Damn. Got home from dinner and checked the box score. 107-87 loss to Orlando. KG ended up with 29 points, 11 boards, 4 assists.
When I left, it was 70-67. The Wolves were outscored 37-20 the rest of the way. Crap.
KG and Wally combined for 53 of the 87 points. [...]

I talked about how many outs Batista made relative to Cuddyer, but I didn't explain what "OUTS" meant (mainly because I didn't read the glossary at B-R.com).
Outs, as defined there, equals AB - H + CS + GIDP + SF + SH. In 2003, Batista had 670 PAs and made 512 outs. In 2004, Batista [...]

Halftime of the Wolves game. Wolves down eight. In true couch potato form, I fell asleep on the couch before the game started and missed the first quarter. Lucy and I are going to osteria i nonni for dinner at eight tonight so I'll miss the end of the game. The [...]

All those in favor of extending Glenn Mason's contract after next year right now, stand up and holla.

The Tony Batista signing has brought out some interesting comments throughout the Twins blogosphere.
Over at Twinkie Town, the masses have been engaging in a long running discussion about the value of Mr. Batista, given his ability to hit home runs and make a huge number of outs. One regular poster even wrote this:
Batista is significantly [...]

Our friend AMR states that he'd take Artest and Raffi Palmeiro (for the Twins). I don't know where Raffi'd play, but I would not be adverse to signing him on principle.
So, who would you rather take: Artest or Palmeiro?

What Would you rather have?

Artest for the Wolves

Palmeiro for the Twins

Heavens to Top Jimmy, a sharp stick [...]

The Wolves are interested. How do you feel about him playing in Minnesota? He's making $6.5 million, a pretty low number, so any trade would either not include Wally Szczerbiak, or would be a multi-player deal. Time is running out for KG. Do you do this deal and make the run [...]

Sooner or later, it's going to happen. KG is going to go into decline.
Although he's not yet 30, KG has already logged a tremendous number of minutes in the NBA -- over 30,000. He's sixth in minutes played among active players, trailing only Gary Payton, Clifford Robinson, Dikembe Mutombo, Shaquille O'Neal, and P.J. Brown (by [...]

Hello, SBG fans, and welcome to the top 10 Twins moments of the year. This list is a compilation of the most memorable moments of 2005. Not all of the moments are good, in fact, a lot of the moments are not so good. After all, this was a season of disappointment.
I compiled this list [...]

Jeff Reardon, 50, was charged with armed robbery after walking into a jewelry store in Palm Beach Gardens, FL on Monday with a note saying he had a gun and the store was being robbed. He fled with $170 in cash and was arrested a short time later.
Twins fans will remember that it was Reardon [...]

The shorthanded Minmesota T-Wolves dropped their sixth game of the last seven to the previously struggling Phoenix Suns last night. KG filled up the stat sheet and Wally lead the team with 27 points, but right now, this team isn't very good. I heard this morning that the Wolves are one three [...]

The Vikings lost to the Baltimore Ravens 30-23 on Christmas night, and were officially eliminated from the playoffs. I'm not surprised.
I had figured that the Vikings would end up 9-7 and out of the playoffs. With Chicago looming in the final week, 8-8 is not out of the realm of possibility. I [...]

I want to wish all my readers who celebrate Christmas a Merry Christmas. To everyone else, I wish Happy Holidays.
I have enjoyed writing to you all this year. Sometimes, I've been cranky, sometimes I've said some stupid things. Sometimes, my writing is half-baked. But, I have tried to express to you [...]

I've started a new blog called Founded on Dissent. It is intended to be a blog about my political philosophies. Check it out when you have a minute!

From the AP:
The Royals agreed to a $1 million, one-year contract with pitcher Joe Mays, a deal that allows the right-hander to make an additional $1 million in performance bonuses based on starts.

Hello, SBG fans, and Happy Festivus!
It's hard to follow the last post. I urge you to read it and think about what I had to say. Life is short, make the most of it. But be careful, you can lose everything so fast.
As I posted yesterday, I made a contribution to the Human Fund in [...]

Five years ago on December 22nd, I slept in. It was the last day of the work year at Bobcat, and I had one day of vacation left, so I stayed home. The day before hadn't been much of a day, either. I had finished up a couple of year end things, including filling out [...]

He's a Twin. A one-year, $3.25 million deal with incentives that could turn into 2 years and $8.25 million. Here are his career numbers. The difference between this signing and the Batista signing is that this guy is a proven major league hitter, not just a hacktastic home run hitter. His career line? .289/.343/.472/.815. He [...]

