All posts by nibbish

Friday Music Day

FMD: Yep, still mine.

12 Comments

I have a game I play (using Last.fm) where I try to have listened to an album's worth of music from 15 artists on any given week. A little over two albums a day (one on the commute, one either at home or at work) from a variety of people keeps things fresh.

It's been sort of difficult to keep up with lately. I've been running all over the place, and I don't listen to nearly as much music at home as I used to (as mentioned in a previous week's post). I might have to bump it down to 10.

The new White Lung album it lots of fun. The new Kanye, not so much. I was discussing it with a friend, trying to be devil's advocate for it, but there really isn't much there that I keep coming back to.

Anyways, sorry about the late post. I had something written up on my home PC, but forgot to copy it over this morning.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 30: twins @ white sox

17 Comments

Well, that was a fun week...

The 1-4 record (in which our opponents  outscored us by 17 runs) was bad enough, but between Pohlad's comments ('don't blame us! blame this ragtag crew we've assembled!') and the rampant shuffling of deck chairs, it would be easy to lose faith.

That's not what we're going to do, though. The team is on pace for 117 losses, but I don't think this is one of the  worst teams in modern baseball history, so pretty soon, we'll see #itshappening everywhere, and we will have to remind ourselves that no... it's not happening yet. Soon, though. Probably. I'm sure there will be a winning streak around the bend somewhere.

It probably won't start today, though.

Continue reading Game 30: twins @ white sox →

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 24: tigers @ twins

39 Comments

If you ignore the crazy awful 0-9 start, the Twins are a .500 team. That seems about right. It's disappointing to be staring at a 7-16 team, but I would guess that it'll even out quite a bit over the course of the season.

Also, the Twins might be getting below average production from almost every spot in their lineup, but one position hasn't been a problem...

Rk 1B
1
MIN
0.5

JMIVGABB, indeed. He's gotten on base in every game so far, and has gotten on base twice in 14 of them.

Today, Tyler Duffey will try to provide some stability in what has suddenly become a topsy turvy rotation. Remember when everyone was wondering where Duffey and Berrios were going to fit, and who was going to falter first? Yeah. Good times.

Twins on Leaderboards

Batting Average - Núñez - 10th (.382) *
On Base Percentage - Mauer - 1st (.451) *
Games Played - Mauer & Sano - t-10th (23)
Plate Appearances - Dozier & Mauer - t-7th (102) *
Triples - Suzuki, Núñez, Buxton & Mauer - t-8th (1)
Bases on Balls - Mauer - 2nd (20)
Bases on Balls - Sano - 4th (16)
Strikeouts - Sano - 2nd (22)
Stolen Bases - Núñez t-5th (5)
Singles - Mauer & Núñez t-10th (18)
Runs Created - Mauer- t-9th (18)
Times on Base - Mauer - 1st (46)
Hit By Pitch - Núñez - t-2nd (3)
Sacrifice Bunts - Rosario & Murphy - t-1st (2)
Sacrifice Bunts - Dozier, Duffey, & Buxton - t-7th (1)
Intentional Walks - Mauer - 1st (5)*
Intentional Walks - Escobar & Rosario - t-9th (1)
Caught Stealing - Núñez & Santana - t-7th (2)
AB/K - Mauer - 9th (8.9)
AB/HR - Park - 8th (12.4)
Outs Made - Dozier - t-7th (74)*

  • Núñez' batting average adjusted down to .323 by adding outs required to qualify in plate appearances.
  • This would be Mauer's highest OBP ever. At present, he's over 40 points ahead of second place.
  • Mauer has been on base 17 times more in the same number of plate appearances. Move Dozier down in the batting order until he gets things figured out.
  • Five intentional walks. For the guy batting before Sano. Wow.
  • In the same number of plate appearances, Mauer has made 57.

WHIP - Nolasco - 4th (0.904)
BB/9 - Nolasco - 2nd (0.976)
BB/9 - Hughes - 10th (1.780)
Games Pitched - Fien - t-3rd (12)
Games Started - Hughes - t-1st (5)Complete Games - Hughes - t-1st (1)*
Hits Allowed - Hughes - t-10th (32)
K/BB - Nolasco - 2nd (8.000)
Losses - Hughes - t-1st (4)
Losses - Gibson & Jepsen - t-7th (3)
Wild Pitches - May t-1st (4)
Wild Pitches - Perkins, Milone, Santana, & O'Rourke - t-10th (2)
Hit By Pitch - Gibson - t-9th (2)

  • Hughes' "complete game" was the rain-shortened 6 inning game. He's one of 6 pitchers (only 2 in the AL) credited with a complete game so far.

