Good morning and welcome to the ongoing feature "What are You Hearing," where members of SBG Nation set the agenda of discussion by submitting stories and commentary. If you have a story that you'd like to submit, e-mail me at the address listed on the right. Now, let's get to it.
ubelmann writes: [...]
The long wait is almost over. That's right -- baseball on Monday, for real.
Thanks to E-6 for this video. E-6 writes:
Trying to bridge a gap between the classic rockers and the youngsters: The Hold Steady. In this video, Dave may announce that the boys are from Brooklyn, but one listen to the lyrics tells you that these are Minny boys through and through. So do any of [...]
Stupid website! It's time for some cats.
Jags is a ferocious killer. Don't you forget it!
Jags and Theo were wrestling. They seem to really enjoy playing together.
Elly loves to play fetch with the play mouse. She retrieves it just like a dog.
Elly and Theo in the baby's room.
That's it. I am [...]
1. I was reading Rob Neyer's blog last night and I came across his entry on the decisions to send Garza down to AAA. Rob writes:
In terms of wins and losses in the immediate future, this decision means nothing. The Twins don't even need a fifth starter until April [...]
The Twins Opening Day game is now to be televised nationwide on ESPN. I guess maybe they figure people are interested in a game featuring last year's AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner.
It sounds like WFTC/FSN will still be carrying the game in Minnesota, but we out-of-towners also get to see Opening Day [...]
I think high expectations for myself have kept me from getting this done before the season starts. I have all the mugshots for 2006 and 2007, and various photos from previous years, I'm just gonna go with what I have so far. With games starting on Monday, I want to give everyone a [...]
I'm pretty tired today, so drinking coffee might not help much.
1. Luis Rodriguez - 2B
2. Nick Punto - 3B
3. Chris Heintz - C
4. Michael Cuddyer - RF
5. Jeff Cirillo - 1B
6. Jason Tyner - CF
7. Rondell White - LF
8. Mike Redmond - DH
9. Jason Bartlett - SS
SP - Carlos Silva
It's tough to work the whole bench in there when you have two catchers on the [...]
Way down to Mexico.
Jimi sinks his teeth into this one.
Inspired by ubelmann, fueled by coffee, I struck out this morning to scout our West Coast nemesis, the Oakland A's.
Statistically, the A's were mediocre in 2006. Their AL ranks included 9th in runs, 13th in BA, 7th in OBP, 13th in SLG, 11th in OPS, 4th in ERA, 6th in OOPS, 8th in WHIP. Somehow [...]
Like a cooling salve, today's email brought me great relief and comfort.
Yes, my friends at B-P have announced the rules for the 2007 Hacking Mass Contest, and the deadline for entry is April 6, 2007 at midnight, PDT. The warmth, the soothing relief.
Yes, I'm going to sponsor the SBG Nation team. I mentioned [...]
1. Carlos Silva is keeping Matt Garza at AAA (and really, Garza had no shot whatsoever to make the big club, that's evident). Meanwhile in Chicago, Mark Prior is starting the season in the minors, having been beaten out of the fifth spot in the Cubs rotation by Wade Miller. Wow. [...]
Every spring, barely anything happens in camp, and everything gets overanalyzed. Most of the time people wind up on the right side of the issue, but things tend to get blown out of proportion. Since I'm stationed out here in Seattle, I thought I'd offer some comments on how things have been going [...]
The Nation is deaf.
Grap a cup and talk it up.
Twins send down Garza, plug Silva into the rotation.
ubelmann makes the case that this isn't the end of the world, and I don't think it's as asinine as the installation of the Cubanistas, mainly because I think the Twins will have a short leash for Mr. Silva and they haven't stretched out Garza. But, [...]
1. One of the things that has been particularly galling to me about the hypocrisy of the steroid story in major league baseball (and believe me, there's a lot of hypocrisy here) is the breathless worry about all the damage that is done to the kids. Congress wastes time investigating baseball [...]
SBG writes: My apologies to Jeff A. I forgot that this entry was in the queue.
Jeff A. writes: This has nothing to do with anything, but how can you not be intrigued by a headline that says “Woman Stopped Wearing Girdle of Live Crocodiles”?
"This time of year, I think the content of my pitching is more important than the results on paper. I'm not happy with the content of my pitching today." -- Daisuke Matsuzaka (through his interpreter) after five hitless, scoreless innings against the Cincinnati Reds
Mike Venafro has allowed zero earned runs over 10 innings pitched [...]
Hump day at SBG Nation. It's the last hump day before Opening Day.
A favorite of mine back in college. At least, I liked the Boston, MA album
Wolves blow a 25 point lead and lose. At home. Against the Sonics. Without Ray Allen.
...when considering the importance of setting the rotation out of Spring Training.
