53 thoughts on “May 16, 2017: It’s Time We Address This Grave National Concern…”
Just another case of being clueless putting me a no disadvantage.
I know that those have recently been banned from our local schools. I also know that I still do not know what they actually are and I have been entirely too lazy to research it.
The jalapeno wanted to get one for a friend's birthday when we were shopping for gifts last night, so whatever they are, you can't buy them at Target. He told me that "everyone" has one and he needs one too. #6yearoldproblems
My experience with them is from observing our church school kids. I can see how they might help some kids with ADHD to focus better. I can also see how kids without ADHD will want to have them just to play with them, and how they can be a huge distraction for the rest of the class.
And on that subject, if anyone has tips for how, in our church school classes, we can better deal with kids with ADHD, I'd appreciate them. I don't feel like we do a very good job of it, but I also don't know how to do a better job. I mean, the kids keep coming back, so we must not be too terrible, but I know we could do substantially better than we do.
One of the biggest things I've found with the youngest kids (say K-2) in choir is not to spend too much time on any one thing at a time. 20 minutes for songs, color for 10 minutes, have a 15 minute story, etc, and shake it up week to week. If they were bored, they knew something else was coming up shortly. We always tried to introduce something new as well -- if they were good, I would juggle for them, but something different each time: one hand, with crayons, behind the back, with the kids' tennis shoes, etc.
My daughter is in a GT class at her school. A lot of these kids (not my daughter, though) are ADHD. One of the things they do is have them sitting on big inflatable balls. These allow kids to move somewhat in their "chairs" which does help. The kids are directed that they can sit on them only if they are not being disruptive and since they all want to sit on them, they tend not to be disruptive for fear of losing the privilege.
Trey wants one even though teachers at his school won't allow them. I told him he should get a yo-yo because at least you can do actual tricks with it.
It'd be fun to spin one of those in one hand while slapping a slap-bracelet on that wrist with the other hand while coasting past all the lockers on your Heelys.
They stop making those wheel thingie shoes (those are Heelys, right?) at the size below mine. I'm still a little jealous.
Yep. I googled "Heelies" and found the right spelling.
If you can't trust a guy who's pitching a shutout to pitch to the leadoff batter in the fifth inning, then why is he in the rotation?
Yeah, I mean, I definitely fall under the "why is he in the rotation" camp, but if he's in the rotation, he should theoretically have enough leash to pitch to the third batter of the fifth inning.
So, how many days before he's a free agent?
He's pitching for the White Sox -- why are you in such a hurry for him to leave?
Really, they should be throwing him out there every four days.
now you're talking!
5 starts, 23.2 innings pitched. Woof.
Minor Details will be delayed, possibly until tomorrow. Nothing bad, just lots of stuff going on.
Twins minor league moves: Nik Turley (0-1, 1.50 in six innings in Rochester; 0-1, 0.44 in 20.1 innings in Chattanooga) comes back down to Chattanooga. Paul Clemens (1-0, 3.50 in 7 starts) goes to the disabled list with right shoulder impingement.
I just noticed that milb.com tells me Nik Turley is a distant relative of former Yankees pitcher Bob Turley, who won the Cy Young award in 1958 when he went 21-7, 2.97 with a league-leading 19 complete games. He also had a save that season.
I'm not going to dive into the specific politics or anything, but man, what a fascinating couple of days. I haven't showered because I can't tear myself away from twitter.
The man is as advertised.
The man is as advertised.
In the interest of FZ-ish disclosure, hover over the link and you'll get the thrust of the piece.
That echoes my sentiments nicely. I can't abide the shock.
This article may have been written a day or two too late.
I would also like to say, as someone firmly in the "liberal" category, that I don't hear as much about a conspiracy. I think many of us have come to accept the man is a buffoon. At least in my case, my anger is more directed at those that have the power to do something about it but are too complicit, completely terrible and/or cowardly to do it.
The tough part is delineating the real shock from the faux stuff. I don't envy the position of the conservatives right now. Their either get to defend the long-term health of the country or defend the long-term health of the party. It's easy to point fingers and tell them to stop being selfish, but for their part, they know they have qualified leadership within the party that can be destroyed by this kind of flap.
