ashbury

I'm thinking a suggestion to start a rousing game of Guess The Spouse probably would lead only to hard feelings here. Never mind.

Even Bailey?

You're a smart man to say that.

Man, I was just about to say that DOZIER!!!!'s eyes looked like he was locked in. But he went to 0-2 on that PA and I chickened out.

Concession stand should start selling chestnuts roasting over an open fire. It would sell like hotcakes on a cold night. Well, so would hotcakes.

Yeah, Chief told me one time that watching TV got a lot less boring after the first transmitter was invented.

Not a problem at our house. Ashburydad would say "ashburyjohn, change it to CBS," and seconds later it would happen.

I don't remember that TV show.

All right, I guess I'll have to switch over and listen for a while.

Josh Bell is my least favorite major league player. (Because he hit that HR.)

http://s1.postimg.org/cba0mtsz3/jer.jpg 'And what's the deal with "how you doin'", eh?'

Uh, thank you? I think?

The seasons Bonds received 177, 198 and 232 walks begin to warp most definitions of "pitch to".

Please keep us posted right there on the adoption page.

Here's a sidelight that may also be interesting to those intrigued by baseball history. Nicknames for teams back then were much more loose than now. Teams didn't necessarily embrace them. In the newspaper you might see a visiting team referred to simply as "the Bostons" or "the Baltimores" or "the Pittsburghs". Oftentimes, writers for the hometown papers would apply nicknames that occurred to them based on current events (as DaveTheD describes here for the Pirates) or current players (e.g. the Cleveland Naps, and let's not even get into the Indians). Those coinages might instantly come into common usage for a time, if the readership found them entertaining, and they might disappear just as rapidly. The ones we remember now are the most successful. Cities like Brooklyn and Cleveland would sometimes chew through a dozen widely-used nicknames over the course of a few of decades independently of any change in franchise or ownership. By contrast the cities with multiple teams needed a way to distinguish them - so it was quite variable - some major league teams would be known at times as the Americans or the Nationals, either for this reason or to distinguish against some local minor league squad with pretensions. By contrast, teams like the Giants and Athletics were always known by their nickname. Eventually, each of the teams decided a nickname was marketable, and officially trademarked theirs. Anyway, those 1890 Alleghenys and 1891 Pirates probably were much more fluidly thought of than the typical baseball encyclopedia would lead you to believe. I doubt anyone then expected that the name Pirates would still be in use 100 years later and counting.

Definitely. Our rules of thumb generally are geared toward the vast mass of players in the middle. Barry Bonds and Bryce Harper are examples at one end of the spectrum far from the middle. In the other direction, if your typical pitcher is up to bat with no one on base, and the other team puts on an asinine shift, even the most ardent adversary of bunting would probably say go for it. None of these moot exceptions change the overall conclusions regarding the question.

A link to this article has been placed in the Adopt-A-Prospect page for Ben Rortvedt.

Excerpt from SD Buhr's pre-season Kernels Media Night Highlights: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/29186-article-kernels-media-night-highlights/

Yes. It's here. And there is still plenty of opportunity to take part.

The WPA stat kept by baseball-reference.com doesn't get down into the decimals, so by their computation it's approximately zero. But, if you look at the graph just above the play-by-play, you do see just the tiniest wiggle, when Machado singled Sisco over and our chances plummeted to 99%.

Trump now wants us out of Syria. Russia has always wanted us out of Syria. Perhaps it's correct to get out, and it represents Obama's likely worst foreign policy stain, but I would prefer that judgement be made by any conceivable other person than the one we have right now. I've long believed that to understand GOP governance, on any particular issue, just ask what rich people want. Not every move the Republicans make favors the rich; but just about never do they make a move that downright harms those interests, and an occasional big move comes along that is constructed to make life easier for the already-well off. A similar formulation seems clearly to apply regarding Trump and Russia. Not every move by Trump is with Russia in mind, but their interests do not seem opposed at any turn, and every once in a while a big strategic move on our part coincides with Russian preference. And it's not just Syria - Turkey moving in any slight way out of NATO's sphere of influence is congruent with another of their goals. We're going to look back in a few years and marvel at how quickly several decades of containment could unravel.

As Platoon said earlier, the numbers we are looking at represent BABIP. Since league-average BABIP is normally around .300, you have to sit up and take notice at what look like sustainable BABIPs above .500. Yes, you're trading away SLG for OBP. And not every bunt attempt is put in play - the plate appearance goes on, in that case, and if two strikes are reached then probably the batter swings away. Like any skill, it's hard, and the pitcher has at least a little recourse - four-seamers thrown for high inside strikes would be my first guess what to try*. But basically, moar bunting, plz! * Though, if I guess wrong, and a batter like Dozier isn't bunting, the ball could end up in the stands.

Piped-in crowd noise when necessary, I am convinced.

In the Twins Daily Conversation Starter Hall Of Fame, along with Bill Smith, David Ortiz, Nishi, and Joe Mauer's Contract.

I LOLed out loud, laughing audibly, watching the dugout (non-)reaction plus the way he figured it out.