- NBA free agency starts tonight, and it couldn't come soon enough, if I had to deal with another month of endless speculation on the future of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, I'd want to kill somebody. Pretty much already do. Fortunately it will only be inundating all forms of sports media for another week or two, then we can finally put to rest three tedious years of speculation about the free agent class of 2010. I'm not the biggest NBA fan in the world, but even someone who was would have to admit that more attention being paid to off-court rumors than on-court action is ridiculous. I mean this year's Finals came off like a nuisance that had to be endured before the important stuff started. The famous cliche is: "Root for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back", and the degree to which pro basketball elevates the individual over the team is troublesome for me. Big part of why I don't follow that game as closely as I do others.
- Some gems penned in this blog on June 2nd illustrate how quickly things can change in the sports world:
"Last week's stretch of great baseball has pushed the Twins into a comfortable lead over the Tigers in the Central"
"Carl Pavano seems to employ the "chuck it and hope" approach best characterized by Livan Hernandez' short stint with the team two seasons ago"
"Nick Blackburn, who has been (gulp) the early-season stopper on this club"
Since then the Twins have stunk, Pavano has been lights out, and Blackburn has been bad enough for me to dub him Nick "BP" Blackburn. (The BP stands for batting practice, not British Petroleum, although the latter would've been fitting, as they're probably the only ones who had a worse month of June than Blackie did) Fortunately this is baseball, so really about 50 more games or so before we need to worry about where the Twins are in the standings. Previous years have taught us two things, any Twins team within 5 games on Labor Day is within striking distance and if the division comes down to head-to-head games against the White Sox and Tigers, the hometown nine are probably in pretty good shape. Today's victory against the Tigers to win the series and remain in first place would seem to reinforce that second point, all the better it was Blackburn and Kevin Slowey, the teams most embattled starters, who had strong outings in the last two wins. Now would I complain about a Cliff Lee trade and runaway division victory? Hell no. Unfortunately, things never seem to work out that easily, see you in September.
- NHL free agency also begins tonight, nestled deep within the shadow of the NBA version, like everything else about the league. A correction from the Wild post of a few days ago, as the salary cap was finalized at $59.2 million, rather than the $57 million I speculated it would be. The cap is set as a fixed percentage of league receipts, so no telling what it will be until it gets locked in. At any rate, this extra $2 million changes things a bit for the team, but not drastically, since there are still quite a few spots to fill and not a lot of dollars to do it. NHL rules allow teams to go over the cap, but penalize them by reducing their cap next season by the amount they went over the previous one. So although it's still unlikely they'll make a big signing, it is possible we'll see a couple of smaller ones. A rumor being thrown around recently was the signing of New Jersey defenseman Paul Martin, which perplexes me. Sure he's a hometown guy, grew up in Elk River and played for the Gophers, but does this team really want to tie up more money in another defenseman? Unless there's a trade on the horizon, this is an odd fit to say the least.
- The Vikings released their training camp schedule a couple of days ago, and the abused housewife in me leapt for joy! It's like my alcoholic husband is finally coming home from the penitentiary, and I can welcome him with open arms. Even bought a case of PBR tallboys to feed him once he hunkers down in his favorite easy chair. Ahhh, the memories, he really does love me, just gets a bit crazy when he drinks, black eyes heal but love is forever! Fortunately this season I have therapy in the form of certain NFC Championship game on the DVR at home, it was recorded many months ago to be watched again when the pain had faded and a reminder was needed. Got it penciled in for the evening of July 14th, the day after the All-Star game when Planet Sports stands still, which means I will spend the evening of the All-Star game removing all sharp and/or dangerous objects from my home in preparation. By the way, I didn't see "Favre's Return" marked on the calendar during the third week of camp, should I be worried?
- Finally, this joke has been made many times, initially by Bill Simmons in his draft diary two years ago, following the swap of Kevin Love for OJ Mayo, but it's too good not to revisit. If Rudy Gay signs with Minnesota as a free agent, the Timberwolves can officially usher in the Gay-Love Era. I always love that one. Hasn't been a name combo that much fun since Brian Gay was paired with Kris Cox at the PGA Championship, because, as we all know, Gay loves playing with Cox.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
Into the abyss
Busy weekend, lot of stuff happening, unfortunately that's the last time we'll be able to say that for quite a while. The month of July is the depths of the sports abyss, following the NBA and NHL drafts, and prior to the beginning of meaningful MLB games, it's just a long, slow grind until NFL training camps open. I might actually have to get a life for a couple of weeks, oh the horror.
The double draft days of the past week were kind of exciting, but at the same time depressing, because when draft day is the most important day on the calendar, that means your team sucks ass. I can't even remember when it wasn't the most important day on the Timberwolves calendar, and now the Wild have joined them. Both teams seem destined to continue this trend next year. It's almost enough to make me long for the sky-high expectations and brutal letdowns of a typical Vikings season...almost.
The Wolves continued their perplexing assembly of a "foundation" this past weekend as if the NBA were a fantasy league with a couple of flex positions. The current plan appears to be obtaining players who will ensure a higher pick next year. No real problem with their selection of Wesley Johnson from Syracuse, but trading away their second pick for the highly average Martell Webster was confusing. I get that they might not have liked the options available to them at the #16 spot, but part of being a rebuilding team is having the freedom to gamble on raw prospects, giving them minutes to develop their game that more established teams can't spare.
The point is probably moot, since no player that was attainable was going to change the situation this year, but if there's a big picture here, I'm missing it. A year after drafting 4 point guards in the first round, the Wolves used their #4 pick on a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot. They then traded the #16 pick and Ryan Gomes (another average forward) for a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot. GM David Kahn may love Webster's game, but it's tough to tell why; the stats aren't there and he's certainly not the slashing-type shot creator that the team seems to be lacking. If the guy was coming off a rookie season where he showed promise, this would make more sense, but after 4 years in the league, he probably is what he's going to be the rest of the way.
Obviously it's dangerous to run a team with an eye toward popular opinion, but maybe keeping some guys with youth and potential, rather than trading them for established stiffs, would lessen the fan apathy toward this team? Two years into his tenure, the KahnMan has turned 7 first round picks into not much. The only buzz created was from the Rubio pick last season, and that has pretty much subsided. At this point, the casual fan is going to need to be reminded who he is when (if?) he finally shows up. They're also going to need an explanation on who is going to carry the scoring load, given the front office's apparently allergy to shooting guards. Rubio may be an assist wizard, but it's never been a secret he can't shoot; current situation seems like a receipe for a lot of pretty passes followed by bricked shots.
So in general, I'm confused and a bit frustrated. Adding to the frustration was the fact that the guy I really wanted at SG, James Anderson, was drafted by San Antonio at #20. Always nice when one of the best college players gets undervalued because he doesn't have the potential offered by less productive players, then is snatched up by the team with the league's best track record of recognizing late first-round value. I will remember to bring this up in 2 years when Anderson is averaging 20 PPG.
On the other side of the coin is the Minnesota Wild, who have a very clear and consistent philosophy over the years: Acquire the entire Finnish National Team. Joining Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen and Nicklas Backstrom (in a couple of years at least) is Finland center Mikael Granlund, a playmaking center who's supposedly more NHL ready than many other first rounders. Not the end of the world to draft another Euro, as it was at a position of need and the early run on forwards left things paired down, but geez is this team in love with Finnish players.
When it comes to European hockey playuers, I tend to share the opinion of NHL GM Brian Burke, the architect of the Anaheim Ducks multiple Stanley Cup teams in the 2000s. Burke favored North American players because they grew up dreaming of winning the Stanley Cup, and playing a more rugged style. The Ducks two Cup-winning teams were built on size and toughness, with Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermeyer and Chris Pronger anchoring a nasty group of players who ground opponents down. Looking back through history, this seems to be the norm in the playoffs; when things get nasty, North American players flourish as European players fold.
There are of course exceptions, namely the Detroit Red Wings core of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Lidstrom, but in general, the best players on most Cup winners are from this side of the Atlantic. The Wild's playoff no-shows have had several root causes, and certainly not all can be traced back to the presence of Euros as the team's top players. But when you already have two as your top forwards and one in net, adding another seems like overkill to me. Just my opinion of course, and certainly hope it's proven wrong.
Silver lining to the draft by the way is the selection of Jason Zucker in the 2nd round. He might be a bit on the small side at 5'10" / 175, but after watching his play on the gold-medal winning US national team in last year's World Junior Championships, I think this guy could be a great add. Very quick with a knack for putting the puck in the net. Plus he'll be a freshman at the University of Denver next season, so us college hockey fans will get to watch his development over the next couple of seasons. Unfortunate that he will be playing for the hated Pioneers, but you can't have everything.
Finally, the US soccer team lost to Ghana on Saturday, a country with slightly fewer people than the state of Texas. Thus ends another World Cup "run" in the first game of the knockout stage, basically no better or worse than was expected. I'm happy that the soccer fans got their moment last week on the big goal to advance the team past pool play, but the whole deal strikes me as kind of "meh". The US team was about two minutes short of heading home after 3 tie games, which would've been the most boring result possible. It's nice they advanced further, and I did enjoy Saturday's game, but just don't see soccer moving past it's status with me as a novelty every 4th year.
