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Friday, May 27, 2005
Link-O-RamaIt's Friday, and you know what that means. No amount of headaches and frustrating Twins losses could possibly keep me from dumping a bunch of links you on heading into the weekend ...Here's part of ESPN.com's scouting report on Graham: Negatives: His rebounding and shot-blocking need work. So does the jumper. He still needs to show the ability to do more off the dribble, and some scouts have questions about his work ethic. Has the tendency to disappear in games.Great, he'll fit right in. YEAR TEAM W L WIN%Carlesimo didn't do much with a solid Portland team, winning 44, 44, and 49 games and going just 3-9 in the playoffs. Perhaps most importantly, the Blazers were very good before he got there and very good after he left. Then he moved on to Golden State and completely tanked, and also got choked by Latrell Sprewell (which I don't necessarily hold against him). I am not a big fan of giving jobs to coaching retreads. If you look at the coaches who have been successful in the NBA over the past couple years, guys like Gregg Popovich, Nate McMillan, Stan Van Gundy, and Mike D'Antoni had little or no head-coaching experience when they were handed their jobs. And guys like Jeff Van Gundy, Scott Skiles, Jerry Sloan, and Rick Carlisle had just one job before their current one. The notable exceptions are guys like Larry Brown and George Karl, but Carlesimo can't possibly be compared to them. If I were the Wolves, I would be looking for the next great head coach, not the next mediocre head coach who has already proven what he can and can't do with several other teams. Either that or you try to convince Brown that his next stop should be Minnesota. Because of that, and the fact that his actual tournament playing record is pretty amazing (he won back-to-back World Series of Poker Main Events in 1980 and 1981, and then won again in 1997), I'm looking forward to reading One of a Kind: The Rise and Fall of Stuey 'The Kid' Ungar, the World's Greatest Poker Player more than I have any book since I heard Michael Lewis was coming out with something about Billy Beane and the Oakland A's a few years back. I want to know more about these guys -- how they think, how they act, how they play, how they came to play poker for a living. I want to know why Gus Hansen is so successful in tournaments despite people calling his style reckless and his results lucky. I want to know what Negreanu does that makes him such a force in tournaments. I want to know exactly why Phil Ivey is considered by almost everyone to be the best player in the world right now, and I want the answer to go beyond stuff like "he's fearless at the table" and "he doesn't make any mistakes" that you hear every time the question is posed. To think of it in baseball terms (since I think of everything in baseball terms), we know guys like Hansen, Negreanu, and Ivey are .300 hitters, but we don't know what sort of specific skills they bring to the table. Do they walk a lot? Do they control the strike zone? Do they steal bases efficiently? Do they have a lot of power? Are they great defensively at key positions? Whatever the poker equivalent of that information is, I want it. I'm hoping the book on Unger goes into those things, because that's what I'm hungry to read about.  Today at The Hardball Times: - Dumb And Dumber (by John Brattain) Today's Picks (37-31, +$675): San Diego (Lawrence) -105 over San Francisco (Hennessey) Chicago (McCarthy) +125 over Texas (Young) Saturday's Picks: Boston (Clement) +120 over New York (Pavano) Sunday's Picks: Pittsburgh (Wells) -105 over Cincinnati (Claussen)     
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Open Chat: 5/26/2005It is 5:47 AM as I write this, and I'm feeling a little bit better. I went to bed early last night, almost immediately after Travis Hafner's game-winning bloop single into left field off J.C. Romero. I hate losing games like last night's, because it could so easily have been a win. It was there for the taking over and over again, and the Twins just couldn't take it.It would have been a win if Joe Nathan hadn't chosen Ben Broussard's at-bat in the bottom of the ninth inning as the time to give up his first home run since August 19, 2004. However, when the opposing starting pitcher gets knocked out of the game with an injury after 4.2 innings and you can muster just one measly run in 5.1 innings against an unprepared, overworked bullpen, I suppose you don't much deserve to win