Jan/104
Cromartie a Viking
Rumor has it the Vikes could be in the hunt for Antonio Cromartie of the Chargers. If true, and we wouldn't give up too much to get him, this would be big. Especially considering the decline in Winfield's ability to cover the pass. Bring in Cromartie and move Antoine to strong safety. Favre comes back after camp ends in Aug 2010 and 2011 and we become the first team to three-peat. We're comin!
Jan/100
David Kahn talks about his 17-month plan for the T-Wolves
Wolves GM David Kahn talked with ESPN's Ryen Russillo this past friday. Kahn talks about his past experience and his master plan for the struggling Wolves. Have a listen to the audio to hear his 17 month plan. The goal: copy the success of Portland and OK City and build a solid roster of maturing players. Look for big moves this summer.
The Audio - ESPN RADIO
Too bad we already traded away one of NBA's top 20 players...
Dec/090
Corey Brewer + Derek Fisher = Poster
Corey Brewer recently decided he needed to produce a new set of three posters. His victim...Derek Fisher.
NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using these three Photographs, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2009 NBAE (Photo by Evan Gole/NBAE via Getty Images)
Dec/090
T-Wolves Trending the Wrong Way
With the firing of McHale and a change of the guard at GM, Wolves fans finally had something to cheer about this past off-season. A new coach more famous for his eye wear than his coaching prowess and a new young team featuring a lightning quick point guard. To say there are growing pains would be an understatement, so far the 2009-2010 Wolves could be on their way to the worst season in NBA history.
The more disturbing fact to Wolves fans has been the steady decline of the franchise. CBS sports reports Wolves ticket revenue is off 24% this year, the second worst year-to-year decline in the NBA. The bigger story is that the Wolves are a below $500K club. There are only 8 NBA teams who average below $500K in gate receipts per game. There are 7 NBA teams (12 last year) who are averaging above $1M gate receipts per game this year.
These figures are important as it relates to free agents and building for the future. The Wolves, before the season even begins are $10M - $20M behind in revenue right from the start. If free agents are available to fill the Wolves needs, the Wolves simply can't afford them. Teams like the Nuggets and Blazers, both Northwest Division foes, can add depth, scoring and defense to their rosters, simply because they have the revenue to do so.
So what's it all mean? The only real way to re-build the Wolves is through the draft. That's the good news, the Wolves are loaded with picks and retain assets they can easily trade to gain more picks. The bad news, the Wolves are trending the wrong way. Each year the team loses more and more games and offers little hope a turn around is in sight.
The wins, they are not improving...
To be fair the new regime should be given at least a year to show some sort of progress, lets watch, wait and hope next year we won't be saying the same thing.
"With the first pick of the 2010 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select.....John Wall, Guard, Kentucky"
- John Wall Kentucky Guard
Nov/090
NFL Leaders: There’s a Viking Stat for That
Brett Favre is leading the NFL in the QB ratings. All-Day is #2, Rice is #4, Mr. Purple Rodeo himself is #2 in sacks. I don't want to jinx it, but if you're looking for a team to get behind that's both fun to watch on the field while it leads the NFL in multiple statistical categories...There's a Viking Team for That.
The dream continues...
Nov/095
New Twins Uniforms and Bill Smith Disappoint Me.
Not only are the Minnesota Twins moving into a new stadium next year, they will also be sporting new away uniforms, a 1961 throwback home uniform, and new patches commemorating their 50th year and the inaugural season at Target Field.
http://www.startribune.com/galleries/70201377.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiacyKUUr
Personally I love the throwback, which they will wear for the home opener, but don't like the other choices at all. First of all, the new away uniform looks exactly like the Detroit away uniforms, in my opinion. Just replace the Twins red outline for orange (not a big difference) and switch the city names and presto, the Twins uni is now a Tigers uni. Secondly, my favorite uniforms from last year were the home white ones without pinstripes, which it looks like will be absent from the rotation this year. So, in conclusion, Bill Smith has made another bad move, and our favorite team will look worse for it.
Since we're on the subject of Bill Smith, I also am not as enamored with the JJ Hardy trade as everyone else in Minnesota. Assuming Hardy can regain a batting average that will get him on base more than Nicky 'Nails' Punto, I think that at best this trade will be a wash. Here's why: not only are the Twins no longer one of the best defensive teams in the league, they aren't even in the top 20. The departure of Carlos Gomez creates what I call a triple whammy effect (it's a technical term, don't bother yourself with it) in the outfield.
Whammy 1: Denard Span is now our full-time center fielder, which creates a legitimate decline in center field defense. I know, everyone loves Spansy, and so do I, but even though he is quick, he doesn't cover near the ground Gomez did, and has about half the arm strength. The combination of less speed and weaker arm will definitely be noticeable. We might not have one outfield assist from center in 2010, put it that way.
