Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Mauer Mania!
Joe Mauer was the lead story on ESPN's home page yesterday, with a bunch of related features. They've moved it to their baseball page. I'm not sure how long it will be there, but there's a cool breakdown of his swing, a Rob Neyer article about great young catchers in baseball history, and more. Barring a massive slump, Mauer Mania will only heat up. He's hitting .380, and has a legitimate shot at becoming the first catcher in AL history to win a batting title. Right now, the race looks like this:
Joe Mauer .380
Derek Jeter .346
Ichiro Suzuki .340
Assuming they keep up their pace of at bats, if the three guys hit at their career averages the rest of the way (JM .326/DJ .316/IS .334), the final numbers would look like this:
Joe Mauer .359
Ichiro Suzuki .338
Derek Jeter .334
If Joe hits "only" .300 the rest of the way, he'd finish at .348, and Jeter would need to hit .353 the rest of the way to pass him, while Ichiro would need to hit .360.
If Joe slumps even more, and hits .280 over the final third of the season, he'd still finish at .340. Jeter would need to hit .330 to top that, while Ichiro would need to keeping hitting at his current pace, .340.
Regardless of what happens, this is a great time to be a Twins fan. They've clawed their way back into the playoff race, they've got 2 pitchers with Cy Young-worthy stats, a catcher shooting for a batting title, and a young slugger on pace to hit the 7th-most home runs in a single Twins season (and the most of anyone not named Killibrew).
In fact, Stick and Ball Guy is tracking Morneau's place in Twins history. Talk about a franchise lacking sluggers over the years- Ron Coomer and Tim Laudner are tied for the 18th-most career home runs in a Twins uniform!
Monday, July 24, 2006
Kyle Lohse- Twins player of the game
The Twins won a big game in Chicago tonight, pulling them within 2 games of a playoff spot. There were many heroes in this game- Brad Radke gave up only 2 runs in 6 innings; Joe Mauer, Mike Cuddyer, and Justin Morneau all homered; Jason Tyner and Jason Bartlett each had 3 hits. When I looked at Sportsline's wrap-up of the game, however, I was very shocked at the second player of the game:
Here's a closer look:
That's right- Kyle Lohse, who gave up 2 runs in one inning of mop-up relief, was apparently more valuable than Brad Radke! My theory: Terry Ryan badly wants to trade Lohse, but no one will offer anything for him. Ryan knows some people at Sportsline, and passes some cash under the table in exchange for this. Then, when he's got GMs on the phone, he can refer to Kyle as "recent Sportsline player of the game."
Here's a closer look:
That's right- Kyle Lohse, who gave up 2 runs in one inning of mop-up relief, was apparently more valuable than Brad Radke! My theory: Terry Ryan badly wants to trade Lohse, but no one will offer anything for him. Ryan knows some people at Sportsline, and passes some cash under the table in exchange for this. Then, when he's got GMs on the phone, he can refer to Kyle as "recent Sportsline player of the game."
Friday, July 07, 2006
Boozin' Athletes
Koren Robinson checked himself into a rehab clinic. Good thing we got rid of bad apple Randy Moss, huh? The Vikings could be in big trouble if Robinson were not able to suit up this season. I'm excited about Chester Taylor's potential, but Robinson is their one definite threat to break a big play.
The Eddie Griffin story is much more interesting. In case you missed it, Griffin, who has had substance abuse issues in the past, crashed into a parked car in March while driving drunk, and masturbating while watching a porn DVD. That's right- drinking, driving, watching porn, and snapping one off, all at the same time! Oh yeah- this hasn't been proven yet. But a number of witnesses say Griffin was hammered, and the cops drove him home without performing a sobriety test.
The best part about this story is that Eddie Kline has been selling EG booze at Sharrett's Liquors! When he told me that, I thought about calling Kevin McHale and blowing the whistle.
Drinking and Minnesota sports have always gone hand-in-hand. From Keith Millard's "My arms are stronger than your guns," to Hrbek and G-Man staying up all night wrestling in hotel rooms, to Doug West polishing off a six pack in the locker room after every Wolves game, to Dino Cicarelli's fondness for gathering the mail in the nude (I assume drinking was involved in that one).
Here's a City Pages article from 2000 that details many of the Vikings players vs. Johnny Law confrontations over the years. And here's another article that talks about some of the scandals since then, including the Lake Minnetonka boat incident, and the "Artic Blast" sexual assault debacle from 2003, which might be the blackest mark in Vikes' history. Wow- some "tradition of excellence."
The Eddie Griffin story is much more interesting. In case you missed it, Griffin, who has had substance abuse issues in the past, crashed into a parked car in March while driving drunk, and masturbating while watching a porn DVD. That's right- drinking, driving, watching porn, and snapping one off, all at the same time! Oh yeah- this hasn't been proven yet. But a number of witnesses say Griffin was hammered, and the cops drove him home without performing a sobriety test.
The best part about this story is that Eddie Kline has been selling EG booze at Sharrett's Liquors! When he told me that, I thought about calling Kevin McHale and blowing the whistle.
Drinking and Minnesota sports have always gone hand-in-hand. From Keith Millard's "My arms are stronger than your guns," to Hrbek and G-Man staying up all night wrestling in hotel rooms, to Doug West polishing off a six pack in the locker room after every Wolves game, to Dino Cicarelli's fondness for gathering the mail in the nude (I assume drinking was involved in that one).
Here's a City Pages article from 2000 that details many of the Vikings players vs. Johnny Law confrontations over the years. And here's another article that talks about some of the scandals since then, including the Lake Minnetonka boat incident, and the "Artic Blast" sexual assault debacle from 2003, which might be the blackest mark in Vikes' history. Wow- some "tradition of excellence."
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Baseball Between the Numbers
If you get a chance to take a look at this book, I highly recommend it- especially if you're not very familiar with sabermetrics. The Baseball Prospectus people put together a nice book full of essays, addressing questions such as Why are pitchers so unpredictable?, Five pitchers or four?, Is Mike Matheny a catching genius?, and Are new stadiums a good deal?(Very abbreviated answers: for the most part, pitchers aren't unpredictable- the traditional stats used to measure their value, particularly wins and ERA, are flawed; going back to a 4-man rotation might make the most sense- evidence doesn't suggest that short rest is bad- it's high pitch counts in a single game that lead to injury and ineffectiveness; there's no evidence to suggest that some catchers "call a good game"- success depends on the pitcher, not the catcher (although catchers need to be able to catch the ball); a new stadium does not generate money for a community- people just spend their entertainment dollars in a different place.)
So head to your local public library, and give it a look. It's a great book to have if your reading time is limited- each essay can be read in a matter of minutes.