The double draft days of the past week were kind of exciting, but at the same time depressing, because when draft day is the most important day on the calendar, that means your team sucks ass. I can't even remember when it wasn't the most important day on the Timberwolves calendar, and now the Wild have joined them. Both teams seem destined to continue this trend next year. It's almost enough to make me long for the sky-high expectations and brutal letdowns of a typical Vikings season...almost.
The Wolves continued their perplexing assembly of a "foundation" this past weekend as if the NBA were a fantasy league with a couple of flex positions. The current plan appears to be obtaining players who will ensure a higher pick next year. No real problem with their selection of Wesley Johnson from Syracuse, but trading away their second pick for the highly average Martell Webster was confusing. I get that they might not have liked the options available to them at the #16 spot, but part of being a rebuilding team is having the freedom to gamble on raw prospects, giving them minutes to develop their game that more established teams can't spare.
The point is probably moot, since no player that was attainable was going to change the situation this year, but if there's a big picture here, I'm missing it. A year after drafting 4 point guards in the first round, the Wolves used their #4 pick on a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot. They then traded the #16 pick and Ryan Gomes (another average forward) for a small forward who's a solid shooter and defender with limited ability to get his own shot. GM David Kahn may love Webster's game, but it's tough to tell why; the stats aren't there and he's certainly not the slashing-type shot creator that the team seems to be lacking. If the guy was coming off a rookie season where he showed promise, this would make more sense, but after 4 years in the league, he probably is what he's going to be the rest of the way.
Obviously it's dangerous to run a team with an eye toward popular opinion, but maybe keeping some guys with youth and potential, rather than trading them for established stiffs, would lessen the fan apathy toward this team? Two years into his tenure, the KahnMan has turned 7 first round picks into not much. The only buzz created was from the Rubio pick last season, and that has pretty much subsided. At this point, the casual fan is going to need to be reminded who he is when (if?) he finally shows up. They're also going to need an explanation on who is going to carry the scoring load, given the front office's apparently allergy to shooting guards. Rubio may be an assist wizard, but it's never been a secret he can't shoot; current situation seems like a receipe for a lot of pretty passes followed by bricked shots.
So in general, I'm confused and a bit frustrated. Adding to the frustration was the fact that the guy I really wanted at SG, James Anderson, was drafted by San Antonio at #20. Always nice when one of the best college players gets undervalued because he doesn't have the potential offered by less productive players, then is snatched up by the team with the league's best track record of recognizing late first-round value. I will remember to bring this up in 2 years when Anderson is averaging 20 PPG.
On the other side of the coin is the Minnesota Wild, who have a very clear and consistent philosophy over the years: Acquire the entire Finnish National Team. Joining Mikko Koivu, Antti Miettinen and Nicklas Backstrom (in a couple of years at least) is Finland center Mikael Granlund, a playmaking center who's supposedly more NHL ready than many other first rounders. Not the end of the world to draft another Euro, as it was at a position of need and the early run on forwards left things paired down, but geez is this team in love with Finnish players.
When it comes to European hockey playuers, I tend to share the opinion of NHL GM Brian Burke, the architect of the Anaheim Ducks multiple Stanley Cup teams in the 2000s. Burke favored North American players because they grew up dreaming of winning the Stanley Cup, and playing a more rugged style. The Ducks two Cup-winning teams were built on size and toughness, with Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Scott Niedermeyer and Chris Pronger anchoring a nasty group of players who ground opponents down. Looking back through history, this seems to be the norm in the playoffs; when things get nasty, North American players flourish as European players fold.
There are of course exceptions, namely the Detroit Red Wings core of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen and Lidstrom, but in general, the best players on most Cup winners are from this side of the Atlantic. The Wild's playoff no-shows have had several root causes, and certainly not all can be traced back to the presence of Euros as the team's top players. But when you already have two as your top forwards and one in net, adding another seems like overkill to me. Just my opinion of course, and certainly hope it's proven wrong.
Silver lining to the draft by the way is the selection of Jason Zucker in the 2nd round. He might be a bit on the small side at 5'10" / 175, but after watching his play on the gold-medal winning US national team in last year's World Junior Championships, I think this guy could be a great add. Very quick with a knack for putting the puck in the net. Plus he'll be a freshman at the University of Denver next season, so us college hockey fans will get to watch his development over the next couple of seasons. Unfortunate that he will be playing for the hated Pioneers, but you can't have everything.
Finally, the US soccer team lost to Ghana on Saturday, a country with slightly fewer people than the state of Texas. Thus ends another World Cup "run" in the first game of the knockout stage, basically no better or worse than was expected. I'm happy that the soccer fans got their moment last week on the big goal to advance the team past pool play, but the whole deal strikes me as kind of "meh". The US team was about two minutes short of heading home after 3 tie games, which would've been the most boring result possible. It's nice they advanced further, and I did enjoy Saturday's game, but just don't see soccer moving past it's status with me as a novelty every 4th year.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Fixing the Wild
After jumping on the bandwagon for a thrilling Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup run, and in anticipation of the NHL draft this Friday, it seemed an appropriate time to address the question of how to fix the Minnesota Wild.
The 2009-10 Wild season was hallmarked by the Two Is: Inconsistency and Irrelevance. The team put itself behind the 8-ball with a slow start, and never found the sustained stretch of good play they need to edge into the playoff race. Pretty much the entire season was spent in what I refer to as the "5 Tall Beer Zone", you've had enough beer to know driving could be a concern (read: potentially illegal), but not enough to get that nice strong buzz the heavy drinker relishes so. (Ironic to be using this term in describing the Wild, since it typically took 5 tall beers before you could enjoy watching one of their games last season, as well as another 5 after to try and forget what you just saw. It was ugly, get it? The team specialized in two things, not scoring and pissing away multi-goal leads, as poor a combination as you can find anywhere. I just cracked a beer right now thinking about it, need something to keep my hands from shaking while I type.)
They would put together a solid week of hockey, climb within striking distance of a playoff spot, then drop a few games and sink back to where they started. This process kept recurring all season, leaving the team mired in the worst possible spot, with neither a playoff berth, nor a high draft pick to show for things. Some relevant numbers about the team's finish last season:
Points out of the playoffs - 11
Teams between the Wild and the #8 seed - 5
Goals for - 219 (22nd)
Goals against - 246 (21st)
Goal differential - -27(24th)
In short, it was an abject and total failure on every level. The team did nothing particularly well, yet did not fare poorly enough to get a top draft pick who might make a quick impact...and that's the good news.
How can that be good news? Because it was only one year. It was a transition season, with a new GM and coach, things were supposed to be rocky. It would've been the perfect time to bottom out, throw out a real clunker, grab a high draft pick and position the team to make a big splash coming into this season. Although fans may not be ecstatic about throwing in the towel and expecting to lose, anyone with half a brain could see things were in a terrible mess. Overburdened by bad contracts, lacking immediate help from the minors and having lost it's best player, the Wild needed to take a couple large steps back before it could consider moving forward.
When you fire your coach and GM, there's nothing more to complain about for a year or two, fans at least need a couple of fresh mistakes to pin on the new guy before they can go too crazy. There was in fact, only one thing that they could've possibly done wrong, one thing that would've been truly awful for the long-term rebuilind plans, which was to overpay the wrong free agent in a panic move...so of course, that's exactly what they did! And here we are.
To set the stage for the discussion of the offseason, one over-arching truth must be remembered: There's no help coming from outside, or at least not without surrendering one of the team's current assets. Michael Russo, who covers hockey for the Star Tribune and is the best sportswriter in town for my money, wrote this article last week about potential trades being the path to improvement in a weak free agent market (http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/96622489.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr) If this weak crop of free agents wasn't enough, the team also has no cash to spend on them. The actual 2010-11 salary cap is TBD, but is assumed to land in the $57 million range. Based on the info available here, http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=MIN, we know the following:
Committed cap space - $48.2 million
Estimate to retain restricted free agents (Latandresse, Earl, Ebbett, Harding) - $4.5 million
Dollars available to fill remaining 5 roster spots - $4.5 million
Pretty obvious that the team is not going to be in the running for even mid-level free agents, even players who could be added from the minors would be at or above the average remaining salary they have available. I may be being a bit generous with my assumption on Latendresse, bumping his salary from $800k to $2 million next year. But after acoring 25 goals in 55 games, I believe the team will attempt to sign him to a multi-year deal, and doing so will require a significant bump. Even saving another half million on that deal would not change the situation, we're capped out and that's that.
Although it's unpalatable to the average season ticketholder, losing short-term to win long-term was the only option, since the Wild will now be forced to sink or swim with the same players next season. Hitting rock bottom has been a tried-and-true path taken by several other teams, including the last two Cup champions. Both Pittsburgh and Chicago were dreadful a few years ago, but the upside to all the losing was the drafting of franchise cornerstones who have already brought championships, and will ensure another decade of competitive hockey for their respective teams. Acknowledging this just adds sting to another year of being mired in the middle.
I know I just seem to keep piling worse news on top of bad, but the final piece to the puzzle is the fact that even the Rock Bottom scenario is no longer an option, since all of the most expensive (and useless) players have contract with no trade clauses. Basically, for this team to do anything next season, it's going to need bounce back years from a whoooooole lot of people.
