Cup of Coffee

July 1, 2019: Dudes…

76 Comments

Was considering going to yesterday's game (and that was before all the rain in the forecast). Glad I didn't, but not happy about giving two wins to the b!tch sox.

Also, D’Angelo Russell took a look at the Wolves and said, naaahhhhhhhh.

76 thoughts on “July 1, 2019: Dudes…”

  1. Well, the Pistons signing Rose makes this a successful Wolves off-season in my eyes.

    1. It seemed like he had major league level stuff yesterday. I imagine we'll be seeing him again before the season is over.

    2. His AAA numbers this year are not all that impressive, but he sure looked good. Too bad it rained on his parade, but if he keeps pitching like he did yesterday we'll see more of him this year.

  4. So, I'm thinking I'm going to try to quit Twitter. I quit FB years ago, and I only re-activate it for specific things (such as checking up on my rugby schedule). I think it'll be a good move.

    1. I've got an instadoodle account, but none of the other social media accounts. Makes my life slightly harder in some regards (I've had prospective employers ask about my lack of presence on FB, LinkedIn, twitters), but totally worth missing out on a pop up "speak easy" in the bywater. Good luck with not being connected.

    3. I kept my Twitter account, but deleted the app from my phone. FB is the same- I have an account for the Messenger app service, but I don't have the Facebook app on my phone. I rarely visit the actual site except for if I'm looking for a deal on something on Marketplace, and that's easy enough to do through Chrome.

      I'm not sure it helped my mental health, but at least lets my phone battery lasts a full day now.

    5. The Tweeter has probably been my main social media of late. It doesn't really make me feel any better, but that's more due to the state of the world. I'm on pretty much all of them, but I don't take any of them too seriously, so I guess I haven't had much of a dilemma on how they're affecting me.

    6. I generally like Twitter, but I use it primarily for stuff related to my job. It helps me stay current on conversations in my industry, and I generally enjoy it. I have the app on my phone but have disabled all notifications because I just don't need that.

      1. Right. I carefully curate my timeline follows, use mute and block at will, and turned off notifications. With that I am an avid Twitter user.

    7. I quit Twitter right after the 2016 election. It was like I stopped drinking poison every day. FB is the only social media I'm on, and I limit my connections to family, friends, friendly acquaintances, and a few legit news accounts.

    8. So somewhat hilariously, I've been thinking about paying more attention to Twitter, but being very selective in doing so (basically, baseball only). I pretty much haven't used it, ever, since I think short-form engagement and snark are generally unhealthy (especially to politics), and that's what Twitter promotes. But there's the good stuff like baseball...

      I think Twitter needs a Forbidden Zone. That'd probably be best.

      1. I don't think it needs a Forbidden Zone, it needs to fix its harassment problem. If you become famous, it's inevitable you will burn out in some way. And probably receive death threats.

  5. Happy Bobby Bonilla gets paid $1,119,248.20 day. Mets only have 16 more payments left!

    I would definitely watch a Netflix documentary on how that contract was negotiated. Hear from all parties in involved, what the Mets were thinking. Bonilla's agents response when the Mets proposed these terms or agreed to the terms proposed by the Bonilla team. The agent telling Bonilla. What Bonilla has done with the money, efforts by the Mets to get out of the agreement, etc. Would make for a compelling 90-100 minutes.

    2. Hear from all the parties in involved, what the Mets were thinking.

      Be ready for a lot of dead air.

      I agree, though; it’d be really interesting to learn exactly how this went down.

    1. This ended up in moderation. Because I haven't commented this much this quickly in a good while?

  7. On Saturday night we went over to my mother-in-law’s for supper. I brought a quart & a half of hand-squeezed margaritas, and we had a nice time letting the Poissonière play in the kiddie pool. When we got home, I could tell immediately that the house was warm. Thinking we came in at the bottom of the A/C cycle, I jiggled the thermostat. The blower started running, but I didn’t hear the A/C switch on. It’s a thirty-year-old unit, so it sounds like a C-130 idling in the backyard when it’s running. Odd. You know how this ends: only one way.

    Some friends of ours had their furnace go out on them a couple years ago on a -15ºF January 2nd. They recommended the people who came over to get their furnace limping until a new one could be installed. Looks like we’re headed for an emergency cashectomy and a new A/C...but at least they had an opening tomorrow.

      1. We’ll see. All our windows are original, which means they’ve been around since the Kennedy administration. I’m not going to get my hopes up too much.

        If I remember correctly, the A/C and furnace both date from somewhere between 1989 & 1992. We already replaced the similar-vintage hot water heater.

        1. We are shopping around for new windows. The first quote we got was ~$13K just for the windows.

            1. We're looking at 33 windows right now, but we are going to probably skip a few of the less vital windows for now.

              We can drop about $900 off by skipping the two big windows on the front porch, which is the side away from the weather. And we might go single-hung instead of double to save some more.

                    1. Discovered my exterior French doors were interior French doors about 4 months ago. Complete rotten. I’ll be rebuilding the door frames and trim myself to save some green, but it’s still going to be 1200 bones. Home ownership is the worst.

                    2. Not ‘emergency’ repairs, but after 5+ years of debating what to do about rotting cedar siding (and likely the sheathing underneath), we bit the bullet and had everything bad torn off and replaced with new cedar shakes. Cost: $9,600.

