132 thoughts on “September 15, 2011: September 15th…hmm…”

    1. My guess, which is all it is, is that they're running him through all kinds of tests because they can't figure out what's causing his seizures. That's serious enough, I suppose, but I sure hope it's not more serious than that.

      1. I hope you are right, but the nothing to see here, move along attitude in MPLS is a little suspicious. One thing I will say about this situation is that I have a lot of admiration for his coaching staff. I sat and watched in horror as their boss was lying on the ground, shaking uncontrollably and within 30 minutes, they had managed to get the idea out to all corners of the media that this was just about as routine as a player getting his ankle taped. And maybe it is, I don't know -- you certainly know more than me, given your experience.

        The fact that his staff could control message like that was pretty impressive.

  2. If the Vikings themselves have to kick in $500 million and the total cost of Target Field, including infrastructure and financing was $522 million ($390 million for the ballpark), one would have to wonder what this Vikings stadium would be like. And also, it's ten events a year. Ten! Including two pre-season non-events. I'm not feeling it.

    3. Maybe the Wolves could play there, too? No wait, that probably wouldn't help. Although, outdoor basketball in the winter could be a novelty.

      1. When I was a kid, I played a ton of outdoor basketball in the winter. The park in SBGville had a court in the middle of it, and we youngsters would shovel that thing after every snowfall and play ball outside all winter long.

    1. I'm no fan of Ochocinco, but for the life of me I cannot understand why he's getting criticism for that tweet, unless people are just looking for something to criticize him for.

      1. I actually do sort of like the Ocho. He's entertaining in his own way, and that's what I like wide receivers to be.

        The article does mention that Bruschi needs to take a deep breath and admit that his 'lawn' is actually a public playground, so points for that.

  7. some gloriously half-bakef journalism:

    "It was two in the morning. I was living in Orange County at the time and was asleep with my wife. My two-year old at the time was in another room. I opened my eyes and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket eating a Fudgesicle in front of my bed," he told reporters on Wednesday.

    "I know it sounds funny ... but it was horrifying."

    A Fudgesicle is a frozen, ice cream-like snack.

      1. I think the writer is trying to make a crack that a man with a Fudgesicle shouldn't be terrifying. Well, in that context, waking up to a man holding a Fudgesicle is every bit as terrifying as if it was a chainsaw.

    3. naked man wearing [a] leather jacket
      Contradictory information there. Was he naked or was he wearing a jacket?

  8. A good friend of mine reminded me of this again, which I still think is a totally awesome story. He attended Rice University in the early '60s, and one of the first things to happen during his freshman orientation was being led into the stadium and seated there, where he saw this live:
    httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuW4oGKzVKc

    3. Cutting row upon row after nearly every game this week has been my only Twins-related fun as this season draws to an end. I can't believe how quick it's been happening. They're going to coast to the bottom three, second-worst is doable and worst of all time still isn't mathematically impossible.

      1. Now you know how I felt doing the race to the bottom the last two years with the Wolves. Two years in a row, their march to the bottom was relentless. I think they ended both seasons with double digit losing streaks.

        1. Also, I love the Twins as much as anybody and my love for the Wolves borders on irrational. But, when it's like this, it's almost a duty to shine a light on the craptasticness.

            2. If you're going to have a disaster, it may as well be a historic disaster. As Bill Veeck once observed, there's no point in having your town destroyed by the second worst hurricane in history.

          2. And hey, at least the Wolves have been adding a little rationality back into that love for you this offseason.

  11. Gardy knows infield defense needs to be better. I hope this doesn't lead to another Juan Castro/Adam Everett disaster (although I though the Everett signing was a good one at the time).

    "If you've got guys that pitch to contact, and you don't catch the ball, you're in trouble," Gardenhire said.

    Twins pitchers last in strikeouts and fielders last in defensive efficiency. That's a real bad combination.

    "We're going to definitely do a lot of research and a lot of digging on what's going to make us better in the infield," Gardenhire said. "There's going to be a lot of people in [spring training] camp, we hope, that are going to all push each other, and we're going to come out with a good defense."

    The only player in the minors that can play SS and has a good defensive reputation would be Brian Dozier. Does that mean he might be given a shot in spring training? If so, why isn't he here now?

    1. Given that you can't fix everything at once, defense isn't a bad place to start. As indicated above, it'll have the by-product of improving the pitching, and it's usually easier to find gloves than bats. At least it's an indication that there might be a plan.

    2. Solution: stop pitching to contact and embrace the strikeout. Also, the three extra days aren't going to help. These players have been playing for years, so I don't think three extra days of drills are going to change the deep-seated habits.

      2. True enough, but the whole concept of this assertion that three days would make a difference is like a window to Gardy's soul.

        1. Maybe Gardy should go down and manage a minor league team, so the basics would be taught correctly, eh?

          1. I find it totally unacceptable that the Twins are blaming minor league managers for the state of disrepair. Is there no one in the front office that spends any time down in these outposts? Maybe this guy or that guy isn't a good manager, but really, isn't the fault of the guys at the top that the whole organization seems to have their collective heads up their anal cavities?

            1. If I've learned nothing else about upper management in my days since college, I've at least learned that scapegoating is a necessary skill for them to possess.

                1. I hear ya, I wish I could do the same. I need to get funding for that brewery first, then I can be my own upper management.