And with that, we can kick off the discussion of "2010-11 Minnesota Wild Pyramid of Hope"TM
Laying the groundwork - 3 guys who need good seasons to keep the Wild out of the cellar
1) Martin Havlat - Or, as he with henceforth be know in this blog "Halfthat" (as in, if an elite player would score 40 goals, he'll get you Half that), was signed to a 6-year / $30 million dollar deal immediately on the heels of Marian Gaborik's departure to New York. Now my sneaking suspicion is that this deal was the result of pressure placed on the GM by the team's new owner, Craig Leipold, in an attempt to placate the fanbase after the loss of the franchise's greatest star in it's young history (MaryAnn Groinorik, The Slovak Sissy). I don't have anything to back this up, but it's the only way I can make sense of the signing. If someone would like to offer a better explanation of why the logical move following the departure of your fragile European goal scorer is to bring in a less-productive fragile European goal scorer, I'm all ears. Until then, I'm sticking with my initial opinon.
And although I may be overly negative, this isn't revisionist history here, I hated this signing at the time and the last year has only made that hate grow. I had watched Halfthat's play during the playoffs that season, and thought he was a gritty player who brought good chemistry, but one look at his stats told me this was a player I wanted no part of on my favorite NHL team. One 30-goal season to his credit, notching 31 with Ottawa during the 2003-04 season. Prior to a great 2008-09 campaign, in which he tallied a 29-48-77 line, while playing alongside the Blackhawks dynamic duo of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews (slight talent upgrade over what we have here), Halfthat had averaged 36 games played over the previous three seasons. Excellent number if we're talking college hockey, unfortunately it only equates to 44% of an NHL schedule. But hey, when you can get half a season of mediocre production for the price of a full season of stellar production, you have to do it...right?
Bottom line: The Wild need 30 goals and 60 points at a minimum (so basically double last year's production, you see how that works?) in the coming year if they are going to make the postseason. NHL teams simply cannot pay superstar money to a player who is not providing superstar production.
2) Brent Burns - Two seasons ago, Brent Burns was coming off a breakout season in which he played all 82 games, scored 15 goals and added 28 assists. At 23 years old, with 3 NHL seasons under it his belt, it appeared to every Wild fan that he would be the foundation of the team's blue line for the next decade, a dynamic 2-way defenseman with a knack for knowing when to jump into the play, there was simply nothing he couldn't do. I haven't stopped to think about how much fun he was to watch that season in quite some time, and pausing to do it now, after what has unfolded over the last couple of years, is pretty damned depressing.
Sports can be like quicksand, with areas you thought were solid giving way in the blink of an eye and dragging everything down in an instant. Nothing contributes more to this uncertainty than injuries, and Burns has been beset by a slew of them over the past two seasons, primarily concussions, limiting him to 106 games, and derailing a career on the rise. No player on the Wild roster has the potential to impact the game in as many ways as Burns can, and did, when he is at his best. At 25, his prime should just be beginning, but "concussion" is probably the single most frightening word in sport. Not only does the threat of another hang over his career, it kills it's trade value. On a team with a deep blue line, a healthy Burns would be one of the few potential assets that could fetch back the high-scoring forward the team desparately needs. At the moment though, any deal would only bring back pennies on the dollar for a player once considered one of the top young defensemen in the NHL
Bottom line: Stay healthy. That's it. I firmly believe that if Brent Burns can stay on the ice for 70+ games this season, he will produce. Maybe not at the level of the days when the Wild were at the top of the division, but at least enough to build up his value, and give the team another asset, rather than just another bad contract to add to the list.
3) Nicklas Backstrom - Now here is one I was dead wrong on. Repeat after me: You do not pay $6 million a year for a goaltender. Never. Not ever.
When Backstrom burst onto the scene after signing a one-year deal with the Wild before the 2006-07 season, it was nothing short of unbelieveable. The Finnish free agent out of nowhere was the best goalie in the league that season, posting eye-popping numbers (23-8 record, 1.67 GAA, .929 save %) while backstopping the team to a playoff berth. Although the Wild were outsted in the first round that season by the eventual champion Anaheim Ducks, I had visions of dominant goaltending stretching years into the future.
A 2-year / $6.2 million contract followed, and things only got better. A division title for the team in 2008 and All-Star selection for the goalie the following year made a contract extension for Backstrom the hottest topic surrounding the team during the spring of 2009. I'm sorry to say I was in the camp that thought we should do whatever it took to keep him, despite arguments to the contrary from other fans, who stated his success was only a result of coach jacques Lemaire's defense-first system. Eventually, the pressure to sign him became to great, and the team re-upped the goaltender to a 4-year / $24 million deal. Then, as things are won't to do with NHL goaltending, the bottom dropped out.
The 2009-10 season was the team's first playing new coach Todd Richard's (allegedly) up-tempo style, and the results in net were not pretty. After three straight seasons with a goals-against average under 2.35, Backstrom's number jumped to 2.72, and we officially had a problem. To put this in prespective, the worst GAA for any NHL regular last season was 2.76, only two goaltenders were worse than Backstrom last season, one began the season as a backup and one ended it that way. Blame cannot be placed solely on the system for these results. To echo my sentiments about Halfthat, this is not acceptable performance from a goalie being paid $6 million per year.
So this my friends is a reeeeeeeeeeeal dicey situation, particular when you consider how many goalies have lost it over the years and never gotten it back. And while an $18-million albatross hanging from the neck of the franchise for the next three seasons is not necessarily a death sentence (Chicago paid Cristobal Huet $5.6 million to sit on the bench while winning a Cup this past year; Huet's GAA when he was benched? 2.50), it isn't exactly something that can be brushed off either. If Backstrom can't put 2009-10 behind him and return to an elite level, or (gulp) gets worse, this team is pretty well sunk.
Bottom line: Play competently, re-establish himself as at least a Top 10 goaltender, .920 save % and sub-2.50 GAA is a must
Framing things up - 2 guys who need to step up for the Wild to return to the playoffs
4) Mikko Koivu - If you were looking to define the term "nice player" in the NHL, Mikko Koivu's picture would be on the Wikipedia page. Solid center, team captain, puts up 20G/40A every season, plays both ends of the ice, good on faceoffs, just a consistent all-around player. Not spectacular, but certainly not bad, just nice. Add in the fact that he's being paid a reasonable $3.25 million this season, and Koivu is one of the bright spots on an otherwise bleak rosters. Problem is, stop me if you've heard this before, he's about to be paid superstar money for production that just doesn't warrant it.
Entering the last year of his contract this season, Koivu is in a good bargaining position for an extension, which seems inevitable before the summer is over. The Wild can't afford to let their captain and best player walk away for nothing, ala The Slovak Sissy, nor should they. But they also need to be reasonable in assessing his value, and not overpay ridiculously. A deal in the $5 million range for Koivu seems likely, and if that is the case, it would be really nice to see him approach the 30-goal mark, or at least top his career high of 22, this season. It's tough to complain too much about a player who brings as many things to the table as Mikko Koivu does, and it's true that there's more to the game than just scoring. But last time I checked, the currency of hockey is still goals, and the team that he captains simply needs more of them.
Bottom line: Assuming the other parts of his game remain solid, a bump from the 22G 49A line of last season to 30/50 range should do the job, particulary if most of that increase is on the power play.
5) Pierre-Marc Bouchard - Of all the guys called out so far for underperforming, PMB is probably the biggest example, but also the toughest to blame. It's been 15 months since Bouchard suffered the concussion that caused him to miss all but one game of the 2009-10 season. His presence on the ice in September is a wild card that could change many elements of how the team operates this offseason.
At the moment, it appears Bouchard will be returning to the lineup, having just been given clearance to begin working out, following the abatement of the post-concussion symptoms that dogged him all season. Although he may be a wee little man who's not going to bang in the corners or score many goals, PMB is a gifted playmaker who averaged 45 assists per season in the 3 years prior to his injury during the 2008-09 campaign. If he's able to go this season, the offense would get a nice shot in the arm; if he's unable to play, the Wild would be free to add his $4 million salary to their pool of available cap space.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help too much at the moment, for a couple of reasons. Number one, barring a setback in the very near future, the team has to assume he's going to play, so it can't go spend those dollars on a free agent addition. Number two, Bouchard is in year 3 of a 5-year deal, so even if he didn't make it back this season, and the cap space became available, the Wild would likely only be able to offer a one-year deal. With no large contracts falling off the books next offseason, it's unlikely the team would be able to add another $4-5 million salary without putting themselves in a tough spot a year from now. Anyway, it's probably a moot point, by the time they found out Bouchard was going to sit, all impact free agents would be off the market.
The only thing that's for certain is that his upcoming season is as pivotal to Bouchard's career as it is to the Wild's chances of success. At only 26, he should be entering his prime as a player, but another head injury would most likely mean the end of what once looked to be a very promising career.
Bottom line: For his sake, as well as the team's, PMB just needs to get healthy and get on the ice, we'll see where things go from there.
Finishing touches - 1 guy who could take the team to the next level
6) Guillaume Latendresse - Ask any Wild fan about the best move of the Chuck Fletcher Era to date, and without fail they will reply "Pouliot-for-Latendresse". In what looked to be a simple swap of garbage 25 games into last season, the GM shipped the most disatrous Wild draft pick of all time, Benoit Pouliot, to Montreal in exchange for another underachieving young player in Latendresse. The rest, as they say, is history, as Latendresse scored 25 goals in 55 games to lead the team, and put a small silk head on that pig of a campaign. Now the question becomes, Trend or Mirage?
