Friday, May 16, 2008

Friday Notes

By TwinsWin83

*It’s Mid-May and it would seem that the window through which to watch the surprising first-place Twins has closed as quickly as it opened. And not to be a negative Ned or anything but it looks like it could be closing up for the year.

We all knew the teams many questions coming into this season had created an atmosphere of lowered expectations and thus set the bar much lower for this Twins squad then it has been in nearly a decade, and maybe that’s why it seemed to be such a shocker when May 12th rolled around and the Twins were all alone in first place. The assumed powers of the AL Central haven’t played anywhere near as well as the “experts” predicted they would, but that looks like it’s about to change.

Now, I’d like to see the young and upstart Twins hang in there as long as possible, (you never know what can happen if it enters late-August and early September and your team is still in striking range) but after seeing what Cleveland’s pitching staff has done over the past week I can’t help but wonder if the Indians are about ready to take off full steam ahead and leave the rest of the mediocre AL Central as a distant spec in their review mirror.

There is no way the Indians starting pitchers can continue the record-setting streak they have been on, but the fact remains that no one else in the division has a starting staff right now that is even comparable to Cleveland’s. People keep asking, “when is this team going to start hitting again?” and connect the dots by saying if they do start hitting like most assumed they would that they will run away with the division. That’s a fine theory but if their pitchers continue to throw like they are they won’t need to mash the ball to win games, and that’s what is scary.


*I don’t normally watch Deal or No Deal anymore but I have caught a bit of the last couple where they take the show on the road and host it in a far off nation where they have their own version of the game show. The catch is they not only use American money but they also bring American contestants along with. And to top it off, the amount of money they give away makes the money each of these countries gives to their contestants look like chump change.

Example? Sure. When they took the show to South Africa the most the game show there had ever given away was $38,000. The first offer to the American contestant was (after she knocked out the $1,000,000 case none-the-less) $73,000. And of course she scoffed at it, turned it down and moved on. Now I’m as proud to be an American as the next Uncle Sam down the street, but its crap like this that makes people from other countries dislike the “greedy American.”

*Is it even worth watching the NBA playoffs? Can’t they just let us know who the home team is in each game and we will just assume they won?


*Brandon Webb is good. It’s nice to see a righty workin’ it like that.


*Did anyone see the interview with a pissed off Billy Wagner yesterday? Hilarious. Not only did he rip the reporters talking to him but then lashed out at his teammates who continue to bail after losses to avoid the media questions, leaving them to the veterans like Wagner. Profanity-laden tirades are always great, but they are even better when they are warranted.

*What is so great about Don Cherry? Unless you know a bunch of Canadians like I sadly do, you underestimate just how much they worship this ridiculous character. I’ve seen enough of him to know his analyst skills are average at best. So why the cult following from an entire nation of hockey bums? Maybe it’s the goofy jackets or his crazy accent, I don’t know.

*The Pohlad’s company is looking to buy a new FM station and turn it into a 24-hour sports station. Do we really need another one?


*Soup, my wife and I are moving to South Dakota this August, you have any helpful advice for us? Like how to avoid wild coyote attacks?

7 comments:

soup said...

It was a really frustrating series against Toronto.

I would be happy if the Twins pulled out a scrappy .500 record. I think Cleveland is really good. They’ll go to the World Series.

That Deal or No Deal thing reminded me of comedian Daniel Tosh’s bit about the show Survivor:

"We wonder why other countries hate us. I love that we have a game show in our country called "Survivor". That’s a game in our country! Where you can win a million dollars for surviving on a place where people already live! Do you realize what kind of message that sends? Not a good one. 'Excuse me, I've been here for 60 years. May I have some bread? ''hahahaha, no! We're American's! This is a game!”

I guess it doesn’t look that funny written out…but he is a really funny dude.

I don’t know who Don Cherry is, but he looks like a gay Ron Gardenhire

TwinsWin83,
The only way to kill a coyote is to pierce its evil heart with an arrowhead that has been excavated from a Sioux Indian Burial Mound. Hopefully you are moving to Sioux Falls or one of the decent sized communities in relatively close proximity…or I guess the Black Hills wouldn’t be bad to live in. If I have like 9 free hours I’ll let you know all of the cool stuff you can do in the state with Great Faces and Great Places.

haasertime said...

Yeah, that series was really bad. Howard Sinker had a depressing note on his blog today that said, "we can no longer say that the Twins do the little things right" fuck.

I was going to write an overly - positive satirical blog about the hopes and dreams of twins fans following the red sox sweep, but it looks like those feelings are already gone.

brandon webb is great. He has been the only guy on my fantasy team the past two years who is a Sure Thing. but i wonder how he would do in the AL. I also have to thank Soup again for throwing out EDISON VOLQUEZ's name about a month ago. best acquisition ever. I need to buy soup a beer for that tip.

Daymonster said...

That series made me sad. Sad and angry.

I don't care if it makes America look bad, I love survivor.

I don't really like Deal or no deal, as there is no skill involved. I watched it for like 3 weeks straight and recorded what the expected value of the deal should have been and what the banks offer was.

The offer was always way to low for the expected value and then slowly climbed to just above the expected value and then back down. I'll have to look at my spreadsheet at home. But I found out the best deal was almost always the 6th round.

It still mattered what suitcases you picked to determine the amount but no matter what you did you should always take the deal at that point. Unless you are sure you have a mill in your suitcase.

Possible blog post about that if you're interested... nope? okay.

Anonymous said...

Don Cherry is one of the greatest people to walk the planet. He is popular because he not only knows hockey more then almost anyone one the planet but will also say how he actually feels which in todays society of big pussies is a rarity. I will leave you with a quote of his feelings on the invasion of all the soft non-checking and non-fighting euros of the 1990's.
"Europe it is a great place to visit but stop sending us hockey players."

I am sure that is lost on most people but for a hockey fan it is priceless.

TwinsWin83 said...

Hockey is a great game, but quit sending us Canadians.

Thanks for the advice Soup. We're moving to Mobridge so we're not lucky enough to be over on the eastern side of the state which is so wonderfully close to MN.

soup said...

Yeah Haas, EV has been really nice. I have him and Matt Kemp on both of my fantasy teams. But, I also had catcher JR Towles on both my teams as well. You can’t get ‘em all right.

The Reds are starting to make my prediction look less ridiculous. 6 in a row…still plenty of room on the wagon.

TwinsWin83, the Bridge City huh? If there are bars on the west side of the river they are in the Mountain Time Zone. That means they’re really open til 3am.

soup said...

anyone listing to the twins game right now? Dazzle is drunk