biggentleben
-
Posts
4,657 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
3
Content Type
Profiles
Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis
Minnesota Twins Videos
2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings
2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors
Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources
2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
The Minnesota Twins Players Project
2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
Forums
Blogs
Events
Store
Downloads
Gallery
Everything posted by biggentleben
-
Government Shutdown and the Affordable Care Act
biggentleben replied to glunn's topic in The Sports Bar
You may want to check your sources. The site crashed due to incredibly high demand of users on the first day multiple times. Our IT director discussed it with us as many of our clients will need to utilize the site, so we are to get familiar with it. I had no problem getting on at an odd hour of the day and navigating the system, so if you're considering that an ordeal, eBay must really blow your mind! -
They countered that with drastic jumps from Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson, solid production from Brian McCann, and streaky spurts from guys like Evan Gattis and Jordan Schafer. That said, Heyward's injury was really his downfall. He had an excellent second half once he was healthy (.305/.397/.534).
-
Exactly this. They had an excellent offense all season. In the end, they won this year based on their pitching and Andrelton Simmons. Here's an interesting tid bit: anyone believe Andrelton Simmons receives an NL MVP vote? He just finished with the highest positive DRS (defensive runs saved) score in the history of the statistic.
-
Government Shutdown and the Affordable Care Act
biggentleben replied to glunn's topic in The Sports Bar
If we were to break down Christianity to Christ, then the faith is incredibly failing in its care for one another. Christ's greatest command was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. His second was to love your neighbor as yourself. An Acts 2 church, the ORIGINAL Christian church would be seen as a cult now for its reliance on the members to use all possessions for the betterment of the church and the ministry of Christ. The average church member, according to the last Gallop poll I've read, gives to ALL charities (not just their church, but all charities) at a 1.8% giving rate. The average non-church member gives at a 1.9% rate. In general, our society emphasizes personal wealth over societal concerns, expecting the taxes taken from our paychecks to take care of the poor and needy, and Christians and non-Christians subscribe to this at the same level. I agree if we were living life as Christ's hands and feet, this wouldn't be needed because we would all be helping our poor and widows, but that's not the world that we live in, and seeing that, we need to work with the government system we have. -
Government Shutdown and the Affordable Care Act
biggentleben replied to glunn's topic in The Sports Bar
I will say that I was offered a job last week that I found out would be a personal insurance policy through ACA for health insurance rather than the group insurance I currently have. With my eye history and current weight (take my BP, cholesterol, etc. and I'm rated very well, but the weight number is off of certain scales and is a red flag), my individual policy would have cost more than the per-month stipend they were offering. I ended up turning down the job (though I utilized it to get a promotion and raise at the current job, so it worked very well), but ACA certainly in the short-term had a drastic effect on my perception of that job. -
Been a dry number of months here. Sucks that Clancy breaks that up as he's my favorite writer, even if his newer stuff went to the far end on the realistic scale.
-
You had two very high BABIP guys with interesting backstories going after the batting title, on opposite ends of their careers. It was a fun race in the end. Here's something interesting, though... NL batting leaders with BABIP 1. Cuddyer .334 (.382) 2. Johnson .321 (.394) 3. Freeman .319 (.371) 4. Molina .319 (.338) 5. Werth .318 (.358) 6. Carpenter .318 (.359) 7. McCutchen .317 (.353) 8. Craig .315 (.368) 9. Tulowitzki .312 (.334) 10. Votto .305 (.360) Tulo and Yadi were the only ones who were under .350. Usually it takes the BABIP gods smiling down to pull off a batting title, and it was very evident this season.
-
Results matter, sure, but the Gophers needed a repair "good guy" coach after Brewster screwed so many good young men in his coaching tenure. I'm not sure if Kill is the guy to take the team to a Big Ten championship, but neither was Glen Mason, and he took 7 of his 10 Gopher teams to bowl games. The problem is that they went from Mason to Brewster instead of seeking out a premium coach. Until the Gophers are willing to spend the money for an elite-level coach, the Mason era is as good as the Gophers can hope for. The biggest thing that improved with Kill is the assistants he has on board. One of the things that was easy to see about Mason was that a number of his assistants found their way to bigger and better things (see David Gibbs). Time will tell with Kill in that regard, but everything I've heard from former players that are still around the program is that there is a similar feel to the intensity of practice that Mason once had. He's not there yet in on field results, and he may never get there, but my expectations with the program aren't heavy.
