Cup of Coffee

May 8, 2013: Sweat

117 Comments

It's consistently over 95-100 here now, and we're just not rich enough to keep it as cool as I'd like. Well, maybe I'll sweat off those pounds I've gained by getting lazy and eating fast food.

117 thoughts on “May 8, 2013: Sweat”

      1. I remember when they'd play his movies on either KMSP or KITN on weekends before the FOX and UPN affiliations.
        Or maybe it was TBS. Either way, those were cool. Never watched a full one though.

    3. what the hell is up with the tattoos on Mazer's face? I don't remember that from the book.

        1. He's a half-Maori New Zealander, so tribal tattoos wouldn't be out of place. But yeah, I thought they were a strange addition, too. And I agree with Rhu- if that's the worst they've done, it should be pretty good.

            1. seems obvious from the trailers, however, that they are going with kids who are "too old".

      1. Reports are that Moyes has already been selected. I don't think it's any secret that Mourinho is going to Chelsea.

        1. Ugh. I'm going to miss him finding hidden gems all across the world and keeping his icy stare fixed across Goodison Park.

        2. Moyes is the 3rd longest tenured coach, after Fergie and Wenger. I worry about Everton being able to find someone who can work within the system of Everton's financial constraints like Moyes.

          I was very much hoping for Jose to tell Abromavich to stuff it once he found out SAF was retiring. But I suppose when you can follow up one insanely intense Scotsman with another, you have to do that.

  3. No go on the promotion. I was told I am highly qualified for the position and my interview was perfect. I just ran into someone even more qualified. They also said they have little doubt I'll move my way up eventually. So there's that.

    1. I think it's hilarious how just after he mentions how much he can bench, "bro" starts getting tossed around every other sentence.

  7. seen on the Book of Face: Beer!

    Sadly, I've had none of these to date. but I can report that I'll be at Russian River to celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary at the end of this month, so maybe magic will happen.

    1. I've never had any of these, either, but I'm not so sad about it. I find myself annoyed with the "big hype" releases (mostly Dark Lord's fault) when I can get damn fine beers in similar styles that are readily available and much cheaper. But then, maybe I'm just being GOML about it.

      1. I've had the Darkness - it was good, but I'm not going to stand in line for it. Also, I'm with cheap: damn fine beers in similar styles are available and less cost-prohibitive.

    2. Based on recent travels, I can vouch that Russian River has excellent pizza. (And even a vegan option if your daughter is with you.) The menu also has a guide to properly pairing their beers with food. Alas, I'll have to return when I'm in a less "delicate" condition to properly sample the beer.

      I've heard that it's insane in February when Pliny the Younger comes out.

      1. Yah. I've not yet been during the Pliny the Younger release (actually, this will be my first pilgrimage). We are also staying at a nice hotel/spa location near Santa Rosa. The Girl ain't invited 😉

    3. but I can report that I’ll be at Russian River to celebrate my 25th wedding anniversary at the end of this month

      Is she coming with? /* HiYo! */

  8. As I've mentioned before, I'm writing for Yahoo! Sports on the Twins via the Yahoo! Contributor Network. I get paid strictly on performance, so I was mainly doing it to get some exposure and hoping for a little extra cash. I've been checking my page views and my best day was about 6,000 and I had a total of over 20,000 in a little over a week, which I felt good about. This morning, I checked it and on Monday alone I got over 32,000 views. I am, to say the least, very excited.

    5. I meant to tell you that your Monday article popped into my regular Yahoo news feed on their front page. The articles seem to be selected based at least in part on Yahoo knowing my location in MN, but also I get articles from other teams sometimes, so maybe it was more than just a MN thing? Either way, I thought that was really cool to see your stuff on my home page.

      Keep it up!

      2. That's a new thing for YCN content, so that may be why the page views jumped up like that, so hopefully it wasn't just a one-time thing.

    1. It seems to be having problems with the load. Though, it seems they're using Access. Seriously people, let it die.

      1. Yes, definitely some bugs to work out, but I can only imagine there is a lot of gold in there.

    2. Here's five HS scouting reports for Matt LeCroy (all from the White Sox):

      1. Thick, heavy body, but better than in past[?!]. Has trimmed and firmed quite a bit. Tight, muscular, and barrel-chested, heavy legs and rear. Short arms. Old face*, mustache. Will have to [get?] active to stay in shape. Getting plus power and bat[,] will have to find a place to play. 1b or a Greg Luzinski-type** left fielder. Can be helped hitting with hand placement. An impact power type.

