FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[Knightstalker]

BDB you crossed out the items that TDT really wanted to do in Vegas.

[finsleft]

So Morneau gets to 3rd and then is called out for interference? WTF?

[BDB]

So Morneau gets to 3rd and then is called out for interference? WTF?

WTF is right.    And then Kubel gets a single.

And now all hope rests with Punto. 

[tmerton]

According to today's WSJ, the preppy look is back!  That's right - just in time for his trip to LV, TDT can pull out his pink Izod and pop the collar.

[Kilted Rat]

TDT's Vegas Agenda may or may not include...

*Bernard Hopkins vs. Winky Wright fight Sat night at the Mandalay Bay (on HBO Pay per view)

*Celine Dion Concert

*A bender in the recliner at the Caesars Sportsbook

*4 hours of sleep

*Appearance at Minxx paying homage to Pac Man Jones "making it rain"

*Harry Potter campout at the Barnes and Noble on The Strip

*Lounging by the pool fighting off the dreaded Level 6 hangover (tough duty reference Finsleft pictorial)

*This trip sponsored in full by the Momma and Pappa TDT Trust fund "Fully supporting and changing our baby since 1982"

[janesvilleflash]

Some people are saying Verlander is cheating. This pic makes you wonder.
http://yanksfansoxfan.typepad.com/ysfs/files/IMGP4370.jpg

[TC]

Sosa this year: .243  14 HR's 64 RBI's 39 runs scored.

With our young studs and bullpen, how much better would we have been without those 2, starting Garza and Slowey/Baker all year and having a legitimate DH?

Sure the Twins have problems scoring runs, but Sosa isn't the solution.  So far this year he has an OBP of .297 and a K:BB ratio of 88:24 (with a K% of 29%!!!)--and he plays his home games in a park that has inflated scoring between 5 and 10 percent over the past 5 years.  Looking at OBP+SLG (which I'll agree is crude), he's about 10% below the average hitter in the AL and he has approximately the same defensive value as a potted plant.  All he's doing at this point is closing his eyes and swinging as hard as he can.

Granted, he's a better option than playing Jason Tyner at DH 14 times--which he has in common with pretty much every other ambulatory biped in this universe. 

I would, however, trade my couch and my lawn mower for Adam Dunn if the Reds are listening.

[OzJohnnie]

Hi, all.  Checking back in after an extended absence.   Today I'm writing from the Menara Citibank tower in Kuala Lumpur.  Anyone in the neighborhood?  I'm stuck here over the weekend and won't be getting back to the family in rainy Melbourne.

I checked the last dozen pages or so to see if anyone had posted where the Johnnies were ranked in the USA Today pre-season rankings that I have heard about, but obviously haven't seen.  So, anyone know?

[Kilted Rat]

Sosa this year: .243  14 HR's 64 RBI's 39 runs scored.

With our young studs and bullpen, how much better would we have been without those 2, starting Garza and Slowey/Baker all year and having a legitimate DH?

Sure the Twins have problems scoring runs, but Sosa isn't the solution.  So far this year he has an OBP of .297 and a K:BB ratio of 88:24 (with a K% of 29%!!!)--and he plays his home games in a park that has inflated scoring between 5 and 10 percent over the past 5 years.  Looking at OBP+SLG (which I'll agree is crude), he's about 10% below the average hitter in the AL and he has approximately the same defensive value as a potted plant.  All he's doing at this point is closing his eyes and swinging as hard as he can.

Granted, he's a better option than playing Jason Tyner at DH 14 times--which he has in common with pretty much every other ambulatory biped in this universe. 

I would, however, trade my couch and my lawn mower for Adam Dunn if the Reds are listening.

A batter 5-10% below the average AL hitter is still probably 10-15% better than our DH's have been this year.

On May 22nd, Morneau DH'd for the Twins and hit 2 HR. These were the first homeruns for the Twins out of the DH spot all season! 45 games into the season!
That is ridiculous and pathetic!That same game Sosa hit his 10th.


I love Cuddyer, but it is pathetic that our usual Clean-up hitter (when Mauer isn't injured) has 10 home runs over halfway through the season. Name me one other team who is trying to make the playoffs with a Clean-up hitter with 10 or fewer home runs.


We need a frickin' bat in our line-up and it Terry Ryan doesn't have the balls to go out and get one, maybe we should get a GM who does. Don't get me wrong, Ryan has done amazing things with a very limited payroll, but I feel like he's squandering away a potentially great team this year by not having a legitimate DH. Three 1-run losses in a row including one where Kubel watches 3 strikes with the bases loaded right after our "DH" pops out to the catcher.

