Time To Let Gabby Go

Free agency begins this Wednesday in the NHL. Marian Gaborik, the last member of the original Wild team, is an unrestricted free agent. Gaborik has been the Wild's best player over the years. He's flashy, and has displayed the ability to score goals in streaks on pace with any other player in the league. In his career, Gaborik has played 502 games with the Wild, scored 219 goals and added 218 assists. He is a plus-54 in those 502 games, which is excellent. Gaborik has certainly meant a lot to the Wild franchise.

It's time, however, to let Gaborik go.

It has been reported that Gaborik has turned down a contract offer from the Wild in the 10-year, $80 million range. For a sport that will have a $56.8 million salary cap in 2009, $8 million a year for one player is a pretty decent offer. It's also a pretty decent offer to a guy who has not shown the ability to stay healthy. He played only 17 games for the Wild in 2008-09, and his absence most likely cost the team a playoff berth. He simply cannot be counted on to stay on the ice.

If the Wild do not resign Gaborik, they will have roughly $10-12 million to spend on additional players this year. Personally, I'd rather see them bring in 3 or 4 solid players with that money than simply retain Gaborik. Marian Hossa, by the way, would look awfully good in a Wild sweater. It really is too bad, of course, that the previous Wild regime could not figure out a trade with Gaborik so they could get something in return. Now, the team will most likely lose him for nothing. This is a big reason former GM Doug Risebrough is no longer affiliated with the Wild.

It's been rumored that Marian Gaborik has purchased a house in Vancouver, and will sign a contract with the hated Canucks, reuniting him with his buddy Pavol Demitria. This would certainly suck with the Canucks being the Wild's biggest rival.

This shouldn't change the Wild's mind, however. It's time to let Gaborik go, and take the $10-12 million and start rebuilding this team. We'll see Wednesday.

Jeff

Stuff On My Mind....

Here are some things that are on my mind today:

1. Michael Jackson dies. Yet another premature death of a pop icon. I guess he is my generation's Elvis. Jackson was an immensely talented individual who became more and more troubled as he aged. "Troubled" may be giving him too much credit. Let's go with "nuts." How does a guy go from writing some of the best pop songs in history with the Jackson 5, to recording the #1-selling album of all-time (Thriller), to hanging out with llamas and Bubbles the Monkey? Fame, and constantly being in the public eye, can certainly do strange things to a person.

2. Michelle Bacmann won't fill out census. Speaking of "nuts," according to a cbsnews.com report, Michelle Bachmann believes the upcoming census to be "very intricate" and "very personal" and expresses concerns about ACORN's involvement in the data collection. "Why does the government need our phone numbers," Bachmann has asked. She said her family will only be indicating the number of people in the household, because "the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that." She is very concerned about how The Government will use that information and could possibly lead to people being put in internment camps. Bachmann's public statements are getting more and more "out there" with every passing week. She's even freaking out Glenn Beck, for Cliff's sake! As I said in point #1, constantly being in the public eye can certainly do strange things to a person.

3. Wolves select Rickey Rubio with first pick. Rubio, an 18-year-old point guard from Spain, has been compared to Pistol Pete Maravich. He's flashy, can pass and score, and would put fans in the seats. The only catch(es)? He requires a $6.5 million dollar buyout from his contract in Spain, which he has to pay all but $500,000, and he may not want to play in Minnesota. He's been quoted as saying "it's too cold" in Minnesota. I must say that I have grown tired of athletes saying they don't want to play in cold weather cities, (i.e. Stephon Marbury). The last time I checked, most NBA games were played "inside" arenas. Actually, I'm sure this has to do more with "market size" and endorsements. Cold weather is just a convenient excuse for these players.

Question - with the Wolves track record, what do you think the odds are that Rubio ever wears a Timberwolves jersey? The Wolves hold his rights for 4 years, so he can't go anywhere unless they trade him. He can, however, remain in Spain (where the rain falls mainly in the plains). For contractual reasons, he may have to play in Spain for a year or two before being able to afford the move to the NBA. This is not good for a franchise like the Wolves, who needs to sell tickets now. And I am not talking about the $5 tickets they are currently offering. Makes you kind of wonder about the pick, especially since they followed it up by selecting Johnny Flynn with the very next pick - another point guard. That pick makes you wonder if the Wolves expect Rubio to be playing for them in the near future. This should get very interesting.

