Saturday, March 15, 2008
SethSpeaks; Who's
Reading?
You’re not seeing things. This
is a Saturday SethSpeaks posting. I finally got
through all of the Demographic Surveys and wanted to share with the readers
what it showed. But first, just a couple of notes:
·
Be sure to head
over to Twins Trivia where there is
a newly posted Q&A with former Twins pitcher Dick Woodson. He played with the Twins in 1969, 1970 and 1972-1974.
He became the first player in Major League history to have his contract left up
to an arbitrator. They discuss several topics including his teammates, Calvin Griffith, the current state of
the game and much, much more.
·
By the way, did
you see the game-winning shot by Blake Hoffarber in
the Gophers 59-58 win over Indiana in the Big Ten tournament? It was the #1
play on SportsCenter’s Top 10. Do you remember this shot that Hoffarber made two years ago in the Minnesota State
Basketball tournament?
·
Nick Nelson analyses
the Twins second base situation.
·
Josh Taylor
analyses the players that were
cut from Twins training camp yesterday. The players cut were:
o
Julio DePaula – He wasn’t going to make the team anyway, not right
out of camp, but again, there are others in camp that he is better than. But they are generally from outside the
organization so the team has to see what they have.
o
Bobby Korecky – I was surprised when Korecky
was added to the 40 man roster despite his 35 saves last year at Rochester. He’s
not young and he is incredibly hittable. That said, he
certainly got the job done for the Red Wings last year. He could come up if
there are any injuries in the Twins bullpen this season.
o
Mariano Gomez
– Left-handed reliever is just that, left-handed and breathing, so the Twins
brought him in. He may stick with Rochester this year.
o
Matt Macri – With Buscher playing well
and Lamb the starter, Macri now goes to Rochester to
get more at bats.
o
Chris Basak – Still don’t know why this guy was brought back, but
he hit a game-winning home in one spring training game. Twins have too much
middle infield depth for him to stick around.
o
Howie Clark – Another guy that I can’t really see sticking around.
Sure, he can play four or five positions, but again, there are a lot of players
who could play for Rochester. And, he’s upwards of 35!
o
Alexi Casilla – This one is more than a little surprising. Earlier
this week, I wrote that I thought Casilla was probably
the best option for the starting 2B job but that he wouldn’t make the roster
because the bench is probably better with just one of Nick Punto
and Brendan Harris sitting. The surprise to me is that this decision appears to
show that the Twins have moved Matt Tolbert
ahead of Casilla on their depth chart. Not
necessarily the case though. Maybe it is more of a situation similar to sending
Jose Morales down while keeping Drew
Butera up.
·
The Twins game at
noon today against the Phillies will be on Fox Sports North. If you don’t get
that, you can also watch it on mlb.tv. The game will pit Kevin Slowey against former Twins pitcher
JD Durbin.
·
Demographic Survey
Results
Alright, 109 people participated
in the survey this year which is up significantly from previous attempts. So
thank you to all of you. There was a contest along with this survey. Each
person who sent me a survey had their name put in a hat, and I drew out the
winner. Well, congratulations to “Craig from Woodbury” who was the winner of
two autographed cards for Twins prospects. On to the results.
Please remember that participants didn’t have to respond to each part of it, so
it doesn’t have to add up to 109. Also, when we get to the areas that people
liked or didn’t like, they could respond with more than one thing, so there
will be more than 109.
·
Of the 109
responders, 106 of them were men… just three women!
·
The leading age
category was 26-30 with 30 responders. 21-25 was next with 18. 13 were between
31 and 35. 12 were between 51 and 55. 11 were 41-45.
·
If we look at
this by 10 year categories, we see five under age 20, 48 between 21 and 30, 20
between 31 and 40, 17 between 41 and 50, 16 between 51 and 60 and there were
three over the age of 60.
·
To no one’s
surprise, Minnesota was the home 44 respondents. North Dakota (8) and South
Dakota (7) came in second and third.
·
23 of the 50
states were represented. Also, I got responses from Norway, the Netherlands,
Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom.
·
38 people had
been coming to the site for less than a year (and 18 of them for six months or
less). 17 people had been coming to the site for between one and two years. 49
people have been coming to the site for more than two years, including 29 who
have been to the site for three or more years.
·
78 people said
that they check the site at least once a day while 25 check it two or three
times a week.
·
When asked how
people came to SethSpeaks.net, 29 said through a link from Aaron Gleeman. Another
18 said they came from the Star-Tribune’s blogs. 13 people came to the site
because of a general internet search, and 13 other people came to the site
through “word of mouth.”
More Specific Details
I also asked some more
details questions such as what brings you to the site (or keeps you coming to
the site) and what aspects of the site you don’t like:
What You Like
·
It appears that
the minor league coverage is definitely something people like. 55 responded
with a general comment about liking the Minor League analysis. 39 people
specifically mentioned enjoying the Q&As with
prospects. Nine mentioned the Top Prospect Lists.
·
Twenty-one people
said that they appreciated the frequent links to other Twins blogs (and only
one of them was a Twins blogger!)
·
20 commented on
the general Twins incite on several topics.
·
Ten people like
my writing style (which is interesting because I don’t know if I have one). I
think that could maybe be consolidated with the 13 people who said that I
generally am pretty positive about topics while still being willing to speak
the truth when necessary. Maybe the four people that say that I am humble could
fit in this category too.
·
Eight people
pointed out that I touch some on statistics without it being overwhelming.
·
Another eight
people said that part of what they like is that I post just about daily.
What You Don’t Like
·
As I mentioned
last week one day, the biggest thing that you don’t like is the American Idol
thoughts. 30 people mentioned that as something that you don’t like.
·
Along with that,
nine people wrote that they don’t like anything that isn’t Twins or baseball
related. (5 others said the NFL, or the NFL Picks)
·
Nine people
mentioned design or layout issues.
·
Six people
pointed out that you either don’t like the Q&As
with minor leaguers or think that sometimes they get too long.
What other sites do you
read?
·
71 – AaronGleeman.com
·
53 – LaVelle E. Neal’s Twins Insider
·
44 – Joe Christensen’s
Around the Majors
·
36 – Phil Miller
and the Pioneer Press’s Twins Blog
·
25 – Nick & Nick’s Twins Blog
·
24 – Howard Sinker’s
A Fan’s View from Section
220
·
23 – Stick & Ball Guy
·
20 – Twinkie Town
·
18 – Twins Geek
·
11 – Taylor’s Twins Thoughts
·
10 – The Official Twins
Site
·
8 – Twins Territory, MLB Trade Rumors
·
7 – Josh’s Thoughts, On the Road with Pat Neshek
·
5 – The Hardball Times
·
4 – Fire Joe Morgan, Baseball Prospectus, Jim Mandelaro’s Extra Bases Blog
·
3 – Joe Posnanski,
USS Mariner, John Sickels’
Minor League Ball, MN Gameday, Will Young’s Twins Blog, Buster
Olney’s Blog
Again, I want to thank everyone for participating in this survey. Hopefully I learned a lot and the rightthings to provide you with a site that you are happy to come to most days of the week! As always, I want to welcome you to e-mail me at any time if you have any thoughts. Keep checking back, never know when we’ll have an update.