I've seen (and posed for) some really awful yearbook photos, but nothing comes close to toppingLil Jon. Except for maybe Ryan Seacrest.
I'm down 30 pounds in my latest weight-loss attempt, but Jim Mandelaro of the Rochester Democrat and Chroniclenotes that Bill Smith "has dropped 40 pounds since February."
Shockingly, longtime Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com candidate Jenna Fischer went from married to divorced to married again without so much as asking me out on one date.
Not only is Friday Night Lights coming back for at least two more seasons, it sounds like just about everyone is signed on to return.
Batting Stance Guy has branched out, extending his brilliant mimicry to baseball movies:
Hell, he even did the 20 push-ups after popping up as Willie Mays Hayes.
What happens if you take standard junk food and dress it up like a delicacy? Fancy Fast Food has the amusing answers, in picture form.
Friend of AG.com Thor Nystrom recently interviewed William Hung and wrote a profile of him for the Brainerd Dispatch, which is by far the best sentence I've typed this week.
This list of the "top 10 female child stars who became hotties" is pretty good, although after growing up watching Who's the Boss? the notion of someone other than Alyssa Milano/Sam Micelli in the No. 1 spot seems absurd. I'm happy to see the forever underrated Linda Cardellini/Lindsay Weir get some respect, although it's amusing to note that she was 24 years old when Freaks and Geeks debuted.
Flip Flop Fly Ball has some really strange, cool "infographics" about baseball, including the detailed boxscore of an imaginary Wu-Tang Clan versus The E Street Band matchup.
There's a new gang at the Minneapolis Star Tribune called "The Investigators." Cheesy name aside, I'm glad to see the Star Tribune focused on unique, meaty content rather than the fluff and cookie-cutter Associated Press reprints that too often litter the newspaper's pages. Plus, any setup that allows Paul McEnroeto do his thing is a good idea.
For some reason Keeley Hazell hasn't done many photo shoots lately, but when she does it's easy to remember why she's the reigning Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com.
This may be the world's first case of Michael Scott-induced detention, but it surely won't be the last.
Not only can't the St. Paul Pioneer Press create a decent website for themselves, they're apparently not all that great at dealing with other people's sites either.
Minnesota Public Radio has advice on "how college kids can get a job," although "quit school, start a blog, and do it every day for years and years without getting paid" was surprisingly not on the list.
Timberwolves first-round pick Wayne Ellingtonhas good taste.
Friend of AG.com and The Hardball Times columnist Chris Jaffehas a new book coming out called Evaluating Baseball's Managers.
Counting the regular season and playoffs, the Twins are now 16-45 (.262) against the Yankees since Ron Gardenhire took over as manager in 2002, compared to 655-523 (.556) versus every other team.
This afternoon the Twins will try to avoid finishing the year 0-7 against New York and I'll be live blogging the game over at NBCSports.com.
We're long overdue for a live chat, so as always I'll open the doors 15 minutes early for pre-submitted questions and keep going until you guys run out of stuff to ask.
Once you're done here, check out my "Circling The Bases" blog over at NBCSports.com.
Twins Notes: All-Stars, Injuries, and Internationals
As expected, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Joe Nathan were picked as All-Stars yesterday, with Mauer voted in as the AL's starting catcher. Mauer, who also started last year, will be playing in his third All-Star game in five full seasons. Morneau has yet to be chosen as a starter, finishing behind Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis in the fan voting this year, but will be making his third straight appearance. Nathan has now been an All-Star in four of his six seasons with the Twins.
As is often the case when a pitcher uncharacteristically struggles--think of Glen Perkinssix weeks ago for the most recent example--the Twins placed Kevin Slowey on the disabled list Saturday while revealing that he's "battled pain in his wrist for a while." Anthony Swarzak replaces Slowey, rejoining the rotation three weeks after heading back to Triple-A following five starts filling in for Perkins. While he wasn't as good as his 3.90 ERA the first time around, Swarzak is a nice luxury to have on call.
As for Slowey, he's scheduled to be examined by a wrist specialist in Baltimore after giving up 11 runs over six innings in his last two starts. Slowey was 10-2 with a 4.04 ERA and 67-to-14 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 14 starts prior to the back-to-back rough outings, but according to Ron Gardenhire had trouble "opening doors and things like that" even before the injury began to impact his pitching. Swarzak will face the Yankees on Thursday after posting a 2.34 ERA and 43/16 K/BB ratio in 10 starts at Rochester.
Jesse Crain has struggled since last month's demotion to Triple-A, giving up four runs on seven hits and six walks in seven innings. He does have 11 strikeouts, but Crain has a long way to go before he's an option again. At the time of the demotion Gardenhire talked about Crain needing to focus more on throwing a sinker and he again stressed that over the weekend, but as noted previously in this space Crain's slider was actually responsible for his past success and the Twins pushed him away from that.
LaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jorge Arangure of ESPN.com, and various other sources agree that the Twins are legitimate contenders to sign Miguel Angel Sano, a 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic. The scouting reports on Sano are obviously glowing, particularly in regard to his offensive potential, but there are questions about his true age and his reported bonus demands of $4 million would be five times as much as the Twins have ever handed out to an international player.
What was your favorite moment from the Sean Henn era? Craig Breslow was lost on waivers so that the Twins could add Henn to the bullpen six weeks ago, at which point my take was that Breslow "is just a better pitcher, period." Since then Breslow has a 2.95 ERA and 14/5 K/BB ratio in 18.1 innings for the A's, while Henn earned a return to Triple-A by allowing nine runs with a 9/8 K/BB ratio in 11 innings for the Twins. Shockingly, his track record meant more than hyperbolic talk of a "95-mph fastball."
Brian Duensing was called up from Triple-A to replace Henn in the bullpen, but his first appearance came as a long reliever rather than a left-handed specialist. Which makes sense, because Duensing has started 101 of his 106 pro games--including 56 starts at Triple-A--and despite being a southpaw hasn't been significantly better against lefties than righties prior to this year. He was 25th on my list of the Twins' top prospects heading into the season and at 26 years old deserves a chance in some role.
Every once in a while Jim Souhan puts aside the shticky attempts at humor and mid-90s pop-culture references to come across as a human being capable of rational thought and self-awareness:
Remember a few years ago, when Torii Hunter, a few Twins coaches and some jerk of a local columnist questioned the durability of Mauer and Morneau? Now the M&M Boys seem to be competing with each other for innings played.
Patrick Reusse, on the other hand, sadly appears to be falling further and further into the "get off my lawn" phase of his career, beginning his Saturday column with a weird rant against a random Tigers blogger (of course) who criticized the team's deal for Edwin Jackson. Reusse used the first 200 words of a 700-word column to quote and then mock a writer named Matt Wallace from a blog called "Take 75 North," yet I'm guessing that fewer than a dozen Star Tribune readers have ever heard of either.
According to Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times, the motley crew that the Angels trotted out against Eric Milton in September of 1999 is the fifth-worst lineup ever to be no-hit.
David Brauer of MinnPost reports that having to shell out an extra $4 million in ballpark costs hasn't kept the Twins from adding relief help, so the front office's aversion to actually addressing weaknesses remains the reason.
Counting the regular season and playoffs, the Twins are now 16-45 (.262) against the Yankees since Ron Gardenhire took over as manager in 2002, compared to 655-523 (.556) versus every other team.
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