ALessKosherScott

My beer of choice is Surly Bender. My hangover breakfast of choice is Victor's 1959 Cafe.

Yay! More wins than last year. Before the All-Star Break even. Dieng is starting to look like a nice power forward.

I might put Baldwin above Dunn if I needed a point guard. Dunn is more electric, but Baldwin has the wingspan and athleticism to be a lockdown defender, isn't as turnover prone as Dunn and is a lot safer bet to be a good shooter in the NBA. There are things I like about Tyus. But you have to worry it's going to take a major step forward for him to just be terrible at this point. You might even want to grab a Gary Payton II or Fred VanVleet in the second to hedge your bet on Jones at this point.

The more I watch our back up point guard play, the more I hope they just take Kris Dunn or Wade Baldwin in the first round so I never have to watch our back up point guards play again.

The Wolves are now 0-8 when Garnett sits out. Kind of says how important Garnett's limited minutes are.

I can't decide if this Ken Kratz letter is best defined as awesomeful or awfulsome. https://www.yahoo.com/tv/making-murderer-letter-ken-kratz-130010948.html

If you look to the other Iowa school, Jarrod Uthoff wouldn't be a bad second round pick either.

I suspect Martin is gone by the trade deadline. They supposedly asked for Courtney Lee from Memphis, which makes sense from the Wolves standpoint. But why would Memphis give a younger Martin with a better contract for him? It's all about finding the right deadweight salary that comes off the books next year and a second round pick sometime in the future. Then, you're going to take that money and make a run at Bazemore, Batum or Fournier in free agency next year, with Evan Turner being the consolation prize. Miller is simply old, and can't handle big minutes-- like Garnett and Prince. He's the most effective backup point guard when he plays though. Next year's draft looks pretty thin. So IMHO unless you beat the odds for Simmons or Ingram, you're looking to draft someone who can run with the twos the next couple of years, but brings a needed skill to the table. Per ESPN 1500, the Wolves had three scouts in Ames looking at Hield and a few second round possibilities on Monday. If you can add Hield, some kind of young stretch 4 and a veteran backup point guard, you've had a pretty good offseason.

I think that's pretty fair analysis. And of course right after I type Lavine as the problem, Rubio goes and commits three turnovers to help blow a ten-point lead with five minutes left. Tonight, it seemed like the fatal flaw of the Wolves roster construction showed. When you have four guys whom you can't play more than 20 minutes a night on a roster (Garnett, Prince, Miller, Pek) coupled with guys like Jones, Rudez and Payne who shouldn't play that long, you get some tired legs at the end of back-to-back games. Wiggins, though, is on a really nice run right now.

If I had to create a hypothesis why they keep blowing big leads, the two places I'd start would be: 1. The difference between Rubio (+2.7 BPM, 42.8% Assist Rate, ) to Lavine (-1.9 BPM, 24.0% Assist Rate) at point guard. 2. That the best defensive piece on the team is Garnett (+3.0 DBPM), who's also limited to how many minutes he can play. IMHO, one of the big questions for next year is can Tyus Jones be a cromulent backup point guard or do you need to go out and sign a free agent? The free agent backup point guard market looks pretty bleak.

The Wolves are now 4-5 when leading by 17 points or more in a game. Oooof.

The problem with any form of film piece is that you have many hours of footage that have to hit the floor out of the fact that no one is going to invest the time to watch it. The footage that makes the cut has to support your thesis, in this case the thesis being that cops are judged by closing cases, and it doesn't matter if they do it correctly or how they put their evidence together to do it. And there are next to no ramifications if they do their job poorly (see Ferguson, Cleveland, Baltimore, New York City). The Kratz sexting case at the end puts a nice frosting on the cake, showing how something that would've gotten a normal attorney disbarred got a DA a mere slap on the wrist after resigning his position. With that said, having gone back to read the press Ken Kratz and people like Nancy Grace kind of make themselves out to be fools when they mention the evidence that wasn't shown, because it tends to go back to hearsay (*67 calls, Avery specifically requesting Halbeck), Dassey's confession (Dr. Phil's comment that he could've got Dassey to confess to the Irish Potato Famine is pretty on point), or faulty DNA evidence (there's no such thing as sweat DNA and the bullet with Halbeck's DNA on it that was shown in the documentary because the tester screwed up the test on it and it probably shouldn't have been admitted).

Looking at it through the lens of a 30 point win certainly makes things look a little better. Fun numbers over the last five games, which all haven't been this good. Small sample sizes, but still: Wiggins is shooting .487. Rubio is shooting better than 44% and 38.5% from three. KAT looks like he's run straight into the rookie wall. Bjellica has been playing a little better. Now, we're sitting at the 4th pick overall in the draft.

I think my point was that you were reaching to call Fernando Valenzuela the "best pitcher in baseball" in the early 80s. Statistically, Steve Carlton was the best pitcher in baseball in the early 80s. And there probably wasn't another consistent "Best Pitcher In Baseball" for multiple years until Clemens came along in '86. And IMO, there's two very clear moments for Santana which are Cy Young awards on his shelf (plus another three you could have gave him). With Mauer, it's a very clear MVP award that he deserved plus one in theory he deserved over Morneau in 2006. The Bill James HOF checklist states if you can make a clear case for any player being the best player it the game at their position over a stretch of years, odds are they're Hall of Famers.