You really do have to keep it simple as a humorist now. How else do you lampoon a guy who routinely does it to himself? It's like picking a fight with someone who's comatose. It's tough to write jokes when they continue to write themselves.
You may remember that SNL's treatment of Sarah Palin was pretty much just use exactly what she said. They did make up the "I can see Russia from my house" bit, but most of what they did was to simply have Tina Fey repeat her words verbatim. Jokes writing themselves, indeed. And this clown is Palin X 1000.
As recently as last season, the advanced scouting reports handed down by the front office were rudimentary, at best. Allen would get a print-out of what the upcoming opponents' hitters had done the previous week to 10 days. The rest all came down to memory.
This is so maddening. Gotta remind myself it's a story about getting past it.
Of course, let's not forget the Twins pitchers by most metrics aren't doing that much better if at all this year (as a group). However, their defense has risen from the cellar to one of the best in the league. That'll do a lot for your ERA.
Santana ERA: 1.50
Santana FIP: 4.17
Team ERA: 4.23
Team FIP: 4.78
2016 Team ERA: 5.08
2016 Team FIP: 4.57
FIP isn't everything (in fact, Santiago historically outperforms his FIP), but this year the Twins staff as a whole actually has a worse FIP. But they're giving up one fewer run per game almost, thanks mostly to fielding.
Has anybody in MN sports hurt his legacy more than Terry Ryan? (Excluding off-field issues.)
His second act was awful. It borders on Kahnesque.
Norm Green?
But yeah, Ryan is an amazingly clear before-and-after example of "the game passing one by".
I wouldn't say his draft picks have been horrible. And he didn't hire II or Cuddy to the staff at least.
According to Buxton, hiring Hunter may have helped. He's only mentioned once, but he was still part of the conversation.
I wouldn't doubt it. He may be a blowhard, but I doubt that he has absolutely nothing to contribute.
Certainly imparting that "I would die to catch the ball" mentality.
He signed Ervin Santana and Brandon Kintzler. He drafted Buxton, Berrios, Rosario, Duffey, Rogers. He picked up Robbie Grossman. Drafted Ryan Pressly in the Rule 5 draft. There's a lot of negatives you can put on a list, but it's not like he there isn't anything positive he contributed to the (so far) success of this team. The analytics side was sorely lacking under Ryan, but a large part of the talent was brought in by him.
Of course, Bill Smith has had a hand in this as well. He signed Sano, Kepler, Polanco and Vargas all in the same offseason. That could be considered the greatest offseason of amateur free agent signings since the advent of the draft.
You can always find some positives, especially when drafting in the top half each year. There are just as many negatives on the signing and drafting side. It is awfully difficult to separate luck and skill.
Where he was a total failure was on the overall organizational structure. Every article out there talks about how woefully behind the team has been. And it isn't just analytics. There are stories like this one explaining that even their scouting was subpar.
I've heard it said by people with plenty of baseball knowledge that Ryan was great at talent acquisition, but terrible at development. That strikes me as true.
My problems with Terry Ryan 2.0 were not so much with the individual moves. Some of them were good, some of them were not. My biggest problem was that when you added his moves together, they never seemed to add up to any sort of plan. It seems like part of the reason for that was that he lost the ability to trust young players, going instead with "proven" mediocre veterans.
I don't have time to look up all the examples, but in the first term of Terry Ryan, he would trade away average or sometimes above-average vets, either to acquire young talent, to make room for a young player, or both. If he signed a mediocre veteran, it was with the idea that at the trade deadline, he could send him to a contending club for a good prospect out of that team's farm system. In the second term of Terry Ryan, he sometimes sent away young talent to acquire mediocre veterans. He also refused to part with an average veteran, even when it was clear that there was a better young player that needed a chance to play.
The best illustration I can think of to show the difference is this: Terry Ryan 1.0 traded A. J. Pierzynski and Doug Mientkiewicz to make room, respectively, for Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. In one of those cases he got a good return and in one he didn't. But in both cases he was willing to trade a good veteran player to make room for a better player. Terry Ryan 2.0 refused to even consider trading Trevor Plouffe! to make room for Miguel Sano. Instead, he forced Sano into the outfield, a move that basically no one thought would work. Terry Ryan 1.0 would've traded Plouffe!, even if he got little to nothing in return., because he would've seen that Sano needed a place to play. Terry Ryan 2.0 couldn't do that.
