The Get Up Kids are not from Milwaukee. However the Promise Ring are. When looking at Promise Ring videos I thought about how they were a crappier version on the Get Up Kids.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYm1PDwLrQM
I know it is cool to say the Get Up Kids suck but the Something to Write Home About album most definitely did not suck, at least in 2000.
(2 votes, average: 7.50 out of 10)
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Weather: 67 degrees, cloudy
Wind: 12 mph, out to center
Time: 2:28
Attendance: 39,819
The Case of the Missing Mojo - Part II
The doll had no idea what she was getting into when she poured herself into my office on a dreary summer night a couple of weeks ago. Then again, I had no idea myself that the hunt for the Twins' mojo would take me from the Twin Cities to the sunny California coast and all the way back east to Brewtown. The name's Twayn. I'm a shamus.
I'd been on the case for two weeks, trying to find out who had the mojo, but this puzzler had more twists and turns than a barber pole. It seemed clear as gin at first - the starting rotation had to have it. Pavano, Baker, Liriano, Blackburn, they were pitching like a carnival barker - hard, fast, crooked and all night long. How else could you explain the way they've been dominating on the mound? Then in San Fran the offense took off like a Chinatown rocket, at least for an inning, so maybe they had the mojo. One thing was sure, there was no shortage of guys suddenly playing better than they were before the start of June.
One thing that jumped out at me as I perused Light Rail's B-R page was his strikeout rate: 8.6 K/9. What? It did increase from 7.3 in 2009 to 7.8 in 2010, but I wasn't expecting another 0.8 jump. However, the season is just shy of 50% complete and so, how much of the increase is real? Fortunately, that was recently answered.
What we want is the K/(PA-IBB-HBP)* line, and that says at 126 denominator units, 50% is the player's ability and 50% is the mean. Baker has 369 PAs, which means 74.5% of the 8.6 K/9 is him while the other 25.5% would be regression to the mean. The mean we want would be Baker's historical performance with however much regression is needed.
Taking the last three years, Baker has 2240 PAs, which means we need 94.7% of those three years and 5.3% league average. Baker's three year average for those three years is 7.5 K/9, which is reasonably close to the league average of 6.8. Let's just use 100% Baker. More rounding error.
Putting it all together means the best estimate for his talent right now is 8.3 K/9. Combined with the miniscule (0.09) increase in his BB/9 rate equals good things for his results. His xFIP so far is easily his best yet and his FIP is slightly better than from 2008. Finally, an ace!
* I'm calling these PAs from now on, despite it actually not being a plate appearance. He has one intentional walk and four hit batters, so it's basically rounding error anyway.
SAN FRANSISCO 2, MINNESOTA 1
Record - 32-41 (4th in Central, 3.5 games out of 3rd)
Highest WPA - Duensing (6.2 IP, 1 R, 5 SO), Cuddyer (3 for 4, 2 2B, RBI)
Lowest WPA - Delmon and Danny V. (both 0-4)
NOTES - Non-Cuddly Twins went 1 for 26 in this one.
Fangraphs
MLB Recap
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Looks like a pitcher's duel, and, perhaps as expected, Lincecum was just a bit better than Duensing in this one. Twins hitters (Cuddyer excepted) never figured anything out against the Freak, striking out 12 times, and failing to get the ball past the pitcher's mound a bunch of times as well. The Twins won't be the last team that Lincecum dominates, so I guess we can all take comfort in that? At least Duensing held his own, keeping the Twins within striking distance throughout.
When Cuddyer doubled in Casilla in the ninth with no one out, it seemed there might be an outside chance that Minnesota could steal the rubber game of this series. Instead Delmon, Danny, and Luke failed to advance him even a single base, and the Twins were handed their first series loss in quite a while.
not a whole lot of superchunk covers out there. i am not playing "the milwaukee song" by jewel. so, here's some advice for the twins from some wis-connie boys on what to do with the scoreboard while they're in town. you know, cause they seem to have forgotten while they were in san fran...