Whammy 2: Delmon Young is now promoted to full-time left fielder. For an explanation of this one, consider the drop off from Gomez to Span a mole hill and the dropoff from Span to Young K2! Our beer league softball left fielder is ten times the outfielder Young is. You just can't get better by taking significant declines in 2 out of the 3 outfield spots.
Whammy 3: I'll start this one as a question, how often over the last couple years did Young play in the outfield (outside of the last few weeks of last year when Young briefly flashed the potential that keeps him north of Rochester)? Right, probably a couple games a week. Whenever any of the three functional outfielders needed a day off, Young would come in and bobble the ball around in the corner for them. Our new Delmon Young is Jason Kubel. If you think Young is uncoordinated and can't run in the outfield, wait until Kubel is our primary backup at left and right field. It's going to be scary, and not Joe Nathan thinking about a lineup with Jorge Posada batting ninth for the Yankees scary; more like brain hemmorhage scary! We will all likely be sitting in our prime seats at Target Field yelling, 'stop the bleeding,' to the sound of Jason Kubel shredding a knee and/or Delmon Young losing his last shred of dignity.
And who's going to DH when Kubel is 'playing' the field??..
On the other hand, Hardy is an upgrade defensively at SS.. But couldn't we have avoided this whole mess by just keeping Bartlett and Garza??
Oct/090
Chubbs?
Never reach for golf balls in the water in South Carolina. Why? Otherwise you will end up like the man in this story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=4545614
The old cliche "you can't make this stuff up" might come to your head, but here, that does not apply. Remember Chubbs from the movie Happy Gilmore? He had his hand ripped off by a one-eyed gator. Apparently this poor gentleman did not see that movie and it cost him his limb. Earlier in the round his buddy mentioned that he said he liked that ball so much he said he would give his right arm for that ball.
Oops, too soon?
Sep/091
Thoughts on Vikings – Lions by Bill Simmons
LIONS (+9.5) over Vikings
Has Brad Childress ever given an interview in which it didn't look like he should be staring through penitentiary glass holding a black phone?
(Wait a second, did I just pick the Lions? That was an accident. Hold on.)
Vikings (-9.5) over LIONS
Much better. I have two Adrian Peterson thoughts. First, he combines my favorite single qualities of five different great running backs: Walter Payton (the move where he breaks a tackle, then stiff-arms a tackler coming from behind to buy a second while getting his legs churning again); Barry Sanders (the part where he's so electric that it's just not worth betting heavily against his team because he can singlehandedly break you); Eric Dickerson (the way he cruises through a hole and you wait for him to kick it into another gear for a split second before realizing he's running away from everyone already); Emmitt Smith (a nasty edge that can only be described as "Look, there's no way we're losing this game and that's that"); and O.J. Simpson (killing).
OK, just kidding about the last one. Peterson never killed anyone, and the Juice was acquitted, remember? (He was totally innocent! The jury said so and everything.) But can you think of another potentially great athlete who combined the best qualities of four legends? Me neither.
Now we'll add a theory Minnesota reader Brian F. sent me a few weeks ago. We know Minnesota paid $12 million to Favre, but did you know Peterson's base salary is just $755,000? Can you remember another time a half-decent player made 15 times more money than the best player on his team? Peterson isn't the type that would complain about this publicly or hold out. What kind of person is he? The kind who takes out his anger on other teams. Like he did last week. Keep an eye on this one. We could be headed for the first-ever Eff You season by a running back. Unless you count the time O.J. murdered two people. Crap, he was acquitted! I keep forgetting.
Aug/091
OJ Mayo vs. Miller The Final Review
Not to beat a dead horse since the Wolves have finally dumped one of the worst GM's in history, but lets take a final look at the flawed theory that trading away OJ Mayo and replacing him with Mike Miller's outside game so we could get Kevin Love could make any sense at all.
As you know the Gold Seat has never been a fan of McHale's moves and the OJ Mayo trade is a great example. When Mike Miller was brought it the pundits (the professor) said, "oh, it will work, he's a great outside threat". A quick examination of the numbers would prove otherwise.
Right from the start we can see OJ Mayo is the superior player. If you're looking for offensive threat which was the premise in bringing Miller in, than OJ delivers double the points per game.
But this is the one that really hurts. OJ is the more prolific 3PT shooter. It just hurts.
And to add insult to injury, Mayo's a lot cheaper. Looking back now it's obvious trading Mayo was the wrong thing to do. Luckily for us McHale's genius is no longer with us and so hopefully doomed moves like this won't continue to haunt us. With that I retire the Mayo / Love / Miller debate. Good night.