Monday/Tuesday, December 20/21, 2004
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Good morning everyone!
Well, my computer/cable internet problems were not fixed yesterday, so I am still unable to do anything from my home. That means I don’t have the ability to update this site from there. So, I have about 15 minutes this morning to type something up so that I don’t leave you completely uninformed for today. So, again, I don’t know how long I’ll have this problem, but I will try to get it resolved soon.
Tonight, I will be watching some hockey as the Czech Republic against Germany will be playing at the Warroad Gardens Arena. It is an Exhibition game before the Hockey World Juniors Championship. So that should be fun.
If not for that, I would probably be excited to watch the Timberwolves play at Cleveland. Kevin Garnett is the NBA’s most complete player, but Lebron James may be the second most complete. And, he is still in just the first half of his second season out of high school. The kid is incredible. It should be a good game to watch, if you’re able to.
The Twins had some big decisions to make yesterday. As you know, I have written a lot about how I agree that Jacque Jones should be traded. I have always prefaced that with the point that he is arguably my favorite Twins player. Even if he swings at everything and can’t hit left-handed pitching. I enjoy watching how he plays the game. So, the fact that I do think that the Twins are still fine in the outfield and should have prioritized keeping at 3B, namely Corey Koskie, I really don’t have a problem with them resigning Jacque Jones to a one-year, $5 million contract to keep him around this year (if he’s traded, he gets an additional $250,000). I just happen to think that it is now time to start platooning him so that we don’t have to see him look bad against lefties! Of course, had Jason Kubel not been hurt, Jones would probably have been traded. And, at $5 million, he could still be considered a good investment by a number of other teams.
The Twins also resigned Matthew LeCroy to a $750,000 deal. It’s still cheap, and the man can hit. Of course, with Jones retained, Lew Ford will likely be the primary DH meaning that LeCroy will be mainly a pinch hitter and a backup at 1B and C (in an emergency!).
They also found it necessary to keep Luis Rivas, I guess. This, like the Juan Castro signing, will never make sense to me. Rivas came off arguably his worst year yet, and got a raise to $1.625 million! That likely means that the plan would be to play Cuddyer at 3B and keep Rivas at 2B. This is a total waste of funds!
The team also offered arbitration to pitchers Johan Santana, Carlos Silva, Kyle Lohse and JC Romero. None of them are really a surprise, and I would guess that they will all be settled before they go to arbitration. Hopefully Santana will sign a long-term deal. Hopefully Silva and Lohse will be willing to sign for right around $1 million (although both will likely be closer to $1.5-2 million). If they keep Romero, maybe they can sign him for cheap! We can hope!
The offseason has been full of what I would consider questionable decisions based on a very limited self-inflicted budget. But I do have to remind Twins fans of one thing. Terry Ryan has made it work the last three years. There have been a number of things that make you go Hmmm, but they have turned out to be right decisions. Hopefully this is another year where that is the case.
In other baseball news, the Angels signed Orlando Cabrera to a four-year deal. He is certainly a huge step up from David Eckstein, and the Angels realized that too as they non-tendered Eckstein, making him a free agent. Another name that was not offered arbitration, that I think might be interesting, is the Astros Wade Miller. Now, he was hurt last year, but had been very good the previous two or three years. If he’d sign for cheap, he might be worth the risk down the road.
Did you see the Red Sox-Padres trade? Would you have guessed Dave Roberts would have commanded that much? The Red Sox sent the speedy outfielder (who is still fairly affordable) to San Diego in exchange for Jay Payton, Ramon Vazquez, David Pauley and money. Payton will likely fill both Roberts and Gabe Kapler’s roles next year, platooning with Trot Nixon and basically being the 4th outfielder and a role player. Vazquez will back up Edgar Renterria at SS and probably play some at 2B and 3B as well. Looks like a salary dump for the Padres, but with Roberts’ speed, he will do well again in the NL West.
On that note, I am going to call it a day. Again, I am trying to figure out how to get my home computer working so I can do some real, better posts. For now, I will encourage you to check out all of the Twins sites on the left-side of this screen. Today, I would especially encourage you to check out Twins Chatter for an article called Subtraction by Retention? Something I just may agree with in this case. Also, take some time to read The Baseball Savant!! You’ll be glad you did!!!
Here is how things stand on our football picks after this week. It is hard to believe how close things are at the top! With a record of 12-4, this weeks winners were Ryan Maus and Missy Olson. Check back on Thursday for our Week 16 picks. Remember, the Vikings host the Packers on Friday at 2:00, so to those of you who are picking the NFL games for this site, I will try to e-mail you the games today, but also, please just feel free to e-mail me at and I will be able to get those for sure. Thanks!
