Which Memory Will You Choose?

Ever since the recent news of the Jerry Sandusky controversy at Penn State and Joe Paterno’s involvement, it seems like there’s a significant divide between those that still revere Paterno and those that now despise him. With his death, it appears as though most people (especially in the Pennsylvania area) still look upon Paterno as the perfect man, a legacy that will become timeless. Meanwhile, there are people like me that prefer to look at his decision to enable Sandusky to rape young boys by not coming to authorities about these crimes.

I have a friend that was a transplanted Pennsylvanian that briefly lived in Minnesota. As I follow him on Twitter, I sometimes hear about their sports news more than I care about. One of these things were all the well-wishes being said about Paterno after he died yesterday. With that, it shocked me. How could all these people be blind or ignorant to what he did, or perhaps more appropriately, did not do?

Then I had a thought, and another person popped into my consciousness – a man that was a hero to me when I was growing up. A man that himself had his public image do a 180 in some people’s eyes, right before his sudden death.

That man is Kirby Puckett.

Kirby, a man that helped bring home the only two World Series titles the Twins have ever seen. A man that I took a liking to immediately, simply because the Metrodome crowds always cheered the loudest for him and Bob Casey always said his name with the most flair. A man that was charged with sexual assault after his retirement.

To some, Puckett was a sex offender. But to many Twins fans, he will be remembered as the heart and soul of many Twins teams. After all, he has been honored with a Target Field gate named after him, and there is a statue of him on Target Plaza. Clearly most of us were willing to ignore what he did after he retired.

I’m still not going to pay my respects to Joe Paterno, and yet I’m okay with Kirby Puckett. It’s tough to change my mind when I had no emotional ties to one, and the other was my childhood hero, and well, that makes me a hypocrite.

After reading this, I bet some of you are hypocrites as well.

Note: After discussions with the Pennsylvania friend I mentioned above, I’d like to point out that the comments on Paterno’s involvement in the case are not entirely true, but are rather my interpretations of the incident. That’s what bias can do to you.

Kevin Slowey Returns to the AL Central

It’s been announced just a little while ago that Kevin Slowey has been traded from the Colorado Rockies to the Cleveland Indians. In return, the Rockies will be getting relief prospect Zach Putnam.

At first glance, Twins fans should be frustrated with this trade. After berating Slowey constantly, both publicly and likely privately as well, they shipped him off to Colorado for sidearming reliever Daniel Turpen. The reason I say fans should be frustrated is because the Rockies took a player with moderate value (Turpen) and eventually ended up with Putnam, a good relief prospect. Turpen repeated Double-A last year (though his first time at Double-A in the Rockies organization) and he put up a 4.98 ERA with more walks than strikeouts. Meanwhile, Putnam had a September call-up with the Indians last year, and although his 6.14 ERA wasn’t pretty, he didn’t walk a single batter in 7.1 innings while striking out nine. He did well in Triple-A, tallying a 3.65 ERA with 8.87 K/9 and 3.00 BB/9 in 69 innings.

On SOPA

The title says it all. If you don’t want to hear me talk about SOPA, then stop reading now.

If you have been well-informed, you know of the Wikipedia blackout today (and if you have not been well-informed, your tweets are likely being retweeted by either of these two accounts). Not all major websites have taken part, but we can also include one of my favorites from my younger years (read: last year), and that is the comics website The Oatmeal. Since the owner of The Oatmeal, Matthew Inman, gave his blessing to “pirate the shit out of this animated GIF,” I have provided a picture from said GIF below, as I am not technically skilled enough to actually “pirate the shit out of this animated GIF.”

Would dressing Jesus and Oprah like pirates make this picture meta?

I, like many other people you may now, am opposed to SOPA. Yes, it’s designed to stop rogue websites from stealing content from companies. But it also has the potential to shut down innocent websites. For example, this one.

Yes, Off The Mark would be in violation of SOPA. Take a look at this post back in May 2011. In tackling a particular play in a game against the Detroit Tigers, I used screenshots from a video highlight to present my argument that the umpires made an incorrect ruling on this fan interference play. With what I understand from SOPA, if MLB were to find this post, they could have this site shut down, if WordPress didn’t get to me first. If the government had Off The Mark shut down, then WordPress could be shut down as well for failing to get to me first. Also, websites that have linked to Off The Mark could disappear as well. All because I wanted to explain why the Twins got screwed in a game from early last season.

