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LaBombo

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Everything posted by LaBombo

  1. LaBombo
    The inappropriately named softball can sting as much as a baseball. Junior high gym softball with aluminum bats on the tiny elementary kickball diamonds was like jai alai in a phone booth for the infielder and whichever sorry soul ended up as the pitcher.
  2. LaBombo
    My favorite, and most vivid, 6th grade little league memory... Knocked down, not hit, by faceball from big mean kid while leading off in the first. Grounded the next pitch sharply back to the mound, which it took a very bad hop off of. Hit him where I would have guided the ball to with a radio control. Got a double out of it and he left the game not long after, feigning (or exaggerating) a limp. So good luck with your delayed cathartic rematch. Dare him throw it over the plate and swing away!
  3. LaBombo
    Yeah. Baling out on Hardy afterward didn't help the deal either. Whether it was a different approach by the Milwaukee coaching staff or just that Gomez is one of those guys who takes a while longer to get there, he scarcely resembles the hitter he was with the Twins.
  4. LaBombo
    He looks more casual in his LinkedIn photo... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WO_KJuMl6Bk/TxE2K5sLMfI/AAAAAAAAAwU/3dO2C-9z8UU/s320/haight-hippie.jpg
  5. LaBombo
    Made me tear hair out sometimes when he was a Twin, but now I kinda miss the li'l crazy man... could just pinch his cheek while he seeks out a target for his homicidal rage. http://sports.cbsimg.net/images//visual/whatshot/Carlos-Gomez-Brewers-Braves-crazy-eyes.gif
  6. LaBombo
    All of them posted xFIPs below 3.7, or about three quarters of a run better than the average of the rotation the Twins cobbled together. And Lincecum has more innings pitched than any Twins starter. There's a pretty good chance those three will be better again next year than anything the Twins have now. And it's hard to see how a two year deal for one of those guys would be reckless, with a ton of money coming off the books and the Ryan not even spending to budget before it does.
  7. LaBombo
    At first Ryan's assertion that $21 million in payroll is "huge" seemed wrong, but when you think about it, he's right. Willingham was signed to replace Cuddyer, who will make $31.5 million over the same three years that Willingham's contract runs. Doumit was signed to replace Kubel's bat. He'll make $10 million over his 3 year deal, compared to Kubel's 22.5. In other words, Ryan replaced two guys who cost $54 million with two who cost $31 million. So despite the increase in revenue from the new stadium, payroll was reduced by $23 million over the three years of Willingham's "huge" contract just on those two swaps alone. So my bad, Mr. Ryan, $21 million really is a "huge" amount. Unfortunately, you didn't add 21 million huge dollars of Willingham, you subtracted 23 million even more huge dollars worth of ballplayers.
  8. LaBombo
    Two of the best pitching prospects in the organization were acquired by trading away useful, non-All Star players. Had the team cashed in Willingham in the offseason as well, that number would likely be three.
  9. LaBombo
    Agree about KC, but not Detroit. Nobody in their rotation is over 30, and of their core position players, only Hunter is over 30.
  10. LaBombo
    Totally fine with BD becoming a starter again, as long as it's for the team they trade him to when they're out of the race in May.
  11. LaBombo
    So he's now semi-officially the only non-expansion manager besides TK in the past thirty years to return for another year after three consecutive 90 loss seasons. Put another way, since Gardenhire, to put it hyper-politely, lacks TK's postseason success, the front office is admitting something approximating this: It took what was a contending core at the end of the past decade, and added tens of millions to the available payroll budget with new stadium revenue. With those resources, they built a major league roster so dreadfully bad that the last manager to get a free pass for so many losses was managing a historically awful expansion franchise. That's Ryan's admission with the resigning of Gardenhire. The Twins' MLB talent level the past three seasons has stood at the level of a really, really bad expansion team.
  12. LaBombo
    So he's now semi-officially the only non-expansion manager besides TK in the past thirty years to return for another year after three consecutive 90 loss seasons. Put another way, since Gardenhire, to put it hyper-politely, lacks TK's postseason success, the front office is admitting something approximating this: It took what was a contending core at the end of the past decade, and added tens of millions to the available payroll budget with new stadium revenue. With those resources, they built a major league roster so dreadfully bad that the last manager to get a free pass for so many losses was managing a historically awful expansion franchise. That's Ryan's admission with the resigning of Gardenhire. The Twins' MLB talent level the past three seasons has stood at the level of a really, really bad expansion team.