            2. FWIW, the Twins said they fired Nieto for his record in Rochester the last two years and not because of lack of fundamentals, so they haven't openly blamed him for that.

      3. Strikeouts are part of the problem, but even worse is the control issues. The Twins led the league in fewest walks by a wide margin last year and now have allowed more than average. They had the best K/BB ratio in the AL by a wide margin and are essentially tied for last this year (Twins 1.93, Royals 1.92). That's a dramatic drop. The Twins don't shun the strikeout, they just prefer guys who throw strikes, but that hasn't happened this year. The walks went up while the strikeouts went down. The Twins have gone out and brought in "strikeout" guys for the bullpen, but they all have control problems. The first thing for the pitching staff to do is stop walking people. The defense then needs to improve. Those are a lot easier than to tell your pitchers to start striking people out. You have to completely change personnel to make significant improvement in those areas.

        1. Yeah, the BB allowed have bothered me a lot this year. I know keeping BBs to a minimum is not necessarily a keystone to the past success, but for it to totally fall away in a single season is insane. Blame doesn't just go to the new bullpen guys; Liriano, no Slowey, ...blah.

          1. so, who are those guys who are dragging down that average?

            Blackburn: 1.41 K/BB in 148 1/3 innings (76:54)
            F-Bomb: 1.49 in 132 innings (109:73)
            AJ Burnett: 1.55 in 49 1/3 stalwart innings (31:20)
            Neck Fat: 0.93 (seriously?) in 46 innings (27:29)

            so, those four account for 28.9 percent of the innings pitched, 28.5 percent of the strikeouts, and 39.8 percent of the walks.

            But to be fair, the Twins rank 6th in the AL in walks allowed, but 14th in Ks. Last season, they were first and 10th, respectively. Both categories have gotten markedly worse.

    3. I like this:

      The Twins still hope Justin Morneau returns from his latest concussion to play first base, and Gardenhire said he's counting on Alexi Casilla to be the second baseman. When healthy, both are above-average defensive players.

      Fangraphs does not agree on Casilla.

      2. I was going to post about this too. Being better than disasters like Plouffe and Nishioka does not make one self-evidently above-average compared to Major League Baseball as a whole.

              1. You weren't the first to Google her. I'd wager that she can go deep, but she's primarily a singles hitter.

    1. He wasn’t as bad as Morneau in 2012

      Considering they were writing that article from the future, it looks like its already happened.

  13. Okay, who around here thinks that the Twins won't lose 100 games? They have to go 4-10 down the stretch to avoid 100 losses. Games remaining:

    v. CLE (3)
    @ NYY (1)
    v. SEA (3)
    @ CLE (4)
    v. KCR (3)

    There's certainly a path to 63 wins in there, but the way they've been going, it's not unpossible to imagine a continued epic laydown.

    1. I could see the Twins getting one from Seattle, two from CLE and one from KC. That's about as optimistic as I can get about their chances, though.

    2. I'm going to a Diamondbacks/Pirates game on the 21st (wait...might be the 20th) that could end up being a clincher. Watching the last week and a half of the Twins after that environment is going to be torture.

        1. Nevermind. I thought since that was a makeup game, they might miss it. Still...umm...we could win that one...or it could get rained out again!

  16. Just got my tix to St Vincent at the Walker Art Center on Oct 2. (Anybody seen a show at the McGuire Theater? Sounds like an intimate space--380 seats.)

    1. I saw Boris & Sunn O))) there in 2005 or 2006? It was on the Altar tour. It was very intimate. The seating is very steep so you feel like you're right on top of the bands. The bands played on the floor. The sound was good, too (though my ears were ringing for hours after Sunn's brutal set).

      1. I've just listened to it once, so far. Aside from some guitar shrapnel, nothing jumped out as of yet. Her music is very dense, so it doesn't always reveal itself right away.

        1. i listened once through when it was on NPR and had the same reaction. watched the "cruel" vid a few times though, and i dig that song. that "da-da-daaa-da-duh-duuuh" phrase in the chorus has gotten stuck in my head randomly a few times. plus, i love that sloppy "guitar solo" too.

          1. I miss the strings and oboes of Actor, but I'm sure this will eventually grow on me. And "Cruel" has run through my head since I first listened to it. I wouldn't be surprised if that became a fluke hit for her.

  17. Are you going to let my sister-in-law taunt me with her Red Sox crap, or are going to go to my Facebook page and like my "i'd rather die" comment? Well?

        1. Klosterman is my facebook friend, but I'll admit he probably doesn't read this site. Or my posts on Facebook.

  18. I totally didn't see this coming to pass, but I actually remembered the significance of today. I had to have a certain amount of money available in one account so it could automatically transfer to another.

      1. I figured that would be asked, but I've got that on lockdown (it's just a handful of days before Christmas, so one impending event triggers the memory of the other).

        1. Mine is 5/14, which is right around Mother's Day and just a couple of weeks before that Is my wife's birthday. Just poor planning on my part.

          1. Mine is the day after my birthday, which is usually right around Father's Day. Guess which one we actually end up celebrating.

                1. I have only been married for about two years now, but in that time I have learned that technicalities are not a good thing to argue for.

          1. And mine is a hair less than two weeks from today, but aside from now being a month after my daughter's birthday, is not near anything. That will happen when you draw the date out of a hat.

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