powrwrap

Gary Gaetti had more hits than Joe DiMaggio.

The Kansas City Royals have never made the playoffs before or after George Brett's career.

He isn't a very good player. His fundamentals are all wrong. Look at his batting stance/swing. He steps out, transfers his weight to his front foot. Look at his footwork in the field, it's just plain wrong. He fields grounders with one hand, for gosh sakes! I don't know what the Twins were thinking when they signed him.

R.A. Dickey springs to mind.

Yesterday he pitched 7 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 R, walked 3 and struck out 10. And lost the game.

It was the last time that the Twins had decent attendance figures and spare revenues. Same as today. Let's not forget that the Twins signed Puckett, Hrbek, Knoblauch to lucrative contracts when they were free agents. Also signed Radke, Morneau, Mauer before they could test the waters. In the era of Target Field (and no Carl Pohlad) this idea that the Twins won't put out the money for big name free agents is no longer true. What other big name pitchers were out there? Mark Davis? Anybody else? I'd say Morris was one of the top FA pitchers available. Wasn't Morris' salary one of the top salaries of 1991? Found it: While the contract was for just one year, the Twins did make Morris the second-highest-paid player in the AL that season. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=contracts/MLBbest

I like Verlander's curve.

Jack Morris. The solution is free agents. The Twins MUST sign a free agent starter or two. They'll have to do so in order to sell season tickets and bring fans back to Target Field. Old Nurse posted a nice list. Pick two decent guys off the list. Shawn Marcum is solid. So is Colby Lewis or Anibal Sanchez. Re-sign Scott Baker. Stick Kyle Gibson in the rotation.

Picked him up for my fantasy team last Tuesday. Lookin' great!

Great analysis. In the first video you can see that he never truly loads. The bat is in constant motion. Also, he puts the weight on his front foot too early and he has a bit of an overstride. In the corrected swing, he loads up, the bat is still and his transfer of weight to the front foot is timed out better, plus his stride is a bit shortened. It's amazing what a few minor adjustments can do.

It was a brisk autumn morning and the hunters were preparing to go out for the day. The smell of fresh coffee wafted throughout the chilly cabin, causing stomachs to growl with anticipation of the breakfast that would accompany it. The talk over breakfast was to select the locations for the blinds, install them and then hunker down for a day of duck hunting. "Where's Trevor?", asked Joe, the owner of the cabin and leader of the group. "He's in town buying some shells and more hand warmers." "Too bad for him," replied Joe. "He's not here to choose which hunting blind he gets, so I guess we'll put him at the furthest one, or third base." "Yeah, but third base is the furthest from the decoys", noted Bill, "will Trevor's gun have the range to reach the ducks?" "Trevor should be OK at third base", Joe said. "Anybody else want third base?" A chorus of NO's filled the cabin. Trevor returned with the supplies. The guys were pawing through the bag of stuff when Ron shouted out, "Trevor, you got the wrong size of shot! We're duck hunting not quail hunting. You got shells with size 8 shot and we need size 4! This will set us back another 45 minutes while you run back to the store and get the right stuff." Head hanging, Trevor gathered up the useless shells and let out a long sigh as he left the cabin, the door banging shut behind him like an exclamation point on his incompetence. "I sure hope Trevor can handle third base," Ron said, "because he sure doesn't know how to handle sport shot."

I see that Dusty Baker is still has no clue as to how to manage a pitching staff. For retaliation he pitches inside, rather than hit the guy?! Also, Baker had three other opportunities to pitch at Lowe after the Votto incident (April 25, 2009) including a game on Sept. 4, 2009. Why wait 3 years?

SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Cain has talked openly of his lifelong dream of throwing a perfect game. It’s no longer just a dream. Cain threw the first perfect game in the San Francisco Giants’ long and storied history Wednesday night at AT&T Park, striking out 14 in a 10-0 victory over the Houston Astros. [P.S. I know who will win the Presidency in November...]

I don't hate Gladden. He's a good commentator but he is a terrible play-by-play person. Many times he's a couple of seconds late in calling the play. You can hear crack of the bat, then the crowd reaction, then Gladden will start describing the play. He does not paint a picture, rather he talks in general terms. Description of a hit: "And this ball is going to get through the infield for a hit." Was it a line drive, grounder, what? Where did it get through? Description of a player's base-running abilities: "He doesn't run all that well." OR "He runs well." Description of just about any play: "This pitch is going to be called a strike" OR "And this ball is going to be a ___________________." Is going to be? Future tense? Don't you mean it is happening right now?

This is a good observation. Souhan is on ESPN1500 every day at 2:05 pm and he's quite listenable. I think he tends toward hyperbole and bluster in the newspaper. Plus he gets to plug in multiple metaphors. He goes through metaphors like Madonna goes through condoms.

What is it about him that you don't like?

I read that article when it came out and I only disagree with getting rid of the bunt, the walk off jump at the plate, and the hit-and-run. Otherwise, I thought he made some good points, albeit a bit smugly.

I like the way you think.

Rush Limbaugh uses innuendo, question begging, hypotheticals, and leading questions to draw the listener to a conclusion without using facts. Examples: "You just know that if that was Hillary Clinton saying the same thing that the press wouldn't get riled up about it." I don't see Souhan doing this. I think Souhan does know a little bit about baseball. Remember he is getting paid to get a reaction from his readers/listeners so he has to say something at least a bit provocative. Agree with jjswol that Souhan uses ridiculous metaphors to an extreme, but so what?

I've noticed a lot of posters here don't like Jim Souhan. What is it about the guy that rubs you the wrong way?

Precisely what I was going to post, but you saved me the trouble.

It's likely that both players played on youth traveling baseball teams. Both players played high school baseball, basketball and football. Both were high school quarterbacks. Both players played baseball on high school showcase teams after the high school season was over. Buxton pitched; Mauer didn't. Buxton has better foot speed. I don't see how Buxton's father's level of play could have any effect on Byron's abilities. I can see where Joe having brothers that played baseball would (possibly) make him a better player. I guess what I'm saying is I don't see that Mauer's youth history would give him much more polish than Byron's.

Wealthy art patrons get funded to the tune of $16M a year via the Minnesota State Arts Board. The Guthrie Theater was remodeled using $25M of tax payer money. Minneapolis taxpayers funded $5M for the move of the Shubert Theater. Art aficionados are too desperate to see how ridiculous it is.

Once the pitcher steps off the rubber he is considered an infielder holding onto the ball. He could throw over without being charged with a throw over. Or he could run at the runner and then throw.

Pretty good list. I'd remove Mauer and Tulo and add Prince Fielder and Evan Longoria.