Can't argue with that.
Due to a few rainouts and lots of days off, the Twins have only played 34 games. LAAAAAAAA and Tampa have played 41
And it sounds like a rainout tomorrow. Since the Rockies only play 1 series in Minnesota, it will mean a doubleheader on Thursday, most likely.
It's Timberwolves playoff time, yo!
Which they have, of course, lost, moving down to seventh.
Just another case of being clueless putting me a no disadvantage.
I know that those have recently been banned from our local schools. I also know that I still do not know what they actually are and I have been entirely too lazy to research it.
NPR on spinners
The jalapeno wanted to get one for a friend's birthday when we were shopping for gifts last night, so whatever they are, you can't buy them at Target. He told me that "everyone" has one and he needs one too. #6yearoldproblems
My experience with them is from observing our church school kids. I can see how they might help some kids with ADHD to focus better. I can also see how kids without ADHD will want to have them just to play with them, and how they can be a huge distraction for the rest of the class.
And on that subject, if anyone has tips for how, in our church school classes, we can better deal with kids with ADHD, I'd appreciate them. I don't feel like we do a very good job of it, but I also don't know how to do a better job. I mean, the kids keep coming back, so we must not be too terrible, but I know we could do substantially better than we do.
One of the biggest things I've found with the youngest kids (say K-2) in choir is not to spend too much time on any one thing at a time. 20 minutes for songs, color for 10 minutes, have a 15 minute story, etc, and shake it up week to week. If they were bored, they knew something else was coming up shortly. We always tried to introduce something new as well -- if they were good, I would juggle for them, but something different each time: one hand, with crayons, behind the back, with the kids' tennis shoes, etc.
My daughter is in a GT class at her school. A lot of these kids (not my daughter, though) are ADHD. One of the things they do is have them sitting on big inflatable balls. These allow kids to move somewhat in their "chairs" which does help. The kids are directed that they can sit on them only if they are not being disruptive and since they all want to sit on them, they tend not to be disruptive for fear of losing the privilege.
Trey wants one even though teachers at his school won't allow them. I told him he should get a yo-yo because at least you can do actual tricks with it.
This is just another childhood flashback
It'd be fun to spin one of those in one hand while slapping a slap-bracelet on that wrist with the other hand while coasting past all the lockers on your Heelys.
They stop making those wheel thingie shoes (those are Heelys, right?) at the size below mine. I'm still a little jealous.
Yep. I googled "Heelies" and found the right spelling.
I don't see the problem with Spinners.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKbADFJOCkU
One of my all-time favorites.
This really brings back some memories.
If you can't trust a guy who's pitching a shutout to pitch to the leadoff batter in the fifth inning, then why is he in the rotation?
Yeah, I mean, I definitely fall under the "why is he in the rotation" camp, but if he's in the rotation, he should theoretically have enough leash to pitch to the third batter of the fifth inning.
So, how many days before he's a free agent?
He's pitching for the White Sox -- why are you in such a hurry for him to leave?
Really, they should be throwing him out there every four days.
now you're talking!
5 starts, 23.2 innings pitched. Woof.
Minor Details will be delayed, possibly until tomorrow. Nothing bad, just lots of stuff going on.
Twins minor league moves: Nik Turley (0-1, 1.50 in six innings in Rochester; 0-1, 0.44 in 20.1 innings in Chattanooga) comes back down to Chattanooga. Paul Clemens (1-0, 3.50 in 7 starts) goes to the disabled list with right shoulder impingement.
I just noticed that milb.com tells me Nik Turley is a distant relative of former Yankees pitcher Bob Turley, who won the Cy Young award in 1958 when he went 21-7, 2.97 with a league-leading 19 complete games. He also had a save that season.
I'm not going to dive into the specific politics or anything, but man, what a fascinating couple of days. I haven't showered because I can't tear myself away from twitter.
The man is as advertised.
In the interest of FZ-ish disclosure, hover over the link and you'll get the thrust of the piece.
That echoes my sentiments nicely. I can't abide the shock.
well done boss.