It was clear from the jump that Latendresse was a better player than Pouliot, the uber-bust, 4th overall pick from 2005. In three seasons with Montreal, Latendresse tallied goal totals of 16, 16 and 14, while Pouliot netted 9 total over parts of three with the Wild, and generally stunk in every other phase of the game to boot. What no one saw coming however, was that Latendresse would start putting pucks in the net at the pace of a 40-goal scorer, showing nifty moves around the net and pretty much carrying the offense for much of the season.
Now it's probably just the skeptic in me, but despite what I saw happen last season, I just can't believe a 15-goal scorer in the Eastern Conference can transform into a 40-goal scorer in the West simply due to a change of scenery. While it's true Latendresse has a lot going for him, including size, a cool name, a smoking hot pop star girlfriend and serving as the basis for a great joke I made up (What's do the Minnesota Wild and banging a fat girl have in common? Latendresse), I just don't think he can equal last year's performance.
I hope I'm wrong, really I do, but something just isn't adding up here. Maybe he really is the perfect linemate for Halfthat, perhaps his game was being stifled in Montreal, but something in my gut tells me he's closer to the 15-goal guy than the 40-goal guy, and I just can't shake the feeling. The good news is that the Wild get to find out the answer for a pittance of what they're paying Halfthat to find out what some of us already knew (he's a complementary player). If Latendresse can do for a full season this year what he did for two-thirds of one the last time out, the ceiling on this team will be raised dramatically.
Bottom line: The X factor, barring some huge improvements from other players, the damage done in the playoffs will hinge on Latendresse emergence as a go-to scorer
In closing, I will simply say that the current state of the Minnesota Wild is bad; that should be obvious at this point. Furthermore, given the deals that have been handed out, the injury histories of key players on the roster, and the general lack of promising young players in the pipeline, it does not appear likely to improve much in the near future.
Looking at this bleak situation, the one consolation that can be offered is this: These players have done what we need them to do before, and if they do it again, we can win now. It is never pleasant to go into a season knowing that your only shot at significance is for most of the team to have career/bounce-back years, because as we all know, things rarely work out that way. But it is far less pleasant to be dealing with a roster of players with no track record, who offer no reason to think they are capable of performing at the level required.
After all, here in Loserville, you gotta have hope. Go Wild.
The 2009-10 Wild season was hallmarked by the Two Is: Inconsistency and Irrelevance. The team put itself behind the 8-ball with a slow start, and never found the sustained stretch of good play they need to edge into the playoff race. Pretty much the entire season was spent in what I refer to as the "5 Tall Beer Zone", you've had enough beer to know driving could be a concern (read: potentially illegal), but not enough to get that nice strong buzz the heavy drinker relishes so. (Ironic to be using this term in describing the Wild, since it typically took 5 tall beers before you could enjoy watching one of their games last season, as well as another 5 after to try and forget what you just saw. It was ugly, get it? The team specialized in two things, not scoring and pissing away multi-goal leads, as poor a combination as you can find anywhere. I just cracked a beer right now thinking about it, need something to keep my hands from shaking while I type.)
They would put together a solid week of hockey, climb within striking distance of a playoff spot, then drop a few games and sink back to where they started. This process kept recurring all season, leaving the team mired in the worst possible spot, with neither a playoff berth, nor a high draft pick to show for things. Some relevant numbers about the team's finish last season:
Points out of the playoffs - 11
Teams between the Wild and the #8 seed - 5
Goals for - 219 (22nd)
Goals against - 246 (21st)
Goal differential - -27(24th)
In short, it was an abject and total failure on every level. The team did nothing particularly well, yet did not fare poorly enough to get a top draft pick who might make a quick impact...and that's the good news.
How can that be good news? Because it was only one year. It was a transition season, with a new GM and coach, things were supposed to be rocky. It would've been the perfect time to bottom out, throw out a real clunker, grab a high draft pick and position the team to make a big splash coming into this season. Although fans may not be ecstatic about throwing in the towel and expecting to lose, anyone with half a brain could see things were in a terrible mess. Overburdened by bad contracts, lacking immediate help from the minors and having lost it's best player, the Wild needed to take a couple large steps back before it could consider moving forward.
When you fire your coach and GM, there's nothing more to complain about for a year or two, fans at least need a couple of fresh mistakes to pin on the new guy before they can go too crazy. There was in fact, only one thing that they could've possibly done wrong, one thing that would've been truly awful for the long-term rebuilind plans, which was to overpay the wrong free agent in a panic move...so of course, that's exactly what they did! And here we are.
To set the stage for the discussion of the offseason, one over-arching truth must be remembered: There's no help coming from outside, or at least not without surrendering one of the team's current assets. Michael Russo, who covers hockey for the Star Tribune and is the best sportswriter in town for my money, wrote this article last week about potential trades being the path to improvement in a weak free agent market (http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/96622489.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7hUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr) If this weak crop of free agents wasn't enough, the team also has no cash to spend on them. The actual 2010-11 salary cap is TBD, but is assumed to land in the $57 million range. Based on the info available here, http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=MIN, we know the following:
Committed cap space - $48.2 million
Estimate to retain restricted free agents (Latandresse, Earl, Ebbett, Harding) - $4.5 million
Dollars available to fill remaining 5 roster spots - $4.5 million
Pretty obvious that the team is not going to be in the running for even mid-level free agents, even players who could be added from the minors would be at or above the average remaining salary they have available. I may be being a bit generous with my assumption on Latendresse, bumping his salary from $800k to $2 million next year. But after acoring 25 goals in 55 games, I believe the team will attempt to sign him to a multi-year deal, and doing so will require a significant bump. Even saving another half million on that deal would not change the situation, we're capped out and that's that.
Although it's unpalatable to the average season ticketholder, losing short-term to win long-term was the only option, since the Wild will now be forced to sink or swim with the same players next season. Hitting rock bottom has been a tried-and-true path taken by several other teams, including the last two Cup champions. Both Pittsburgh and Chicago were dreadful a few years ago, but the upside to all the losing was the drafting of franchise cornerstones who have already brought championships, and will ensure another decade of competitive hockey for their respective teams. Acknowledging this just adds sting to another year of being mired in the middle.
I know I just seem to keep piling worse news on top of bad, but the final piece to the puzzle is the fact that even the Rock Bottom scenario is no longer an option, since all of the most expensive (and useless) players have contract with no trade clauses. Basically, for this team to do anything next season, it's going to need bounce back years from a whoooooole lot of people.
And with that, we can kick off the discussion of "2010-11 Minnesota Wild Pyramid of Hope"TM
Laying the groundwork - 3 guys who need good seasons to keep the Wild out of the cellar
1) Martin Havlat - Or, as he with henceforth be know in this blog "Halfthat" (as in, if an elite player would score 40 goals, he'll get you Half that), was signed to a 6-year / $30 million dollar deal immediately on the heels of Marian Gaborik's departure to New York. Now my sneaking suspicion is that this deal was the result of pressure placed on the GM by the team's new owner, Craig Leipold, in an attempt to placate the fanbase after the loss of the franchise's greatest star in it's young history (MaryAnn Groinorik, The Slovak Sissy). I don't have anything to back this up, but it's the only way I can make sense of the signing. If someone would like to offer a better explanation of why the logical move following the departure of your fragile European goal scorer is to bring in a less-productive fragile European goal scorer, I'm all ears. Until then, I'm sticking with my initial opinon.
And although I may be overly negative, this isn't revisionist history here, I hated this signing at the time and the last year has only made that hate grow. I had watched Halfthat's play during the playoffs that season, and thought he was a gritty player who brought good chemistry, but one look at his stats told me this was a player I wanted no part of on my favorite NHL team. One 30-goal season to his credit, notching 31 with Ottawa during the 2003-04 season. Prior to a great 2008-09 campaign, in which he tallied a 29-48-77 line, while playing alongside the Blackhawks dynamic duo of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews (slight talent upgrade over what we have here), Halfthat had averaged 36 games played over the previous three seasons. Excellent number if we're talking college hockey, unfortunately it only equates to 44% of an NHL schedule. But hey, when you can get half a season of mediocre production for the price of a full season of stellar production, you have to do it...right?
Bottom line: The Wild need 30 goals and 60 points at a minimum (so basically double last year's production, you see how that works?) in the coming year if they are going to make the postseason. NHL teams simply cannot pay superstar money to a player who is not providing superstar production.
2) Brent Burns - Two seasons ago, Brent Burns was coming off a breakout season in which he played all 82 games, scored 15 goals and added 28 assists. At 23 years old, with 3 NHL seasons under it his belt, it appeared to every Wild fan that he would be the foundation of the team's blue line for the next decade, a dynamic 2-way defenseman with a knack for knowing when to jump into the play, there was simply nothing he couldn't do. I haven't stopped to think about how much fun he was to watch that season in quite some time, and pausing to do it now, after what has unfolded over the last couple of years, is pretty damned depressing.