The only pitcher doing much in the way of positivity right now is Ricky Nolasco.

Sure.

Makes sense.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: New Music

21 Comments

Having a kid hasn't slashed as much time from my hobbies as I might have expected so far (subject to change, obviously). I still play a fair number of video games, I will watch baseball, and I still listen to quite a bit of music.

The one thing I don't do nearly as much anymore is find NEW music. I almost always did that late at night after Linds went to sleep. Anymore, I'm just as tired as she is, so around the time I'd be perusing blogs and whatnot, I'm falling asleep on the couch, instead.

As a result, I haven't really heard a lot so far this year. The Operators album is pretty sweet, the new Mitski song is good. New M83 is deeply cheesy and odd....yeah.

Any recs?

Also, drop your ten.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 17: old senators @ new senators

52 Comments

   f ,mc=][[RAC - Ba

Caleb wrote that.  What he lacks in sound analysis, he makes up for with sheer exuberance.

With the season one tenth done already, we press on, hoping that the second tenth is better than the first.

It's our annual "outside chore day", so I don't have much time to put this together, so no Twins on Leaderboards. Suffice to say, Mauer ha looked a lot like his old self, Sano is heating up, and Nolasco has already provided more value this year than his first two seasons combined.

Hughes vs. Roark. Let's put last night behind us.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 201: angels @ twins

71 Comments

There, now doesn't that feel better? Even if good things aren't ahead (and let's be honest, things have to get at least a little better - I have to imagine more than 2 Twins will have batting averages above .200) getting that first win feels good, maaan.

Today, Ricky Nolasco takes on Jered Weaver to see who can rebound better from 2015. Weaver is probably done as an ace, but he always seems to pitch pretty well against the Twins. (9-2, 3.22). He gives up a lot of fly balls, so maybe that would be a place to start.

We got the win yesterday, now, onto bigger and better things - the winning streak.

Twins on Leaderboards

Batting Average - Mauer - 7th (.371)
OBP - Mauer - t-6th (.465)
Hits - Mauer - t-7th (13)
Doubles - Escobar - t-4th (4)
Triples - Mauer & Suzuki - t-3rd (1)
Walks - Mauer & Sano - t-6th (6)
Strikeouts - Sano - t-3rd (15)*
Singles - Mauer - t-4th (10)
Runs Created - Mauer - t-10th (9)
Times on Base - Mauer t-4rd (20)
Hit By Pitch - Nunez - t-2nd (2)**Hit By Pitch - Mauer, Buxton & Park - t-7th (1)
Sac Bunts - Dozier, Buxton, & Rosario - t-1st (1)
Sac Flies - Mauer & Suzuki - t-6th (1)
Intentional Walks - Escobar, Mauer & Rosario - t-2nd (1)
Caught Stealing - Nunez - t-2nd (2)
Caught Stealing - Escobar & Santana t-4th (1)
Stolen Base % - Buxton, Roasrio, & Dozier t-1st (100%)
AB/K - Mauer 9th (8.8)***

  • I guess I'm a little surprised that Sano is the only one on this list.
  • Surprise, surprise
  • Oh, I do like this.

Pitcher forthcoming.

Friday Music Day

Friday Music Day: Live Music is Awesome

12 Comments

DK and I took in a concert a bit ago. I now have the album that the band was touring (Blue Wave by Operators), and I have two observations.

  1. It's always just a little bit disappointing when you realize that there's just no way to translate the energy or the muscle from the live setting to a little disc. In a live setting, the drums exploded throughout the room, the synthesizers nearly deafened me, it was a sound that enveloped everything. Much as I like the album (and I do like the album quite a bit - it's my favorite of the young year, I think), there's just no way it can hold up.
  2. It's really fun the extra stuff you notice on the album that you wouldn't otherwise notice without having seen the show. For example, the drumming on this record is great, but it's great in a way that I might not have noticed without having seen it performed in front of me. Likewise, I quite sure that I wouldn't have appreciated the difference between the synth sounds that are on this album without seeing it live.

All of this makes me pretty disappointed that the Sigur Rós show is on my anniversary.

2016 Twins Game Logs

Game 5: twins @ royals

82 Comments

I was going to do up a full log with Twins on Leaderboards and whatnot, but then the little one didn't nap, and we decided to go to town to do some errands. I'll probably post them in an LTE.

Today, Milone takes on the ineffable Ian Kennedy. Arcia gets to begin his last stand and Buxton gets a day off.

I've looked over things a bit in the last couple of days, and this is a game that the Twins should consider winning. Can't get to 90 wins without winning at least one.