      2. Ron Karkovice body type. Poor mobility & agility behind plate. Lacks arm strength. Side to side runner (Can't run). Player will be best suited to play 1b, lacks physical tools to be a catcher. Potential to be impact offensive player at ML level w/hitting for average/homeruns/RBIs.

      3. Large frame, strong, durable body, large hands, built like Gary Carter. This boy will hit and will hit with power. Legitimate power. Strong forearms and wrists generate good bat speed. Hands appear soft enough and with a lot instruction and work can be an adequate receiver. Bat should carry to Major Leagues. On a 20/80 scale he rated LeCroy as a 25 in speed with a future rating of 20.***

      4. Big, think, strong body. Built like an offensive guard in NFL. Will have to watch body in the future and won't have any problem seeing it.**** Has surprisingly good life and bounce for someone with his body type. This kid has as good of bat and power as anyone I have seen in some years. Running speed is poor. Has an outside chance to surive in minor leagues as C, but could only be back up at Major Leagues. Not a real good candidate for a NL club.

      5. Will have to watch weight. Future bat and power are biggest tools going for him. Definite bat and power prospect. Will need a lot of work behind plate to progress to ML status. Position change could be 1b, no speed to cover gaps in outfield unless you had a deer in CF.***** Comes down to how high do you want to take his bat. This guy's a man at 18, and will have to watch weight if not catching everyday.

      *WTF?!
      **That's a Blyleven-type scouting report.
      ***Hilarious.
      ****Zing!
      *****Even next to Torii Hunter and Jacque Jones, I have to imagine that would have been a colossal train-wreck.

      1. Good stuff. LeCroy finished his career with a .260/.326/.440 line. A .180 ISO is pretty solid, I'd give the scouts credit for calling his power.

        The old face comment is definitely weird. I wonder if some scouts try to use faces to project how much a kid has to grow. Like, if he has an "old face" he is mostly done growing, but with a "young face" (not to be confused with a "Young face") there is more potential for growth.

        I think it's just as good that they mentioned he had a mustache. Is facial hair a good thing in a prospect, and if so, which facial hair is most desirable?

        1. I'm guessing that (like your first comment on the "old face" issue) they were just trying to proxy for growth potential.

    3. Decided to look for a can't-miss who missed. Here's Cleveland's David McCarty scouting report in 1991:

      Quick bat. Waits well. Very disciplined. Steps into pitch. Great power from center to LF line - ball jumps. Does not commit too early - patient type. Tall with a slender-type build. Has put on the best power display I've seen in a long time. Hits long + high homeruns that no park will hold. Amazing part is his contact ability - very seldom misses a pitch.

      The scout ultimately rated him a 70 current/ 75 potential for power.

      1. Nice. Also, he very seldomly missed a pitch to the tune of a strikeout every 4.48 plate appearances over the course of his career (for reference, Delmon has struck out every 5.68 plate appearances, Carlos Gomez 4.51).

      2. I remember hearing somewhere that he was being called a right-handed Will Clark.

      3. Tall with a slender-type build.

        Maybe it's not that Bert talks like Bert, but that he talks like a scout. Even some of Bert's "-type"s are more helpful than this one. Perhaps if McCarty had had a slender build instead of a slender-type build, he would have lived up to his potential.

        Even as misses go, that's not really the worst miss ever. 632 games played is more than most draft picks can claim.

      4. Here's Kansas City's Scouting report on the Twins first-round pick the year before McCarty, Todd Ritchie:

        Built like Orel Hershiser. Ideal type pitcher[']s body, long legged, wide shoulders, long arms, big hands with long fingers. No glasses or contacts. Outstanding FB early innings (85-89) with nasty life low in strike zone and boring action into RHH. Lost velocity (82-87) in later innings, but threw 85-86 when needed it. Has the makings for a hard CB (72-74) when thrown correctly has bite.

        Has the arm strength to become a power pitcher at the ML level with above average life. When he develops consistency with his straight change and CB he will have three basic pitches to become a starting pitcher. Outstanding competitor who is a take charge type individual on the mound. I see him as a 2-4 round draft choice if he stays healthy, or he might be a low first round pick.

        That seems to be pretty much spot-on. Well done, Tony Levato.

    4. Oooh, this should be fun. High school scouting reports on AJ Pierzynski.

      The Brewers:

      Poised. Intelligent. Confident. Projected to hit .245 with 15 homers in Majors. [Homerun swing checked rather than line drive swing.] Durable strong body. Strong, accurate arm with quick release. Strong hands. Knows how to handle pitchers. Has HR power especially on low inside pitch. Does have a tendency to inside-out ball. Projected 6th round pick. ["Hard nosed" box checked and he got a 60 in "emotional control" but only a 50 in leadership and 55 in "personal pride."*

      The White Sox's Mark Bernstein:

      Tall and broad strong on top big legs. Too much noise with bat and too much on shoulder. Think he'll hit with some corrections to approach. Quality player in skilled position. Leader- take charge type player. Listed as line drive hitter.

