Squirrel

Who's the woman in the back next to Brent Spiner? Michelle Forbes, maybe? And the guy in the way back? And I'm half assuming that that's Michael Dorn cut off to the side of Marina Sirtis?

Who you calling a geezer? <yaaaaaawn> Better get my nap in.

Game-time forecast: Clear. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. TWINS: SP, May Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer DH Vargas 1B Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Escobar SS Fryer C Schafer LF ORIOLES: SP, Gonzalez Markakis RF Pearce 1B Jones CF Cruz DH Young LF Hardy SS David 3B Joseph C Schoop 2B -------------------------- And now we await Brian ... -------------------------- Yeah... Where is he? (tap tap tap) Oh... That's me Things to Think About: 1. Baltimore -- Baltimore is a city that doesn't matter to anyone because it's in between the legendary cities of Philadelphia and Washington DC. Oh... The City tries... It tries to climb out of those shadows by giving itself a nickname like the "Charm City" but vandals and the cast of HBO's The Wire keeping removing the "C" which makes it "The Harm City". Baltimore tries to positively enhance it's reputation by talking about the tasty Blue Crabs that can only be found in the Chesepeake Bay but Blue Crabs are now associated with an annoying itch that nobody wants. Baltimore is the home of the Ripkens and Stringer Bell at least it was until someone popped a cap in his &*%.... Umm... Billy is recovering and should be OK. To my knowledge... No one had ever died from a Cap in someone's &*% and Billy Ripken isn't entirely sure how it got there. Some of the worlds top Swimmers are from Baltimore... Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff are both Baltimorians... Umm Baltimorites... Umm... Baltimorettes... Umm... Screw it... They are from Baltimore. The world's best swimmers come from Baltimore because people from Baltimore often try to escape to Delaware. 2. The Orioles -- Orioles are birds... They are migratory... especially Orioles from cold weather climates like International Falls. They eat bird seed and White Castle Hamburgers and they are currently in 1st place in the American League East with a current 7 game lead over the New York Yankees. No one in the Baltimore front office or Mayor's office is exactly sure how the Orioles are in 1st place since they haven't been in 1st place since Jim Palmer pitched for them in 1940's. They were not sure what to do at the trade deadline because of the uniqueness of their situation.... They were not expecting to be here. So they acquired Jimmy Peredes from the Royals for cash. Cash that they got from the Blue Jays after they traded Brett Wallace to the Jays for Cash. I have no idea who this player named Cash is? 3. Oriole Park at Camden Yards -- The Home of the Baltimore 9 since 1992. The name has been shortened since then... It used to be called "Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Maryland off the Chesapeake Bay Bar and Restaurant". In today's world of acronyms... No one has attempted to call it OPCY... and this is mostly because of a severe case of apathy. Down the right field line... you get a dominant view of the B&O warehouse. This warehouse is used to store many different body parts and the smells that accompany them. Every Wednesday are handgun days at the park. Anyone entering the stadium with a handgun while wearing a ski-mask is allowed to enter for free and is given all the hot dogs and popcorn that they want. 4. Miguel Gonzalez -- Tonight the Twins face the Mexican sensation Miguel Gonzalez who hails from Tepatitlán de Morelos Mexico. Population around 100,000. No one in America has ever heard of Tepatitlán de Morelos because no one in America has heard of Central Mexico. We only know places like Cabo Wabo and Cancun but we have no idea that those places are in Mexico. Miquel is 30 years old and he was signed as a free agent in 2005 by the Angels. He was a rule 5 draft of the Red Sox in 2008 and then he signed with the Orioles as a minor league free agent in 2012. 2012 is when he came out of nowhere and started performing like a slight above average pitcher. He's OPS+ over 100 every single year. 5. My Wife -- I remember when I saw my wife for the 1st time. It was a like a lightning bolt had struck me and I told myself... That's the One... She's the girl that I'm going to spend the next 5 or 6 years with.

I've been an advocate for a change from the top on down for a some time. While I can acknowledge that Ryan does have talents and has begun to 'right the ship,' he saw the ship go awry to begin with. I think the minors are in good shape and now is the time to let go. The only worry I would have with his departure would be if the Twins replaced him internally. I think not only is it time for Ryan to step down, I think it's time for a fresh perspective. If the Twins are only going to replace him from within, I'd rather he just stayed. What's that saying ... better the devil you know, than the devil you don't? (And I'm not saying Ryan is the devil here, it's just a turn of a phrase.)

Yeah, but now it's an open-air stadium.

Wooohooo ... Gophers!! Touchdowns!

I wouldn't call that immune. I'd call that ... you're due.

two runs in the first inning ... wow

I didn't have troubles. Might have just been a blip on your computer?