anyway. Plus, it's hard to be too rough on Nathan, who has been about as good as a closer can possibly be for his entire time with the Twins. Last night's blown save was of the one-run variety, and it was still just his fifth in 57 chances with the Twins. That means he has slammed the door successfully 91.2% of the time, including 86.7% so far this season. Romero, on the other hand, is ripe for complaints and currently owns the least impressive 0.98 ERA in baseball history. Okay, that's all you're going to get from me today. Feel free to pick this up in the comments ... Today at The Hardball Times: - Ten Things I Didn't Know Last Week (by Studes) Today's Picks (37-29, +$910): Oakland (Haren) -110 over Tampa Bay (Nomo) Boston (Miller) -125 over Toronto (Chacin)
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Twins 6, Indians 3Sorry about the lack of a new entry yesterday. I was working on some other writing stuff and also got smacked down by recurring headaches. In fact, my head was bugging me so much last night that I watched the Twins' 11-inning win over Cleveland with the lights off and a hand over my right eye. So yeah, I'm probably going to be dead soon. Until then, here are some quick Twins notes ...This time it's Justin Morneau who has decided he is sick of hearing his last name butchered. I'm inclined to give Morneau some slack, since he's really good and all, but it still bothers me. So now, after calling him "Justin moreNO" for three years, everyone has to adjust to "Justin MOREno" (rhymes with porno). And there's no time to practice, either, as Twins announcers Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven learned the hard way over the past two days. There is nothing harder on the ears than listening to two grown men trying to constantly remember that they aren't supposed to call a guy by the name they've been calling him by for the last three years. Bremer batted about .400 over the first two games of the Cleveland series, generally nailing the new pronunciation when he had time to think and getting it wrong when he was reacting to something, while Blyleven just sort of gave up after about two innings of each game. A lot of you guys are lucky I didn't save all the e-mails I got last month calling for Tiffee to replace Michael Cuddyer at third base. As for me, I'm feeling pretty good about my initial comments regarding Tiffee when he first came up from Triple-A last year: I don't know about you, but I can't get excited about a guy who'll struggle to post a .750 OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) unless he hits .300.And yes, I generally bring this sort of stuff up when I look good, but that's the beauty of having your own blog. Some Twins-related links ... Knee's fine. Wrist's fine. Now that lump of s*** that's about six feet off the ground, that's borderline.If ever there was a perfect guy to be playing in New York, Mientkiewicz is him. UPDATE: I just realized the silliness of me beginning this entry by saying it will be "some quick Twins notes" because I'm not feeling well and then writing 850 words. Oh well, I can't help it sometimes. Today at The Hardball Times: - News, Notes and Quotes (May 25, 2005) (by Aaron Gleeman) - Business of Baseball Report (by Brian Borawski) Today's Picks (37-29, +$910): Boston (Arroyo) -140 over Toronto (Chacin)
Monday, May 23, 2005
Talking The FifthThis weekend's series against Milwaukee was an interesting one, with Carlos Silva tossing a 74-pitch complete game, Doug Davis following with a seven-hit shutout, and the Twins coming back to take the series and save Johan Santana from a loss on a day when he flashed no-hit stuff. But instead of talking about any of that, I'd like to delve into a topic that has been on my mind for a while now. I decided to finally write about it last night, when my grandpa brought up the same subject out of the blue.Torii Hunter did something rather amazing Friday, grounding into inning-ending double plays in both the first inning and second inning. And they weren't run-of-the-mill double plays, either, as both came with the bases loaded and one out. It didn't end up hurting the Twins much, as they went on to win the game 7-1, but it did hammer home just how tired I am of seeing Hunter batting fifth in the lineup. While he hasn't hit well this year, batting .231/.310/.381 overall and .250/.280/.386 with runners in scoring position, the truth is that Hunter has actually been good at avoiding double plays this season. In the past he has hit into a ton of them, including