Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

TheLeviathan

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    21,582

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    49

 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 TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    I think that's probably true, but the article is using the implication of race to make a point that I'm not sure is true. While it's true that black athletes are more exploited in the money making sports, I don't think there is any intention by the NCAA to do that. Suggesting the racial angle does imply that point, partly on purpose. It gives the criticism more weight and bite to suggest a racial factor in the actions. That's where the "play the race card" issue comes up, it's used in a situation in which it is not a causal factor to imply it is to give more weight to criticism. I get it and I have no sympathy for the NCAA, but it is becoming a tired, overused way of getting a point across. It also weakens the times when race really IS a causal factor.
  2. TheLeviathan
    Colleges, for many reasons, have stopped being places of higher education for a long time.
  3. TheLeviathan
    Some of your stated examples certainly deserve criticism. Whether one thinks they are as bad, worse, or better than say Jeyne Poole is pretty open to opinion. Not a real pleasant debate either I'd expect. I just bristle because we seem to have gotten to a point in critiquing things that we get really nitpicky about what we accept and don't accept. Show watchers are overly harsh on the book and book readers border on needing a straight jacket when talking about the show. The truth is no show or book is perfect, there are always holes to poke if you choose to. What I struggle with is people who refuse to accept that both are flawed, it usually turns into whichever one they like more is flawless and the other one is a crapfest of the highest order. It's happening on a lot of things and I think I've just had enough of it. The misogyny angle is usually one of the first ones. Then plot. And both, I'd argue, are major issues in the book too for different reasons, Though the first three books were among my favorite fantasy novels, the last two took a serious step backwards for me.
  4. TheLeviathan
    The problem isn't the schools hording money from the athletes, it's the NCAA hording money from everyone.
  5. TheLeviathan
    Most of this speaks to your own point about the differences in media. When you read something for a second or two it isn't the same as seeing it. Just as the Viper's death was hard to read, it was even worse to watch. You're shaming the TV show for basically being a TV show. It can't make the violence and rape seem softer by mentioning it in passing, it has to show it to you or not do it at all. I agree, add the Sand Snakes to the Sansa rape as totally unnecessary. The Rose death probably too. But other than that it might actually be MORE tame than Martin. In fact, let me pose a question to you: What's more misogynistic, the writer who shows you the pain of a woman who is the victim and the nudity involved but concentrates on the victim rather than the rapist, or the write who basically ignores all the victims and concentrates on the rapists. You could argue the show is doing more service to show the ramifications for victims than the books. Most of Martin's most brutal victims are barely more than side characters who are there to be little more than rape fodder for point of view characters or major players in the books. I don't think that was Martin's intention, but it certainly was the result. This is actually an interesting read on the subject that touches on this. I know I as a book reader usually don't visualize the horror of what I'm reading quite as vividly as a TV show can produce it for me. Certainly my reaction to Oberyn's death was some proof of that. To the book I was sad and disappointed....to the show I was shocked and horrified.
  6. TheLeviathan
    I think that's pretty much a given at this point.
  7. TheLeviathan
    It was hard to watch. They accomplished making that heart wrenching for sure.
  8. TheLeviathan
    This. Yeah, the athletes aren't seeing the kind of compensation they should for their contributions to that money making effort, but at least they get to use the facilities it pays for and get some sort of experience out playing for their school. The non-athlete kids only get 30 years of debt to build their new gyms and facilities to attract new athletes who get meatier scholarships than most of them.
  9. TheLeviathan
    GRRM likes to take historic moments or old stories and weave the themes and high points into his own characters. Stannis is, for all intents and purposes, Martin's Agamemnon. Shireen was always going to die.
  10. TheLeviathan
    I agree, I look at it a lot like you do except for not so much caring for the last two books. They were alright, but my expectations were set high by the first three books and let down rather hard by what we got. I'll still read whatever he produces for the series, however. On the other issue, I think the TV show got more crap than it deserved. Most of the misogyny is in the books too, hell it's one of the themes. (The cost of war and power struggling between men and the effect it has on women) The Sansa scene deserved harsh criticism certainly, but otherwise the truth is that the book's raping and defiling of women is just as bad.
  11. TheLeviathan
    (Possible spoilers here?) You know what the worst part is? I bet, now that the show is getting a reaction (negatively) for some of the choices, that he's going to alter his plan. Shireen is the one that really stands out. She was going to be burned by Stannis in the book. It was going to happen. But now? I could see him altering it so that his readers feel it "fits" better. So his own meandering writing has let the show catch him and now I feel like the written work will never be the true, authentic product. Or at least I have serious doubts.