Game-time forecast: Mostly clear. Winds blowing out to center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 85. TWINS: SP, Milone Santana CF Dozier 2B Suzuki C Vargas DH Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Parmelee 1B Escobar SS Schafer LF ROYALS: SP, Guthrie Aoki RF Escobar SS Gordon LF Butler 1B Perez C Willingham DH Cain CF Moustakas 3B Colon 2B ----------------------------------------------- Roses are Red Royals are Blue The Twins use both colors That's all I got... I'm through Things to Think About: 1. Fate -- Is there any sense in watching this game. I can already tell you what is going to happen based on the last two games. The Twins held the Royals scoreless for 8 Innings and then gave up Two in the ninth... Yesterday the Twins held the Royals scoreless for 7 innings and then gave up 6 in the 8th... Anyone can recognize the pattern here. 8 - 7 - (6) and 2 - 6 - (10). Tommy Milone will shut down the Royals for (6) innings and the Royals will score 10 runs in the 7th. If you want to witness the carnage... tune in for the 7th. If you want to feel heartened by the improved Milone... Just watch the 1st 6 innings and walk away. The Twins pattern seems to be locked in at 1 run. 2. College Football -- My attention will be diverted tonight. I'll have my Watch ESPN open on my Ipad to watch my College Football team... The University of North Dakota as they kick off the season against San Jose State. It's going to make it hard to post after 9PM since I have to exit out of Watch ESPN to get to Twins Daily and back again. The IPad is awesome and everything but it could use an Alt-Tab feature. The Gophers will be taking on Eastern Illinois tonight as well and I'm still a Gopher fan so I'll be trying to watch that tonight as well. Looks my night is planned... Let's hope I can escape from work and execute those plans. 3. Chris Parmelee and Eduardo Nunez -- The Twins lineups are not posted yet so it's possible that Parmelee or Nunez are in the lineup but I think we have all noticed that the Twins lineup has stabalized quite a bit recently and Parmelee and Nunez have been on the bench frequently. I have read posts from posters who are happy with the stability and the future of Arcia and Vargas and Santana and even Escobar is something to build for but it does leave me concerned for the future of Parmelee and Nunez. I just care... that's all. I'd like to see... all my Twins succeed and have a bright future. I'll never forget that they are battling for their careers. It's heavy. 4. Slugging -- Regardless if you like the stat or not. The fact that Danny Santana is outslugging... Arcia, Plouffe, Dozier and Mauer is very interesting. Let's just say it... Danny Santana is the slugging leader on the team after 295 AB's. Vargas has higher Slugging after 103 AB's but I'm going to draw the line at 250 AB's and politely ask Vargas to keep it up a little while longer. Neither Vargas or Santana can touch Polonco's mark which stands at .833 in 6 AB's. 5. Soda Machines -- I just bought a Coke out of the machine at work. I had to wash the can because it was sticky. I bought one yesterday as well and I had to wash that one as well... Because it was sticky. I have a suspicion that a can must have gotten punctured inside and that means I am now involved in a much less violent version of Russian Roulette.

Sigh. I just can't watch anymore.

This would be a good point to make in the game thread.

He just said 'Uff'? Not Uff da?

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing in from right field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 80. TWINS: SP, Hughes Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Escobar SS Schafer LF ROYALS: SP, Hendriks Aoki RF Escobar SS Gordon LF Butler 1B Perez C Ibanez DH Moustakas 3B Colon 2B Dyson CF ------------------------------- It's kinda quiet in here... I suppose I should just dive in and make some noise. Things to Thinks About: 1. Quick and Easy -- It felt a little shocking the way last night's game ended. We had a 1-0 lead in the 9th and Perkins on the mound... That's supposed to be a done deal. With one swing of the bat... Alex Gordon hit a 2 run homer and the Royals walked off with a win. There were no more pitches to be thrown. Like snapping your fingers... it was done... just like that. It didn't feel good but oddly I felt Ok... We got a decent pitching performance from someone who had not been pitching decently. The Royals are closer to knocking off the Tigers... It's gonna be alright. 2. Ricky Nolasco -- I missed the first half of the game and was surprised to see the score Nil-Nil with Nolasco on the mound. He Lowered his ERA from 5.96 to 5.62. He's got some lowering to go but it was heartening to see him produce in one game at least. This way we know that he can actually do it. Now he just has to keep doing it for awhile and get that ERA down to 5.14 or something. 3. Liam Hendriks -- OK... We've seen this guy before. Here's the recent timeline. In December he was DFA'd by the Twins and the Blue Jays claimed him. He made a couple of MLB Spot Starts for the Jays this year... Some successful and one that was a complete disaster... All in all... He has had a decent year in AAA in Buffalo. The Jays traded him to the Royals in July for Danny Valencia and that's another guy that we have seen before. You know the Twins have hit the big time when ex-players are being traded for ex-players. Liam is only 25 years old and he's from Perth Australia. Perth is on the extreme Western side of Australia while all the action happens on the Eastern Side. To get to Perth from Sydney or Melbourne... You have to strap Roo Bars on your car just so you can collide with the 20 or so Kangaroos out of the millions that will be littering the highways on the 12 day trip across the entire large island. I suppose that Liam is looking forward to facing the Twins tonight... perhaps with a chip on his shoulder. At least I think that's a chip on his shoulder... It could be a Tasmanian Devil. 4. 1 Run -- You'd think I'd be thinking about the 1 run scored by the Twins last night but I'm not thinking about that when I think of 1 run. I'm thinking about Phil Hughes. Phil has allowed 1 run in each of his last 4 starts. I'd be Ok with him making it 5. 30 K's over that time... His ERA sits at 3.65... For the Twins... That's our Ace. 5. Pancreas -- Today at work... someone was lifting a table and swung himself into the door frame and he said "Uff... My Pancreas" and then he moved on with the table. That got me thinking... You never hear the word Pancreas in a positive tone.