Sports can be like quicksand, with areas you thought were solid giving way in the blink of an eye and dragging everything down in an instant. Nothing contributes more to this uncertainty than injuries, and Burns has been beset by a slew of them over the past two seasons, primarily concussions, limiting him to 106 games, and derailing a career on the rise. No player on the Wild roster has the potential to impact the game in as many ways as Burns can, and did, when he is at his best. At 25, his prime should just be beginning, but "concussion" is probably the single most frightening word in sport. Not only does the threat of another hang over his career, it kills it's trade value. On a team with a deep blue line, a healthy Burns would be one of the few potential assets that could fetch back the high-scoring forward the team desparately needs. At the moment though, any deal would only bring back pennies on the dollar for a player once considered one of the top young defensemen in the NHL
Bottom line: Stay healthy. That's it. I firmly believe that if Brent Burns can stay on the ice for 70+ games this season, he will produce. Maybe not at the level of the days when the Wild were at the top of the division, but at least enough to build up his value, and give the team another asset, rather than just another bad contract to add to the list.
3) Nicklas Backstrom - Now here is one I was dead wrong on. Repeat after me: You do not pay $6 million a year for a goaltender. Never. Not ever.
When Backstrom burst onto the scene after signing a one-year deal with the Wild before the 2006-07 season, it was nothing short of unbelieveable. The Finnish free agent out of nowhere was the best goalie in the league that season, posting eye-popping numbers (23-8 record, 1.67 GAA, .929 save %) while backstopping the team to a playoff berth. Although the Wild were outsted in the first round that season by the eventual champion Anaheim Ducks, I had visions of dominant goaltending stretching years into the future.
A 2-year / $6.2 million contract followed, and things only got better. A division title for the team in 2008 and All-Star selection for the goalie the following year made a contract extension for Backstrom the hottest topic surrounding the team during the spring of 2009. I'm sorry to say I was in the camp that thought we should do whatever it took to keep him, despite arguments to the contrary from other fans, who stated his success was only a result of coach jacques Lemaire's defense-first system. Eventually, the pressure to sign him became to great, and the team re-upped the goaltender to a 4-year / $24 million deal. Then, as things are won't to do with NHL goaltending, the bottom dropped out.
The 2009-10 season was the team's first playing new coach Todd Richard's (allegedly) up-tempo style, and the results in net were not pretty. After three straight seasons with a goals-against average under 2.35, Backstrom's number jumped to 2.72, and we officially had a problem. To put this in prespective, the worst GAA for any NHL regular last season was 2.76, only two goaltenders were worse than Backstrom last season, one began the season as a backup and one ended it that way. Blame cannot be placed solely on the system for these results. To echo my sentiments about Halfthat, this is not acceptable performance from a goalie being paid $6 million per year.
So this my friends is a reeeeeeeeeeeal dicey situation, particular when you consider how many goalies have lost it over the years and never gotten it back. And while an $18-million albatross hanging from the neck of the franchise for the next three seasons is not necessarily a death sentence (Chicago paid Cristobal Huet $5.6 million to sit on the bench while winning a Cup this past year; Huet's GAA when he was benched? 2.50), it isn't exactly something that can be brushed off either. If Backstrom can't put 2009-10 behind him and return to an elite level, or (gulp) gets worse, this team is pretty well sunk.
Bottom line: Play competently, re-establish himself as at least a Top 10 goaltender, .920 save % and sub-2.50 GAA is a must
Framing things up - 2 guys who need to step up for the Wild to return to the playoffs
4) Mikko Koivu - If you were looking to define the term "nice player" in the NHL, Mikko Koivu's picture would be on the Wikipedia page. Solid center, team captain, puts up 20G/40A every season, plays both ends of the ice, good on faceoffs, just a consistent all-around player. Not spectacular, but certainly not bad, just nice. Add in the fact that he's being paid a reasonable $3.25 million this season, and Koivu is one of the bright spots on an otherwise bleak rosters. Problem is, stop me if you've heard this before, he's about to be paid superstar money for production that just doesn't warrant it.
Entering the last year of his contract this season, Koivu is in a good bargaining position for an extension, which seems inevitable before the summer is over. The Wild can't afford to let their captain and best player walk away for nothing, ala The Slovak Sissy, nor should they. But they also need to be reasonable in assessing his value, and not overpay ridiculously. A deal in the $5 million range for Koivu seems likely, and if that is the case, it would be really nice to see him approach the 30-goal mark, or at least top his career high of 22, this season. It's tough to complain too much about a player who brings as many things to the table as Mikko Koivu does, and it's true that there's more to the game than just scoring. But last time I checked, the currency of hockey is still goals, and the team that he captains simply needs more of them.
Bottom line: Assuming the other parts of his game remain solid, a bump from the 22G 49A line of last season to 30/50 range should do the job, particulary if most of that increase is on the power play.
5) Pierre-Marc Bouchard - Of all the guys called out so far for underperforming, PMB is probably the biggest example, but also the toughest to blame. It's been 15 months since Bouchard suffered the concussion that caused him to miss all but one game of the 2009-10 season. His presence on the ice in September is a wild card that could change many elements of how the team operates this offseason.
At the moment, it appears Bouchard will be returning to the lineup, having just been given clearance to begin working out, following the abatement of the post-concussion symptoms that dogged him all season. Although he may be a wee little man who's not going to bang in the corners or score many goals, PMB is a gifted playmaker who averaged 45 assists per season in the 3 years prior to his injury during the 2008-09 campaign. If he's able to go this season, the offense would get a nice shot in the arm; if he's unable to play, the Wild would be free to add his $4 million salary to their pool of available cap space.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help too much at the moment, for a couple of reasons. Number one, barring a setback in the very near future, the team has to assume he's going to play, so it can't go spend those dollars on a free agent addition. Number two, Bouchard is in year 3 of a 5-year deal, so even if he didn't make it back this season, and the cap space became available, the Wild would likely only be able to offer a one-year deal. With no large contracts falling off the books next offseason, it's unlikely the team would be able to add another $4-5 million salary without putting themselves in a tough spot a year from now. Anyway, it's probably a moot point, by the time they found out Bouchard was going to sit, all impact free agents would be off the market.
The only thing that's for certain is that his upcoming season is as pivotal to Bouchard's career as it is to the Wild's chances of success. At only 26, he should be entering his prime as a player, but another head injury would most likely mean the end of what once looked to be a very promising career.
Bottom line: For his sake, as well as the team's, PMB just needs to get healthy and get on the ice, we'll see where things go from there.
Finishing touches - 1 guy who could take the team to the next level
6) Guillaume Latendresse - Ask any Wild fan about the best move of the Chuck Fletcher Era to date, and without fail they will reply "Pouliot-for-Latendresse". In what looked to be a simple swap of garbage 25 games into last season, the GM shipped the most disatrous Wild draft pick of all time, Benoit Pouliot, to Montreal in exchange for another underachieving young player in Latendresse. The rest, as they say, is history, as Latendresse scored 25 goals in 55 games to lead the team, and put a small silk head on that pig of a campaign. Now the question becomes, Trend or Mirage?
It was clear from the jump that Latendresse was a better player than Pouliot, the uber-bust, 4th overall pick from 2005. In three seasons with Montreal, Latendresse tallied goal totals of 16, 16 and 14, while Pouliot netted 9 total over parts of three with the Wild, and generally stunk in every other phase of the game to boot. What no one saw coming however, was that Latendresse would start putting pucks in the net at the pace of a 40-goal scorer, showing nifty moves around the net and pretty much carrying the offense for much of the season.
Now it's probably just the skeptic in me, but despite what I saw happen last season, I just can't believe a 15-goal scorer in the Eastern Conference can transform into a 40-goal scorer in the West simply due to a change of scenery. While it's true Latendresse has a lot going for him, including size, a cool name, a smoking hot pop star girlfriend and serving as the basis for a great joke I made up (What's do the Minnesota Wild and banging a fat girl have in common? Latendresse), I just don't think he can equal last year's performance.
I hope I'm wrong, really I do, but something just isn't adding up here. Maybe he really is the perfect linemate for Halfthat, perhaps his game was being stifled in Montreal, but something in my gut tells me he's closer to the 15-goal guy than the 40-goal guy, and I just can't shake the feeling. The good news is that the Wild get to find out the answer for a pittance of what they're paying Halfthat to find out what some of us already knew (he's a complementary player). If Latendresse can do for a full season this year what he did for two-thirds of one the last time out, the ceiling on this team will be raised dramatically.
Bottom line: The X factor, barring some huge improvements from other players, the damage done in the playoffs will hinge on Latendresse emergence as a go-to scorer
In closing, I will simply say that the current state of the Minnesota Wild is bad; that should be obvious at this point. Furthermore, given the deals that have been handed out, the injury histories of key players on the roster, and the general lack of promising young players in the pipeline, it does not appear likely to improve much in the near future.
Looking at this bleak situation, the one consolation that can be offered is this: These players have done what we need them to do before, and if they do it again, we can win now. It is never pleasant to go into a season knowing that your only shot at significance is for most of the team to have career/bounce-back years, because as we all know, things rarely work out that way. But it is far less pleasant to be dealing with a roster of players with no track record, who offer no reason to think they are capable of performing at the level required.
After all, here in Loserville, you gotta have hope. Go Wild.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Stuff I hope happens this week
Lot of stuff coming down the pike this week with MLB trade speculation heating up, World Cup continuing, NBA and NHL drafts happening, so I know you're dying to hear how my perfect week would play out. We'll taking this from likely to extremely remote:
USA beats whatever former Communist republic is next on the docket - I certainly hope this is the lock of the week, need a win to get into the knockout round, pull it together and win one, will you guys? I mean it's friggin Albania or Algeria or whatever, unless the competition involves herding goats, America should notch a W.