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CPIJONNkNg
1984
(some NSFWish lines towards the beginning)
(4 votes, average: 8.75 out of 10)Loading... Busy, busy work week for me. I think I've got my summer mix done; I just need to cut one or two tracks and sequence it. But I haven't had time for that yet, and my new "hip hop for my 8-year-old daughter" project is taking a lot of my listening time. What is that human instinct that makes us add more projects when we're already swamped?
One track that sure as heck is going to make the cut for my summer mix is "Dirt" by WU LYF. I caught the video on pitchfork (mostly just listened to it) and really, really dug it. Tribal drums, electric organ drones, and post-comprehensible barked vocals. It reminds me a lot of the good songs on the first and third Animal Collective albums. But where the "other" tracks on the Animal Collective albums were noisy and impenetrable, I find that the other tracks by Wu LYF err in the other direction: it sounds like mid-90's shoegaze, but with those same guttural vocals. The results on 90% of the album are disappointing, but the mix on this one song is just perfect, and I hope to hear more songs like that on any future releases. Give it a listen.
If you search for the video, it flashes they lyrics above B&W images of riots. Avoid it, and imagine your own lyrics. I've got "No matter what they said, Ja Rule is not your friend"* at 2:20.
*Probably because he "F--- you crazy, then [he's] gone."[1]
Now spit yr wicked randomness.
Billy Nash (1865)
George Harper (1892)
Rollie Hemsley (1907)
Jim Mills (1919)
Wally Yonamine (1925)
Don Mincher (1938)
Ken Reitz (1951)
Doug Jones (1957)
Tom Klawitter (1958)
Phil Hughes (1986)
So, I'm pretty sure the Wolves had at least a semi-competent draft last night. Huh.
2:45 Central? What kind of goofy game time is that? Programming Note: This is the MLB.tv free game of the day.
The Dunce 4-6, 74.2 IP, 4.82 ERA, 3.59 FIP, 3.96 xFIP, 1.3 WAR
The Freak 5-6, 98.1 IP, 3.39 ERA, 3.02 FIP, 3.07 xFIP, 2.2 WAR
You know, I saw some mainstream junk asking what Lincecum(5-6)'s problem was this year, and I gotta tell ya: looks like the answer is "nothing." Score some runs for him, and he'll beat the other team every time. He's again on pace to throw a total buttload of innings; how long is that arm going to hold out? Is he that once-in-a-generation guy who can do that? I hope so, 'cause I always liked him.
Meanwhile, Duensing also has been better than his mainstream numbers suggest, though certainly nowhere near as good as Lincecum. This isn't a game to be betting on the Twins, though it would be nice to steal a win before the Wolves amuse and depress us all at another draft tonight.
Two more days until Thome and Twitchy are back, right? I've been trying not to say "When the Twins are all healthy" because I'm not convinced it's ever going to happen, but wouldn't it be awesome?
*It appears that the poster we lined up wasn't able to meet deadline. So, whether he knows it or not, JoePos will be our special guest writer today*
Throughout our cross-country move from Kansas City to Charlotte, friends have asked the same question again and again: How are the kids taking it? It's a thoughtful question, a heartfelt question, and I very much appreciate them asking. But, the truth is, they already know. They're taking it exactly like just about every kid who has ever moved. If there's one thing you can say about moving, it is that the feelings are universal ... and cliche-ridden. Just about every adult who has ever moved to a new place has felt overburdened and has promised themselves, at least on some level, to never move again. Just about every child who has moved has felt, at least on some level, like Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid.
Our girls are 6 and 9 and, so, have been a spectacularly erratic bundle of emotions. This is particularly true of Elizabeth, the older one. One minute, she's excited about a new life. The next she's collapsed in tears. The next, she's talking giddy about the puppy we're going to get*. The next she's talking about how she will never have a happy thought for the rest of her life.
*Fathers are not above bribing daughters.
There are a million things that have jolted me about being a parent, of course, and one of those is the drama. Even as a kid, I thought those family sitcoms on television were overwrought, but as a parent I have found that LIFE seems to be overwrought. A disagreement at recess, a cross word on the school bus, a misunderstanding with a friend, all these turn into long conversations right out of the The Brady Bunch with the slow version of the theme song playing in the background.
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