Jeff

Sports Things...

Some quick stuff:

1. Target Field Seats Secured. Thanks to our pal Snyder, seats at Target Field have been secured for 2010. Snyder has purchased a half-season (40 games) and will split it four ways with me, Free and Shane from The Greet Machine. That means 4 tickets to 10 games. We were actually searching for $12 "cheap seats" along the 3rd base line with a view of downtown, and that is exactly what we got! Section 324, Row 4, Seats 1-4. Not too far from the Budweiser party deck! Here is a graphic that I stole from Free's blog that shows the location of the seats:

Also, here is a link to the Twins ballpark web page that shows a panoramic view from those seats:

http://www.seats3d.com/mlb/minnesota_twins/?&pn=p_524_1

April 2010 is getting closer and closer. Should be a good time!

2. Twins Pitching. Speaking of the Twins, the team's starters are really coming around. Kevin Slowey is 9-2, Nick Blackburn is 6-2, and Scott Baker is showing signs of returning to last year's form. Francisco Liriano, however, continues to struggle at 2-8 with a 5.91 ERA. The first time through the opposition's batting order, he is "lights out." Then, he get bombed. He is clearly not the same pitcher after Tommy John surgery.

How long will it take the Twins to consider moving Liriano to the bullpen, and promoting Anthony Swarzak from AAA for the starting rotation? Liriano may be the perfect fit to fill one of the holes in the bullpen, where he wouldn't have to worry about that second time through the batting order. As long as he can deal with it mentally. Something to think about, Ron Gardenhire and Billy Smith (who I know are reading this!).

3. Favre. Unless you were in a coma, you have heard the rumors that Brett Favre is considering a return to the NFL with the Vikings (which Jase called during the Draft shin-dig). It looks like the only thing that will keep this from happening is a bum arm from his surgery. Zygi Wilf has to secretly be praying that Favre's arm is OK (along with most Viking fans). Not to overstate things, but I believe the existance of the Vikings franchise in Minnesota literally may hinge on what happens with Favre. If he quarterbacks the team this fall, they would have instant sellouts and international media attention (although not necessarily more victories). Without Favre, they'll have Sage Rosenfelds and T-Jack, fan apathy, blackouts and absolutely no momentum for a new stadium in Minnesota. This could lead to a move to Los Angeles. No pressure or anything on Favre's arm.

4. Kevin McHale era ends. I am shocked that there could be a soul on Earth that didn't think the Wolves new GM David (Kahn!!) Kahn had to part ways with Kevin McHale. What, in God's name, did McHale do to warrant coming back? Well, I guess I can see how the players might have been a little bummed, because the country club atmosphere at Target Center (thank you Dan Barrerio) may now come to an end and there might be some actual accountability beyond winning 20 games each year. Kahn's decision was a total no-brainer.

That is all for today. Peace.

Jeff

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wins Election!

Wow - you have to hand it to Iranian "President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In what was supposed to be a close "election" with rival (and reformer) Mir Hossein Moussavi, Ahmadinejad managed 62.63% of the total vote. What a campaign he must have ran! He must have surrounded himself with only "the best and brightest!" Mahmoud certainly must have campaigned tirelessly, constantly debating, swaying opinions (like the Holocaust never happened), shaking hands and kissing babies. What an amazing end result!

Now, after the election, there seems to be some sour grapes on the part of the losers. There have been a few riots in Tehran. People burning stuff like police motorcycles and throwing bricks through windows. Foreign reports blocked at every corner from witnessing the events. "Militias" forcing their way into the homes of Moussavi supporters. Moussavi, himself, under house arrest. You know, just normal election stuff.

Apparently, the Moussavi supporters are questioning the "authenticity of the election" and even have the audacity to imply that there might have been some "funny business" in the election results. Not so, says Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Elections in Iran are the soundest, the healthiest of their kind," Ahmadinejad told his cheering supporters. "Some people inside or outside the country ... say that the vote has been disrupted, there has been fraud. Where are irregularities in the elections?"


