Forecasters say big quake likely to hit California in next 30 years.

As it turns out, yes, yes you can.

A short series with the Tigers starts off the week, two games in Detroit. After facing division leaders in their first four series of the season, the Twins now get the team with the worst record in baseball at 2-10. The Tigers are coming home after a road trip in which they dropped [...]

The IRS still has not heard from me this year.

Berlin, 1971. From German TV.

and 1978, Stadthalle Offenbach concert, with Jaco Pastorius on bass

Something you want to see? Call the request line.
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Frank Thomas passed Harmon Killebrew on Sunday and now holds the record for most career plate appearances without a sacrifice bunt.

*checks schedule*
*double-checks pitching matchup*
*triple-checks pitching matchup*
Well folks, it looks like it's time to drop the F-Bomb:

It is hard to overstate just how good Francisco Liriano was in 2006. It would be a miracle if he was that good this year. Thankfully, he can be worse than that and still be a productive member [...]

Boof "Less Is More?" Bonser vs. Brett Tomko
I don't have much to say today. Go Twins!

The season has started and things are rolling along here at the WGOM. I want to thank those of you who have been contributing articles here so far. ubelmann, of course, has been terrific so far. I also have enjoyed Big Mak's contributions, especially his Bell-Wah trip. That was [...]

I'm verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.

Hey now, we've blown through the first ten games of the 2008 schedule and things are looking up! The Twins played .500 ball through those first ten and are now (obviously) 5-5. As someone who has said before the season started that I'd be happy with 75 wins out of this club, I [...]

Still the greatest. 1973. This concludes Loud Week. Back to the gurl singers.

Livan "Staff Leader" Hernandez vs. Gil Meche
There's some chance that this game doesn't get played tonight, but it's 12:25 and I glanced at the radar, and in my expert opinion* we'll see at least some baseball played tonight.
*Everyone from Minnesota considers himself an expert on the weather to some degree, right?
Remembrance of things past:
15 IP, [...]

I was there, I can prove it! When I was a kid, you could buy meat anywhere! Eggs they had, real butter! Not this... crap!

I must say I find this to be a disappointing development.
I'm not really one to freak out about the Twins losing marginal players. It wasn't a big deal to me when the Twins lost J.D. Durbin (awful control makes him fringy) or Alex Romero* (not much power for a corner outfielder) or Levale Speigner [...]

For Paterno, No Contract After 2008. It doesn't mean he won't be the coach, but if he is, he'll coach without a contract.

I was directed to the link by the fellas over at City Pages.
Bugs & Cranks »Link

One fun thing about wine is that there are so many different varietals and labels from which to choose. When you toss in the fact that every vintage (growing season) will yield different wine characteristics than the years before, it results in an infinite number of tasting possibilities. A wonderful benefit to us, [...]

Since the Twins and Royals met last weekend, the Royals won their first home series of the season against the Yankees and remain in first place in the AL Central, a half game up on the White Sox. This is pretty unfamiliar territory for followers of the Royals, and they are starting to wonder, [...]

I have had at least some snow or ice on my yard continuously since some time in November.

[contributed by: Andrew]

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America

How much can they eat?

IP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

14.0
Livan Hernandez

13.0
Boof Bonser

12.0
Nick Blackburn

11.2
Scott Baker

8.2
Brian Bass

But what does the food taste like?

xFIP
Hungry, Hungry Hippo

3.15
Scott Baker

3.17
Nick Blackburn

3.74
Boof Bonser

4.07
Livan Hernandez

4.74
Brian Bass

Sure, Bass isn't a starter, but I figured I would make it a top 5. And I think it would be great if we could get him some more three-inning [...]

At the Penny Arcade, Rochester NY.

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Go ahead and do something else tonight, folks.

Monkeys, M&M's, and The Monty Hall Problem, all finally together in the same article.

If you're up for a good laugh, check it out.
Link

It's time for the Hacking Mass contest at Baseball Prospectus. Deadline for entry is Friday at midnight. We need players and pitchers that are going to (a) suck and (b) play a lot. Adam Everett is a candidate! Scour the Giants lineup!
Put your suggestions for the SBG Nation team here.

The Kubel fever is raging throughout Twins fans.

Does this imply that the Milky Way is really just a series of tubes?

Scott Baker vs. John Danks
Looks like it's going to be fairly chilly for a baseball game tonight in Chicago. So far this season, offense has been down across the board.
.255/.326/.399 -- AL, 2008
.270/.338/.423 -- AL, 2007
This happened last year to an extent, too:
.255/.327/.404 -- AL, 2007, April
.270/.338/.423 -- AL, 2007, Overall
The numbers [...]

Occupying Iraq Is Just Like Occupying ... Alabama?

Carl Eller arrested after fleeing, fighting with cop

Former truck racer Fike admits using heroin on race days.

This could be very useful and informative.
Link

John Donovan at SI.COM:
I'm going to forget the 0-for-3 Sunday against the Astros and give the Windup's first POTW award to Cubs' newcomer Kosuke Fukudome. (The check's in the mail, Fuk.)

Candace Parker leaving Tennessee women's basketball program a year early to enter the WNBA draft.

Is Favre setting himself up for a return?

In addition to it being opening week for the Twins and Major League Baseball, the minor league season also got underway last weekend. Given the beautiful weather here in Illinois (and southern Wisconsin), Mrs. Mak and I decided to cash in the first couple of tickets of our season ticket package with the Beloit [...]