[johnnie_esq]

From Shooter today:

Ex-Viking and former Gopher Carl Eller, Jeff Siemon of Stanford and Jim Christopherson of Concordia (Moorhead) will be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind.

[OzJohnnie]

I just finished listening to the Cats pummel the Bulldogs in Aussie Rules Football.  We're in the second half of the season and the tension is building.  It's a very exciting game.

Here's a great three and a half minute promotional video for anyone looking to see some excitement.  Set to Melbourne's own AC/DC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_hqosNvv5E

Watch for the most athletic goal of all time at 2:34 mark, counting up.

[Pat Coleman]

Three 1-run losses in a row including one where Kubel watches 3 strikes with the bases loaded right after our "DH" pops out to the catcher.

I turned off the TV after that sequence. Disgusting.

And remember, Cirillo is the BETTER choice at DH ahead of Tyner. Ghastly.

I sometimes wish Johan Santana weren't so irreplaceable on the mound. I would love to see him DH. The game where Redmond had to catch and we lost the DH, I was sure Johan would pinch-hit, but it's hard to justify the risk of him potentially getting hurt.

[TC]

A batter 5-10% below the average AL hitter is still probably 10-15% better than our DH's have been this year.

On May 22nd, Morneau DH'd for the Twins and hit 2 HR. These were the first homeruns for the Twins out of the DH spot all season! 45 games into the season!
That is ridiculous and pathetic!That same game Sosa hit his 10th.

All I'm saying is that just because he's better than what we have doesn't mean that he's someone we should want.  Remember that going into the season we had some mix of Ro White, Jeff Cirrillo, Jason Kubel and Lew Ford rotating through the DH spot. 

Granted White had major durability issues coming into the season, but the first half of last year was so uncharacteristic of his past performances that there were reasons to believe his second half was for real.

Jeff Cirrillo does mean, dirty, awful, hurtful things to lefthanded pitchers.  He owns a glove that allows him to stand at 3B.  He's a useful player.

People seem to forget that Kubel was often mentioned in the same breath as Mauer and Morneau when they were coming through the system.  He's a legit prospect.  Maybe the rapage of his knee a couple years ago means he'll never acheive his potential, but I'd still rather take my chances with him becoming useful than a 38-year old Sammy Sosa.

Finally, I would imagine that Lew Ford would be sacrificed for Sammy Sosa.  I would personally rather see Cirrillo at the plate than Sosa against lefties in any situation except for one that explicitly calls for a homerun.  In every other aspect of the game--defense, baserunning, not being a huge d-bag in the clubhouse--Ford is pretty easily better that Sosa.

Baseball may have been beddy, beddy good to Sammy, but I just don't see how he would have been beddy, beddy good for the Twins.  Over the offseason it looked like Piazza might sign a one-year, Frank-Thomas-in-'06-type contract.  He would have been a great gamble as a DH/3rd catcher.  Trot Nixon signed a pretty reasonable deal with Cleveland, is generally disrespectful towards pitchers who throw with their right arm, and had some ridiculous defensive numbers in RF when he was with the Red Sox.  I think there is a place for a guy like that on the team.  Heck, even Alex Romero--arguably the closest thing the Twins had to an ML-ready bat in their weak system--was discarded to open a spot for Long-Reliever Ramon Ortiz.  If you want a washed up, positionless righthanded hitter to close his eyes and swing really, really hard Matty LeCroy is hanging out in AAA.

[tmerton]

I checked the last dozen pages or so to see if anyone had posted where the Johnnies were ranked in the USA Today pre-season rankings that I have heard about, but obviously haven't seen.  So, anyone know?

The USA Today rankings are done by D3's own K-Mack, who posted them over on the Top 25 topic thread earlier this month:

1. Mount Union
2. Mary Hardin-Baylor
3. Wesley
4. St. John Fisher
5. UW-Whitewater
6. UW-La Crosse
7. St. John's
8. Central
9. Springfield
10. Wilkes
11. Hardin-Simmons
12. Baldwin-Wallace
13. Bethel
14. Wheaton
15. Rowan
16. Cortland State
17. Capital
18. Wash. & Jeff.
19. Christopher Newport
20. Linfield
21. North Central
22. Millsaps
23. Carnegie Mellon
24. Occidental
25. Franklin

[Pat Coleman]

The Twins are giving away offense at too many other spots -- 3b, ss -- in favor of defense. And that's understandable, but in those cases, DH needs to produce.