In the spirit of the Holidays, I want you to know that I have made a substantial donation in the name of my readers to the Human Fund. The Human Fund. Money for People.

I admit it. I'm a bandwagon fan of sorts.
Oh sure, I cheer for the Twins and I like it when they win. It entertains me. When they lose, or more accurately, when they play poorly I don't like it. I may be critical of the organization and so forth. That said, the Twins are my [...]

From the Strib:
The Twins decided to keep their three arbitration-eligible players -- Kyle Lohse, Nick Punto and Cuddyer -- even though each is in line for a hefty raise.
Punto is the definition of a replacement level player. In fact, he's not even that good. With an equivalent average of .235 (league average is .260) and [...]

So, Jacque ends up in Chicago. He'll do his losing for the Cubs, which is a whole lot better than losing for the Royals. Actually, they are my preseason pick to win the World Series (based solely on the theory that long winless streaks have been snapped in each of the last two years). I [...]

Mike Tice actually said this in the media regarding the people in charge of showing replays on the Metrodome screen:
We've tried to make it so simple to give them instruction: 'Look, if you think it's going to help us, show it. If you think it's going to hurt us, don't show it.' That's kind of [...]

In classic SBG style, I jumped the gun on the Jones arbitration deal last week. Now, though, he's declined arbitration, ostensibly to go and start losing in KC.
Now what?
We've heard about Frank Thomas and we've heard about Mike Piazza. Both of these guys are risks because of injury, but at the right price, [...]

Lucy and I went to Green Mill tonight for some pizza. Shortly after we got the pizza, our waitress came by and asked "How does the pizza taste?" I responded that I've been trying to figure that out for years.
Later on, the manager came by and asked how the pizza was tasting, and Lucy responded, [...]

Have you ever seen anyone who has wished misfortune on people who are trying to achieve immortality more than that group? In my opinion, their crowing minimizes their achievement.
And just how great was the Dolphins' achievement? They played 14 games in the regular season. A grand total of two of those teams had a winning [...]

I always liked Chrissie Hynde. I never actually bought any of her albums, but I love her voice. And no song did it for me like the song "Brass in Pocket." She sang that song so expressively, and if you've ever seen the video, well, let's just say that it gives the song a certain [...]

I've been referring to DORP in a few of my posts and I wanted to write a post that explains it more clearly and its usefulness in evaluating a team's rebound prowess. DORP stands for Differential Offensive Rebounding Percentage. Simply put, it is the difference between a team's Offensive Rebounding Percentage (ORP) and its Opponent's [...]

UPDATE: Oops! More half-baked crap from your half-baked crap leader. Jones hasn't officially declined arbitration. I had assumed that he did, he merely stated that would. Thus, I've probably misinterpreted Ryan's comments. If he does decline arbitration officially, then great. Hopefully the Twins don't go after him. [...]

The Twins signed Tony Batista to play third base. Thank God we won't have to endure another season of Mike Cuddyer. Batista played in Japan last year. Boy, that would be terrible.
Batista does have 214 career home runs and hit career high 41 homeruns in 1999. But, look at this. His career numbers: [...]

The Wolves lost again tonight, 90-88.
It was not for a lack of effort.
First of all, on the boards. The Wolves had an ORP of 24.5%, the Spurs had an ORP of 15.4%. Thus the Wolves had a DORP of 9.1%, which is a tremendous effort. San Antonio has the 7th best DORP [...]

The Strib reports on Eddie Griffin's seven minutes:
But going without forward Eddie Griffin for most of the game was strictly a decision by coach Dwane Casey. Griffin had established himself as a key member of the team's top rotation of seven or eight players but faced the Kings for less than seven minutes. The night [...]

I remember when everyone had their shorts in a bunch when Randy Moss bumped a traffic cop with his car.
I would expect a column from Top Jimmy tomorrow calling for the release or trade of Daunte Culpepper, Fred Smoot, Bryant McKinnie, and Moe Williams. I mean, he didn't want Koren Robinson and danced on the [...]

I am not sure if Dwane Casey is one of the billions who reads this site.
On the one hand, I wrote a piece earlier this week advocating more minutes for Eddie Griffin. So, Griffin plays a grand total of seven minutes. I was either asleep or wishing that I was dead in the first half, [...]

I wanted to write a bunch of stuff last night, but yesterday afternoon, I started to get "flu-like" symptoms. I went home and crawled into bed at 6 PM. I had the game on, but wasn't watching too carefully, because I slept through most of it. I was in bed for 13 [...]