Yeah. Comping Santana, who finished with a career ERA+ of 136, to Valenzuela, who had one season in his career with an ERA+ better than 136, doesn't seem exactly right. If you had gone Hal Newhauser, maybe. But Newhauser is in the Hall of Fame. Simmons and Freehan are guys who you hear a lot of outcry should be in the Hall of Fame, and Mauer is a better hitter than both and had more of an impact with his glove than at least Simmons (who had a bad defensive reputation) and possibly Freehan. Bill Dickey is a pretty good comp for Mauer's catching career. And again, he's in the Hall of Fame. I think if we want to talk about putting Torii Hunter in the Hall of Fame, that's where I have a problem. Hanging around for 17 years to put up counting stats doesn't make you a great player. Having truly great years does. For the record, Puckett is light years above Hunter as the franchise's best center fielder.

A general rule of thumb is that anybody who was the best pitcher in baseball over a five-year period is in the Hall of Fame, except Clemens who should be. Santana has two Cy Young trophies, so I'm pretty sure the Baseball Writers Association of America have an idea how good he was.

Santana's run from 2003 to 2009 is every bit as dominant in its time as Koufax's run from 1961 to 1966.

So you're saying you'd leave Sandy Koufax out of the Hall of Fame too?

Dizzy Dean is in the Hall of Fame. Sandy Koufax is in the Hall of Fame. Bill Dickey is in the Hall of Fame. Would you rather have a player who's truly elite for 7 years? Or one who's simply pretty good for 15? Any GM worth his salt is going take the former. And Mauer masquerading as a first basemen shouldn't hold him back anymore than Johnny Bench's lost time as a third baseman did. No catcher is built to last. We may never see a catcher who can hit and defend the way Mauer did in his prime again.

Arguably the greatest season ever by a catcher (2009)? A 129 OPS+ which is currently only topped by Piazza and Posey among full-time catchers? A eight-year run where he was historically one of the best hitting and defensive catchers ever? Should we leave Santana out of the Hall of Fame too?

In 2011, all Mauer did was post an OPS+ of 102 while fighting injury. And if we're describing his performance from 2004 to 2013 as merely "solid," then we might be setting the bar a little high for catchers.

Assuming you're picking 5 to 7 right now, it comes down to what strengths you're trying to add and what weaknesses you're willing to live with. Hield might be the best shooter in the draft. But his defense is kind of Kevin Martin-esq, who might be a good comp for what he can be. Brown is a good cross between Muhammed's strength and Wiggins athleticism at small forward, but he's a questionable shooter and he scores by attacking the hoop kind of like Lavine and Wiggins. Ellenson is a power forward who can shoot and rebound and who might be the next Kevin Love. But he also hasn't been anywhere near as dominant as Love was in his one year of college. I like Ivan Rabb a lot, who is a might be the best two-way power forward in the draft. But he's not the kind of power forward who's going to knock down the three and he probably needs a little more strength in the NBA. Kris Dunn may be there, or he may go three. He's kind of everything that Rubio isn't in that he's athletic and can finish at the rim (which is what holds Rubio's shooting percentage down). But he's also turnover prone and shooting .674 from the free throw line, which is a sign his shooting percentage may not translate to the NBA. He shares the good assist, good defense thing with Rubio though. Jakob Poeltl is pretty flawless as a cromulent center. But can KAT play the four? Labissiere has scary potential. But his numbers and his advanced stats are just as scary. I still like the idea of moving the pick if you can add the right young player.

I survived the mid-90s Twins. I can survive anything

http://www.billjamesonline.com/where_are_the_great_catchers_/ Actually…that’s not exactly true. Joe Mauer is currently a few decimals ahead of Johnny Bench (5.74 to 5.62), but his career is still going along. Let’s stick with Johnny Bench for a moment. I suppose all of you know about Johnny Bench. He was a terrific hitter: he had one year when he hit 45 homers, knocked in 148 RBI’s. He was twenty-two years old that year. A few years later he hit 40 homers, 128 RBI. These seasons happened when pitching had recently dominated baseball, and people were flabbergasted by it. Bench was a great hitter. He was also a brilliant defensive player: he had a cannon for an arm. He was a central cog on one of the greatest teams in baseball history. There’s no knock to Bench’s career: he was an absolutely dominant offensive player, and a terrific defensive player. His teams won lots of games; his individual accomplishments seemed to have a direct correlation to his team’s success. He was the perfect catcher. Here are the players, by position, that Johnny Bench most compares to: Pos. Name WAR/162 Rank in Position C Johnny Bench 5.6 1st 1B Dick Allen 5.7 8th 2B Charlie Gehringer 5.5 9th SS Joe Cronin 5.1 5th 3B Scott Rolen 5.6 6th RF Larry Walker 5.6 5th CF Larry Doby 5.1 6th LF Rickey Henderson 5.7 6th This is not an impressive list. It’s certainly a good list….Rickey Henderson was one of the smartest baseball players of all-time, and all of the others are worthy Hall-of-Famers. But none of them are serious contenders as the best players at their respective positions. Dick Allen wasn’t close to Gehrig or Foxx or Pujols. Larry Walker is ranked 5th among right-fielders, but he’s not close to Ruth or Aaron. Even Rickey doesn’t quite approach the likes of Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, or Stan Musial. This seems strange to me. Even if you don’t think Bench is the #1 catcher of all-time…even if you’re partial to Yogi Berra or Josh Gibson…you’d concede that it’s not irrational for other people to believe that Bench is the greatest catcher ever. Is it rational, then, that a strong candidate for the title of greatest catcher of all-time has a per-162 game rate that’s so far below the best players at every other position on the diamond? Is it rational to believe that there have been no really great catchers in major league history? Or is something wrong with WAR?

Johan Santana had a five-year run where he was the best pitcher in baseball. There is no god if Torii Hunter gets put in the Hall-of-Fame before him.