Yeah - he DARES you to find the irregularities.

Folks, it is truly rare in life that something so fraudulent, so manipulated, can be witnessed firsthand. This "election" was such bullshit, and the outcome would be laughable if it wasn't so frightening.

Peace.

Jeff

...But I Like Hamburgers.

From The Young Ones:

Neil: Rick, pigs are quite smart, actually.
Rick: Oh, really Neil! Was Pythagoras a pig?
Neil: Well.....
Rick: And who invented the internal combustion engine? Was it.....Porky the Pig?
Neil: No.
Rick: That's right! Do you know what the number one "piggy" contribution to the world is Neil? It's BACON, isn't it!

It's been kind of a rough week for meat. First, I was reading last Sunday's paper when I came across this article by a Paula Moore of PETA entitled "That Burger is Someone's Buddy." As you may know, PETA stands for "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals," although I always got a kick out of the bumper sticker - "PETA: People Eating Tasty Animals." Now, before we go any further, I want everyone to know that I love animals. We have a family cat named Wolf and used to have a border collie from Scotland named Callie, who could have been the subject of not only a post, but an entire blog. And I am totally against Michael Vick and his dog fighting, which was immoral.

On the flip side, I also love eating hamburgers. And brats. And pork chops and bacon. And summer sausage. And turkey and chicken and fish. If I tried to go vegetarian, I'd die within a week. While I do not like to see animals suffering in any way, I also believe that many animals (i.e pigs, cows, turkeys, chickens & fish) were put on this Earth for one main reason - to feed the masses. I really don't know what we'd do in civilized society if zillions of cows and pigs were roaming the land. It would cause havoc. Plus, I don't think these aforementioned creatures are the smartest beings on Earth. Chickens have not evolved into some superior beings working on a vaccination for cancer. They have stayed as chickens. Clucking around and eating corn and pooping. That is why Paula Moore's article, written in 100% seriousness, struck me as comedy. Here are some excerpts:

"Cows are intelligent and curious animals who form social hierarchies, can recognize more than 100 members of their herd, have best friends and cliques and even hold grudges."

"Pigs are smarter than dogs and every bit as friendly, loyal and affectionate. They communicate constantly with one another, and more than 20 of their oinks, grunts and squeals have been identified as distinct communications that apply to different situations."

"Even fish -- who are slaughtered by the billions with little regard for their suffering -- are smart, complex animals with impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures. Scientists at Stanford University say that fish have the reasoning capacity of small children. Other researchers have found that fish feel fear when they are being chased and that they do feel pain, as all animals do."

So I bet the next time you are devouring a Filet-O-Fish, you won't be so smug. Anyway, I finished reading this story and really didn't think too much of it because it was written by a PETA member.

Then, I woke up today and grabbed the paper, only to read that The Pretenders have moved their scheduled outdoor concert at the pavilion at The Minnesota Zoo to a downtown location. Why?? Because of THE FAMILY FARM EXHIBIT! Here's a quote from Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde:

"How can a zoo invite children to touch and play with and express joy over animals for their uniqueness, only to turn around and sell those very animals to slaughter?" Hynde wrote zoo director Lee Ehmke on Friday. She told Ehmke that she planned to talk about the issue on stage during the concert.

Geez, I guess I never thought of it that way. Those family farm exhibit bastards. Here is more from the story:

"Goats, sheep, calves and pigs from the Family Farm exhibit are sold at livestock auctions at the end of each summer season, just as they would be on a regular farm.

The exhibit's intent is to portray a working farm, Lessard said, and it includes graphics explaining the animal production process. "We've never hidden our mission," she said.
She sees an understanding gap: "These are market animals, and we take really good care of them. For us it's not so much about making a product as taking care of animals who take care of us in the end."

I am very conflicted now. I have always liked Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. I just think I like hamburgers and brats more. And I am not trying to knock vegetarians because I have friends and family members who have chosen that route - which is probably healthy. I just don't think that PETA and Hynde's viewpoints should be forced on people like this. If everyone was forced to be vegetarian, there would be some serious ramifications on the world we live in. Farms, businesses, and to the animals themselves. Seriously, like I said before, what would happen if 50-gazillion chickens were roaming the earth? They would all die.