Looking forward to seeing them play in September.

Continue Twins in the AFL discussion here.

I hate losing like this. That really bites.

Well, **** that. And I can't believe stringer is the one who jinxed it. yes, I blame stringer.

It's stringer's fault! It's stringer's fault!!!

OMG! Stringer! I can't believe you just said that! Take it back now! Quick!

Yeah, and there's no guarantee I'll see you at ST next March.

Just back from dinner ... looks like I missed a well-pitched game? Or good defense? Or both? I'll leave the offense out of this discussion for now. And Willi ... if you are going to have a dude with a big hammer in your avatar, at least you could've chosen Chris Hemsworth as Thor. <chrishemsworthswooooooooon>

Just one quick correction ... not ALL the mods have wives ... just sayin' ... and I'm sure the two mods who traveled without theirs, have awesome ones. But one mod just simply does not have, nor ever will have, a wife.

heh, indeed. I'll leave that up to him, though, if he wants that to be his 'things to think about' trademark photo.

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 90. TWINS: SP, Nolasco Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Escobar SS Schafer LF ROYALS: SP, Duffy Dyson CF Escobar SS Gordon LF Butler 1B Perez C Willingham DH Moustakas 3B Cain RF Colon 2B -------------------------------------- And now that ModCon is over, and we are all on our way to recuperation, and Brian was possibly given too much to think about, he should have no problem finishing out the year here! Let's play ball! -------------------------------------- Yeah... I Suppose... But I can't remember how to do it. I think I used to start with... umm... Something? Thinks to Thing About: (You see what I'm saying... Even that part doesn't feel right) A. ModCon14 -- The moderators had an awesome time at Modcon14. First off... The Mods all have awesome wives and they all need to be careful that they don't realize that they are more awesome then they are. We saw a lot of baseball and a lot of runs scored. We walked approximately 97 miles total the entire weekend. Mostly back and forth over the same ground. It would have been much more productive to keep moving in the same direction... Because we could have been in St. Cloud. It was fantastic to see everyone face to face. Snepp for example has a beard that has a part time job at a car wash. Diehard doesn't have any hair... I think it's possible that Snepp stole it for use in his beard. ChiTown walks real fast and is the only one who knows where to go... This caused problems because we got lost when she was 3 blocks ahead and around the corner and out of sight. That's how we ended up in Dinkytown by accident. North had real Canadian money in his wallet and it looked like he painted it himself. Chief did not bring any weapons of any sort to protect us... like he was supposed to and Ash while riding in my car... was screaming let me out... let me out... let me out... in his head... while I stopped at Green Lights and drove through Red Lights. I know he was screaming in his head... I could see it in his eyes and I could see it in his eyes because I wasn't looking forward through the windshield while driving. I also found out that Glunn is a big fan of chickens, ABBA, human generosity and kindness and he was surprised there wasn't any snow. 2. Kansas City Again -- Kansas City is an alleged City on the Missouri/Kansas Border. The only way it qualifies as a city is because the name of the city has the word city in it. They felt it was necessary to add city to differentiate it from the state. Otherwise it would be Kansas Kansas and this would cause a stuttering epidemic. And... And... Of course... The song would be Dust Dust in the Wind Wind and nobody would have sang along to that. C. The Royals -- The Twins tried their best to help the Royals this weekend. We won the first two before dropping the last two. While the Twins Split with the Tigers... The Royals ended up splitting with the combination of Rangers and Yankees. So it's a Wash. We tried to help you Kansas City. Don't count on our help for this series. 47D. Offense -- The Twins offense is in real high gear right now... Either that... or the Tigers pitching staff is in low gear. The Twins scored 42 runs in 4 games. Just for comparison... 42 is the exact number of times that my wife has told me that the TV or Radio is too loud so far in August. So... if that doesn't give you an accurate impression of how many runs the Twins scored... I don't know what will. On the bad side of things... The Twins allowed 31 runs this weekend. Just for Comparison... 31 is the exact number of times that my wife has told me to not turn my socks inside out when I take them off since June. So... that will help you determine that 31 runs is way too many. Five. Stolen Pleasure -- As I was saying goodbye to Snepp... I told him "it was a pleasure to meet him" and it sincerely was... Snepp responded by saying "the pleasure was all his". To that I responded... "Well... you just took all the pleasure out of it". Am I Right? ... If the pleasure is all his... That means he just took it all for himself and left me pleasure-less.