a back-breaking 23 last season, but Hunter has hit into just four this season (including Friday's two-DP performance). In fact, according to Baseball Prospectus' "Double Play Rate" stat, Hunter has come to the plate 37 times with a chance to hit into a double play so far this year and has done so just 10.8% of the time, which is actually a better-than-average rate. Last year, Hunter hit into a double play 22.3% of the time, which was the fourth-worst rate in all of baseball. In other words, my frustration with Hunter's double-play proclivity is due more to past transgressions than anything he's done this year. On the other hand, he really has done a startling amount of damage in just four double plays. All four have come with at least two runners on base, and three of them came with the bases loaded. And as if stranding 11 runners, using up eight outs, and scoring zero runs wasn't enough rally killing in four measly at-bats, all four double plays ended innings. The problem is that while Hunter is not an ideal #5 man, the Twins don't really have anyone better suited for the job. Most teams look for a guy who hits for a solid batting average and has quite a bit of pop in that spot, because he'll come to the plate with a ton of men on base if the #3 and #4 hitters are good (which they are in the Twins' case). Hunter has struggled this year, so plenty of guys have a better combination of batting average and power than him right now, but does anyone profile as a better fit over a longer stretch of time? 2002-2004 AVG SLG IsoP AB/XBHIgnoring Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, Hunter has the most power and hits extra-base hits the most often on the team, which is why, flaws and all, he's still probably the best option. Jacque Jones hits for a better batting average, has the second-most power, and is hitting well this year, but the Twins would create a bigger problem than they already have in the late innings by having three straight lefties batting 3-4-5 in the lineup. Basically, the Twins are short one good right-handed hitter. Not short in the sense that it's keeping them from being a good team or having a good lineup, but short in the sense that it's keeping Ron Gardenhire from drawing up an ideal lineup card. If they had, say, Mike Sweeney at designated hitter, he could bat fifth, Jones could hit sixth, and Hunter could slide down to seventh. That would get Hunter out of key RBI spots and get a better overall hitter behind Mauer and Morneau. It'll never happen, of course, but a boy can dream. After all, anything is better than the nightmare that is Hunter at the plate lately. He went 1-for-12 in the three-game series with Milwaukee, leaving 11 runners on base, and capped things off by striking out with two outs and the bases loaded in the eighth inning yesterday afternoon. On a team that has struggled an obscene amount with the bases loaded all season, Hunter is perhaps the worst offender. He is now 0-for-9 with the bases loaded, which doesn't even properly account for his struggles by including double plays. Today at The Hardball Times: - To Live and Die in LA (by Aaron Gleeman) Today's Picks (37-27, +$1,160): Washington (Loaiza) -115 over Cincinnati (Milton)
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 Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com OFGoAG.com Timeline: Heidi Klum (8/2002 - 12/2003) Jessica Alba (12/2003 - 10/2004) Elisha Cuthbert (10/2004 - 11/2006) Vacant (11/2006 - 6/2008) Keeley Hazell (6/2008 - 3/2010) Mila Kunis (3/2010 - Present) OFGoAG.com Candidates: Marisa Miller Jenna Fischer Kate Beckinsale Keeley Hazell Diora Baird Top 40 Twins Prospects of 2010: 1. Aaron Hicks, CF 2. Kyle Gibson, SP 3. Wilson Ramos, C 4. Miguel Angel Sano, SS 5. Ben Revere, CF 6. Angel Morales, CF 7. David Bromberg, SP 8. Danny Valencia, 3B 9. Matthew Bashore, SP 10. Billy Bullock, RP 11. Rene Tosoni, RF 12. Chris Parmelee, RF 13. Adrian Salcedo, SP 14. Joe Benson, CF 15. Jeff Manship, SP 16. Tyler Robertson, SP 17. Carlos Gutierrez, RP 18. B.J. Hermsen, SP 19. Anthony Slama, RP 20. Max Kepler, CF 21. Alex Burnett, RP 22. Robert Delaney, RP 23. Luke Hughes, 3B 24. Ben Tootle, RP 25. Deolis Guerra, SP 26. Shooter Hunt, SP 27. Trevor Plouffe, SS 28. Michael McCardell, SP 29. Reggie Williams, 2B 30. Estarlin De Los Santos, SS 31. Derek McCallum, 2B 32. Jose Morales, C 33. Chris Herrmann, LF 34. Bobby Lanigan, SP 35. Danny Rams, C 36. Josmil Pinto, C 37. Steven Tolleson, 2B 38. Anderson Hidalgo, 3B 39. Loek Van Mil, RP 40. Joe Testa, RP |