Very Random Sports Thoughts: Manny playing early, Timberwolves trading & drafting, and my Twins

I have so many thoughts on my little iPod "Notes" app, of things I want to write about in the blog, but getting my healing brain to cooperate seems to be the issue. So I am going to put those notes aside, and just cover some current sports things on my mind, since they don't take a lot of deep & analytical thinking!

• I already complained about this on Twitter, but why does suspended Dodger Manny Ramirez get to have "rehab" games in the minor leagues before his 50 game suspension is up? He shouldn't be allowed to play anywhere higher than American Legion ball until the suspension is done. MLB says he can't talk to the media from the Dodgers clubhouse, but he's allowed to go get his swing back in the minors? If a player is tossed from a game, the player replacing him doesn't even get a warm-up throw, catch, etc (and it's not even the fault of the replacement player), but Manny can play AA ball? This is a suspension for failing a drug test, not a DL trip for a torn ligament. If he needs rehab games, it should happen after the suspension. Someone please explain to me how this makes sense.


• The Timberwolves are currently trying to make up for all their lost draft picks from the Joe Smith debacle in this one year (just to clarify, I liked & still like Joe Smith, but he is not the kind of player that one should risk a lengthy punishment to try to sign him early...), by picking up their 4th pick of the 1st round. The latest trade, sending Randy Foye & Mike Miller to the Washington Wizards for 3 players & the #5 pick, is ok with me, if that actually matters to anyone. I plan to write an expanded blog about Randy Foye's time with the Wolves, and the impossible situation he was in through no fault of his own, but I think it would help him to be somewhere where is not continually compared to Brandon Roy. Mike Miller just seemed to lose the shooting touch he'd always shown against the Wolves, once he was actually on his childhood favorite team. My personal opinion is that his "man bob" haircut was the reason he was struggling, since not many Minnesotan men wear headbands, but I have no scientific backing on that thought! Now the question is what the Wolves will do with these picks, which leads me to...


• Please don't package picks to get Hasheem Thabeet. I have nothing against Thabeet, and he seems like a nice enough kid. I just think the odds of him being a complete dud in the pros is larger than the odds of him being a star. This is based on watching him play against the Zags twice in the last 2 years, as well as watching a large number of Big East games during his tenure at UConn. He has some defensive presence, but I feel that in the NBA, that will be overshadowed by his lack of offensive skills. I think Stephen Curry, with his size issue, is a much better risk than Thabeet. Having said that, I'd be ok with the T-Wolves taking Thabeet at #5 or #6 if he is still there, as there is a shortage of big men in this draft, just not with them giving up picks to move up to #2 or #3 for him.


• Which draft picks would I love to see on the T-Wolves when it's all said and done? I'm not even going to include Oklahama stud Blake Griffin, as he will be gone, and I think the Wolves have a couple good building blocks at his position, in Kevin Love & Al Jefferson. I will be showing a bit of a bias here with a couple of them, but I'd love for them to get any of the following:
• Spain's PG Ricky Rubio - I think he is overrated, but should still be a solid player, with the potential to have some Steve Nash passing ability...though potential is not a guarantee. Ndude Ebi had potential too.
• Davidson's SG/PG Stephen Curry -small, but that shot is something that Wolves haven't had in...well...ever. Closest they came was the year Freddie Hoiberg was hitting 50% on 3's, but he wasn't as good at creating his shot.
• Syracuse PG Jonny Flynn - I rank him above Jrue Holiday & Tyreke Evans
• Duke SG Gerald Henderson which pains me to say, due to my anti-Duke stance, and memories of Christian Laettner, Cherokee Parks & Will Avery.
• Gonzaga SF Austin Daye - but this is primarily because of my Zags love. I think Daye needs a few more years & a whole lot more bulk due to his position.
• St. Mary's PG Patty Mills - I've seen him play in person 3 times, and even when he wasn't shooting well, his quickness blew me away. Plus, unlike every other college player in this draft, Mills has played against NBA All-Stars in the Olympics, when he played for Australia, and he more than held his own. How often do teams get a chance like that to see how a kid does when he is up against the best?
• Gonzaga PF Josh Heytvelt - No, this is not just because of my afore-mentioned bias...Heytvelt is more like Kevin Garnett than Al Jefferson (not in skill level, but style of play). He likes to play face-up to the basket. Plus he has a long range jump shot that becomes a match-up issue as a 6'11" player. Wolves could throw out an interesting Jefferson/Love/Heytvelt mix, and see if the opponent has enough big men to follow them all.
• Now for what wouldn't make me happy...Hasheem Thabeet before the #5 spot, James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Dejuan Blair or BJ Mullens.