Pitchers with 10 or more games started
Year
>=10 GS
# per team
# of Twins
2006
182
6.1
6
2005
176
5.9
5
2004
176
5.9
5
2003
168
5.6
6
2002
185
6.2
7
Average
177.4
5.9
5.8
Pitchers with 5 or more games started
Year
>= 5 GS
#/team
# of Twins
2006
245
8.2
8
2005
217
7.2
6
2004
228
7.6
6
2003
232
7.7
6
2002
240
8.0
7
Average
232.4
7.7
6.6
Having 6-8 pitchers play a role in the rotation at some point during the season is pretty commonplace, and certainly doesn't preclude a [...]
bjhess writes: In case anyone missed Winona State's miraculous loss in the DII Championship.
twayn writes: LIFE magazine, once the country's premier weekly periodical, will cease publication (it is currently published as a weekend newspaper supplement) after its April 20th issue, according to Time, Inc. The publication will live on, however, in an online form that [...]
I'm going down to the Mayo Clinic for a check up because I got a case of Rochester Ass. I hope it's not serious.
I'm going down to rosedale.
ubelmann writes: Over at TrueHoop (an independent NBA blog that's been picked up by espn.com), there was an interesting exercise in what the Timberwolves could get for Kevin Garnett. They asked some bloggers from other teams what they would be willing to give up for KG, and here were the two notable offers (in [...]
I wonder what kind of treatment I'd get from the FOTF in the Twins clubhouse.
Eventually this band sucked like few others have.
1. I haven't been writing for a while and honestly, I've started some articles and have been distracted. I'm not sure exactly what I want to write these days. I am not interested in writing a bunch of projections about the Twins. Our friends the Nicks have done a nice [...]
More house hunting this weekend. Oh, and I know you have never even once read the WGOM, but Happy Birthday Mom.
It's St. Paddy's Day again this weekend. Thanks to brianS who sent this to me (too late to bump the lineup for last week).
Today is the first day of the NCAA National Hockey Tournament, and the Minnesota Golden Gophers once again enter the tournament as a #1 seed against the champion of the Atlantic Hockey division. Last year, they were regrettably upset by Holy Cross, and the possibility certainly exists that Air Force can beat them this [...]
Wow, a weekend away and an office NCAA pool to run, and I just got thrown out of my groove in doing these. Easing my way back, I chose the catchers, because there's two.
Joe Mauer was drafted in 2001 and got his 2002 mugshot. I was surprised to see him in front of [...]
I'm reading a new book about baseball and cheating written by Derek Zumsteg from the USS Mariner which I hope to be talking about soon here. (When I finish it.) In the spirit of the book, can you list famous moments of cheating in Twins history?
The Beatles in their famous "rooftop concert".
Joe Mauer diagnosed with leg injury, a so-called "stress reaction", a pre-cursor to a stress fracture.
One of Lucy's friends stopped by last night. She's allergic to cats. Jags pretty much wrapped himself around her.
brianS writes: Future baseball stars and current gustatory stars at Raley Field!
"New salads, sandwiches join Raley Field lineup"
"More than the sod will be new at Raley Field when the Sacramento River Cats entertain their parent club, the Oakland A's, in the park's season-opener March 29.
"A Philly cheesesteak sandwich, a Sicilian po' boy sandwich, a couple [...]
Jeff A. writes: As someone who is fascinated by the stories of players who only make the majors for a short time, I was touched by this story about Gomer Hodge.
I'm taking Lucy in for her checkup this morning. We're getting closer.
[What follows is a rant. I'd like to pass it off as some sort of deep analysis, but really, it's a rant. I don't think I've ever quite done this rant properly, though.]
It's Spring Training. I want to know how well the team's going to do this year, you want to know [...]
ZiPS takes on the Twins' rotation
ZiPS is Dan Szymborski's projection system. As projection systems go, it's pretty good, and did better than PECOTA at projecting pitchers last year. And it's free which means we can sit around and have a discussion without worrying about how much we should or shouldn't be saying about [...]
AMR writes: The Dugout: Spring Training preview of the Twins:
Jeff A writes: Tributes to three longtime baseball men, recently deceased: Marty Martinez, John Vukovich, and Bowie Kuhn.
CarterHayes writes: Decided I'll probably be keeping up on Friars news this season, per your admonition of SBG Nation to follow other teams. They're [...]
I'm busy. The floor is yours. Grab a (good) cup of coffee and talk it over.
David Gilmour(!) with the Tap.
These go to 11.
Jayson Stark writes a column on the Twins and his focus is on the impending end of an era.
Here's a sample:
Hunter has seen every single Twins mainstay who once surrounded him call in the moving vans. Jacque Jones. David Ortiz. Brad Radke. Corey Koskie. A.J. Pierzynski. Gone. All of them.
Of course, Ortiz [...]
It's Monday and time to get back to the regular grind.
