Cup of Coffee

July 31, 2019: Deadline

41 Comments

Before the end of the day:

The Twins will make a trade that could be considered at least slightly "significant".

  • No (55%, 11 Votes)
  • Yes (45%, 9 Votes)

Total Voters: 20

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41 thoughts on “July 31, 2019: Deadline”

  1. Okay, the Twins tied the 2017 team, so the next on the HR Parade is the 1964 team with 221 HRs -- we're probably two or three games away from topping that, but here's a look at the 1964 bunch now:

    • HR Leaders: Killebrew 49 (1), Allison 32 (t6), Oliva 32 (t6), Hall 25, Mincher 23, Versalles 20, Battey 12, Rollins 12
    • GS HR: Battey 1, Killebrew 1, Mincher 1, Oliva 1, Rollins 1
    • PH HR: Mincher 4 (1), Battey 1, Allison 1, Henry 1
    • inside-the-park HR: Oliva 2, Rollins 1
    • Home/Road: 115/106
    • RH/LH: 180/41 -- only Killebrew (12) and Allison (11) had more than 7 HR vs. lefties
    • Pitchers: Kaat 3

    1. We now have the Twins record in sight and a clue to the 26 seasons ahead of the Twins.

    2. It seems to me that Don Mincher was criminally underutilized. They were already sticking Killebrew at 3rd or left and Mincher could mash. Can't imagine whoever played first instead of him was doing better most years

      1. He was heavily platooned, but not sure that he needed to be.

        I like this:

        On July 17 at RFK Stadium in Washington, Mincher, not in the lineup that day against the Twins, was in the outfield bullpen when in the fourth inning home-plate umpire Hank Soar motioned him to move away from the bullpen fence in center field, where he could pick up Minnesota’s signs. Mincher’s gesture in response 410 feet away was not to Soar’s liking. In what could be a distance record for an ejection in baseball, Soar ejected Mincher without hesitation. Patsy Mincher said that her husband was only motioning back to mean, “What do you want?,” but it was taken differently by Soar.

        1. He earned the only black ink of his career in 1965, when he led the league in IBBs (15) in only 403 PA. Oliva and Killebrew tied for 3rd with 12 each.

          That 1965 team was an offensive juggernaut except for two positions: 3b (Rich Rollins got 112 games there; he hit 249/309/333, 79 OPS+ overall) and 2b (Jerry Kindall, 196/274/289, 57 OPS+ overall. 106 games at 2b; Frank Quilici, 208/280/255, 51 OPS+, 52 games).

        2. re: Mincher and splits. In 1965, 921 OPS against righties, 603 against lefties. Career: 849 vs 607.

      2. The Twins used Killebrew as their full-time left fielder from ‘62–‘64, which allowed them to play Rich Rollins, who posted a 113 OPS+ in that time, at third. Mincher was basically blocked at first by Vic Power (91 OPS+) in ‘62 & ‘63, and by Bob Allison (163 OPS+) in ‘64. Mincher became the primary first baseman in ‘65, in part because Killebrew’s elbow injury cost him nearly all of August & most of September, which kept him from being the primary at any position. Mincher stuck at first in ‘66, in part because Rollins’ bat cratered (82 OPS+ across ‘65 & ‘66) enough that Killebrew was plugged back in at third.

  2. Anyone else heard Julian Casablancas' version of "Venus in Furs"?

    To me, it's in the Uncanny Valley of covers - not dead on the original, but not different enough to be a new take on something.

  5. Sling/DirectTV spat with Fox Sport is really starting to irritate me. I'd go the MLBtv route but the blackout restrictions are ridiculous.

    1. I'm in the same boat. It's infuriating, and it looks like Dish is willing to just walk away entirely which is great! I already have an MLBtv subscription (thanks T-Mobile!) which is useless because of the blackout restrictions. I love that FSN's "suggestion" is to just switch providers. Good times, good times.

      1. Yup, have Dish, so no FSN. Tried to call and cancel Dish last night and it was a 75 minute wait. Logged on and tried to chat and the "chat" staff have no power to do anything. I love how they all point fingers at each other. My comment to Dish was this: "Nobody cares to hear your excuses and for you to play the blame game. If you are going to be in the business of selling channels that you marketed when I signed up, you damn well better make sure you do not it get this far" I am done with Dish. We are going down to just Hulu and Netflix. I can catch a lot of games at work, or stop for a brew on the way home to watch the end of the game.

    2. I've been shopping for Comcast cable alternatives for a few weeks now, and it's stuff like this that makes me reluctant to cut the cord and go net or sat as our primary content channel. I don't want to have to deal with a dish, so that narrows it down to net delivery options - Sling, Direct, etc. We already have Netflix and Hulu, so I just need a provider who will consistently deliver FSN without any doubt or drama.

      1. Sling is owned by Dish, so there's no FSN there. They seem to be the worst of the carriers in these disputes. It's been 8 months since HBO & Cinemax started being blacked out. I already do Hulu, so I'm strongly considering switching to the Live TV package instead of Dish.

      1. eschapp misspoke (or typo or whatever). Directv is not in a dispute with FSN, so it is still available to anyone who is using their mom's Directv username and password has Directv. Its just Sling and Dish Network.

        1. OMG, why? I prefer hearing the ballgame over watching it anyway. No way I'm giving AT&T (or MLB) even more of my money. We already have to pay monthly for some sort of regional sports package that we have no need for.

        2. I happen to travel to Moldavia on business quite frequently, wink wink, nudge nudge.

    5. All of those negotiations are ridiculous. Content providers should have to offer their content at one price per subscriber regardless of the distributor. Then distributors can choose to buy or not to buy, but everyone gets the same price and competes on a level playing field. The best distributors would be the ones who curate the best content collection which fits their users, not the ones that have the biggest user bases to wield as a club in contract negotiations.

  6. The only reason I have Sling is because of FSN, but I'm going to suspend my account until they fix this.

    1. Watched MLB Tonight during lunch today -- pretty much Greg Amsinger fueling any kind of rampant speculation, and everyone sitting around a table fidgeting waiting for a phone to ring or something.

  8. driving home, I heard a disturbing story on (I think) All Things Considered. It was an interview with the WaPo tech writer or editor. He was scaring me straight about surveillance on the Series of Tubes, and said he'd switched from Chrome to Firefox because of teh Cookies.

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