Have a great day!!
Thru Week 14 Total Week 14 Over All Name Site W L Win% W L Win % Mike Brasel Fantasy FB Guru 11 5 68.80% 153 71 68.30% Melissa Olson SethSpeaks.net 12 4 75.00% 153 71 68.30% Ryan Maus Twins Chatter 12 4 75.00% 153 71 68.30% Aaron Gleeman Aaron's BB Blog 8 8 50.00% 149 75 66.50% David Bergner Baseball Savant 11 5 68.80% 149 75 66.50% Michael Labuda ChiSox Daily 9 7 56.30% 147 77 65.60% Vic Quick KDUH-TV Sports 8 8 50.00% 141 83 62.90% Ben Jacobs Hardball Times 11 5 68.80% 140 84 62.50% David Bloom Ya Gotta Believe 9 7 56.30% 136 88 60.70% Jeremy Kovash Wolf Lake Mgr 10 6 87.50% 135 89 60.30% Seth Stohs SethSpeaks.net 9 7 56.30% 134 90 59.80% John Bonnes The Twins Geek 9 7 56.30% 130 94 58.00%
Monday, December 20, 2004
Good Monday Morning everyone!
Just thought I would write real quickly and tell you that my cable internet has been out since sometime on Saturday night, so I have been without internet access since then. You can’t even imagine how difficult that has been for me! Seriously! I didn’t know what to do all day on Sunday! So, until I get that figured out, I don’t know what the status of this site will be. I will try to post a couple of thoughts each day still. I just don’t know how possible that will be. It all depends on how quickly I can get this resolved.
So, just a couple of thoughts before I bid you good day!
The Vikings won in a squeaker yesterday thanks to a bad snap that would have tied the game! Daunte was incredible again! Randy Moss seems to be back at full strength and Nate Burleson is a star waiting to happen!
Today is the day that teams need to decide whether to offer arbitration to players who have not been around long enough to become free agents. The Twins have seven such players. Johan Santana is the big name on the list. Obviously they will offer him arbitration. Kyle Lohse and Carlos Silva both will be offered, I’m sure. Jacque Jones is probably the biggest question mark on that list. It does sound like the Twins are about to sign him to a one-year deal. If not, my friend Tyler and I were speculating that the Braves could be interested in him. Imagine for a second, if you will, that the Braves bring up Andy Marte to play 3B this year and could with an outfield of Chipper, Andruw and Jacque Jones. It could happen! Luis Rivas, JC Romero, Matthew LeCroy are the other three. I would think they will offer it to all but Rivas (I can hope, right?) Teams have until 11:00 (central time) to make this decision.
The big news in baseball this weekend was the trade of another A’s ace! Mark Mulder was traded from Oakland to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for a package of Danny Haren, Kiko Calero and Daric Barton. Interesting to me, is that I think that A’s did better in this deal than they did in the Tim Hudson trade! Haren is legit! Calero is an excellent reliever! And Barton is a top catching prospect (as if the A’s don’t have enough of those, right?). But the Cardinals have been looking for a left-handed starter and were mentioned briefly in Randy Johnson talks and were said to be courting Eric Milton. I think they came out with the best option for themselves!! The A’s carved 2/3 of the big three, and will be left with a (probable) starting rotation of Barry Zito, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, Danny Haren and Dan Meyer. All could be very good pitchers, but four of them are young, with less than two years of experience! It could be an interesting year in Oakland.
For those of you who happened to listen to WCCO yesterday, I was on the air from 1:10-2:00. They did a call-in show on Weird Names in sports. We got a number of people to call in with some very fun, interesting sports names. For those that heard it, the site I need to link you to to get credit for this topic is BrentNet, and the forum topic is here.
And, on that note, I am going to call it a day. Be sure to check back tomorrow as well. Updates may not occur until mid-morning if I don’t regain internet access at home. Please bear with me! If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me. Have a good day!
If you're looking for a great way to organize your family's Christmas Wish Lists, be sure to go to this site, designed by a good friend of mine.
And as I mentioned last week, I got my copy of 2004 Hardball Times Baseball Annual! It is far more impressive than I ever would have thought. Great articles, get writing, and very interesting and comprehensive statistics. It is well worth picking up for yourself or as a Christmas gift for family and friends who are baseball fans! By it here.
If you have any thoughts, opinions or questions on any topic, please feel free to e-mail me. Have a great weekend!!