Another post that could end Off The Mark is this one, where I used song lyrics from Rise Against’s “Help Is On The Way” to describe how the Twins’ bench and minor leaguers were not actually providing much help to the major league club. I’ve been discovering that record labels are having their bands’ lyrics copyrighted on lyrics websites (so you can no longer copy and paste lyrics from the website), which could very well mean that simply posting the lyrics to a song would be in violation of the copyright. Now, it’s possible that I’m fine because I did cite Rise Against and the song when posting it, but living in fear or having to even take down the post is not right.

I don’t draw in many readers with this blog, but that was never my intention when I started. I started this blog because it gave me a chance to do what I wanted (write about the Twins) while avoiding what I didn’t want (editors, deadlines, and majoring in English, communications, or journalism). If Off The Mark was to end because of SOPA, I certainly could just start up a new blog. But I don’t want to do that, nor do I feel that I should have to, just because I violated some copyrights in the name of enhancing my own creative content. I would appreciate it if you contact your state representative and/or senator and tell them that passing SOPA is not in the best interest of this nation. Thank you for your time.

*trips off soapbox*

The Benefits of Waiting

Every offseason, we see some teams go out and get a jump on signing free agents, while others sit back and wait for prices to drop. Each tactic has its pros and cons. The teams that sign their players right away guarantee they get what they want, but at the risk of overpaying. Meanwhile, the teams that wait for the market to develop risk losing their preferred options to other teams and also risk having prices actually increase instead (see some non-closing reliever contracts over the past 5 years). However, it’s more likely that prices will drop as free agents realize having a lower paying job than they first wanted is better than no job at all.

The reason I bring this up is mainly because of the Phillies and Reds. The Phillies had just converted their stud reliever Ryan Madson into a closer, and they had a choice. Either they had to re-sign Madson, bring in a new pitcher, or “promote” a current reliever on the roster to closer. Well, the Phillies went the aggressive route and signed former Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon to a 4-year, $50 million contract on Nov. 14th. Sounds expensive, but remember that the Twins once threw 4 years and $47 million at Joe Nathan prior to the 2008 season.

Not The Same Wolves

When it comes to sports, I’m typically not picky. If any of the Minnesota home teams in the big four sports are on TV, I’m most likely watching the game. This has caused me to watch games regardless of the respective team’s place in the standings. I still remember the 1998 season for the Vikings (are there any Minnesotans that do not?), the playoff runs in the 2000s for the Twins, countered by suffering through this past season, and the constant mediocrity from the Wild over the past couple years. As I just demonstrated, there have been good seasons, and not so good seasons, and if there’s anything I pride myself on, it’s that I am not a bandwagon fan.

Fixing Nick Blackburn

Between the 2008 and 2009 seasons, Nick Blackburn showed an amazing level of consistency. Both years, he posted a nearly identical ERA, but the similarities extended beyond that.

Click to embiggen – er, see more clearly.

This consistency led the Twins and Blackburn to agree to a 4-year, $14 million contract just prior to the 2010 season. However, Blackburn has done little to reward the Twins for this commitment, as he posted a 5.42 ERA in 2010 and a 4.49 ERA in 2011. That 2011 ERA actually doesn’t look that bad, but the average ERA last season was 3.94, the lowest it’s been since 1992.

An Attempt At Understanding “Pitch To Contact”

There is one of our despised phrases, and one of the Twins’ favorites and it’s “pitching to contact.” The Twins use this to justify their affinity of pitchers that don’t walk anyone, but unfortunately also fail to strike out many hitters. We’re seeing that phrase quite a bit this offseason, as the Twins have just signed RHP Jason Marquis to fill out the rotation, and he’s essentially a Carl Pavano or Nick Blackburn clone. Those three pitchers are going to go the chuck-’n'-duck route, whereas the other two starters, Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker, will actually be able to strike out some hitters.

Last season, there was some controversy when the Twins expressed they wanted Francisco Liriano to “pitch to contact” more. Here we had a starter whose main weapon was getting hitters to swing-and-miss, and yet the Twins wanted him to stray from that strategy. It was a comment that most of us (including myself) didn’t take to very well. However, beneath the surface, the Twins were trying to say that they wanted Liriano to reduce his number of pitches in an outing by getting quicker outs. In fact, here’s a quote from Ron Gardenhire in a Phil Mackey column from last season:

“Use that two-seamer, and use that slider down and in every once in a while, and that changeup, but pitch to contact early,” Gardenhire said. “That’ll get him deep into games. Because his stuff is so good. There’s times when you need to go for the strikeout.