Anyway, it's a controversial issue. I am going to go grill a brat.

Jeff

Delmon Young Is Killing Me.

On November 29th, 2007, the Minnesota Twins traded pitcher Matt Garza and shortstop Jason Bartlett to Tampa for infielder Brendan Harris and outfielders Jason Pridie and Delmon Young. Delmon Young, the first-overall pick by Tampa, was the key to the trade for the Twins. The trade, at the time, was heralded as a "steal" by new Twins GM Billy Smith and yet another example of the Twins making other teams look stupid in trades. I must admit that I was completely in favor of the trade when it happened, and had visions (we all know how they end up) of Young hitting .310 with 25 HR's and 120 RBI's for the Twins.

Think again.

This trade is working out to be one of the worst in Twins history. It turns out that Tampa received a better-than-average starter in Garza and a self-proclaimed TEAM MVP in Jason Bartlett. Meanwhile, the Twins received a serviceable utility infielder in Harris and a complete enigma in Delmon Young. It took me until May 16th, 2008, to become fed up with Delmon, when I wrote this in a post on that day:

What the hell is going on? OK - it's only 40 games into the season, but come on. I heard "possible M-V-P" mentioned in the same sentence with Delmon Young when the Twins acquired him from Tampa Bay. He is supposedly a specialist at driving the ball and hitting for power. Were they talking about his crazy brother Dimitri?

Check out Delmon's stats:152 AB, 40 Hits, .263 Batting Average, 3 doubles (bloops), 1 triple (parallel universe), ZERO HR'sWhen Delmon comes up to bat now, I wonder to myself "will he ground out weakly to second or short?" He can't hit the ball to the outfield. What the hell is going on? Gardenhire has already dropped him from 5th to 7th in the lineup.

Articles are being written about him.The most confounding aspect Delmon Young is that, according to reports, he doesn't think anything is wrong. According to Pat Ruesse, he is not listening to hitting coach Joe Vavra, and refuses to change his swing. He seems to be a Contrarian in the vein of Randy Moss and Latrell Sprewell. MVP? Not this year.

Well, it's now June 9th, 2009, and I simply can't take it anymore. A year later, more articles are being written about Young's struggles. Let's look at his current stats:

Batting average: .236
Home Runs: 1
Runs Batted In: 14
On Base %: .275
Slugging %: .268 (Two-sixty-eight!!!!!)

So Young is hitting poorly. That means he is playing excellent defense, right? NO! Check out what Aaron Gleeman from MinnPost has to say about Young's overall performance:

"...Gomez offsets some of his terrible hitting with an excellent glove, but Delmon Young has been useless on both sides of the ball. In fact, at 12.2 runs below replacement level offensively and defensively, he's been the single worst all-around player in the AL through two months. Young has hit .239/.282/.275 in 117 plate appearances, which is good for a .557 OPS. No other corner outfielder in the league with that much playing time has an OPS below .640.

Not only has Young failed to make any significant strides at the plate for the third straight season, he's actually regressed from last year's poor performance. Young was one of the most undisciplined hitters in baseball last season, but this time around he's struck out twice as often while drawing even fewer walks. Beyond that, his power has gone from bad to non-existent as he's managed just one homer and one double in 109 at-bats while once again ranking among the AL leaders in ground-ball percentage.

Believe it or not, being the AL's worst-hitting outfielder only scratches the surface of Young's awfulness because he plays an offense-driven position that's home to many big bats and complements his lack of production at the plate with horrendous defense in left field. On a per-inning basis, Young has been the second-worst corner outfielder in the league defensively behind only Jose Guillen, and since joining the Twins last year, Ultimate Zone Rating has him 23.1 runs below average on defense alone."

Wow.

When Delmon comes to bat, blood rushes to my head. I grit my teeth. I know a strikeout or a week groundout to second is coming. I keep hearing stories about how Delmon CRUSHES the ball to left in batting practice, convincing the coaches that he is "back on track." Then, when the game begins, he shifts all of his weight to his front foot and slaps the ball weakly to the right side of the infield if he hits it at all. He is baffled by sliders. Every time he strikes out, he walks back to the dugout with a look on his face that is somewhere in between "nobody say one word to me" and "anybody have any gum?" This guy was the FIRST OVERALL PICK IN THE DRAFT.