Life is preventing me from making any meaningful contribution to this site.

Kyle writes: "Don't know how well this stuff will fly, especially with the WGOM's penchant for pretty vocals. On the other hand, there has been heavy music made in the last 20 years of value." Yeah, whatever... 2005.

Early and often.

Like having 2007 Punto hit second all year long, but with the ability to successfully lay down a sacrifice bunt.

Liriano to pitch tonight for Rochester.

Or not.

A real man would play through a strained muscle.

Carry on.

Live at Pinkpop, 1994. Rated "N' for a naughty word in the intro. And probably a few in the song too.

By now you've all likely heard that Detroit's off to a bit of a rocky start. Projected by some to be a roughly 90-91-win team this year, they've lost their first six games--all home games at that.
If we were to react as extremely as possible, we could proclaim that this is clearly evidence that [...]

There's nothing like a little sh!t-talk to get the competitive juices flowing. And with zooomx bringin' the heat lately, I had to respond. My aim here is to provide occasional (once every week or two), short reviews of notable beers. None of that "gulp and ignore" stuff around here.
Today's inaugural offering is the Pyramid Imperial [...]

Will the IOC ban Tylenol as a performance-enhancing drug?

Another myth proves to be over-blown. Less than meets the eye?

Nick Blackburn vs. Javier Vazquez
I was watching the White Sox beat down the Tigers last night, and a couple of things stuck out at me:
1) The White Sox should have a pretty good offense this year. Swisher and Quentin could be pretty big sticks and Orlando Cabrera is a lot better than whatever they [...]

[SBG] I would like to point out that at no time did we ever say that the Twins had an agreement with LOL or that the stadium would be named LOL Park or LOL Field. In fact, we explicitly stated that all of this was pure speculation on our part. I found it quite curious [...]

This story has been around for a while now out here, but suddenly bursts through to the Paper of Record. Good fences may make good neighbors, but not good treelines.
The part that got me, however, was how the complainant here had gradually lost full enjoyment of his yard (starting with enough sunshine to grow corn). [...]

They'll be playing this series in my backyard, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it to any of the games. Definitely not on Monday, but Wednesday or Thursday is a possibility. If I do go, of course I'll file a full report.
The White Sox come into this series hot [...]

Look for my On the Other Team feature tomorrow. Or the next day.

Loud Week rolls on

Matt Tolbert's off to a good start, but really, that's all that it is: a start. Before the season, the following projections were made for Tolbert:
.256/.317/.358 -- PECOTA
.256/.308/.370 -- CHONE
.256/.306/.366 -- ZiPS
Which is really a remarkable amount of agreement for three completely different projection systems. Thus far, Tolbert has had 13 at-bats and [...]

It's SBG here, pinch hitting for ubelmann.
The Twins look to sweep the Royals this afternoon, with Boof Bonser taking on Brett Tomko. I'm going to be otherwise engaged today, so ubes, if you want to add on to this post, go ahead.

What else can you say?
Link

Some recent loud stuff for the kids in the Nation. Kicking off Loud Week. This should help blow off any residual fairy dust from Rainbow Week.

GilgaMeche vs. Livan
Kubel, Mauer, and Gomez are currently tied for the team lead in extra-base hits with two apiece.
We can get a rough idea of a player's stolen base opportunities by looking at his singles plus walks. Gomez has had 7 singles and 1 walk thus far this season, and has 4 SB in [...]

Best case scenario is probably a Kubel/Span, Monroe/Kubel platoon. Gomez should probably get a day off every other week or so, and Span can play a more legit CF than any non-Gomez option. (link)

More Kubel!

In honor of one of the great film characters of all-time, Atticus Finch. Happy Birthday, Gregory Peck. From French TV, 1993.

John Bale vs. Scott Baker
John Bale is left-handed and seems to be at least a bit of a groundball pitcher. That same combination allowed Joe Saunders to dominate a mostly right-handed Twins lineup (which I was basically in favor of) last Wednesday. I think the problem is less that Gardy put out a [...]

I asked the question in the gamelog on Tuesday about the Twins particularly struggling against groundball pitchers, which was very ably answered by ubelmann, saying that it seemed there were enough batters in the lineup who had better numbers against groundball pitchers that there shouldn't be too much of an effect. That was the [...]

We're looking up at the Royals, friends.

You’d have thought, based on the reaction that Torii Hunter has received from the home crowds, the fawning from a local media that carried his water for years, and the relentless marketing on behalf of the Twins (yep, opening day is a sellout, give him the Gold Glove the next night), that Mr. Hunter was [...]

In the comment section of my last wine review I wrote "I have found that sometimes it is the environment and company in which I drink wine that influences my satisfaction more than the characteristics of wine itself."
This may be the primary reason I have come to love Steltzner Pinotage from Napa Valley [...]

Live in [Montreal, stoopid youtubers] Toronto, 1969, with some hack guitarist.

Something you want to see? Call the request line.
Did you miss a video or want to watch one again from a while back? Click here for the SBG Music Archive.

Or at least not very fan-friendly. I bet Tippi Hedron hated the Red Sox, too.

Favre's agent shoots down report of comeback. I think the probability that Favre plays again in the NFL is > 0.

Test shows that high school writers are worse than jr. high writers. More evidence for just getting rid of compulsory secondary education

Roughly the five most talented pitchers in the Twins organization as determined by me off the top of my head (in no particular order):
Joe Nathan -- 33 years old