55 thoughts on “November 12, 2019: Wait A Sec…”

  1. There is no winter ball news to report. The Twins only have one player in winter ball, Jonathan Cheshire, and he hasn't played for several days. Winter ball players come and go--it's entirely possible that he's not even with his team any more. I will let you know if and when there's something to report.

    3. I love that the station talked to law enforcement to find out what it was, as if the rollers pulled the meteor over for failing to stop at a red signal and ran its license through SCMODS.

      1. Yeah, it's not like their own meteorologists can't provide the information they were looking for. The Northern Taurids are pretty notorious for having the occasional fireball; I remember seeing one (through the cloud cover) while standing out on the driveway with folks on a Halloween several years ago.

        1. Maybe I'm not remembering my science correctly, but isn't terminal velocity of a free falling object much lower than the sound barrier?

          1. We're not talking "free fall" here, we're talking an object entering the atmosphere at about 65,000 mph, the average speed of a N. Taurid meteor. Most meteors you see are the size of a grain of dust, but the larger ones eventually "pancake" from the pressure and splinter into much smaller pieces. The Chelyabinsk meteor from a few years ago did this, and the explosion is what blew out windows there. This one barely registers compared to Chelyabinsk.

  3. I have only had time to watch one half of a game this season, but until such time as it is not longer SSST, I will remain extremely skeptical.

    1. I've never seen him have this type of aggressiveness and shot selection. I think he's been a victim of bad coaching in his career.

      1. Provided this link the other day, but in case you missed it. I think his development suffered greatly under Thibs. He is now being coached to his strengths.

  4. Real estate at Wiggins Island went from "Ocean Front Property" to "Islands in the Stream" pretty darned quick.

    1. It was getting a little crowded on "trade Wiggins" Island, anyway. Now maybe I can get some peace and quiet over here. (until his inevitable regression, anyway.)

      1. He's not worth the salary but it is definitely different now. He's shooting a similar percentage to his career averages at different distances. He's just taking better shots.

    2. Loss of draft picks/international money

      Carlos Beltran was on the 2017 team. He was known as an adept base sign stealer. I wonder if he helped in the operation?

        1. My snout was already sniffing that out. MLB might just decide to cast a wide net on this one. Could get ugly.

        2. Does Marwin have a reputation as a sign stealer?

          I think its a little fishy that Beltran gets a managers job and a few weeks late a story like this comes out.

      2. I think it likely it was indeed Beltrán. From Ken Rosenthal & Evan Drelich’s article for The Athletic:

        Early in the 2017 season, at least two uniformed Astros got together to start the process. One was a hitter who was struggling at the plate and had benefited from sign stealing with a previous team, according to club sources; another was a coach who wanted to help. They were said to strongly believe that some opposing teams were already up to no good.

        They wanted to devise their own system in Houston. And they did.

        Beltran had a .627 OPS, with a sub-.300 OBP, in March/April 2017.

        1. Multi-franchise veteran players with significant playing time:

          Player Mar/Apr OPS May OPS
          Aoki .722 .521
          Beltrán .627 .795
          Gattis .918 .709
          McCann .801 .747
          Marisnick .971 .884
          Reddick .752 .818

    3. What dismays me most about this is the example it sets. Another societal reinforcement that organization-level cheating in the pursuit of winning at all costs is natural and okay. We have to smother that frigging attitude with a pillow every chance we get.

      1. That report said MLB was looking into the matter. This news includes specific on-record claims by Mike Fiers & information from unnamed sources formerly employed by the Astros detailing how the Astros did engage in prohibited conduct. At least two members of the 2017 Astros are now managers of other clubs going into 2020, including one player matching the description of an instigator in this case.

        I’d say that makes this new news.

    6. Very interesting:

      From the Rosenthal/Drelich article I linked to above:

      Pitching for the White Sox in 2017, Danny Farquhar made two mid-September appearances at Minute Maid Park, just before the playoffs. One Astros source recalled that Farquhar appeared to visibly notice what the Astros were up to.

      Farquhar, the source remembered, pointed to his ear on the mound.

      “There was a banging from the dugout, almost like a bat hitting the bat rack every time a changeup signal got put down,” said Farquhar, who is now the pitching coach with the White Sox’s High-A affiliate in Winston-Salem, N.C. “After the third one, I stepped off. I was throwing some really good changeups and they were getting fouled off. After the third bang, I stepped off.”

      Farquhar said he and his catcher changed the signs to the more complex kind used when a runner is on second base — a situation where base runners have long been able to legally relay signs, using their own eyes.

      “The banging stopped,” Farquhar said. “My assumption was they were picking it up from the video and relaying the signs to the dugout. … That was my theory on the whole thing. It made me very upset. I was so angry, so mad, that the media didn’t come to me after.”

      1. Forbidden Zone SelectShow

      2. Holy crap! There are two amazing things about that: one is the Astros image completely unraveling starting with the Osuna signing and accelerating during this past post season and two, that a former ballplayer was able to accurately recount events from a game a few years in the past.

    1. The consolidation and downsizing of news organizations has been going on for a long time now. I used the think it was purely the result of economic forces and investors' insistence on a guaranteed return on investment. Now, I'm beginning to suspect more sinister motives.

      1. It's not sinister. When newspapers got hit by loss of revenue to the Internet and were slow to adapt, the first people to go were copy editors. Fewer and fewer people would read articles and headlines before things got sent out. They're also paying less so the best people are leaving to more lucrative fields.

        1. For newsprint, the bleeding started before the internet when the price of paper stock skyrocketed in the 80s. What you cite followed close on. And to be clear, by sinister motives I’m not talking about partisan BS, I’m talking about corporate control of all media and the naturally anti-democratic consequences that entails.

    1. I'm a little surprised since it seemed like national broadcasters would fall over themselves talking about all the injuries Yankees had to deal with, but the Twins were way better than anybody expected and had to deal with quite a few injuries as well along with the Pineda suspension.

  12. Tuesday and Wednesday are days where I almost always leave work between 8 and 8:15. I find it disturbing that google pops an estimated time for my drive home at 7:50 every Tuesday and Wednesday. Would it be helpful if I lived in an area where traffic is an issue? Probably. Yet it just seems a bit invasive for google to tell me things I might want to know based upon them gathering my driving patterns and schedule. Creepy.

    1. My Outlook calendar for work also gives me suggestions on when to start driving to make it to scheduled meetings on time.

  13. I admittedly never watch college basketball on FS1, but how long have they been using Roundball Rock for the bumper music?

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