78 thoughts on “October 29, 2015: Cueto”

    1. This kid is gonna be something special. It's not lost on me that there are parallels between my main man KG and a certain recently retired outfielder. However, I believe that KG actually will provide the leadership to this club that no baseball player can really provide to a baseball team because basketball is different than baseball. Just having KG out there with this club. Man. I'm happy.

      Also, unicorn sighting last night.

      2. From the si.com writeup

        On Wednesday night, the Timberwolves rallied from 16 points down in the second half to beat the Lakers, 112–111. Saunders would have appreciated the final play, when 19-year-old center Karl-Anthony Towns switched onto the Lakers’ Lou Williams, and 39-year-old power forward Kevin Garnett slid over to help. Two generations contested Williams’s floater, which kicked off the rim to Ricky Rubio, who spiked the ball against the floor and pointed to the ceiling.

      1. Seriously, I can't really even contemplate what the Wolves have if that's a standard part of his arsenal. That is a very tough shot and he looks like a ten year vet knocking that down.

    3. While it was a great debut for Towns, the real story was Rubio. If he keeps shooting like that and stays healthy, he could be an MVP candidate. Also, great depth. I really like Martin with the second team to give them a consistent scorer. Also, I'm really glad Towns had a great debut because Okafor went for 26 points and 7 rebounds (although 8 turnovers) in his debut and it avoids those questions on who should have been drafted (unlike Lakers with Russell).

      1. I referenced Rubio (obliquely) by saying "unicorn sighting". Ricky is known in some circles as the unicorn.

    4. Perhaps even more importantly is Ricky's mid-range jumper. To me, he seems like the perfect guy for whom a 15-20 foot shot is not inefficient. If he can keep shooting similar to that, and stay healthy, he's going to be dangerous.

    1. Yeah, I might quit too if my new boss was like that.

      1. Heh. I was reminiscing (that sounds more pleasant than it was) yesterday about my previous employment, and bemoaning the fact that I didn't resign much, much earlier. Saw this and thought "good for him. Quitting is hard to do, and harder to do the longer you put up with crap. Doing it up front is the way to go."

      2. Any guesses on who the "source" is? My money is Anthopolous himself. Nice start for Shapiro in Toronto.

      1. I honestly don't know how to gauge Anthopoulos' performance in Toronto, but I lean toward thinking he's built a pretty veteran-heavy team that has a small window of opportunity. He certainly loves trades. Trading Syndergaard & d'Arnaud for the tail end of R.A. Dickey's career wasn't a particularly brilliant move even if Dickey hasn't been a disaster in Toronto. Getting Josh Donaldson for Brett Lawrie & prospects, on the other hand, was pretty awesome.

        Funny that this news comes the day after Ochi Day.

      2. Never going to happen, buuut TR should be in the process of wooing AA.

        well, he certainly knows the Twins roster in and out (looks at all the former Twins he has claimed off waivers)

  3. ESPN had a lot more details on Kill's retirement:

    The 54-year-old Kill, who has dealt with the effects of epilepsy since 2005, said he attended practice Tuesday after suffering two seizures and has had additional seizures in the past year.

    He said he has struggled to sleep more than three hours a night in recent weeks and often ignored medical advice.

    Hopefully, reducing stress will help with that. In a way, I'm glad it seems to be all epilepsy related since he had not missed any time with the team because I was worried that his kidney cancer had returned.

    1. As far as we know on the cancer stuff. But, yeah, I fully expected to hear at first that his cancer had returned. I don't know, obviously, the depths of his difficulties with epilepsy, but given the choice between kidney cancer and epilepsy, I'm taking the latter.

    1. I wonder how much Molitor's instant success hurts Gardy. This was deemed to be a transitional year for the team, and they vastly outperformed the projections. Could maybe lead people to wonder if the previous teams underperformed?

        1. I don't know about that. He's won over 1000 games in the majors, so he's gonna get calls, but either that is hurting him or he's a bad interviewer. Or both, I suppose. I would think that he'd be able to interview -- he seems to be a good communicator. Then again, if he's asked about analytics and comes up with "shooting it through the internet" or somesuch he may not come off well.

          I will say that if he doesn't land a job relatively soon, his prospects are going to dim significantly.

          1. Well, like I said before, the Padres fired Bud Black, who then beat out Gardy for the Nats job, so it wouldn't look good for the Padres to then hire Gardy. I wouldn't be surprised if Gardy takes a bench coach position with an inexperienced manager to keep himself in the game and improve his future prospects. I also don't think it helps him that there's a real push right now for going with up-and-coming coaches instead of using old-school retreads. These things go in cycles, though, so I can see him managing again some day. I believe all the manager positions are filled now, correct?

          2. The Padres' new front office is pretty analytics-friendly, so Gardy would not be a good match with them. Frankly, I was surprised he was considered a finalist for San Diego position. I thought Washington might hire him, though.

            Well, there's always the Marlins...

              2. I mostly just thought the idea of Gardy following Ozzie's footsteps would be hilarious. He could've hired Ozzie & Redmond for his coaching staff!

              3. What I'm reading is that the Marlins are going to hire Don Mattingly.
                There's still always the Marlins...

  6. Press conf regarding Wetterling case at 2pm today. Sounds like child exploitation charges. Can't imagine what that family has gone through.

        1. Not sure if this qualifies as piling on, but (interim) remedies have been issued for Minnesota's Sex Offender Program today...

    3. And what they've been going through for so very, very long.

      I'm one year younger than Jacob. Like all Minnesotans, this was a big deal to me. I was warned about this kind of danger to myself, my siblings, my friends. It has now been so long, that watching this news conference makes me think of my own kids, and to what my parents must have been feeling and fearing back then.

  8. Thought this was interesting (from nationals.com):

    (Wilson) Ramos has caught three no-hitters during his career, but privately, the team was not happy with his overall performance this year. He had his poorest season as a hitter and he had problems catching throws from the outfield. Some have even questioned his game-calling. Could the Nationals try to acquire another starting catcher?

        1. His last good year was 2013. He took a significant step down in 2014 and another in 2015. Plus, he's been hurt a lot. He's only twenty-eight, though, so he certainly could come back.

          1. 28 in catcher years is like 35 in normal years, though. He could be approaching that stage of catcherdom where they either stick around as a backup until they are 41 or wind up in the minors or out of baseball entirely.

        2. OPS of Twins catchers this year:

          Suzuki - .610
          Hherrmmann - .486
          Fryer - .688

          Not sure Ramos is the answer (and I still hate that trade to death), but it'd be hard to get much worse at the position.

  9. Dr. Chop and I just acquired a Cuisinart food processor, and we seem to have a bumper pineapple crop coming in (one plant, one fruit). Why haven't I had a food processor before today? Well, I hate the notion of purchasing something that does things I can do on my own. Turns out I can't slice things, or make dough (or make emulsions), like this thing can.

    1. Watch it with the dough making ... I've burnt out (admittedly underpowered) motors on two different processors while making pizza dough.
      Otherwise, have fun!

    2. A Cuisinart was near the top of my list when we were putting together our kitchen as young married folks. I would've loved a Robot Coupe, but the price on those was steeper than we could manage at the time. But I've never had an opportunity to regret getting the Cuisinart- it's a fantastic implement.

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