night 12-9 to advance to the championship game(s). Newmark 1 defeated Newmark 2 in the first game of the tourney, so it was sweet revenge. Trey was 2-for-3 and would have been 3-for-3 if not for a bad call by an ump. Newmark 2 led 11-3 at one point, but had to throw out a runner at home for the third out in the fifth inning (games go six innings) to keep the score 12-9. Newmark 1 had two runners on base in the sixth when the final batter lined into a double play to end the game.

  11. Watching the draft, I'm struck by the thought that a ticket for a pro sport draft is probably the last thing in the world is want to spend money on.

      1. Ugh, seriously, this guy is completely insufferable. He just tried to force a "gotcha" comment.

            1. My goodness, these guys are infinitely worse when trying to talk about the world cup. It's been a long time since I've watched ESPN and I feel like a better person for it.

      1. I know I'm spending a lot less money on a seat and beer right now and probably getting the same experience.

  12. Holy shit, I think ESPN cameras are trying to find the most stereotypical people they can find from each city.

    1. A season in the D-League to improve those areas and refine his point guard skills would almost certainly benefit him.

      Nice. Obviously no effort here made to encourage Love to stay. And obvious that the Wolves won't even attempt to keep Love and make a playoff run for one season.

  14. Well, Trey's All-Star tournament run came to a disappointing end as Newmark 2 lost in the championship game. It wasn't disappointing they lost as much as they easily played their worst game. They struck out 7 times in the first three innings on a pitching machine. They only scored 3 runs after scoring at least 8 in their other six games, including double digits in five of them. Trey was one of the few to not strike out and never struck out in the tournament. In fact, I don't think he ever got to two strikes. He was 1-for-2 in the championship game. Neither of our boys are playing or practicing with a baseball or softball team for the first time since last August or September. We won't know what to do with ourselves.

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