Monday,
January 25, 2010
Monday Morning Update
It was kind of a Vikings Centric weekend, wasn’t it? And for good reason,
the Vikings haven’t been to a Super Bowl since I was 2. Vikings versus Saints
is what we have been waiting for since about Week 7. And, although I’m not a Vikings
fanatic, I am a huge Vikings fan and I don’t think I missed a game all season. I
know football. I get Xs and Os. So, I’m just going to go through some of my
thoughts on the game:
·
The Vikings pretty much dominated the game in all facets.
Offensively, the Vikings nearly doubled the Saints in yardage. That is a credit
to the Vikings offense because they ran and passed up and down the field. It’s
also a credit to the Vikings defense which held the vaunted Saints offense in
check most of the game.
·
However, fumbles and the two interceptions are the
difference in the game. The fact that two of the fumbles happened inside the
ten yard line were devastating.
·
Turnovers are what lost that game for the Vikings. It
never should have got to overtime. Yes, there were a couple of questionable
calls in the overtime. The pass interference sure looked obvious in live
action, but upon further, slow motion review, became questionable. And whether
or not it was catchable is up for debate. On the Pierre Thomas 4th down leap, my initial take was that he
was well beyond the spot needed for the first down, and far enough that even
when the ball was jarred slightly, he was still past the spot. In my mind, it
was like many spots, it’s a best guest by the referee and there are no camera
angles with 100% accuracy. It’s not like a catch or a fumble.
·
Adrian Peterson is incredibly talented,
but the fumbles are ridiculous. I fully tout the Chester-Taylor-needs-to-play-more, but I also think that AP’s big
play ability means that you just have to live with the fumbles.
·
Brett Favre had an impressive game.
With the exception of the two interceptions, he was terrific. He was beaten up,
rushed, hit so often, it was really remarkable what he was able to do.
·
Unfortunately, the Vikings defensive line was unable to
do anything similar. Drew Brees had plenty of time. Which again
speaks to how impressive the Vikings defense was. The linebackers and
defensive backs got the job done.
·
Finally, Brad
Childress deserves some of the credit for the excellent Vikings season.
Talk of him being fired (from the fans only, I’m sure) is absolutely ridiculous.
As with baseball managers, head coaches get way too much credit for wins and
way too much blame for losses. Is he perfect? Is any coach?
·
Now we wait two weeks and we get a Colts/Saints Super
Bowl, which should be a great game. I would love for the Vikings to be in it,
but at least there is a matchup that will make me actually want to watch the
game as well as the commercials.
·
General Larry
Platt, who gained lots of attention for being the 62 year old who went on
American Idol and sang “Pants on the Ground,” was brought to New Orleans
(allegedly on Bryant McKinney’s
dime) to perform for the Vikings on Sunday morning. Here is the video
that Bernard Berrian took, and here are some
new lyrics (courtesy of me):
“Pants on the
Ground,
Saints pulled
them down,
Looking like
some fools,
Put the ball on the
ground.”
Alright, let’s talk Twins a little bit:
BIG NAMES or BIG IMPACT PLAYERS
On Friday, a couple of big names were found in some headlines. First came news that the Baltimore Orioles had signed Miguel Tejada
to be their 3B for 2010. He signed a one year contract worth $6 million, plus
an incentive package. Secondly, the Twins and White Sox appear to be the two
teams vying for the 2010 services of my homie, Jim Thome. My thoughts?
·
I generally have a belief that signing free agents that
are older than me is crazy. Both are older than me.
·
I fully believe that a team should pay a player for what
they believe he will do, not for what he has done in his career. Thome has hit well over 550 home runs. He has hit over 30
home runs twelve times in his career. But what will he do in 2010, and what is
that worth?
·
Tejada will be switching
positions. I think he will be just fine at 3B and he has played there in the
winters in the Dominican and in the WBC. He actually hit .313 last year with an NL-leading 46 doubles. Is he the #2 hitter that
the Twins need? No. He, like JJ Hardy,
is probably a #7 hitter.
·
Jim Thome is a DH. Maybe he could
play a game or two a month at 1B. But he is not as good as Jason Kubel. So the question would
become, do you want Thome at DH and Kubel in LF, or do you want Kubel
at DH and Delmon Young in LF? I guess, for me, I’ll
take my chances with the 23 year old with every day playing time.
·
That said, if Jim Thome is
OK with being the DH twice a week and pinch hitting duties, and the contract would
be $2 million or less, he would be a very good acquisition. Why? Right now, the
Twins bench looks like Tolbert, Casilla, Pridie and Butera. A Thome-like bat would be good.
·
I still prefer Rocco
Baldelli, and would be fine with even Eric Byrnes.
