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LaBombo

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Everything posted by LaBombo

  1. A baseball team called the Highlanders. A negative run in a sport that will forever be divided over the value of 'stats'. What is there to think about, for heaven's sake? That's like debating the artistic merit of a George Lucas/Peter Jackson mashup where Frodo, Gandalf, Chewie, and Sail Barge Princess Leia blow up the Death Star by shooting the One Ring down the exhaust port. Let go. Enjoy.
  2. Absolutely. Correct. http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/its-science-anchorman-150x150.gif Bonus points for the use of the words "dude" and "California" in the same sentence. Kidding aside, there is truth in this point. As a Minnesotan who has lived in CA, that's spot on. That's a state full of people who can nonchalantly clip their toenails during a driveby or a 6.5 quake, but are reduced to shivering, helpless husks when the temperature dives below 50.
  3. Restraint. Well done.
  4. My bad. Thanks for the roadside repair. One of my bucket list items is to chase fires in Fort Myers until I get to meet RGB. Like many artists, he was not fully appreciated until after his time.
  5. So the list of AAA skippers who succeeded in the majors consists of a guy who might go to the Hall of Fame and a guy who was on track for it until New York happened to him. Okey dokey, then... Also, inadvertently a nice update on the team control 'debate', as if there were one. Other than Babe Hicks and Baby Jesus, you have to go back to the last millennium to find a Twins minor leaguer starting the season in the bigs. Aaron Hicks will probably have a nice career in the majors, and I really hope he does. By all accounts I've heard he's a good guy and a hard worker. And anyone wringing their hands over 14 plate appearances should find a thread exclusively devoted to wins, saves, batting average and RBI's. That said, anointing Hicksie the opening day center fielder last year, when the Twins opted not to pursue an alternative, was the stupidest move they made for the 2013 season. And yes, despite Cy Correia's debut gem, his contract still makes my eyes bleed, but Hicks... well, what's the opposite of "Free [slama]"? Good God. They should have let the kid finish getting ready in triple A. It's this whole other league, where the purpose is to learn(!), not win meaningless games. Our 90 loss season will wait.
  6. Yes. Rich Becker. No google required. And not just legit, but very good. The end. Also, you've got it backward. Hicksie's a natural right-hander who doesn't hit as well left-handed, aka the majority of his at bats. No matter, that ship has sailed, he's apparently destined to make most of his plate appearances with the lesser, off-hand skill set.
  7. The pitching has been a pleasant surprise so far, but it's waaaaaay too early to get excited about any of them, just like it's too early to worry about Hicks or Parm.
  8. Pelfsie needs a dp to last another inning.
  9. Yup. With the Snorg t-shirts, Star Wars action figure collection, and wedgie scars to prove it...
  10. And Coke gets his butt kicked by two of the lightest-hitting middle infielders in baseball. But platoon splits are still for cybermetric dweebs who got a wedgie every day in school...
  11. It's Coke. Apparently the closer by committee has only one committee member. The good news for the Twins is that he's coughed up an .830 OPS to righties over the past 3 years, and we've got two coming up.
  12. Good luck with that whole Phil Coke closer idea, Leyland. "Pay no attention to the 200 point OPS platoon split behind the curtain!!!"
  13. Now he just needs to add the home run to his three true outcomes arsenal.
  14. How dare the kid from AA not get a clutch hit!!! J/k.
  15. Please tell me the team's hottest hitter didn't just get pinch hit for...
  16. Plouffe draws a walk. Can an unscheduled appearance by Halley's Comet be far behind?
  17. Ahh. Thanks. Just glad the yellow dots didn't get injured in a collision. And thanks for going with the phonetic spelling on Florrie, it's really helping me Get to Know 'im.
  18. What happened on the shallow single in the first? The white dot landed between the two yellow dots on gamecast, but that doesn't tell me much. Also, which reliever is in? Gamecast says Sunshine Band is still in, but that can't be right.
  19. +1,000. When the arguments against having a double A guy start the season in triple A started including things like 'It will hurt attendance' and 'He'll pout and never sign an extension because they messed with his service time', it was obvious that reason had given way to rationalization in the discussion about Hicks.
  20. I liked Ryan as a GM when he left. After 4 years of Smith and, like you said, the non-Correia moves he's made since coming back, I reeally like Ryan.
  21. If Smith isn't a "baseball person", he probably shouldn't have accepted a position as the general manager of a professional baseball franchise. Either Smith gets credit for great moves like signing Sano AND blame for disasters like the Santana and Garza/Bartlett trades and the Nishi fiasco, or he gets neither. Personally, I have no idea how anyone can ignore the importance of a GM's role in determining the course of a franchise, so I'm going with the former. Smith took over a perennial contender with strong, young core and a huge trading chip in his back pocket, and left the Twins with some fine low minors hitting prospects, zero pitching from top to bottom, two playoff sweeps by the Yankees, and the start of a string of 90+ loss seasons. In other words, there's very little to distinguish what Smith did to the Twins from what a mole from a division rival would do to quietly go about sabotaging the Twins. And he did it while being aided by most of the same "baseball people" that Ryan utilized.
  22. Yeah, that sounds right. To be honest, I had forgotten that Boggs is even considered an option in center. Either choice would be ugly, but at least there's a still a chance for Benson to turn into a useful player, and that's probably only going to happen the way you said.
  23. Thanks much for posting, and very good analysis. Completely agree that it looks like two different swings. Couple of other things to add. The second pitch looks to me like a fastball that runs in on his hands, while the first pitch looks almost like an offspeed pitch away that hangs just a bit... an easier pitch to drive. And the second swing also appears to have a bit more uppercut and bat speed than the first, in addition to the open finish you mentioned. It sure looks to me that the ball goes to left mostly due to the velocity and location of a good pitch, not Mauer's approach.
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