74 thoughts on “April 15, 2021: Not Good”

  1. Bullpen is crap. Luis Arraez has no power and is just a backup anyway. Should trade him to the Cubs for Kimbrel who has 3 saves

    1. They really need to trade Buxton while he still has some value. Dude is going to pumpkin any minute now.

    2. Since the Bullpen is such a hot mess, why not move Berrios there? He's usually only good for an inning or to anyway.

      1. I told you before the season started this would be a bad year, and two weeks into the season we all see that I was right! They need to FIRE ROCKO AND FALVIE NOW!!!!! Get rid of all the stat nerds with their "analytics" and put some real baseball men in charge! Bring back Bill Smith and Terry Ryan, make Torii Hunter the manager, and get this team playing REAL BASEBALL again!!!!!!!!!

        1. Hopefully Torii hires Jack Morris as pitching coach to teach these mamby pamby pitchers how to pitch into the 8th inning.

  2. The Twins are tied for the worst record in the AL.

    But..14 of the 15 teams in the AL have between 5 and 7 wins. The AL has had a lot of parity to begin the season.

  3. This is all Joe Mauer's fault. His contract has cast a karmic pall over the entire organization. Need to have a Mauer shirsey burning ceremony in centerfield to exorcise the demons.

                  1. In keeping with the original, which indicates a size rather than a type of drink, I offer Flounder and Flight

        2. Oooh, flip that, and it might be the best yet. You might have to open another store just to use "Saugers and Lagers"

  6. David Roth writes a quick ode of love to La Tortuga:

    For a month in 2018, baseball seemed almost too easy for Willians Astudillo. Over the first 29 games of his career, Astudillo had 33 hits in 97 plate appearances, walking twice and striking out three times. Because he is Willians Astudillo, it looked even more uncanny than it sounds—the man is shaped like one of the little mushroom guys from Super Mario Bros., moves across the baseball field like someone who is waterskiing for the first time, and plays so flat-out that there is always and inescapably a palpable element of risk to watching him play. There is nothing really like it, because there is no big leaguer quite like him.

  7. so, I have a left-handed Kensington Ergo Fit mouse at home and a regular mouse at the office, both of which I connect to my laptop (through a USB fob at home, through a wired USB connection to my port replicator at the office).

    For some reason, Windoze settings cannot keep the button assignments straight between the two locations. In both places, I'm configured for lefty use, but yesterday at the office I had to reassign the mouse buttons. This morning, working from home, I had to again reassign the mouse buttons (settings seems to think that the lefty mouse is a righty mouse and so what should have been the index finger button was mapping to the other button). Weird.

    1. I swear I have heard my boss make the lefty-mouse complaint a dozen times. It may not just be you.

      1. the wireless connection seems a bit dodgy too at home (was true with my old, conventional Logitech mouse as well). Sometimes I have to click 2-3 times on screen button for the action to happen. It's not like I'm far from my laptop (mouse is maybe 2 feet from the fob)

  8. Chauvin defense expert witness suggests that carbon monoxide poisoning may have been a contributing factor in his death.

    He also got Fowler to admit that Floyd's blood was never tested for carbon monoxide.

    "You haven't seen any data or test results that showed Mr. Floyd had a single injury from carbon monoxide. Is that true?" Blackwell asked.

    "That is correct, because it was never sent," Fowler responded.

    Blackwell noted that the squad car was a gas-electric hybrid and Fowler conceded that he had no data about how much carbon monoxide was actually released. Fowler said he believed the engine was running.

    Holy moly. Did the defense attorney not vett their expert witness in advance?

    1. Based on both defense expert witness testimonies, it doesn't appear either was very prepared.

    2. When you need an expert to say a particular thing that doesn't line up with what others have said, you can't be picky.

    3. My new theory is that Chauvin is going for overturning a conviction upon appeal based on incompetent legal representation.

      1. "Let's see who's up in the rotation to defend me. Oh, the guy that couldn't get Amy Senser off. Yeah, let's stick with him."

      2. Lawyer Thoughts SelectShow

        1. It is so very easy to sideline quarterback everyone, and it's a really negative aspect of social media, generally. I've seen all kinds of posts about thing people would or wouldn't do in someone else's shoes, say, the middle of skirmish; it's amazing how many trained experts there are out there. Dunning-Kruger at its worst.

        2. Appreciate the perspective. I don't think he's been incompetent. Just been some gaffes, and in a case like this, gaffes are hard to make up.

        3. I’m no criminal defense attorney, but I wonder why they didn’t just rest immediately and not provide any defense.

            1. I thought this right away and didn’t say anything until I saw someone else who is a defense attorney make this exact point.

        4. I have a family member who is not a lawyer, but who has (or claims to have) watched nearly every minute of the trial proceedings. I have not been following because state agency budget season in St. Paul. Anyway, he’s convinced that the prosecution is not going nearly as well as the media is portraying it. He sent an interesting text chain on Monday

          Him SelectShow
          Someone Else SelectShow
          Me SelectShow
          Him SelectShow
          Someone Else SelectShow
          Someone Else SelectShow

          I haven’t responded ... but it’s been pretty heavy.

          1. I haven't followed particularly closely, so I can't speak to the direct examinations, but from a distance it has seemed like a well-organized prosecution. I also was impressed by the prosecution's cross examination of the defense's witnesses.

            That all said, a multi-day jury trial is a supremely challenging organizational task. And convincing a jury to unanimously send a man to jail is as difficult a sales call as exists. Court often looks a lot messier than it is depicted. Lots of pauses, awkwardly phrased questions, re-asked points, imprecise answers, etc. So you put your best foot foward and hope it's convincing. For the prosecution, that's the video and a general, if muddled, agreement by the experts that the knee to the neck was the proximate cause.

            As I mentioned to another citizen, prosecutors are good when they put on a thorough case and cut the defense's legs out from under them by getting ahead of questionable issues. They are great when they cross-examine well. I think I saw a thorough parade of prosecution witnesses and some good cross-x.

            I pray for justice.

          2. If the thesis in your discussion is true, all the more reason for the defense to rest the case immediately.

        5. Yes, I was mostly joking.

          to Philo's points, a h.s. friend who is a fairly prominent attorney in Tejas responded on the Bookface with some insight I found valuable. And yes, the defense works with what they've got.

          I was mostly responding to the defense's use of the Maryland expert witness, who made some fairly risible statements embedded in other statements that, uh, seemed not very (objectively) credible given his history. But we shall see what the jury thinks.

          1. I can't read/hear "risible" and not immediately hear Michael Palin as Pontius Pilate.

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