41 thoughts on “March 4, 2021: March Forth!”

  2. Tip to Zoom users: we've been having intermittent "unstable connection" warnings in the past (particularly on Mrs Runner's relatively new Chromebook), even when we've had pretty good speed, and we've found that we have none of the problems when we run Zoom through the browser.

    1. Just learned today that their leading scorer and rebounder won't play this weekend. Already knew their All-Conference point guard was out. Started 18-0 and now 24-3. I fully expect a really bad Power Five team will win a couple games on their conference tournament and knock them out of the NCAA tournament.

      On the bright side, they'll have their first top 100 recruit of the past thirty years next year!

      1. Luckily they can still score and play good defense. But yeah they are very banged up and it shows at the end of the halves

  4. We parked on Blyleven Curve, grabbed our stadium food, and now starting lineups being announced. BEA-U-TIFUL weather, and not packed seating - nice.

        1. Not to make this site about baseball or anything but, that is super discouraging to hear. I just have this feeling that, as Sano goes, so go the Twins this year. If he can hit .240, they'll win the division. If not, they're playing for a wildcard. Hopefully I'm wrong and the rest of the team does what it needs to regardless of Sano's performance.

            1. I feel like I can count on Buxton to contribute in one fashion or another (when healthy), but Sano has to contribute through his bat. If he's striking out too much, he's not doing that. His career avg. is something like .240. If he can hit that, I think he's fine. If he's down around .200, that's trouble.

              1. Last year Sanó saw his SO% jump and his walk rate drop. At the same time, he hit fewer balls in the air, and also hit more infield flies. However, his Barrel% rose slightly and his Hard Hit% was essentially flat.

                EDIT: Let’s get those numbers out on to a tray...

                Metric 2019 2020 2015–2019
                SO% 36.2% 43.9% 35.8%
                BB% 12.5% 8.8% 12.9%
                FB% 41.9% 36.5% 42.4%
                IFFB% 8.5% 10.5% 6.7%
                Barrel% 20.3% 22.9% 15.7%
                Hard Hit% 57.2% 57.3% 49.7%

                Nice.

                So, I’d say the Twins not only need Sanó to cut his strikeout rate/get his average (& OBP!) up, but they really need him to be build on those Barrel gains by getting the ball back in the air at his career average rate.

                1. As long as they choose to replace him. At least Buxton is all or none. Having Sano in the middle of the lineup underperforming is a killer.

          2. It's the first week of spring training games. It's a little early to be predicting a player's season based on how they look at the plate, but yeah, they were ugly. Of course, Sano can have some very ugly streaks and then turn it around pretty quickly. He had a 3-for-39 stretch in late June of '19 with 23 Ks, including twice going for 0-for-7 in extra-inning games. But then he batted .271/.376/.618 the rest of the season and '19 ended up being his best season.

    1. But have you seen any Cyclones or Bulldogs? (Sorry, the uni hawkeye thing had me back in Iowa.)

        1. I wore my Kernels hat to a visit to Gonzaga in the fall and got a shout out from a student. Was not expecting that.

    1. With some level of excellent coincidence... on Tuesday my children brought home their Timberwolves "I Love To Read" swag bag, based on their having read books earlier in the year, or somesuch. Apparently there were also videos they'd watched of the Timberwolves players reading children's books. My kids were not impressed. Then the swag bags were as pathetic as the Timberwolves are a team, and it led to a conversation wherein we concluded that this whole "Timberwolves Reading Program" thing was a cautionary tale: "Look what happens to people who don't read - they end up playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves!"

      I then explained to my kids that the Wolves are the worst run franchise in all of major sports, and, later that night, I saw this same headline you've pointed us to.

  10. Spring Training scorecard travesty:

    • guy selling souvenir program/scorecard couldn't get the credit card reader to work; ended up only taking cash (I had none; so much for touchless payments throughout the ballpark) -- ended up standing in line to go get it in the Twins shop
    • souvenir program/scorecard is no longer 8-1/2"x11" -- more like 5-1/2" x 8-1/2"
    • center scorecard section is glossy
    • batter portion of the scorecard has 17 lines. come on -- 18 lines and I'd at least have two per spot in the order!
    • no handy roster with uniform #'s -- they're only listed throughout the player bio sections

    I guess the smaller size makes it easier to lug around, but I'm giving them NO credit due to the glossy scorecard -- that's uncalled for.

    1. Glossy is stupid. I can't believe it's cheaper either although if the entire program is glossy means they don't have a separate insert.

      1. Yeah, normally you get the glossy program, and a separate sheet tucked in the middle with the scorecard on one side and the Twins' and opponent's rosters on the other. Looks like those days are gone.

    1. Yes. I've been digging this record since it came in the mail last(?) week. So much so that I finally broke down and bought Teeth Dreams on vinyl to complete my collection.

      1. One of my goals is to make a Brooklyn Bowl show. London was a ton of fun even if I did end up going to those shows solo.

        1. When did you see them in london? I saw them mid 2000s at the Palladium. Was a great show.

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