As always, The Onion nails it.
Yay for analytics!
This is so maddening. Gotta remind myself it's a story about getting past it.
Of course, let's not forget the Twins pitchers by most metrics aren't doing that much better if at all this year (as a group). However, their defense has risen from the cellar to one of the best in the league. That'll do a lot for your ERA.
Santana ERA: 1.50
Santana FIP: 4.17
Team ERA: 4.23
Team FIP: 4.78
2016 Team ERA: 5.08
2016 Team FIP: 4.57
FIP isn't everything (in fact, Santiago historically outperforms his FIP), but this year the Twins staff as a whole actually has a worse FIP. But they're giving up one fewer run per game almost, thanks mostly to fielding.
Has anybody in MN sports hurt his legacy more than Terry Ryan? (Excluding off-field issues.)
His second act was awful. It borders on Kahnesque.
Norm Green?
But yeah, Ryan is an amazingly clear before-and-after example of "the game passing one by".
I wouldn't say his draft picks have been horrible. And he didn't hire II or Cuddy to the staff at least.
According to Buxton, hiring Hunter may have helped. He's only mentioned once, but he was still part of the conversation.
I wouldn't doubt it. He may be a blowhard, but I doubt that he has absolutely nothing to contribute.
Certainly imparting that "I would die to catch the ball" mentality.
He signed Ervin Santana and Brandon Kintzler. He drafted Buxton, Berrios, Rosario, Duffey, Rogers. He picked up Robbie Grossman. Drafted Ryan Pressly in the Rule 5 draft. There's a lot of negatives you can put on a list, but it's not like he there isn't anything positive he contributed to the (so far) success of this team. The analytics side was sorely lacking under Ryan, but a large part of the talent was brought in by him.
Of course, Bill Smith has had a hand in this as well. He signed Sano, Kepler, Polanco and Vargas all in the same offseason. That could be considered the greatest offseason of amateur free agent signings since the advent of the draft.
You can always find some positives, especially when drafting in the top half each year. There are just as many negatives on the signing and drafting side. It is awfully difficult to separate luck and skill.
Where he was a total failure was on the overall organizational structure. Every article out there talks about how woefully behind the team has been. And it isn't just analytics. There are stories like this one explaining that even their scouting was subpar.
I've heard it said by people with plenty of baseball knowledge that Ryan was great at talent acquisition, but terrible at development. That strikes me as true.
My problems with Terry Ryan 2.0 were not so much with the individual moves. Some of them were good, some of them were not. My biggest problem was that when you added his moves together, they never seemed to add up to any sort of plan. It seems like part of the reason for that was that he lost the ability to trust young players, going instead with "proven" mediocre veterans.
I don't have time to look up all the examples, but in the first term of Terry Ryan, he would trade away average or sometimes above-average vets, either to acquire young talent, to make room for a young player, or both. If he signed a mediocre veteran, it was with the idea that at the trade deadline, he could send him to a contending club for a good prospect out of that team's farm system. In the second term of Terry Ryan, he sometimes sent away young talent to acquire mediocre veterans. He also refused to part with an average veteran, even when it was clear that there was a better young player that needed a chance to play.
The best illustration I can think of to show the difference is this: Terry Ryan 1.0 traded A. J. Pierzynski and Doug Mientkiewicz to make room, respectively, for Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. In one of those cases he got a good return and in one he didn't. But in both cases he was willing to trade a good veteran player to make room for a better player. Terry Ryan 2.0 refused to even consider trading Trevor Plouffe! to make room for Miguel Sano. Instead, he forced Sano into the outfield, a move that basically no one thought would work. Terry Ryan 1.0 would've traded Plouffe!, even if he got little to nothing in return., because he would've seen that Sano needed a place to play. Terry Ryan 2.0 couldn't do that.
Can't argue with that.
Due to a few rainouts and lots of days off, the Twins have only played 34 games. LAAAAAAAA and Tampa have played 41
And it sounds like a rainout tomorrow. Since the Rockies only play 1 series in Minnesota, it will mean a doubleheader on Thursday, most likely.
It's Timberwolves playoff time, yo!
Which they have, of course, lost, moving down to seventh.