·
There are no ‘impact’ free agents out there anymore. The
closest to impact players are Felipe Lopez
and Orlando Hudson. They probably
aren’t impact players, but they could have a strong impact on the Twins since
they can play 2B and bat second.
·
For more on The Thome Paradox, check out Over the Baggy.
SPECIAL TWINS FEST PODCAST
I’m pretty excited about Tuesday night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly
Minnesota Twins Podcast. With Twins Fest
coming up this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to invite several
Twins and Twins prospects who will be in attendance at
Twins Fest to call in to the show. Well, in doing so, the response was very
good. So, the show will now be two hours instead of just one. It will start at
8:00 central time and go until 10:00. Guests will include John Sickels
(from MinorLeagueBall.com), Twins Prospects (Joe Benson, Kyle Gibson
and Carlos Gutierrez), and Twins
players (Pat Neshek,
Jeff Manship
and Denard Span). That’s right, seven guests will
be on in the two hours with the possibility of a couple more as well. I should
mention that Manship and Span will be on the Twins
Winter Caravan on Tuesday. They will be in Sioux Falls, SD, for a program that
night. They will call in to the show if the program and autograph signings are
complete. I haven’t done a two hour show before, but I think that there will be
plenty of guests, and if there is time, we will talk Twins topics too.
By the way, I will also be a guest on Travis Talks Minnesota
Sports podcast tonight (Monday) which starts at 9. His first guest will
be Gonzo from The Daily Norseman, a
Vikings blog. I will come on in the second half of the show to talk Twins. In
future weeks, he’ll start talking more about the minor leagues and also has
guests lined up from other AL Central bloggers.
2010 Minnesota Twins Prospect
Handbook Update
I mentioned this on Friday, but I do want to invite those of you who are
interested in the 2010 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook and would like updates
to e-mail
me. The book should go to the publisher today. I should receive the review
copy within two weeks and assuming all looks alright, it should be available
very soon after that. I hope to have a cover picture posted here soon. Like I
wrote on Friday, I am pretty excited about how it has turned out. For more
information, please scroll down for a longer update, and again, feel free to e-mail
me to be included in e-mail updates.
TWINS LINKS
Here are a few more links for you today:
·
The Twinkie Town Top 50 prospect
rankings are coming to an end. Here you can vote
for Twins Prospect #48.
·
While there, you should also check out Roger’s
Weekly Twins Minor League Update.
·
Josh Johnson posted his selection for
Twins
Prospect #27.
If you have any questions or
comments, click
here.
SethSpeaks.net
Live Twins Chat Today at Noon!
I haven’t had a live chat for quite awhile, so today at noon I will take
your questions on the Twins, Vikings, anything. Click
here to get a reminder for the chat, participate in the chat or read
the transcript later.
Minnesota
Twins Prospect Handbook – 2010 Updates
Last year, the Prospect Handbook was available on Thanksgiving. Right
now, we are hoping
that the 2010 handbook will be available within the next three weeks. I was
really happy with the 2009 version, but as I was telling a friend about some of
the differences in the 2010 version, I was getting pretty excited and proud of
what it is. First, from a pure writing standpoint, the editing and suggestions
of Jonathan Mayo and Kevin Czerwinski has been so helpful. There
is more information in each player’s heading, so the information in the
profiles contains more statistical splits and in-depth numbers, but I also got
scouting reports from a variety of sources in, around and outside the Twins
organization. There are about 150 Twins minor league player profiles. There are
also several stories/articles. I’m excited about them because there are quotes
from a lot of Twins minor leaguers. For instance, Tom Stuifbergen
talks about pitching against the Dominican Republic in the WBC. Trevor Plouffe discusses winning the gold medal at the World
Cup tournament in Europe. Danny Valencia talks about being on the cusp
of being a big leaguer. Derek McCallum discusses being drafted by his
home town team, twice. And several other Twins minor leaguers were quoted too.
It will again include my updated Top 30 Twins prospects for 2010, but also
review the previous five years. It includes top ten Twins prospect lists from
several minor league experts as well as several of your favorite Twins
bloggers. If you are at all interested in purchasing a book, or more
information about the book, please
send me an e-mail and let me know that you are OK with me sending you
updates on the book, eventually letting you know (first) how and where to order
as soon as we are ready to announces that.
The New TwinsCentric Project
The TwinsCentric
brand started up in early July with the Trade Deadline Primer. It continued with the Offseason GM Handbook which was made available within hours of the
completion of the Twins season. If you want much more
information on the newest TwinsCentric Project, one
which is already available for pre-order. First, check out Nick’s
Twins Blog for an excellent description of what the project is and what
you can expect from it. Then click here and be
sure to pre-order your copy today!