• And now for my Twins...disappointing loss in Milwaukee, after a bad relay throw home allowed the game to be tied, and a bad decision by Pitcher Nick Blackburn allowing the go-ahead run to score. But the way Nick Blackburn has been pitching for most of this season, is something very fun to see! After surprising most of us in Game 163 at the Chicago White Sox (due to an absurd coin flip) with an almost perfect performance, he just seemed to pick up where he left off, trusting his stuff, and trusting his fielders. I love it!

• Everyone noticed that this was the first Milwaukee-Twins series to not be on a weekend, seemingly since Milwaukee was in the AL. Naturally the Milwaukee at Minnesota series was on the weekend, but I am convinced that Bud Selig was tired of seeing the Twins fans showing up at Miller Park, so he switched it to a mid-week series to make it a little tougher on the fans, so there wouldn't be so many Twins chants during the games. I think he's still bitter that he was unable to contract the Twins, and then they've "owned" his team ever since then. (Ok, perhaps I'm not really convinced of all this, but I like the theory anyway!)

• Finally, in what was a perfect birthday present for me, the Twins got rid of Luis Ayala on June 22. It's as if they granted me the wish when I blew out my candles! I just couldn't handle him as a pitcher (and admit that I did not have an open mind when he came to the Twins due to his play for the Mets last season), but to find out he was asking to be traded because he wanted to be the set-up guy and was mad he wasn't getting the 8th inning, and that wouldn't help for his contract for next year? Aside from the fact that Gardy wouldn't stand for that no matter what, why would the Twins give the 8th inning to a pitcher who let batters hit .353 with runners in scoring position (.306 overall), especially considering his 1st batter faced BA had to be over .500 (but I can't seem to find that stat anywhere) which increases the odds that a player will get into scoring position. Oh well. I no longer need to debate this, as it is all over now! Thank you Twins!

Life on Mars and Other Random Thoughts

I finally finished watching ABC's version of Life on Mars and I'm not quite sure what to think yet! But let me give it a try...

The ending, well...I appreciate that there was an ending. Too many shows to list have let down fans by just stopping & never tying up loose ends (first ones coming to my mind are Las Vegas, The Nine & The Agency, two of which were also on ABC, one also starring Jason O'Mara). So ABC does deserve credit for finishing it, but that was the ending? ...(stop reading this paragraph if you haven't finished the show yet & come back another time)...A space trip to Mars with neurostimulated brain scenarios? The idea of it is somewhat fascinating in and of itself, but its an "empty" end to what was a pretty good show.

Which leads me to why it was canceled - I thought the Pilot was fantastic, then week 2 or 3 seemed to be a little too far out there, and it continued along like that for a few months. I know a number of people who gave up on the show during this time, as it was harder to follow, and had twists that just didn't make sense. In my non-TV critic opinion though, the February & March episodes knocked it out of the park. They had crisp story lines with "plausible" twists, while still being quirky enough to stand apart from other cop shows. Unfortunately, too many people had already given up on the show by then, and its fate was already sealed.

If you were one of the people who gave up on it, but liked it to start the season, I suggest going to iTunes & picking up the Feb & March eps. to see how it all came together - http://tiny.cc/iTunesLifeonMarsABC. It could be interesting to go back and watch again now that I know the ending too...I'm just wondering if the writers had decided what the ending would be from the very beginning.

Now on to the random thoughts:

• The Minnesota Timberwolves finished the season tonight with a loss to the Sacramento Kings, making their final record 24-58. As bad as this record feels, it is only the 7th worst record the team has had, though I wouldn't start bragging about that! The Wolves were 8 point favorites at home tonight, but even with some extra crowd support, they couldn't hang with the worst team in the league, who only has 17 total wins, with this being their 6th win on the road. Uff da (which is Norwegian speak for "good grief," or the equivalent of a really big sighing noise/exhale). Maybe having Senior Night (starting the 5 oldest players) backfired, but then they seemed to do better than the young guys. At least former Gopher basketball star Bobby Jackson, who never played for the 1997 Final Four team that never existed, had a nice night in the Twin Cities (14 pts, 5 reb, 1 ast & 4 stls)! The Wolves also only finished as the 6th worst team in the league, so they'll need some lottery ball help, which has never happened before. That means they are due, right? I have more thoughts about this T-Wolves season, but I'll save those for another day.


