Counterargument: Twins Should Keep Losing

If you are familiar with the “remember the beer” argument, this will sound familiar. If you haven’t, well, here’s some literature in case you’re not a fan of summaries.

Basically, Ken Arneson argues that a stat-head looks at a baseball team from the viewpoint of a general manager, whereas the non-saberists look at a team as a fan. Upon reading his post, I had to agree. I used to look at the Twins as a fan, but now I’ve moved into the mindset of a general manager. Hell, why else would I have made this prior to the 2011 season?*

* I just skimmed that post for entertainment purposes, and I came to this header:

8. Trade OF Michael Cuddyer and $5 million to anyone that will take him for anyone that is cheap.

The Twins basically listened to me, except for the wrong players. They instead carried out this suggestion with J.J. Hardy and Delmon Young, and up until Cuddyer’s injury problems, this has been a very foolish suggestion. 

Put A Sock In It, Please

When I first started reading Twins blogs about 4 years ago, the allure of being able to write about baseball without having deadlines or having to watch editors turn my work into a horror show reignited a dream I had of being a sportswriter. As long as I could live without the glory and money (or lack thereof?), I could do what I had wanted to do since being in middle school.

Then I see people in the media seem to take advantage of their job. Some just report on the games and what happens, but then there are others that are charged with putting in a little more substance. Unfortunately though, they sometimes take the high road, acting like Class A jerks over what they perceive to be class Single-A behavior. Skip Bayless on ESPN is the first example who jumps out to me, as his job could be simplified to just “professional troll.”

There’s been a few instances in the past couple days that have bothered me. Perhaps more than they should, but they’ve been over issues I consider to be minor.

But It Never Came

For some reason, I’ve really gotten into music that you typically won’t find on the radio. Thrice (mainly a post-hardcore band, but they’ve significantly softened their sound over the past 5 years) and Dream Theater (progressive rock) are my two favorite bands. Kasabian (English rock and the OTM Official Walk-up Music on the right) ranks fairly high as well, though I only own two of their three albums.

Perhaps the only two bands I’m heavily invested in that can be found on the radio are Shinedown and Rise Against. I was very pleased when I learned early this season that Music Man Dan Edwards was playing Rise Against’s “Help Is On The Way.” Simply put, it’s a song about Hurricane Katrina, but to me, I get the feeling that it has roughly defined this 2011 season for the Twins. If you don’t mind, let’s stretch a few of the lyrics a bit and use the power of metaphors to see what I mean.