Twins take the series from the Brewers - The Twins are pretty good, Brewers are pretty awful, the interleague springboard has been going pretty well so far, winning 2 of 3 should be easily attainable (don't even say the word sweep). Why the baseball schedule makers put this series in the middle of the week for the second straight year is beyond me, particularly when the team has to go from Philly to Milwaukee to New York for 3 games against the Mets this weekend. Twins fans should be afforded the same courtesy that Brewer fans were when the two teams played a weekend series at Target Field a couple of weeks back, that six month baseball schedule too tight to find a workable weekend? Given the bragging rights dominance that Wisconsin holds in professional (at least historically) and college football, as well as superior hoops teams at both levels, us Minnesotans need an opportunity to invade one of THEIR stadiums and hassle them about THEIR terrible team. The Brewers fill that niche nicely, and now those in attendance will have to pick up the razzing slack for the few thousand fans who would've made the weekend trip, but can't beg out Tuesday-Thursday. Sad to think about all those poor people who will have to make do without their polka fix this year.
Wild draft a player I've heard of/can follow this Friday - Probably pretty remote actually, given the team's draft position and needs, but it's always fun when the team drafts someone who will be playing in college next season, preferrably the WCHA. Given the team's past history with college players, I'm not too sure they even like them, last year's first round pick was Minnesota Golden Gopher Nick Leddy, but he was shipped to the Blackhawks this season, and it's a different crew of people making the selections this time around. Obviously the first priority is to get somebody who's going to help the team, but drafting a guy, then watching him disappear into the Canadian wilderness for the next 2-3 years always leaves me a bit cold. At the very least, they could pick someone who ends up on the Canadian World Junior team, so we can at least get a look at them next December. The list of guys who fit my profile is pretty short: Cam Fowler played for the US in last year's WJC and was great, but the Wild don't really need more defensemen and he'll be gone before the 9th pick comes around. Future UND Fighting Sioux Derek Forbort is slotted in the 8-12 range in most rankings, but again, defense is not going to be a top priority. Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Nick Bjugstad is projected in the upper teens and would be an intriguing center prospect, but given the rumors that have swirled around the last couple of years regarding NHL opinions on the University of Minnesota program (including one stating the Wild were unhappy with Leddy's progress), it's difficult to see the team picking another Gopher. Warroad native Brock Nelson, also a North Dakota signee, would be a fun addition in the second round if he slips a few picks from his current projection, as would Jared Tinodi (son of former North Star Mark and a Notre Dame signee) and a few other CCHA players.
Timberwolves move up and draft Evan Turner - I'm not saying you should sell the farm Dave, but everything I hear points to things in this year's NBA draft getting pretty murky beyond the top 3. It would be interesting if Turner were to slip to the third spot, but there seems to be no chance of him getting to the Wolves at #4. While any top 5 pick is going to be a good player, I've seen a lot of Turner and would really like to get him, even if it means giving up the 16th pick to move up two slots. Fallback plan here is doing whatever it takes to get James Anderson with that 16th pick. I'm no NBA draftnik, frankly I haven't seen half of the guys play; but I have seen Anderson a few times and he can flat-out score, both inside and outside, which is something this team has been severely lacking. Take Wesley Johnson at #4, then do what has to be done to make sure you land Anderson, even if it means dealing pick #23. If you draft a 7-foot European center, I'm done with this team.
Twins trade for Cliff Lee - Am I deluding myself with this one? Most likely. Many a grand Twins rumor has emerged over the years, only to be exposed as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Normally I wouldn't even allow myself to get sucked in to this degree, but this has been a surprising season so far, and for the first time it seems believeable that this team could be capable of a coup-de-grace move of this type. The fit would seem perfect for both teams, given the Twins surplus of young pitchers and expendable prospects, laid out in excellent fashion here http://www.ussmariner.com/2010/06/14/trading-cliff-lee/. If the price to do this is Slowey/Ramos/prospect-not-named-Hicks-or-Revere, then I'm on board wholeheartedly. Less enthused about giving up Baker (who I hate just as much as Slowey, but see greater potential in), but even that would not be a deal breaker. I've said many times it's time to take a shot, and we're talking about replaceable parts here, time to get something big done and turn this team into a legit contender overnight.
More in-depth thoughts on how to overhaul the Wild coming later this week, as for the Wolves, it's a simple two-step process: Hope and Wait. Or Wait and Hope, if you prefer.
USA beats whatever former Communist republic is next on the docket - I certainly hope this is the lock of the week, need a win to get into the knockout round, pull it together and win one, will you guys? I mean it's friggin Albania or Algeria or whatever, unless the competition involves herding goats, America should notch a W.
Twins take the series from the Brewers - The Twins are pretty good, Brewers are pretty awful, the interleague springboard has been going pretty well so far, winning 2 of 3 should be easily attainable (don't even say the word sweep). Why the baseball schedule makers put this series in the middle of the week for the second straight year is beyond me, particularly when the team has to go from Philly to Milwaukee to New York for 3 games against the Mets this weekend. Twins fans should be afforded the same courtesy that Brewer fans were when the two teams played a weekend series at Target Field a couple of weeks back, that six month baseball schedule too tight to find a workable weekend? Given the bragging rights dominance that Wisconsin holds in professional (at least historically) and college football, as well as superior hoops teams at both levels, us Minnesotans need an opportunity to invade one of THEIR stadiums and hassle them about THEIR terrible team. The Brewers fill that niche nicely, and now those in attendance will have to pick up the razzing slack for the few thousand fans who would've made the weekend trip, but can't beg out Tuesday-Thursday. Sad to think about all those poor people who will have to make do without their polka fix this year.
Wild draft a player I've heard of/can follow this Friday - Probably pretty remote actually, given the team's draft position and needs, but it's always fun when the team drafts someone who will be playing in college next season, preferrably the WCHA. Given the team's past history with college players, I'm not too sure they even like them, last year's first round pick was Minnesota Golden Gopher Nick Leddy, but he was shipped to the Blackhawks this season, and it's a different crew of people making the selections this time around. Obviously the first priority is to get somebody who's going to help the team, but drafting a guy, then watching him disappear into the Canadian wilderness for the next 2-3 years always leaves me a bit cold. At the very least, they could pick someone who ends up on the Canadian World Junior team, so we can at least get a look at them next December. The list of guys who fit my profile is pretty short: Cam Fowler played for the US in last year's WJC and was great, but the Wild don't really need more defensemen and he'll be gone before the 9th pick comes around. Future UND Fighting Sioux Derek Forbort is slotted in the 8-12 range in most rankings, but again, defense is not going to be a top priority. Minnesota's Mr. Hockey Nick Bjugstad is projected in the upper teens and would be an intriguing center prospect, but given the rumors that have swirled around the last couple of years regarding NHL opinions on the University of Minnesota program (including one stating the Wild were unhappy with Leddy's progress), it's difficult to see the team picking another Gopher. Warroad native Brock Nelson, also a North Dakota signee, would be a fun addition in the second round if he slips a few picks from his current projection, as would Jared Tinodi (son of former North Star Mark and a Notre Dame signee) and a few other CCHA players.
Timberwolves move up and draft Evan Turner - I'm not saying you should sell the farm Dave, but everything I hear points to things in this year's NBA draft getting pretty murky beyond the top 3. It would be interesting if Turner were to slip to the third spot, but there seems to be no chance of him getting to the Wolves at #4. While any top 5 pick is going to be a good player, I've seen a lot of Turner and would really like to get him, even if it means giving up the 16th pick to move up two slots. Fallback plan here is doing whatever it takes to get James Anderson with that 16th pick. I'm no NBA draftnik, frankly I haven't seen half of the guys play; but I have seen Anderson a few times and he can flat-out score, both inside and outside, which is something this team has been severely lacking. Take Wesley Johnson at #4, then do what has to be done to make sure you land Anderson, even if it means dealing pick #23. If you draft a 7-foot European center, I'm done with this team.
Twins trade for Cliff Lee - Am I deluding myself with this one? Most likely. Many a grand Twins rumor has emerged over the years, only to be exposed as a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Normally I wouldn't even allow myself to get sucked in to this degree, but this has been a surprising season so far, and for the first time it seems believeable that this team could be capable of a coup-de-grace move of this type. The fit would seem perfect for both teams, given the Twins surplus of young pitchers and expendable prospects, laid out in excellent fashion here http://www.ussmariner.com/2010/06/14/trading-cliff-lee/. If the price to do this is Slowey/Ramos/prospect-not-named-Hicks-or-Revere, then I'm on board wholeheartedly. Less enthused about giving up Baker (who I hate just as much as Slowey, but see greater potential in), but even that would not be a deal breaker. I've said many times it's time to take a shot, and we're talking about replaceable parts here, time to get something big done and turn this team into a legit contender overnight.
More in-depth thoughts on how to overhaul the Wild coming later this week, as for the Wolves, it's a simple two-step process: Hope and Wait. Or Wait and Hope, if you prefer.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Trying to give the futbol a fighting chance
So my attempt to truly get into World Cup soccer has hit a wall. A wall constructed of 0-0 ties, vuvuzelas and 7 AM start times. Switzerland pulled a huge upset today over Spain, but from my seat at work, all I can think is, "if a tree falls in the forest..." It may be the most popular sport and tournament in the world, but it's pretty tough to get drawn in with so many obstacles standing in my way; if I'm going to have to listen to buzzing for two hours, at least let me get a buzz first.