• Along the same lines, I'm wondering what teams think when they get rid of coaches who just couldn't "win the big game" only to find out without that coach, that they no longer get anywhere near playing in the big game! The T-Wolves experienced this with the still regrettable firing of Flip Saunders in 2005. All those first round losses in the playoffs look really nice compared to being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs while people still have ornaments up on the Christmas trees! Phoenix Suns may be going through that same feeling now. They didn't actually fire Coach Mike D'Antoni, but there was a lot of grumbling from fans, the media, etc., and the team allowed him to talk to other teams about jobs, which is not exactly the same vote of confidence as say, a contract extension. D'Antoni made the Suns so much fun to watch, but they just couldn't get over the hump and win that big game. In the previous 4 years, they lost in the 1st round once, the Conference Semis once & the Conference Finals twice. This year, the NBA Live 2009 video game is the only way this roster will even be playing any first round games. D'Antoni's New York Knicks aren't going to be in the playoffs either, but considering the mess he inherited there, even the prickly New York fans are not bickering...too much! A first or second round loss would sound mighty good to Suns fans right about now!


• To update my short text blog yesterday about Minnesota Twins reliever Luis Ayala...well, it got worse. If you need a reminder, I wondered why the Twins signed Mets free agent relief pitcher Luis Ayala to fill the Neshek/Reyes void, when I had consistently watched Johan Santana leave Mets games with the team holding a lead, only to have every member of their bullpen collapse to send the team on their way to a loss. Yesterday I wasn't happy that Ayala's ERA was around 7. Silly me. After tonight's appearance vs. the Blue Jays, his ERA is a nice round 9.00 (for those of you who don't follow baseball stats, this means that if he were to pitch 9 innings, the length of a game, he'd average giving up 1 earned run per inning/9 runs for the game - which wouldn't include any unearned runs, generated with the help of things such as errors). His WHIP (Walks & Hits per innings pitched) is 2.17. The goal is to be around 1.00. Opponents are batting .429 against him. Even a healthy Joe Mauer can't hit .429...unless he got to bat against Ayala. The majority of Twins games are played at night, and on turf...his ERA on turf is 10.80 & at night is 11.25. The Twins won't be winning games when he appears. In fact, the Twins have only won 1 of the 6 games that he pitched in, a 6-5 win over Seattle in which he was the winning pitcher after they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th. Of course, if he hadn't given up a run in the top of the 9th inning, the Twins would only have needed 2 runs to win. Yet the writers of the stats rules say he's the winning pitcher, because he was the last guy on the mound before they made their comback. I am rarely the critical fan about players, and usually give them the benefit of the doubt too much (I'm still sad that Juan Rincon is gone, even though I had gotten to the point that I no longer wanted to see him in games, but I still had a hard time saying anything bad about him!), but Ayala is not a long-term Twin that I'm pulling for out of loyalty. So far he just looks like a bad free agent signing!


• Finally, speaking of relievers, why did the Twins let Bobby Korecky get away on waivers? I thought he was back on the Triple A Rochester Red Wings, until I saw stats from him pitching for Arizona, suddenly appearing on my phone. During the time that he failed to clear waivers, I had a personal family issue going on, and wasn't paying much attention to those details, so I was surprised to learn that today. Korecky did much better than Ayala in his first attempts at pitching in the big leagues when he came up with the Twins a few times last year! I was really hoping that the multiple time Triple A All-Star closer could get a spot in the Twins bullpen for the long term, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. At least I was there at the Dome when he got his first major league hit last year, in what should stand as the one and only hit recorded by a pitcher in an MLB game at the Metrodome! That was pretty fun. He pitched pretty well too in that extra inning game, coming in to a very tight situation & shutting down the Rangers, picking up his first MLB win the same night he got that first hit, all of which allowed the Twins to have the celebration pictured below! I'll miss you Bobby! http://tiny.cc/BobbyKoreckyNight