      The White Sox's George Bradley:

      Blond with crewcut. Good size. Strong in legs with long arms. Sunken-chested and could use upper-body development. Really gets ball back to pitcher.** Aggressive on-field leader. Some fence power. Jumps on FB and makes solid contact. Poor speed but doesn't stop aggressive baserunning. Rushes badly, throws across self in game situations. Swing flat and long to ball. Aggressive in everything he does. Intense. Has a ML ego and some showmanship.*** Getting a lot of attention and fame may be taking toll.

      The White Sox's Doug Laumann:

      Big, strong, good-looking kid from a distance. Does not have a very developed chest when you see him up close. Looks like Jody Davis. Could get bigger and stronger to frame. Will be a pretty good catcher in future. Runs game and takes charge on field. I do not see this guy having average HR power in the future due to the lack of bat speed and lack of ability to really pull the ball.

      The White Sox's Bill Meyer:

      Big strong kid with well-proportioned body. Wears contacts. Wrist a little floppy at top of throwing motion, not a major problem. Has all the tools to become front-line ML catcher.

      *What does that even mean?
      **Does anybody else remember the AJ eff-you flip? One of those hidden things about a player that are so enjoyable.
      ***I can't stress enough how much I LOVE Pierzynski. The dude had a ML ego in high school!

      1. Projected to hit .245 with 15 homers in Majors.

        Robo-scouts NOW!

        That is a ridiculously precise projection.

    1. someone had NG on the TV in the breakroom. I haven't seen or heard her in years and she's on high emotional about fourth missing female* that wasn't in the house.
      My leftovers couldn't heat fast enough.

      *Not sure if they've all been under the age of majority.

      1. You can bet that this case will be on their radar to replace the Jodi Arias rating bonanza. But, will it be sordid enough? That's the question.

        Until then, turn into HLN to view the clock detailing, to the second, how long the jury in the Arias trial has deliberated.

        Yes, my wife watches this.

    4. Two things: 1) I feel like this is bit from parks and rec, and 2) I had to google Arias ---> that's how connected I am.

      1. Perd would never stoop to such buffoonery. Also, the only reason I know of Arias's existence is because I have flown a few times in the last few months and the "the latest from the Jodi(?) Arias trial" commercial always seems to pop up.

      2. I googled her earlier in the week. I had no clue either. I am purposefully (and blissfully) unaware of such things.

        1. Something having to do with David Ortiz and Steroids, I've assumed.
          His wife? Sister?

          Spoiler SelectShow

    1.  
       

      Rk Player H
      1 Kirby Puckett 2304
      2 Rod Carew 2085
      3 Tony Oliva 1917
      4 Kent Hrbek 1749
      5 Harmon Killebrew 1713
      6 Joe Mauer 1304
      7 Gary Gaetti 1276
      8 Justin Morneau 1219
      9 Torii Hunter 1218
      10 Chuck Knoblauch 1197

      He's not far behind Gaetti. Mauer will be stuck in sixth for a few more years.

      1. Here's those 10 players ranked in times-reaching-base (PA*OBP) for their career (including appearances for other teams.)

        4146 -- Carew
        3697 -- Killebrew
        3024 -- Gaetti
        2819 -- Puckett
        2792 -- Knoblauch
        2693 -- Hunter
        2619 -- Hrbek
        2429 -- Oliva
        1891 -- Mauer
        1720 -- Morneau

        Including just their Twins career:

        3071 -- Killebrew
        2819 -- Puckett
        2743 -- Carew
        2619 -- Hrbek
        2429 -- Oliva
        1891 -- Mauer
        1788 -- Knoblauch
        1720 -- Morneau
        1676 -- Gaetti
        1586 -- Hunter

        Looks like Mauer has a pretty big on that list, too. Killebrew's walk rate was just unreal. His walk total of 1321 with the Twins is higher than most Twins' hit totals. And that's if you ignore his time with the Senators. He had 3577 times reaching base with the Twins and Senators combined, including 1505 walks.