Now, I am willing to cut Delmon some slack because he went through a very hard time when he mother passed away earlier this year. I understand this was very hard on him, and I am sorry to hear that happened. But this performance, and his "standoffish attitude" predate his mother's illness.

A few weeks back, I called for the Twins to trade Young for some bullpen help. Now, it's pretty apparent that no GM in their right mind will give up any talent for him. The Twins are stuck with him. On the bright side, Young is young. He's 23 years old, he does have offensive ability if he ever decides to listen to his coaches. On the dark side, he may need another change of scenery before he "gets" the fact that he is on the way to ruining his career. By the way, I hope for his sake and the Twins sake, Young "figures it out" and turns himself around. I wish success to the kid, and I hope I can look back at this post and laugh someday. I will gladly admit to being wrong. So far, it's not looking so good.

The Twins have a history of making great trades, but it sure looks like they got duped on this one.

Jeff

Blast From the Past #5 - Hüsker Dü

You cannot argue with the impact that the 1980's Minneapolis trio Husker Du had on "alternative" music. They were about 10 years ahead of thier time, and paved the way for the Nirvana's of the world and the "grunge movement" in the 1990's. This is probably the band LEAST likely to reunite, as Bob Mould and Grant Hart reportedly hate each other, and Greg Norton owns a successful restaurant in Red Wing.

This video for "Makes No Sense At All" contains some great shots of 1980's-era Minneapolis, with the IDS building and Foshay Tower being the only true "skyscrapers" at the time. They video ends with "The Mary Tyler Moore theme" and a spoof of the opening of that Minneapolis-based sitcom.

I was always more of a "Replacements guy" back in The Day, but Husker Du will forever remind me of my college days at the University of Leinenkugels, living with Jon, Jase, Troyvis and Ronnie-San.

Good memories from Blast of the Past #5 - Husker Du.

Jeff

Re-Buildin' the Deck

I haven't had too much time for blogging lately. I've been rebuilding our deck. Yes, you read that correctly. Me, the least-handy individual this side of Jupiter. You see, my handsome and witty Canadian brother-in-law offered to come to town from Appleton, WI to help me. Now, saying HE helped ME rebuild my deck is like saying John, Paul and George helped Ringo Starr form a great rock band.

Basically, here is what my brother-in-law handled:

All measuring of the deck.
Picking out all wood, tools and material at Menards.
Helped load all of above into vehicle.
Helped unload all of above at home.
Helped with removal of all old decking.
All measuring and cutting of new wood to ensure a correct pattern on deck.
Much of the drilling of wood to deck after measuring and cutting.
Rebuilding of wobbly deck stairs, beginning to end.
Rebuilding the end of deck, beginning to end, that was totally screwed up by previous owner.

Here is what I did:

Made sure to have beer on hand (imperative).
Drove to Menards with brother in law.
Sat there and pretended to know what he was looking for while he picked out materials.
Bought some Little Debbies and pop along the way (you save big money at Menards).
Helped load and unload materials from truck (ticket to the gun show - you know what I'm sayin'.)
Continually got beer while brother in law did things listed above. Tried to look smart while he was measuring stuff.
Helped drill wood to deck (I actually got pretty good at this)!
Ate Little Debbies. Got VERY good at this.
Took old wood to pay dump, threw it in big dumpster while brother in law rebuilt stairs, end of deck, etc.
Helped sand deck once I figured out how to turn sander on.

We finished in about two and a half days, and I have to say it looks pretty damn good. We decided on cedar, which looks and smells great and will last a lot longer. This deck is now so secure I could have disco parties up there. Maybe I will.

I'd like to thank my brother in law for all of his hard work. I literally could not have done it without him. And, I learned a lot about deck construction along the way. In fact, it's already got me thinking about what my next project might be. I'm going to wait a while, however, because I'm pretty sore right now. I used muscles that I haven't used since never.

Whatever the next project is, I'm going to make sure to have plenty of Little Debbies on hand.

Peace,

Jeff