The Dose: Yeah, it's been a while, get over it.
1. Anyone else feel like the Twins haven't won in a while? That Astro's series was lame time. The Brewer series could be much needed. Oh and see this.
2. LH - I'm still totally serious about making a documentary of your try out. They're going on right now. Next time you're in town, we're going to Les Thurs field in BC and getting that circle-change of yours in working order.
3. Fire up for Favre time, word is they equipment manager got the green light to make his jersey up. The fact that I know that only reinforces my "distraction" theory. Can't think about it right now. Head hurt. Me need thing-that-make-headache-go-away.
4. I like the shake up going on with the Woofies. LH - analysis please.
5. It is hot here. Minnesota hot-ass, steamy June day. 100 on the Heat Index, whatever that is. Me likey.
9 Comments:
What a shitball loss last night.
June 25, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Nicely put. Even on Gamecast it was brutal.
This team's been within 2 games of .500 for about a month now. Can we just please go on a tear or stink it up for a few weeks so I can determine whether or not to invest much in the rest of the season?
June 25, 2009 at 8:51 AM
Agreed, what a terrible way to blow a pretty solid pitching performance...
While this flirtation with .500 is getting old,it still feels like they're close for me- and that the only thing keeping us from going on a 10-2, or similar, is for one of the cogs (Crede, Young) to move just a little smoother.
Is this the eternal optimist in me?...maybe.
Twolves
I don't know what the wolves are doing. We now have 4 1st round picks in what is widely considered a weak draft. We traded away our most offensively productive backcourt player, and will seemingly be the youngest team in the history of the NBA. I think Kahn has carte blanche right now because everything can be blamed on his predecessors, so I think this is him, trying to make a statement.
There's no denying that the wolves are rebuilding- we will basically have a completely new backcourt next year- and there are a number of guards that are going to be available at the 5 and 6 that could become productive NBAers. I just hope that we get a true point guard out of all of this- somebody who knows how to distribute and run the offense- that skill has been seriously lacking on the wolves ever since they let Chauncey go.
At least it will be interesting tonight. Go wolves
June 25, 2009 at 10:14 AM
I wrote Jan a text saying: "Is Gardy THAT afraid of the bullpen?" Now, I realize Blackburn was cruising, but sometimes it makes sense to bring in a fresh arm...I mean, it was the 8th inning, not the 6th. I guess it's a reflection of how little confidence he has in our setup man, or lack thereof.
Rumor is that Favre is looking for a place in Bearpath. Sweet.
Read my SI last night...great article on Mauer. The gist of it is that he'll need some luck, but he could very conceivably hit .400 because of his great mechanics and swing, and that it would be the most improbable .400 ever given the physical demands of his position. It also talks about how down to earth he is, which leads to a quick discussion of his contract status (and mentions that both the Red Sox and the Yanks really need catchers - gulp). Apparently, Morneau has said he'll never speak to Mauer again if he leaves. Luckily, Mauer's quote was something like: "Aww shucks, I've never even thought of playing somewhere else." In our favor is that he has like a dozen family members in the stands every game.
At least the Wolves have made it interesting...I am actually curious to see what they do. I'd love to see them package one of the high picks and one of the lower picks (18 or 28) and grab one of the point guards (Rubio the Spaniard or Evans from Memphis). I'm sure the ghost of McHale will ensure they f it up.
June 25, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Yes, BG, but working against us is the fact that the Yankees could pay Mauer enough for him to move his entire extended family out East and still have that dozen family members at the ballpark every game. Also, at some point I have to think it will dawn on Mauer to say "Hmmm, I'm independent and can live wherever I want? Interesting..." Also, what happens if Morneau leaves (for the Angels)?
All of which is a way of making me think about how big a window we've got here, despite the team currently struggling around .500. After another three years, M&M will start declining and be either gone or tied up to even expensive contracts than they already are. Nathan will be gone or diminished. If Bill Smith wants to get a couple pieces to add to this team and make it a serious contender, like a favorite instead of a darkhorse, he needs to do it now. Maybe not before the deadline this year, but this offseason for sure.
Somehow I have no faith this will happen. I fear that in 2015 we'll be looking back and wondering why the core of two of the best players in franchise history never even made it to the ALCS.
Before the season I wouldn't have said this. But that was before the pitching disappointed.
LH, I think the missing piece for that 10-2 run is a healthy Denard Span. We'll never run off a bunch in a row with Gomez, Tolbert or Punto at the top of the order.
I'm almost interested in the Wolves draft now, too. 4 1st round picks? Is that a record? Who's left on the team at this point?
June 25, 2009 at 5:19 PM
By the way, I totally swear on a stack of bibles (just like Rick Sanford did!) that I posted the above before knowing that Span returned today and went 1-2 with 3 walks and scored 3 times.
My posting will be infrequent the next couple days. I'm off to go hike the Appalachian Trail.
June 25, 2009 at 6:15 PM
MCA - I looked at the time stamp on your first post mentioning Denard and thought "hmmmm" - good catch. How much did we miss that lead off patience at the plate?
Totally agree with everything you said about the Twins and the M&M boys (funny how Minny media was laughing about calling them that, look who is laughing now.) For some reason I continue to get SI (I haven't paid for it in years but they still send it to me) glad that I do as I look forward to the Mauer article. I just can't believe that he would leave the Land of Sky Blue Waters.
As for the Woofies - that team needs to be blown up and looks like that is starting to happen. Who knows. Of course we have 4 picks in one of the weakest drafts in years.
I'm taking the family truckster to Colorado for a 10 day trip. We'll see how this driving 14 hours with a kid and dog goes.
June 25, 2009 at 6:30 PM
And...the Wolves blow it again. The Rubio pick was high risk, but could be high reward. The problem is he was already predisposed to hate a cold, small market, so we threw gas on the flames by drafting a SECOND point guard right after him! I have to think we'll trade one of them...if not, we may have thrown away the #5 pick on a kid who can choose to stay in Spain for 2 more years.
Denard Span - thank you for returning to health!
June 26, 2009 at 1:33 PM
I don't know Kahn, but the only way his draft picks make sense is if he wanted he wanted Flynn for his point guard, and took Rubio only because he was the most valuable asset at the time- the thinking being he can get something valuable for teams that missed out on Rubio (especially if his buyout negotiations go well.) That is the only way this makes sense to me. They are not going to play in the same backcourt as Kahn claims, no f_en way.
His alternative, if they truly were enamored with Flynn, would have been to let Rubio fall to 7.. which the Wolves would then have gotten ridiculed for passing on Rubio.
I got to believe this is only step #1 of a plan, so I'm official waiting to pass judgement before I get to worked up about it.
June 26, 2009 at 6:38 PM
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