Sometimes the TV feed from the Timberwolves game is not in sync with the radio feed. Tonight was one of those nights. The radio was about seven seconds ahead of the TV, meaning that I had to listen to the TV broadcast. Truly this Timberwolves television broadcast team, specifically Tom Hannemann, is as bad as [...]

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to seeing A.I. tonight. He's getting 34.4 points a game on 47.6 eff % and he's dishing out eight assists a game. This is not a good team, and the Wolves should be favored to win, but A.I. should provide a good test for [...]

Stan Van Gundy resigns as coach of the Heat, citing "personal reasons." Will The Slick One step in next? Possibly. I'd like to hear what Shaq thinks about all this. (Update: It is The Slick One.)
Ron Artest says he wants a trade. You would have thought he'd have shut up and played this year. [...]

Kevin Garnett took twenty-two shots Saturday night in the Wolves' win over the Lakers. That was the first game this season in which he took twenty or more shots. I celebrate that event, because KG has shown himself to be almost incapable of taking bad shots. Again last night, the best team athlete the state's [...]

As I thought about the little house that I used to live in, it made me appreciate the loss that others feel when they lose their homes by fire, flood, Katrina. After all, I didn't even own this home anymore, and I hadn't lived there in over four years.
In fact, I lived there for a [...]

My mother called me at work today.
She never does that, so I suspected that something was up. There was.
When I lived in SBGville I lived in a little house that I bought from my grandfather. It was a cozy little house -- suitable for a bachelor. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and [...]

It was 25 years ago today when Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon.
I remember where I was when I heard the news. It was the next morning, and I was making my bed in my dorm room. I was a sophomore in high school (I went to a boarding school) and I turned on my [...]

I'm just feeling too lousy to formulate half-baked crap today. Hope you are feeling better than me.

Back on Thanksgiving Day, Reusse named Bob Naegle as his turkey of the year. I posted a short blurb here approving his choice and I got feedback from people who agreed and disagreed.
So, I ask you. Are you happy with the product the Wild are putting on the ice? Are you willing to be patient [...]

I tried to watch the T-Wolves game last night, but I couldn't stay awake. I have the beginnings of a bad cold, and I just didn't have any energy at all. I woke up when it was over (another win) and crawled into bed.
In four days, the Wolves have beaten the Lakers, Kings, and Jazz [...]

Somebody named Marcus Thompson II of the Contra Costa (CA) Times writes the biggest piece of crap in history.
The second blockbuster trade in two years is expected to go down, probably
sometime in February before the trading deadline.
Former MVP and perennial All-Star forward Kevin Garnett may be on his way out of Minnesota less than two [...]

The Yanks are losing money? I don't know if I believe it, but if it is true, what deliciousness that is. Five years without a title, and now hemorrhaging cash.
I don't know about you, but I like the idea of the Yankees having to think about cutting payroll.

I woke up this morning thinking about KG's great performance in LA on Friday night and I had a theory percolating in my head. I was thinking about how much fresher KG has looked in the fourth quarter and how great it was to see him getting position, catching the ball, making his moves, [...]

Congress is going to investigate the BCS system in college football. I think that they should have a playoff, but, you know, I really don't give a damn.
With all of the problems in this country I find it laughable that this has come up. Congress apparently has an unstoppable ability to avoid important [...]

I was watching the Wolves game tonight and I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up in the fourth quarter with the Wolves down but surging. Down the stretch I saw what I have been looking for all along.
KG in the low post. The ball comes into him every time. [...]

The Twins traded Travis Bower and Scott Tyler for switch hitter Luis Castillo. Castillo hit .301/.391/.374/.765 last year. His high OBP makes him a nice top of the lineup guy, but he's got zero power (20 HRs in 4347 career at bats). Even though he's a switch hitter, look at this split vs. lefties: .423/.467/.649/1.116. [...]

Last night, I met up with my old college roommate, Doug Sr. I simultaneously had two roommates named Doug -- Senior and Junior. (I didn't come up with that one.)
Doug comes to the cities every year at the beginning of Dec. for some farmer convention. He calls me and we have a [...]

Is there a major award more of a beauty contest than the Heisman trophy? I'm listening to ESPN radio tonight and the announcers are bemoaning the fact that Matt Leinert is a 100-1 underdog to win, even though he's "done nothing to lose the award." What the hell kind of nonsense is that? Nothing to [...]

So, here I am, sitting at work on Wednesday, securing intellectual property rights for my grateful clients when I got the following e-mail from some wacko named Moss:
Moss is wondering how long it will take SBG to bring up two issues:
1) number of Kobe shots in last game
2) the speculation of Jeter moving to CF, [...]

Happy Birthday, Butch.