  12. TheLeviathan
    Blasphemy! Don't bring that reasonable, correct take over to ASOIF or any of the book sites. You'll be lucky if you aren't made into an effigy to their own red god GRRM. Dude totally lost his narrative. I'm not surprised at all he can't find it again. He wandered off the path into the woods and now he's lost in the woods. At his age we may never see him find the path again and go back to what was a brilliant series the first three books.
  13. TheLeviathan
    I don't really have an opinion apart from the facts show that the team has had a pretty good bullpen. So I conclude they've had a pretty good bullpen. If you choose to look away from those facts, that's fine. That's your call. The contention that Ryan is bad at fielding a bullpen is demonstrably false. So, yeah, I guess I just side with the demonstrably true part. You take whatever stance you want. The stance, by the way, that they've been historically pretty good at it does not entail that they always make the right decisions or are currently making the right decisions, but if you're going to side with the meme that the team hasn't been very good at it and this is a continuation of that failure - know that it's a demonstrably false meme. And the best part? You can accept that Ryan has been pretty good and still falling short recently. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
  14. TheLeviathan
    Since 1994 the team is 4th in RE24, so let's just stop. Are you so convinced of your narrative that facts be damned? Look, the truth is that over the large majority of Ryan's time the team has had a pretty good bullpen. Yeah, they could have and should have done more last year. I have no problems criticizing Ryan when it's fair. The fact that you continue to pound a point that is demonstrably false or overstated may show you don't have much interest in the fairness part. Otherwise you'd accept the facts and move on.
  15. TheLeviathan
    I'll be more critical of his bullpen management going forward as we mount up a contending effort for sure. I'm not sure I put a lot of stock in the last few years any more than I put stock into the Stahoviak days. This offseason has been a disappointment as far as the bullpen goes, I'm hoping the results don't reflect the effort. Historically speaking, however, his results have been quite good.
  16. TheLeviathan
    Made a small error in my sorting, they were 4th best in FIP, 6th in xFIP. As for inherited runners, from 2003-2010 the team lead all of baseball in RE24, which fangraphs like to think is the best model for measuring this sort of thing. Or one of the best. So yeah, every measure. Sorry the facts don't fit the narrative.
  17. TheLeviathan
    From 2003-2010 the Twins had the 5th best xFIP in all of baseball. 2nd best in FIP. 8th best in WAR. So you go ahead and pick the stat, tell me which one is the make or break and I'm almost guaranteeing you it will still suggest the Twins had some pretty damn good bullpens.
  18. TheLeviathan
    More than some of it is noise, most of it is. Many of those runs and losses came from guys that would not fit the "build the bullpen on the cheap" criticism. Unless somehow Nathan, Rincon, Jesse Crain, or mop-up starters giving up runs count as part of it.
  19. TheLeviathan
    Way I've always seen it is, unless otherwise specified as "AL or NL" - it's an MLB total ranking. If that's different for you, ok, but it was pretty easy to infer.
  20. TheLeviathan
    Your post took the context of that discussion and seemed to utterly ignore it to twist the point being made. You can always strive for more but no team is great at everything. The Royals won a World Series with a group of starters that ranked 22nd in the league in ERA. You could go back to any winner and find elements of their team that were less than great to a downright liability. Expecting everything to be top 8 great is unrealistic. What you have to strive for is as many strengths as possible with as few liabilities as you can. So, yes, the team should've been looking for more than Abad and should still be looking. But Ryan has generally been pretty good at constructing bullpens for his team.
  21. TheLeviathan
    So you have to be in the top 8 of everything or you're bad at it? That's preposterous, but putting that aside - take some of the context of the point being argued here in your reply: It was stated Ryan is bad at constructing bullpens and it cost us winning world series. I'd say finishing in the "above average" category pretty much every year shoots down that assertion. No one is stating he is god's gift to bullpens, but it hasn't been much of an issue. He's been pretty good at constructing bullpens and the numbers back that up. It certainly hasn't been our World Series achilles heel as suggested.
  22. TheLeviathan
    Um, anythign above 15 is definitionally "above average". So you can see what you want, but you're wrong and your point was still absurd. Unless you think the 1996 Twins' World Series chances were doomed by the bullpen, in which case your opinion may not be sufficiently described as absurd.
  23. TheLeviathan
    Right, I definitely should have included 94-00 for "years the bullpen cost a world series". I'd suggest the problems were pretty much everything from those years, so I'm not sure why they matter for the absurd point he was making.
  24. TheLeviathan
    Gusty and necessary stand on guns by Obama. Someone, at some point, was going to have to stand up and risk the blowback. In a country where even Bernie Sanders is somewhat protective of the gun lobby/gun rights, we need someone and some party to stand up and push back.
  25. TheLeviathan
    Dude wrote himself into a mess and can't write himself out of it. It's sad that the series may get doomed by his own self-indulgent writing.
×
×
  • Create New...