I've got a season preview-ish piece up at The Hardball Times. Doom and gloom abound.
Thanks to Will Young for recommending me for this gig. With so many high quality Twins bloggers out there, I was happy to be selected. I probably owe it to The Hardball Times for as much as I [...]

Spring Training Strikeout leaders, Twins:
18 -- Kevin Slowey
12 -- Joe "Contract Push" Nathan
8 -- The Neshek Button
8 -- Brian Bass
7 -- Phillip Humber
7 -- Dennys Reyes
The Buffet Table (# of innings eaten):
15.2 -- Kevin Slowey
13.0 -- Livan Hernandez
12.0 -- Phillip Humber
11.0 -- Glen Perkins
10.1 -- Brian Bass
Before spring training even started, Kevin Slowey was poised [...]

Increasingly, I find 'The Big Dance' to be a rather apt term for the men's NCAA basketball tournament. You see, dances aren't really about fair long-term evaluations of your most suitable mate. They are about, well, dancing. And spiking the punch. And wondering who spiked the punch. And rebelling against [...]

Even I'm willing to concede that when the Twins score more runs than their opponent that they've won the game.

From LEN3 today:
The Twins have been very pleased with the catch-and-throw ability of Drew Butera, who was part of the Luis Castillo trade.
Butera has no shot of making the club (which is why I’m writing this as a minor league note) but could be an emergency option during the season. He finished last season at [...]

Twins strikeout leaders, spring 2008:
13 -- Kevin Slowey
8 -- Pat Neshek
7 -- Joe Nathan
6 -- Brian Bass
6 -- Glen Perkins
6 -- Dennys Reyes
Catching controversy update:
.455/.600/1.000 -- Eli Whiteside
.368/.480/.684 -- Joe Mauer
First base controversy update:
.455/.500/.818 -- Randy Ruiz
.212/.325/.333 -- Justin Morneau

It looks like John Lackey won't be pitching on opening day. Kelvim Escobar hasn't begun throwing yet, either, so he won't be able to make the opening day start, either. So it looks like the Angels will probably be throwing Weaver, Garland, Saunders, and Impostor Santana at the Twins in the first series.
Who [...]

In honor of the day. Padre, you'll want to pass on this one.
The Commitments: Da Fookin Short Version

...in various cities/venues. (Inspired by this article.) As someone who enjoys baseball and classical music, but also enjoys the benefits of a student budget, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get the best tickets for what I'm willing to pay. Usually that means something that's not the cheapest ticket, [...]

Bummer.  Chris Basak strikes out to end the 3-1 Spring Training loss to the Orioles...

Hidden beneath a frivolous story about Santana borrowing/stealing bats from Joe Mauer is this thought from our fearless leader:
Knuckler perhaps? He may be gone, but R.A. Dickey hasn't been forgotten. Gardenhire said the 33-year-old knuckleballer, lost to Seattle in the Rule 5 draft last December, remains on his mind as a possibility for the Twins' [...]

In the grand scheme of things, this won't really make the Twins any worse this season. But it won't make them better, and it kind of pisses me off.
(Also, there's a whole rant here about how Livan has been just as bad as Slowey this spring (if not worse), but he's in line for [...]

As I have commented, my professional education obligations prevent me from doing as much on the MPs as I did last year, but I'll be looking at this year's mugshots, so I might as well post them.
Here are the players that aren't with the team this year (and are with another team). [...]

Isn't there a better use of the internet than this ESPN cr@p?

Starting 2B/SS combinations used so far this spring (including the rained out game):
5 -- Punto/Everett
3 -- Harris/Casilla
2 -- Harris/Tolbert
1 -- Casilla/Harris
1 -- Casilla/Everett
1 -- Harris/Basak
0 -- Harris/Everett
Consider yourself warned.

Twins leaders in strikeouts, spring 2008:
8 - Kevin "No Out Pitch" Slowey
6 - Brian Bass
5 - Philip Humber
4 - Baker, Neshek, Reyes, Perkins
Note: Statisics current as of the 6th inning of today's game. In the tradition of spring training statistics, I have hand-picked this statistic to support my point regardless of the biases that [...]

"Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word"

Short interview and "All of Me"

Toyota wins NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

Even though I'm still reeling from having my mind blown upon reading the solution to one of the great mysteries of our time, I will still soldier on to provide you with some interesting/amusing/inane links.
So, if you don't have plans to go try out for the team and experience spring training up close, follow along [...]

Red Sox's Latest MVP: EMC's Traveling Data Center
When the Boston Red Sox travel to Japan later this month to play Japanese teams in Tokyo, the team will carry the usual assortment of players' favorite bats and uniforms. Also making the trip will be the team's modern coveted talisman -- its EMC traveling data center.
"Information [...]

...but until that day, I feel compelled to point this out:

Apparently the force is strong with this one.

Twins leaders in at-bats:
19 - Justin Morneau
19 - Jason Pridie
18 - Carlos Gomez
18 - Michael Cuddyer
Twins leaders in innings pitched:
6.0 - Glen Perkins
5.0 - Casey Daigle
5.0 - Livan Hernandez
1 - Number of Twins who played a full game today
Note: On the 6th of July last year, Jason Bartlett got 12 at-bats and Matt Garza threw [...]

I couldn't resist this one last dose.

For E-6, a couple favorites from the classic album, American Beauty.

"Ripple"
Live at Radio City Music Hall, Halloween 1980.

"Friend of the Devil"
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman on The Late Show with David Letterman, 1992.

Apparently overreaction is not limited to members of the BBWAA.

But it could have been written by a dozen or more BBWAA members.

...but seriously? Buscher or Jones over Kubel? That would be nearly as stupid as letting David Ortiz leave over a few hundred thousand dollars.

I was looking at the lineups for the game today (on ESPN), and man are they depressing. Considering how good they are right now:
Posada < Mauer (though Posada is still damned good)
Giambi < Morneau (on defense mainly, as PECOTA gives Giambi the edge in EQA)
Cano >> Harris
Jeter >>> Tolbert
Betemit > Buscher
Damon >> Jones
Abreu > [...]

Jim Souhan is reporting that Ron Gardenhire doesn't want expectations to slip this season:
"I didn't like [finishing below .500]," Gardenhire said. "It bugged me. A lot. In all honesty, I probably put too much stock in that, if putting too much stock in winning is possible.
"I remember telling [coach] Jerry White when we first got [...]

The best Rolling Stones song never written nor performed by Mick n' Keef. From I Am Trying to Break Your Heart... and Jay Bennett's last performance with the band, if memory serves. EDIT: On closer inspection, I don't see Jay Bennett on stage, so it must have come in the film after Tweedy fired him.
My [...]

Mmmm...baseball.
- Memo to the Red Sox: your uniforms do not match your caps or your helmets. You're spending approximately eleventy billion dollars in payroll this year, maybe splurge a bit and buy uniforms that look professional.
- I was impressed by Gomez' throw in the 5th inning. He got a little too excited in [...]

First pitch of the year, folks -- hope springs eternal!

My organization here is a bit funny. I wanted to start by explaining how I get Harris as 20 runs better than Punto on offense over 150 games, and how I get Punto as 20 runs better than Harris on defense over 150 games, but it turned out to be perhaps the most unreadable [...]

It's still too early to do this, because we still have a month for players to get injured, but I'm impatient.
Position Players
C - Mauer
1B - Morneau
Neither of those positions are in question provided that those guys stay healthy.
2B - Harris/Punto
These two guys are complementary players and I really hope that Gardy is willing to mix [...]

Live at Ronnie Scott's, 1966. Will edit to add/change later.

The Academy Awards are tonight, so here's an Oscar themed Preview in Blog.

From Later with Jools Holland, 2006.
I chose this because it's an excellent live performance, but the video for the single is also really easy on the eyes.