But on the positive side, the World Cup, although definitely well-publicized, does not carry the same suffocating invasion into US culture that the Olympics bring. This tournament is like an obnoxious former high school classmate with bad breath bearing down on you in a bar, you're not interested in talking to him, but at least you can get away; the Olympics are that same guy, but in this case you're chained to the bar. There's a classic Catch-22 thing going on for me here: If the United States was any good at soccer, I'd definitely be more into the World Cup. Unfortunately, if the United States was any good at soccer, I'd be so sick and tired of being beaten over the head with the World Cup, I'd probably start to hate it. It's going to take a delicate balance of an overachieving, but not outright good, team to suit my needs here. We'll see how this goes.
So while the fervor is cooling as a result of general boredom so far, there are a few things that keep me intrigued enough to think this situation could turn. First off, I have seen a couple of entertaining matches played, or perhaps "entertaining stretches of matches" would be more accurate. The important thing is that I know they exist, gives me hope for the future. Secondly, I can always get behind any US team that's a) male (sorry ladies, I can't do what you do, but neither of us can do what the guys do, and you don't see me asking anyone to pay attention to my golf game either, right?) , b) not getting totally thrased and c) not playing some nonsensical sport like water polo (good game of pool volleyball ruined) or curling (bowling on ice). I watched the US tie England last Saturday, enjoyed the first half, was a bit bored during the second, got generally annoyed with the soccer nuts make such a big deal about a gift tie, but in general was entertained. Third, and this is key, the playoffs haven't started.
I mean you don't really have the full measure of a game until you reach the playoffs, right? Particularly in this cheesy round-robin of the World Cup, where half the teams have no chance and everyone seems content to play for a tie. As a playoff-only NBA fan who knows a hundred playoff-only NHL fans, I'm holding back judgement on the sport until I see a healthy dose of action in the knockout round, with the best teams playing one-and-done games that matter, rather than tuning in for the soccer equivalent of Net-Lakers or Thrashers-Blackhawks when North Korea takes on Brazil. Of course this still doesn't change the fact that the two semifinal games are at 1 PM in the middle of the week, but we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it, until then, I will attempt to keep an open mind.
Go Cameroon
But on the positive side, the World Cup, although definitely well-publicized, does not carry the same suffocating invasion into US culture that the Olympics bring. This tournament is like an obnoxious former high school classmate with bad breath bearing down on you in a bar, you're not interested in talking to him, but at least you can get away; the Olympics are that same guy, but in this case you're chained to the bar. There's a classic Catch-22 thing going on for me here: If the United States was any good at soccer, I'd definitely be more into the World Cup. Unfortunately, if the United States was any good at soccer, I'd be so sick and tired of being beaten over the head with the World Cup, I'd probably start to hate it. It's going to take a delicate balance of an overachieving, but not outright good, team to suit my needs here. We'll see how this goes.
So while the fervor is cooling as a result of general boredom so far, there are a few things that keep me intrigued enough to think this situation could turn. First off, I have seen a couple of entertaining matches played, or perhaps "entertaining stretches of matches" would be more accurate. The important thing is that I know they exist, gives me hope for the future. Secondly, I can always get behind any US team that's a) male (sorry ladies, I can't do what you do, but neither of us can do what the guys do, and you don't see me asking anyone to pay attention to my golf game either, right?) , b) not getting totally thrased and c) not playing some nonsensical sport like water polo (good game of pool volleyball ruined) or curling (bowling on ice). I watched the US tie England last Saturday, enjoyed the first half, was a bit bored during the second, got generally annoyed with the soccer nuts make such a big deal about a gift tie, but in general was entertained. Third, and this is key, the playoffs haven't started.
I mean you don't really have the full measure of a game until you reach the playoffs, right? Particularly in this cheesy round-robin of the World Cup, where half the teams have no chance and everyone seems content to play for a tie. As a playoff-only NBA fan who knows a hundred playoff-only NHL fans, I'm holding back judgement on the sport until I see a healthy dose of action in the knockout round, with the best teams playing one-and-done games that matter, rather than tuning in for the soccer equivalent of Net-Lakers or Thrashers-Blackhawks when North Korea takes on Brazil. Of course this still doesn't change the fact that the two semifinal games are at 1 PM in the middle of the week, but we'll jump off that bridge when we come to it, until then, I will attempt to keep an open mind.
Go Cameroon
Monday, June 14, 2010
Note to self: Avoid Target Field on Sundays
I had tickets for the Twins game yesterday, but fortunately sold them earlier in the week, in anticipation of the massive hangover that was certain to follow a bachelor party doubleheader on Saturday (Ever tried that? I don't recommend it). The combo of said hangover, Kevin Slowey coughing up 4 first-inning runs and the worst Surrender Sunday lineup the Twins have rolled out all season allowed plenty of time for a much-needed nap, so I suppose I should be thankful that hope died early on. Tip of the cap to the Germany-Austrailia World Cup match (the equivalent of a #1/#16 game during March Madness) that finished the job, and spared me another two hours of watching an overmatched AAA version of my favorite baseball team.
The deficiencies in the lineup have been well documented several places, (including here http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/96284328.html) in better fashion than I could muster. Truth be told there is nothing new to glean than what is already known, the Twins are thin on bench options with their middle infielders hurt, and Kevin Slowey is going to get shelled once in a while. Kind of the dog days of baseball season around here already, as things can either go poorly over the next 6 weeks (swoon drops the club out of first) or just okay (players come back from injury, team stretches it's lead), but will never touch great, regardless of record, as long as all the same internal pieces are being employed. Sure it would be great to see the team return to health, the starters remain generally effective and the bullpen strong, in fact all 3 of those things will be absolutely necessary if the team is going to win this division. But like most other years when the Twins have seemed solid, the difference will be all about who is added from outside the organization before July 31st.
It's getting more and more apparent that this is a good team when healthy, and could be great. But without another strong righthanded bat off the bench or in the lineup, they will never get there. The same can be said for an ace pitcher, unless Francisco Liriano cannot begin to dominate on a regular basis like he did last Friday. Comparing this year's version to previous division-winning seasons, the team is in a much better place as of mid-June. But the problem with that, and with the visions of greatness, is that it adds to the frustration when the moment of truth comes, and the team decides to stand pat.
Now I know that I'm a reactionary fan, and if fans had their way, the minor league system would be ransacked every time the team was within 5 games of first place at the All-Star break. But given the number of one-year contributors on this team, and the fact that it could do something big, given the right additions, it seems more than ever like now is the time. Trades happen every year, some work, some don't, none threaten to turn this team into the Kansas City Royals next season.
We keep hearing about prospects that never seem to show up, or are unimpressive when they do; it always seems like the Twins are willing to forgo a shot at a title this season in the name of the dynasty they're beuilding down the road. It's time to take the "bird-in-hand" approach this year, go get a Ty Wigginton or a Cliff Lee, pay the price and break with the old way of doing things. Wilson Ramos, Aaron Hicks, or whatever other irreplaceable prospect it might cost is not too much to pay; funny thing about the can't-miss guys is that they usually end up missing. In the words of Woody Harrelson in Zombieland: It's time to nut up or shut up.
Because until you do, it's just rolling along with the cute little Twins...and I have to watch 3 guys batting under .200 on Sundays.
The deficiencies in the lineup have been well documented several places, (including here http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/96284328.html) in better fashion than I could muster. Truth be told there is nothing new to glean than what is already known, the Twins are thin on bench options with their middle infielders hurt, and Kevin Slowey is going to get shelled once in a while. Kind of the dog days of baseball season around here already, as things can either go poorly over the next 6 weeks (swoon drops the club out of first) or just okay (players come back from injury, team stretches it's lead), but will never touch great, regardless of record, as long as all the same internal pieces are being employed. Sure it would be great to see the team return to health, the starters remain generally effective and the bullpen strong, in fact all 3 of those things will be absolutely necessary if the team is going to win this division. But like most other years when the Twins have seemed solid, the difference will be all about who is added from outside the organization before July 31st.
It's getting more and more apparent that this is a good team when healthy, and could be great. But without another strong righthanded bat off the bench or in the lineup, they will never get there. The same can be said for an ace pitcher, unless Francisco Liriano cannot begin to dominate on a regular basis like he did last Friday. Comparing this year's version to previous division-winning seasons, the team is in a much better place as of mid-June. But the problem with that, and with the visions of greatness, is that it adds to the frustration when the moment of truth comes, and the team decides to stand pat.
Now I know that I'm a reactionary fan, and if fans had their way, the minor league system would be ransacked every time the team was within 5 games of first place at the All-Star break. But given the number of one-year contributors on this team, and the fact that it could do something big, given the right additions, it seems more than ever like now is the time. Trades happen every year, some work, some don't, none threaten to turn this team into the Kansas City Royals next season.
We keep hearing about prospects that never seem to show up, or are unimpressive when they do; it always seems like the Twins are willing to forgo a shot at a title this season in the name of the dynasty they're beuilding down the road. It's time to take the "bird-in-hand" approach this year, go get a Ty Wigginton or a Cliff Lee, pay the price and break with the old way of doing things. Wilson Ramos, Aaron Hicks, or whatever other irreplaceable prospect it might cost is not too much to pay; funny thing about the can't-miss guys is that they usually end up missing. In the words of Woody Harrelson in Zombieland: It's time to nut up or shut up.