                      Then, because you can’t just leave them natural and my wife hated the brown* that still existed over ~60% of the non-stucco portions of the house (which had been cream, but was now dingy and somewhat weather-stained), we hired a professional painter to do the whole exterior. Cost: $8,300.

                      It looks amazing and we won’t need to do it again unless we’re still here in retirement, but holy crap do I hate homeownership right now.

                      *which, being colorblind, I’d always though was maroon...

        1. I would happily keep my house at 60° (or lower) in the winter to offset running the A/C in the summer, but that’d necessitate buying a new house, because I’d be evicted from my current residence.

          This argument never ends. SelectShow

          2. I've learned to let that argument go. Other ways to save money, and babies aren't as good at regulating their temperature . Plus women and old people (both of whom are in my house) also tend to be colder than bigger men like myself. My dad, once he had his heart attack, now usually wears a coat unless it's 80 and often has blankets on and still shivering in houses that are 72.

          3. People say that all the time, but it's not actually true. In the winter, I can put on all the clothes that it's possible to put on and still be able to move and I'm still cold.

    2. Our A/C died last fall and we got some quotes, but by that time the weather had cooled off and then we needed some other work done on the house this spring and . . . we still haven't replaced it. This weekend was warm, but thanks to ceiling fans, it was bearable.*

      I typically kept the thermostat set at 80 and interestingly when we got quotes, we were told that because of that, we don't need to worry about getting the most efficient possible unit. Because keeping the thermostat set high is more efficient.

      *Possibly my internal thermostat was also reset after sweating it out at Rock the Garden on Saturday.

    3. Our unit is about 15 years old now and stopped blowing cold air the other night. I need to call Home Service Plus to get an appointment scheduled. This happened about five years ago and it just needed some refrigerant added, so I'm hoping for the same easy fix.

  10. Looking at June numbers, Big Mike was our second best starting pitcher for the month. Berrios was easily the best, but Mike had a solid month. Overall, our starting pitching is looking pretty solid right now. Cruz had an excellent month at the plate as well, and I was shocked to see that Rosario only struck out 10 times for the month.

    1. nothing big stands out comparing June pitching and batting with past months; slugging was lower, and more hits allowed and unearned runs (ie: more errors)
      Man, look at the overall May #s!

      1. What that says to me is that they haven't been playing badly--they've just come back down to earth. I do think we're going to get another hot streak at some point, though.

        1. Yes, they were hitting the ball out of the park in cool weather early in the year. Their HR's did not drop in June, but with the warmer weather I was hoping they would go up a bit. I could see them getting hot in July some crazy power numbers. I also think they will have a chip on their shoulders with the All Star game snubs. Actually, the silver lining of the snubs could be not only the mentioned "chip" but also guys just being able to take a mental and physical break after all the bumps and bruises lately.

          1. Odorizzi said something to the effect of “we’re not here to be all-stars, we’re here to win a title.” I’d be okay with those words being prophetic.

          2. yeah, I have no problem with all-star snubs unless it affects the players down the road in arbitration or Hall-of-Fame cases (go Buxton!), which is less likely in this day and age. Three days rest will be good for the guys.

      2. The drop in K/9 and SO/W ratios merits monitoring, I think. There have certainly been games when a well-timed strikeout would’ve killed a rally, and when inopportune walks piled on runs even this offense has to work hard to mitigate. Right now, the Twins are exactly league-average in K/9. They’re still a tick above-average in SO/W, thanks to a league-lowest 7.3 BB%, but most of the strong AL teams* have something in common: their pitching staffs are above-average in punch-outs. The Twins are tied with Oakland for the second-lowest XBH%, at 7.4% to Tampa Bay’s 6.9%, and have the third-lowest HR/FB rate (9.0%), behind Oakland (8.5%) and Tampa Bay (8.0%).

        * Texas & Oakland are below-average in both K/9 and SO/W.

      1. Good news there is Yankees have had a super easy schedule but that will change. They've already played 12 of their 19 vs. O's and will be done with them Aug. 14. They've already finished playing the Royals. They're remaining Interleague schedule includes a series at the Dodgers. The Twins have already finished playing the O's and M's, but they've also completed season series with Rays and Astros, winning both. Twins' Interleague schedule includes a series at Miami. The last two weeks of the season, the Twins will be playing KC, DET and CHW.

  11. Car Seat Headrest is playing a free show in Millennium Park tonight, which I got permission from the boss to attend. I was checking the concert series, and now I see Lydia Loveless is doing the same next Monday. Gonna have to work some magic to see both...

        1. If you've any interest in Mardi Gras Indian culture, or the music of New Orleans in general, that Cha Wa show shouldn't be missed. If I had more capital I'd consider a vacation to see a free show by a band I've seen a dozen times............... Looking at flights .........

          1. Nerts, I'm on the road that week for my job. That show is certainly worth the price of admission.

    1. Well they did... Something. Nothing like doing a favor for the team that stole your guy.

  14. So I finally planted garden 3 of 4 tonight. Kale, spinach, and basil, with gladiolas between the rows. I know kinda late but whatever, that stuff grows fast. Garden 2 was two weeks ago, but already looks great (peas, pole beans, tomatoes, and eggplant)

  15. I'm trying to figure out which Northwoods League team name I like best. I have it narrowed down to the Green Bay Booyah, the Fon du Lac Dock Spiders, and the Traverse City Pit Spitters.

    1. That reminds me that I need to get out to do a Mallards games this summer (best stadium in the NL).

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