From The Late Show with David Letterman, August 2006. And, look, Dave holds up an LP jacket!
If I Should Fall from Grace with God
Turkish Song of the Damned, St. Patrick's Day 1988
Congratulations, CarterHayes, you are gonna get a copy of the 1987 World Series videos! Send me your contact information via e-mail and I'll get those out to you.
Luck o' the Irish to you.
ubelmann writes: In a notes column from Mariners Spring Training, USSM's
Dave Cameron notes:
The Royals sent their F team to Peoria for todays games. Ross Gload hit third. At least I got to see Billy Butler swing the bat, but man, that was a bad squad they put on the field. The game itself was pretty [...]
Happy St. Patrick's Day
You've aren't hearing anything today.
I'm hearing that there's a basketball tournament going on and that I'm not posting any new content today. So, talk basketball. Go Duke! And don't come back until next year!
Remember, Big Deal II registration ends at noon. I'm a little swamped, so no results until tomorrow. Sorry!
I was looking for Van Morrison for St. Patrick's Day. But, then, there was John Lee Hooker. And so, as they say in the biz -- we go with that.
I was referred to a fun site today: howmanyofme.com. Type in a first name and a last name, and it will give you a very rough idea of how many people have that first name, last name, and the combination of both names together. They also have a rather arbitrary list of famous [...]
I was caught up in some stuff and missed posting this yesterday and this morning. Also, no Notes from the Ditch today. Life intervenes in my production of Half-Baked Crap.
For yesterday:
algonad writes: Apparently Torii Hunter's contract is up at the end of the year. I hadn't heard.
algonad writes: Commentary on the stadium [...]
Now left with the players that I've paid lots of attention to, guys who have been on the 25-man roster for at least a big chunk of last year. I'm going to try to slow down and find as many mugshots from before 2006 as I can. Today: The bullpen.
(Note: I'm not [...]
Beware the Ides of March. I've got a couple of days worth of What are You Hearing sitting there that I'll dump out around noon.
This video shows an old Donovan in an acoustic version, but this is one of my favorite oldies.
The old stuff had gone stale, so I brewed up a new batch.
I had thought about organizing the Twins by photo type, (big change, no change, etc.), but it was hard remembering who fit into what category and who's picture had already been posted. That's why I'm organizing them the way I am. I started with the players lowest on the totem pole beacuse they'll [...]
Tonight some of my friends and I took advantage of the Seattle Supersonics' super student rush ticket deal. For $15/seat we got ~$100/seat tickets in the lower level. Sometimes it's good when the hometown team ain't all that good.
It was Pistons-Sonics, and I really didn't care who won, but it was cheap, and [...]
In honor of Van Halen's induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, here are two live clips from 1979.
Bottoms Up!
Dance The Night Away
From the late '70s through the mid-'80s, VH were THE band in my neighborhood. Not liking them would have been heresy. In fact, the first tape I owned was Van [...]
1. Welcome to another edition of Notes from the Ditch.
2. The Twins won their Grapefruit League game yesterday, beating up on the D-Train and the Florida Marlins, 9-1. I’m optimistic that the Twins will be okay offensively – which is to say I believe that they’ll be an [...]
Today's list isn't necessarily only free agents, as some of these guys may have come in drafts (Machado) or trades. Some players (like Ortiz and Cirillo) got signed early enough so that their 2006 mugshots got photoshopped into Twins unis. The rest did not. I already covered Matthew LeCroy and Sidney Ponson.
Ramon [...]
Both E-6 and Moss pointed to the Gammons blog entry on Torii Hunter. The article is not accessible to those who don't have an Insider subscription. Basically, Gammons was talking about how Hunter had a hard life as a youth (member of Crips... really?) and that he was mentored by David Ortiz and [...]
Chugging early morning coffee while Lucy sleeps.
In honor of R.E.M.'s induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, here are two clips of the band's network television debut, on Late Night with David Letterman, in October 1983.
Radio Free Europe
Dave interviews Peter Buck & Mike Mills, followed by a song "too new to be named"--later titled "So. Central Rain."
I am at home today and the 1987 World Championship Videos came in! I am stoked!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who entered the contest. I took the comments, removed duplicates and my own comments (and Rhu_ru's as he asked me to -- he's already ordered the vids). Then I [...]
1. Short post today. I was busy and didn't have time last night. But a few items of interest.
2. DJ frightwig has a couple of real fun clips on tap for the midnight special. Vintage stuff... I really enjoyed watching it (it's scheduled already, so I can see it). [...]
Okay, it's time for me to start looking at mugshots of the 2007 Twins. We'll start with the remaining players who got their first picture this year (or at least didn't have one last year). I'm not particularly familiar with many of these players. Some may be rising stars in the organization [...]
A little spring was in the air this weekend. And BabySBG is less than a month away from her arrival.