-
I'd be interested to know how much of those "evidence" games you watched because you really did a poor job of analyzing them other than highlight-based analysis. There's always more to the story than simply meets the eye.
-
I have never said that I think it's the BEST thing to be done, but it's how it's done. A lot of baseball isn't logical - why do you pay for a player's decline, but he gets screwed in his productive seasons, for instance - but when you start biting that "this team is being meanie-heads", then looking around and realizing what really happened and how it relates to how that particular industry operates is required.
-
Good for Cuddy!
-
People seem to think that McCann got away scot-free. He was fined (as was Freeman), not a huge amount, but he was fined, while Gomez and Reed Johnson were suspended for one game. A game that they get paid for even though they can't play. Also, bringing back up the Fernandez thing over and over is just getting silly as Fernandez has said he was way in the wrong, and the verbage used by McCann as Fernandez crossed the plate would be more fitting in a proper English cup of tea than in trash talk familiar to modern sports. Recalling the Harper incident is also silly. 95% of pitchers in baseball will issue a brush back pitch when a batter walks that long into a home run trot. That's just the way it's always been in the game. The pitch was not a head-hunting pitch, rather one at his side, like you're taught to do in little league if you're doing a retaliation HBP. I'm not saying the Braves are innocent in all this by any means, but to state that there's some sort of reputation is hogwash. Nearly every team in baseball does exactly this, and some take it the step further of throwing high and inside. To the Braves' credit, the two times I can recall the high and tight pitch being thrown, Fredi Gonzalez has immediately removed the pitcher. In one instance, the reliever didn't pitch for a number of days following the up and in pitch.
-
When did he provoke him? Ever? Maholm has gone inside on Gomez because Gomez launches toward the ball from a soft-throwing lefty. The best way to get him off a lesser fastball is to make sure he's not comfortable lunging. Gomez has been hit by Maholm a couple of times in the last couple of seasons, never above the waist, and typically on a sweeping curve. June was a looping fastball that hit him in an awkward spot, so Gomez held onto it. How is that Maholm's provokation?
-
LOL, really? I hope you're trolling here. McCann was giving ground and reported that he intended to back his way to the plate and let Gomez score, but not until he got his words in. Gomez has come out to admit he was in the wrong on the incident.
-
I think what's dumb is that next April, a Braves pitcher will plunk Gomez for this incident that happened 6 months previous.
-
Yeah, not a fan of the whole "justice" thing, but this had nothing to do with that. Gomez came up pissed that Maholm had the nerve to throw a 70 mph curve that hit his lower leg in June. He hit a home run and screamed at Maholm from the plate before taking off. Then he kept hollering as he ran, which is what engaged Freeman at first and eventually McCann at home. Really there was no baseball justice enforced here, just Carlos Gomez being a doofus.
-
He is CarGo
-
Gomez did give this: [video=youtube;h06SbTP3Bzs]
-
The whole fracas got weird as far as who was ejected and who wasn't, I'll give you that. Freddie Freeman was ejected for what appeared to be an accidental bump of Aramis Ramirez while in the pile, but Reed Johnson, who got in the best punch on the whole thing, was left in the game. That part didn't make sense at all. That said, no one intentionally threw a pitch. Gomez was bringing a HBP from June to the plate against Maholm and started yelling at him as soon as he hit the ball. This wasn't typical "jawing" that Gomez does.
-
McCann has had two excellent moments at the plate recently in home run situations. He and Jose Fernandez had good words (verified by both) talking about respecting the game after Fernandez's home run in his final start. Tonight was standing up to a guy who'd done nothing but jaw all series and then went way overboard from the second the ball left his bat.
-
Carlos Gonzalez had nothing to do with this game...
-
Really?! You obviously watched the highlight and not the game. Gomez has been jawing all series and was jawing at Maholm as he finally left home plate. That's what started the comments from Braves players around the bases. Freddie Freeman is arguably the calmest, friendliest player in the entire major leagues, so for him to get riled up, you know something was going on.
-
Too bad he couldn't stay in the game just to be plunked. That was complete bush league behavior. He shouldn't have made it around second base.
-
Certainly, but they all tend to get lumped one in the same. I think that's the significant issue. There doesn't seem to be a difference in many people's eyes between a logo/name intended to honor Native tribes and one utilizing a slang.
-
My experience on many reservations and working with a lot of Native Americans in jobs I've held has the Braves, Chiefs, Raiders, and Lakers as the top 4 teams on reservations in popularity.
