Why I Can’t Ignore Stats

If some of you have been active in following your Hall of Fame voters, you probably read this post on Jon Heyman discussing his ballot. He spent the majority of this piece stating why he didn’t vote for Bert Blyleven, and then he explained why he voted for Jack Morris instead. I promise this is not intended to be a “Vote Blyleven, not Morris!” post, because I’m more interested in something else. Heyman claims that Morris had a bigger impact in his games than Blyleven. Well then, what happens if I never experienced this impact?

When The Twins Offseason Moves Helped The Present And Looking To The Future

A few weeks ago, I was reading this post and its comments on Nick’s Twins Blog when I found this comment by Ed Bast. An excerpt from his comment states:

To me this deal just illustrates the overriding philosophy of this organization to always play for next year and three years down the road and five years down the road and never play for this year. As a small-market team this is admirable – with those sort of budget contraints it’s difficult to be competitive year in and year out, and the Twins for the 00s (sic) deserve credit for that approach.

This is partially true, as it does appear that the Twins are more interested in the future rather than the present. However, I think many fans seem to ignore the fact that 2010 was the season where the Twins went for it all.

NFL Thoughts From Week 15

With the lack of Twins news since the Tsuyoshi Nishioka press conference, I’m turning towards some recent happenings in the NFL.

Don’t Kick To Connolly!

In perhaps one of the most improbable, hilarious, amazing plays ever, right guard Dan Connolly of the New England Patriots returned a squib kick 71 yards to the Green Bay Packers’ 4-yard line in New England’s 31-27 victory. However, the Patriots should have been penalized for an illegal block in the back by Sammy Harris on kicker Mason Crosby (of all people, why the kicker?) that occurred at the Packers’ 14-yard line, but I suppose I wouldn’t blame the referees if they didn’t want to negate such a good return by Connolly. This return set the NFL record for longest kick return by an offensive lineman, but it’s too bad that he wasn’t able to top it off with scoring a touchdown.

The Curious Case of Micheal Nakamura

When I wrote about why I feel we shouldn’t hold unreasonably high expectations for recently signed Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, I mentioned that he will the first Japanese player to ever wear a Twins uniform, excluding RHP Micheal Nakamura*. Don’t worry, I forgive you if you don’t remember Nakamura, considering he only pitched 12.2 innings for the Twins in 2003.

* Yes, his first name has the “e” and “a” flipped. It’s like Jhonny Peralta.

Reviewing My 2010 Predictions

Well, soon I’ll get to reviewing the predictions. First, my friend (and fellow Twins usher) Craig found me this link, and the first two paragraphs sounded very familiar. If you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to my post about the Twins Holiday Party…

Finally, at the end of the presentation, Gardy was given three gifts to help him with the upcoming season.

- The books Survival Japanese and Instant Japanese

- A set of CDs on learning Japanese

Looks like Survival Japanese is getting some use!

Give Some Leeway to Nishioka

At around 4 pm today, Fox Sports North will air the Tsuyoshi Nishioka press conference. For just about all of us, it will be the first time that we have ever seen Nishioka on something that isn’t a picture or a YouTube video. I’m not sure if he will get a chance to speak during the press conference, but if he does, I’m sure we’ll hear through his interpreter that he’s excited to join a winning team. The Twins and us fans are certainly excited to see him also, as he will be the first Japanese player (excluding Micheal Nakamura) the Twins have ever had.

What Do We Do Now? / Twins Trade Jose Morales

Within the past few days, the Twins have been dealt two blows when it was announced that Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain respectively signed 3-year contracts with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The consensus among fans was that at least one of these pitchers would have to be re-signed to fill the large opening in the bullpen, but now the Twins have lost two prime targets.

Many people are concerned that the Twins do not have a plan to fill the bullpen now, and that they will end up with something that resembles DisasterPen ’11. However, I’m not that concerned, because there are still plenty of options available. They may not instill confidence at first glance, but they can still be solid options.

The Twins Holiday Party

What, you didn’t hear about it? Well, there was Jim Thome, and Carl Pavano, and we got to watch Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s physical like it was an animal birth at the Miracle of Birth building at the State Fair,* and I totally played beer pong with Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, and Matt Capps in the press box,** and…

* It wasn’t as awesome as it sounds.

** This was just as awesome as it sounds.

Alright, none of that was true. It was simply for Twins employees from the 2010 season, but it was still plenty of fun, and not just because we got free gifts and harassed Ron Gardenhire for the entire night. Yep, that’s right, Gardy was even there.

Conspiracy Theorists Believe Metrodome Collapse Was No Accident

Disclaimer

Early Sunday morning, the roof of the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN collapsed under 15 inches of snow. Because of the collapse, the Minnesota Vikings had their game against the New York Giants that was originally rescheduled for Monday night to be moved to Ford Field in Detroit, MI. Despite the move, some people don’t believe the snowfall was entirely to blame.

Hardy Gets A Trade, Twins Fans Rage

As you’ve likely heard by now, the Twins traded SS J.J. Hardy, IF Brendan Harris, and $500,000 to the Baltimore Orioles for RHP Brett Jacobson and Jim Hoey. With the imminent signing of Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka and the decision to give Alexi Casilla another shot at starting in the infield, along with the poor market for shortstops allowed the Twins to make Hardy expendable.