A brief summary of recent events:
1) Carl Crawford tells St. Petersburg Times reporters that he's glad Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes are gone because they caused distractions and made it difficult for him to focus on playing baseball:
"I just feel like it's going to be a little more peaceful this year," Crawford said. "I [...]

I was looking through some of baseball-reference.com's minor league numbers today and noticed that Twins' farmhand Jonathan Goncalves hit .238/.351/.291 in CF for the DSL Twins. I thought, hmmm, that's odd, a Twins' farmhand who walks a lot. (Yes, this is a broad and possibly unfair statement, whatever.)
Then I looked at how the [...]

Newport Jazz Festival, 1958. From the film, Jazz on a Summer's Day.
Her sense of time, phrasing and modulation, and the way she works the microphone, is on fantastic display here. A classic performance, and the audience shots are about as priceless.

From the ESPN story titled "Twins not deflated despite the losses of Hunter and Santana" -
In the span of less than two months, the Twins lost arguably their best player and inarguably their best leader when Torii Hunter bolted via free agency and signed with the Los Angeles Angels...
I'll take that argument.

Radiohead Jazz.

Live in Vienna, sometime in the recent past.

Baseball Prospectus came out this weekend with depth charts of all 30 MLB teams, tied together with Nate Silver's PECOTA forecasts, to give projected standings for 2008 (subscription required.) And for the Twins, it's ugly. Not "Britney Spears really let herself go" ugly, but more like "Al Roker really let himself go" ugly. [...]

At this point, we've all been without baseball for so long, that even the not-always-highest-quality baseball with the not-always-highest-quality players of spring training seems like the greatest thing that we've seen since we got hooked on some kind of anime series.

I know practice makes perfect, but I can't believe coach is making us [...]

Not unexpectedly, the Twins decided to get a veteran hurler to ingest innings.
Disturbing trend #1:
4.18 xFIP -- 2004
4.56 xFIP -- 2005
5.38 xFIP -- 2006
5.62 xFIP -- 2007
Which is mainly driven by disturbing trend #2:
6.8 K/G -- 2004
5.3 K/G -- 2005
5.2 K/G -- 2006
3.8 K/G -- 2007
He used to be a groundball pitcher, but his GB% [...]

Performing a variant on the old folk song, "Frankie and Johnnie." The start of the video implies that she's covering the 1928 record by Mississippi John Hurt. In any case, the lyrics here refer to the man as "Albert," which indicates, using the Wikipedia as a guide, that her lyrical source (Mississippi John or otherwise) [...]

The Twins Territory blog has recently posted an interview with Denard Span where he is nothing if not chock full of confidence.
Denard Span felt he was ready to step up and play centerfield last season for the Twins. That viewpoint has not changed with the New Year, and Span says he is still ready [...]

When it comes down to it, I think I watch sports to see athletes pushing themselves to the limit, trying to be as good as they possibly can. Things I'm looking for today:
- A good game out of Randy Moss
- A good game out of Laurence Maroney
- The Giants to push the Patriots just [...]

My intent here is not to be ultra-precise (how could you be when forecasting six years into the future?) but to get a rough estimate on where this trade leaves the Twins as compared to the option of keeping Santana on what would amount to a 5-year/$107M extension, for a 6-year/$120M contract. While I [...]

I'm holding off on an overall analysis of the Santana trade until I find out more about the players involved and until Johan Santana actually puts on a Mets cap. But that means I'm busy finding out more about the players involved.
Speed
Carlos Gomez is the lone position player that the Twins are receiving in [...]

In this life, one thing counts / In the bank, large amounts
It looks like Santana's gone. That sucks, huh?
Well, the last two steps between Santana and the Big Apple are a physical, which won't be an issue, and the contract negotiation window. I hope Santana gets every last penny possible.
The Mets are getting [...]

From "Impacto Deportivo:
No fears; Francisco Liriano used his entire repertoire without any hassle
The Dominican pitcher Francisco Liriano knows how important it is for the Minnesota Twins in 2008.
That is why we work