“That’s when you save your Mr. Nasty, as they say. You throw the nasty pitches then. But those other times you need to pitch to contact to get you deeper into games. When you want that big strikeout, maybe with a man on second, and you’ve got an open base, take your shot with your stuff.”

The Breakup of a Band

I’m bored today, and that can lead to many things. After doing such unthinkable things such as playing Bubble Spinner and Spite Cannon at the same time, driving all the way to St. Olaf to pick up my sister (okay, that’s actually in the realm of reasonableness), and doing research for a future blog post in an attempt to understand why the Twins love their “innings eaters”, I settled on something that I should have tackled earlier last week.

With the departure of Michael Cuddyer, our favorite Twins satire band, Cuddy and the Lawn Mauers, is no more.

What is a band without a frontman? Well, nothing. No one is going to want to watch or listen to just The Lawn Mauers. They have no leadership or excitement. All they do is shrug their shoulders and ground out to second base. Michael Cuddyer is what made such hits as “Bandbox Hero” and my personal favorite of any baseballing satire musical act, “Outdoor Subsidy,” as awesome as they were. Why? Because he had the “it” factor. Without Cuddy, “Outdoor Subsidy” becomes just a boring old “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the Lawn Mauers look at their drumsticks, their electric guitars, and think, “Maybe I should have just called in sick today.”

Who can take over? Who will lead the Lawn Mauers into the new year? There are some newcomers in Josh Willingham, Jamey Carroll, and Ryan Doumit. They could take the easy route and promote one of the Lawn Mauers, Justin Morneau, to lead singer. Hell, he’s even got a Cuddy-like nickname with “Morny.” Morny and the Lawn Mauers. It sort of works. But is there a name with a better ring to it? Perhaps the Lawn Mauers should be scrapped altogether? Yes, they could be scrapped. If there’s one thing the Lawn Mauers are, it’s scrappy.

Or maybe they should just move on without having a new member. After all, it has been over a year since they came out with “Bandbox Hero.” Maybe it’s just time to make a new song.

Yes, that sounds best. All of it. What’s that? You have no idea what’s going on?

That’s okay. This past season, no one knew what the hell was going on.

Twins Sign Josh Willingham

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve noticed that I did not make an offseason blueprint this year for the Twins. This was not because I didn’t have any clues as to what I wanted, but rather that I just didn’t have the time. Regardless, I was in favor of the Twins signing Josh Willingham over re-signing Michael Cuddyer, a fact that I had made known a couple times here and countless times elsewhere.

In doing so, the Twins ended up getting a comparable player to Cuddyer while saving roughly $10 million in the process, if Cuddyer’s 3 year, $31.5 million contract with the Colorado Rockies is true. Some people may argue that Cuddyer’s versatility is what makes him worth more, but honestly, he was a bad fielder no matter where he played. His “versatility” was just a byproduct of his unselfishness and Ron Gardenhire’s willingness to move him around the field. You want to call someone versatile? Nick Punto is versatile. Cuddyer is not. (On a related note, neither is Ryan Doumit, even though he can play catcher, 1st base, and right field).

I Have An Announcement To Make

I didn’t mention this to many, so I won’t leave out any details. The MLB Network is planning on having a trivia game show (at least from what has been described to me) involving members of all 30 MLB teams. By “members” I mean staff, and not just those that are in the front office. I mean every single person that is employed by these teams are eligible to compete in this game show.

Maybe I should be more specific. Each team gets a single representative that is sent to the MLB Network studios to compete in this show. Being a Twins usher, yes, I was given a chance. There was a trivia test held over this past week, and I was one of the people in attendance. I didn’t think I had a serious chance of winning, but I don’t typically say no to a “What the hell, what’s the worst that could happen?” moment. Besides, it gave me another chance to hang out at Target Field, and now I can say that I’ve been in the press conference room.

No, I was not the victor. I was humbled by questions such as “Who scored the winning run when Mookie Wilson’s grounder went through Bill Buckner’s legs in the World Series?” and “Who was the only person to ever get three hits in an inning?” However, the winner was just announced, and I’m pleased to wish my best to a good friend of mine, a fellow Gustavus alum and the guy that helped me get this job in the first place. One of the few that was crazy enough to actually study for a test like this (Studying with Sporcle baseball quizzes was a genius idea). A former intern at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Congratulations, Craig Nordquist!

I have only one piece of advice for you. Just don’t forget that Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in a season again.