  13. LaBombo
    Even if they promise that none of them is Son of Sal?
  14. LaBombo
    Of the 7 AL first basemen with 25 home runs or more, 2 (Davis and Carter) were acquired in minor trades, and 2 (Moss and Encarnacion) were initially cheap free agents. Trumbo was drafted in the 18th round. Only Dunn and Fielder cost their teams a ton of money (which the Twins will have anyway, and none of the 7 cost their team significant talent in a trade. Pinto has been a pleasant surprise so far, but seems pretty safe to assume that a good GM who's serious about contending ought to be able to find a first baseman who can outhit Pinto sometime between now and when the team becomes competitive again.
  15. LaBombo
    Twins relievers have thrown one out short of 560 innings this year. That's almost 80 more than either the AL or MLB average, and exactly the result you'd expect from having the worst rotation in baseball. Had Correia not exceeded expectations, even 13 relievers might not have been enough. So as if the awful rotation just costing a ton of defensive runs isn't enough, it's also costing a few offensive ones as well, taking away a bench spot that could have been a pinch hitter, pinch runner, or, with different manager, an effective platoon instead of a mediocre everyday player. It also didn't help bench flexibility very much to have three catchers at times, and continually unavailable injured players at others.
  16. LaBombo
    But in a good way. aka not being the other guys....
  17. LaBombo
    The board concerns about pitching before the season were often met with... what's the politically correct phrase... determined speculation?...that the offense would be better, above average, etc. Bummer.
  18. LaBombo
    Monsieur LaPadite... http://www.stfrancis.edu/content/historyinthemovies/images/inglorious%20basterds/inglourious_basterds_christoph-waltz.jpg
  19. LaBombo
    Over 550 innings pitched, easily the most in the AL. Only two others over 500: Toronto and... wait for it... Houston. At least last year KC had the decency to keep us out of the number one spot
  20. LaBombo
    Anybody else lose power during the tremor when Prince Fielder landed after his four inch vertical leap for that popup?
  21. LaBombo
    Took a chance that there was something more interesting going on here that there was something going on here than in the actual Twins game, which I was trying to resist my car-accident-gawker impulse to watch during this bitter end phase. Skipped to the last page and this was the first thing I saw. Figured that short of Verlander having struck out every Twins batter through six, this would be more interesting. Just checked and it turns out he has only 11 K's through 5, so he's probably not even going to make it to 20. So now I'm going to have to make popcorn and read the whole thread from the beginning. Not a romance novel fan, but if there's even a small chance there's a star-crossed encounter involving apple crisp...
  22. LaBombo
    Oakland's piranha stats relative to AL in 2013: BsR (baserunning): 7th, and almost exactly net average. Stolen bases: 4th lowest. Sacrifice hits: 2nd lowest, 1 ahead of last place CHW. Bunt hits: Tied (with the Twins!) for 5th lowest. Oakland's non-ranha stats relative to AL in 2013: Home runs: 3rd highest, trailing Toronto by only 2. Extra base hits: 3rd highest Isolated power: 3rd highest So yeah, I guess the A's could be considered piranhas, but a very specific kind... http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/tigerfish.jpg
  23. LaBombo
    Thank you. Yes, together, my friend, you and I and the carp shall spread the word. It's time for a change. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YCCi09bcYhA/TZy72hYNQiI/AAAAAAAAB0E/emHEp03R6O8/s1600/Siamese+giant+carp+46+kg+-+pic+1.jpg
  24. LaBombo
    The technology to preserve people with freezing has been around for a while now, but the thawing and reactivation tech is still a work in progress. Like the idea, though. If cryo preservation worked, Mauer should have been on ice before the All Star break three years running now. Not sure how Mrs. Joe would feel about that though.
  25. LaBombo
    Other than trying to get Gardenhire his 1000th win, I can't possibly imagine what would be gained by letting Mauer play. Any season ticket holder for whom Mauer's season being over is the final straw after a season like this must have a closet full of Mauer jerseys at home.
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