        1. singles list:

          rank player singles pa
          1 Sam Rice 2194 9886
          2 Clyde Milan 1738 8318
          3 Joe Judge 1642 8912
          4 Kirby Puckett 1626 7831
          5 Rod Carew 1616 6980
          6 Buddy Myer 1375 7029
          7 Mickey Vernon 1373 7773
          8 Ossie Bluege 1365 7453
          9 Tony Oliva 1320 6880
          10 Cecil Travis 1174 5416
          11 Harmon Killebrew 1164 9464
          12 Buddy Lewis 1150 5939
          13 Kent Hrbek 1126 7137
          14 Goose Goslin 1118 5815
          15 Eddie Yost 1085 7460
          16 George Case 1037 4988
          17 Bucky Harris 999 5536
          18 Eddie Foster 967 4899
          19 Joe Kuhel 955 5233
          20 Howie Shanks 951 5517
          21 Joe Mauer 932 4681
          22 Chuck Knoblauch 893 4573
          23 George McBride 893 5483
          24 Cesar Tovar 888 4595
          25 Gary Gaetti 798 5459
          26 Bob Allison 756 5923
          27 Heinie Manush 746 3563
          28 Torii Hunter 741 4894
          29 Pete Runnels 736 3817
          30 Justin Morneau 734 4929

      1. Last night he hit the 500 K threshold. He also moved to 570 BBs. 97 of those were intentional. Not bad.

    4. Here's roughly the top 15 in a bunch of counting stats. Mauer has only four more home runs until 100!!!

      Rk Player H PA R 2B 3B HR BB IBB SO
      1 Kirby Puckett 2304 7831 1071 414 57 207 450 85 965
      2 Rod Carew 2085 6980 950 305 90 74 613 99 716
      3 Tony Oliva 1917 6880 870 329 48 220 448 131 645
      4 Kent Hrbek 1749 7137 903 312 18 293 838 110 798
      5 Harmon Killebrew 1713 8018 1047 232 21 475 1321 152 1314
      6 Joe Mauer 1304 4681 641 256 20 96 570 97 500
      7 Gary Gaetti 1276 5459 646 252 25 201 358 30 877
      8 Justin Morneau 1219 4929 625 263 16 206 472 81 757
      9 Torii Hunter 1218 4894 672 259 26 192 319 32 870
      10 Chuck Knoblauch 1197 4573 713 210 51 43 513 19 453
      11 Cesar Tovar 1164 4595 646 193 45 38 299 20 307
      12 Michael Cuddyer 1106 4555 606 239 35 141 411 30 805
      13 Roy Smalley 1046 4676 551 184 21 110 549 31 606
      14 Zoilo Versalles 1046 4500 564 188 56 86 251 20 606
      15 Bob Allison 999 4643 648 167 41 211 641 25 842
      16 Jacque Jones 974 3786 492 189 15 132 231 25 737
      17 Cristian Guzman 871 3538 458 142 61 39 166 7 491

  12. Fact of the day, courtesy of Randall Munroe's answer to the question "How high can a human throw something?":

    The speed improvement from using a golf ball instead of a baseball would probably not be very large, but it seems plausible that a professional pitcher with some time to practice could throw a golf ball faster than a baseball.

    If so, based on aerodynamic calculations, Aroldis Chapman could probably throw a golf ball about sixteen giraffes high.

          1. When I worked on the radar program for the B-2, I always used to ask the guys working on the navigation code to give our velocity in rods/fortnight.

    1. gathered enormous amounts of data about an entire season’s worth of free throw shooting in the N.B.A. [ed: about 55,000] and 50,000 games bowled in the Professional Bowlers Association.
      Yawn. I have 3,739,544 pitches from PitchF/X. Retrosheet likely has over ten million events in all of their event files. Both of those are dwarfed by many orders of magnitudes by actual "Big Data" things.

  14. Chelsea 2, Tottenham 2. But more importantly for my bank account, it's official: Tottenham cannot place any higher than 3rd place.

  15. Anyone else see Fraser take a puck to the head tonight? GIF in the spoiler for the potentially squeemish (don't worry, no blood or anything)

    Spoiler SelectShow

    The reaction I had upon seeing it was "Ohshitsonofabitch"

    [h/t to SBnation for the GIF]

    1. Youch. I'm sure it hurt, but by his reaction it looked like he thought it was going to hurt even more.

      I like the GIF in the spoiler- that's a nice touch.

  16. This has to be the best time of the year for SportsCenter. Full slate of baseball games, NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs. Sure, they can still find ways to fit in the NFL here and there, but the degree of difficulty is higher.

    1. Your heart probably isn't as warm as the seat Scioscia is sitting on.

        1. Well they're at least positively correlated. Not sure if they're proportional, exponential, or something else.

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