Because until you do, it's just rolling along with the cute little Twins...and I have to watch 3 guys batting under .200 on Sundays.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Random musings
* Nick Blackburn is lights out in May, can't get anyone out in June; Kevin Slowey just the opposite. Baseball is a fickle game, or maybe it just seems that way when you have inconsistent players.
*The Stanley Cup Finals have been riveting so far, and if the need to go to a 7th game, far be it from me to complain. But as a person with a keen rooting interest in seeing the Hawks win, I can't stand some of the things I've been reading about "wanting to wrap it up at home". If you are a true fan of a team that's been waiting half a century for a title, you just want it wrapped up any way you can get it, home, road, doesn't matter. This greedy talk of wanting them to win it on home ice smacks of bandwagon fans who have not felt enough pain in their rooting life, and too much of it will create crippling negative karma should Game 7 actually happen. Now go wrap it up tonight Chicago. (By the way, enjoyed this a lot, bandwagon fans are a staple of every playoff run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNn3k1KfOrs)
*Sidebar to the Finals, I don't think the picture of Chris Pronger in a skirt was a good idea, I just don't. (http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/20100609_Chrissy_Pronger_skirt_poster_called_sexist.html)
Funny, yes; perhaps even accurate after his play the last two games. But there's a reason people hate Chris Pronger, well two technically, he's dirty and he's good. It might be something the team can't control and it probably doesn't have much of an impact in general, but if there are Hawks fans in the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune, they should be concerned about giving any extra motivation to this guy, of all people. If he comes out like a man possessed and starts scattering Blackhawks like bowling pins, don't say I didn't warn you.
*After watching Delmon Young tear it up over the weekend and post strong numbers through two months of the Twins season, I feel a bit like a proud papa. Delmon is the only player I can recall being irrationally positive about throughout his past two years in Minnesota (as opposed to the players I've been irrationally negative about, which numbers in the thousands, sorry Cuddy) and the hope that he would someday find his game seems to be paying off. Not too much of a shock, given that he's still only 24, just always bugged me that Young was a marked man because of the trade that brought him here...well that and the fact that ha never saw a first-pitch slider in the dirt he didn't like. Anyway, keep up the good work Delmon.
*The World Cup starts this weekend, and I have yet to pick a team. Normally I go with Germany because of my heritage and the fact they seem to have fewer players who flop around like carp when brushed by an opponent, but lately they haven't been doing it for me. Italy and France are out on principle, Spain too for that matter, maybe the Dutch could use my support to put them over the top this time out? Anyway, stay tuned.
*The MLB draft is the biggest "Meh" event in the history of Earth, a bunch of guys you've never seen play who will most likely never play for your favorite team. Riveting.
*Vikings mini-camp started this week. Yes, I am such an NFL rube that I had a twinge of "Ooh, mini-camp!" excitement when I heard about it, I then stuck a paper clip into a wall outlet as part of a Pavlovian re-education program I've worked out. Another month and I might even be able to glance by the words "Brett Favre" without franticly clicking to see what nothing news has been released this week.
*Stephen Strasburg is going to be a great pitcher...probably. But to invoke one of my favorite movie quotes that has become the go-to phrase for tamping down sports hype, let's all not start sucking each others ****s quite yet (only Harvey Keitel could've delivered that line...or Richard Simmons, for the irony). Kerry Wood struck out 20 guys in his 5th career start and is now closing games for Cleveland with an arm powered by Black & Decker. Mark Prior's delivery looked so effortless when he broke into the bigs, it caused me to boldy declare "There's one guy who will never have arm problems, it looks like he's playing catch out there"; didn't quite pan out that way. So yeah, Strasburg is great, happy for the Nats fans, but don't start chiseling that Hall of Fame bust just yet.
*The Stanley Cup Finals have been riveting so far, and if the need to go to a 7th game, far be it from me to complain. But as a person with a keen rooting interest in seeing the Hawks win, I can't stand some of the things I've been reading about "wanting to wrap it up at home". If you are a true fan of a team that's been waiting half a century for a title, you just want it wrapped up any way you can get it, home, road, doesn't matter. This greedy talk of wanting them to win it on home ice smacks of bandwagon fans who have not felt enough pain in their rooting life, and too much of it will create crippling negative karma should Game 7 actually happen. Now go wrap it up tonight Chicago. (By the way, enjoyed this a lot, bandwagon fans are a staple of every playoff run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNn3k1KfOrs)
*Sidebar to the Finals, I don't think the picture of Chris Pronger in a skirt was a good idea, I just don't. (http://www.philly.com/philly/gallery/20100609_Chrissy_Pronger_skirt_poster_called_sexist.html)
Funny, yes; perhaps even accurate after his play the last two games. But there's a reason people hate Chris Pronger, well two technically, he's dirty and he's good. It might be something the team can't control and it probably doesn't have much of an impact in general, but if there are Hawks fans in the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune, they should be concerned about giving any extra motivation to this guy, of all people. If he comes out like a man possessed and starts scattering Blackhawks like bowling pins, don't say I didn't warn you.
*After watching Delmon Young tear it up over the weekend and post strong numbers through two months of the Twins season, I feel a bit like a proud papa. Delmon is the only player I can recall being irrationally positive about throughout his past two years in Minnesota (as opposed to the players I've been irrationally negative about, which numbers in the thousands, sorry Cuddy) and the hope that he would someday find his game seems to be paying off. Not too much of a shock, given that he's still only 24, just always bugged me that Young was a marked man because of the trade that brought him here...well that and the fact that ha never saw a first-pitch slider in the dirt he didn't like. Anyway, keep up the good work Delmon.
*The World Cup starts this weekend, and I have yet to pick a team. Normally I go with Germany because of my heritage and the fact they seem to have fewer players who flop around like carp when brushed by an opponent, but lately they haven't been doing it for me. Italy and France are out on principle, Spain too for that matter, maybe the Dutch could use my support to put them over the top this time out? Anyway, stay tuned.
*The MLB draft is the biggest "Meh" event in the history of Earth, a bunch of guys you've never seen play who will most likely never play for your favorite team. Riveting.
*Vikings mini-camp started this week. Yes, I am such an NFL rube that I had a twinge of "Ooh, mini-camp!" excitement when I heard about it, I then stuck a paper clip into a wall outlet as part of a Pavlovian re-education program I've worked out. Another month and I might even be able to glance by the words "Brett Favre" without franticly clicking to see what nothing news has been released this week.
*Stephen Strasburg is going to be a great pitcher...probably. But to invoke one of my favorite movie quotes that has become the go-to phrase for tamping down sports hype, let's all not start sucking each others ****s quite yet (only Harvey Keitel could've delivered that line...or Richard Simmons, for the irony). Kerry Wood struck out 20 guys in his 5th career start and is now closing games for Cleveland with an arm powered by Black & Decker. Mark Prior's delivery looked so effortless when he broke into the bigs, it caused me to boldy declare "There's one guy who will never have arm problems, it looks like he's playing catch out there"; didn't quite pan out that way. So yeah, Strasburg is great, happy for the Nats fans, but don't start chiseling that Hall of Fame bust just yet.
Friday, June 4, 2010
As expected
Two ace pitchers in opposition, two runs scored, two losses, too predictable. Once again the Twins exit Seattle with their tails between their legs, it's been a bad run against the Mariners these last few years, which is confusing given the fact they typically stink. This year's version featured a blown call leading to a loss on Wednesday (another 1-run outburst) and general offensive ineptitude from the second game onward. Final tally: 1-3 record, 8 runs scored, about 6 hours that would've been better spent sleeping. On to Oakland and hopefully some stirring in the bats.
Speaking of things that offered little intrigue, the NBA Finals started with a rout last night. I was mildly interested by the fact the Lakers were playing the Celtics, the one truly worthwhile NBA rivalry; but that quickly dissapated when I realized that the Celtics blew their wad in the Eastern Conference Finals. Kevin Garnett has the vert of a poor YMCA pickup player at this point, and his teammates aren't that much better. Unless they can find one of those alien pods from "Cocoon", this one will be over quick.
What has been intriguing? The NHL Finals. In case you hadn't noticed, and, to borrow a line from Bob Uecker, judging by the TV ratings you haven't, we've got the best final round series in a long time developing between Chicago and Philly. Full disclosure, I want Chicago to win in a big way, they have taken over as my surrogate team during these lean Wild seasons, due to the presence of my favorite all-time college hockey player (Toews) and that fact I know several diehard Blackhawks fans who deserve a title after all they've been through. Coming into this thing, I wanted a Blackhawks title, any way, any how, the faster the better. However, at the risk of having my seat on the bandwagon revoked, I'm really enjoying this series so far and was only mildy perturbed when the Flyers pulled out Game 3 in OT, thus guaranteeing at least a 5th game.
Does that mean I've wavering at all on wanting Chicago to win? Hell no, just saying if they can do it in dramatic fashion, well that's always better, right? This might be a playing-with-fire approach to things, the sports gods do not look favorably on getting greedy with playoff series, but any hockey fan (save the aforementioned Blackhawks diehards) has got to want 6 or 7 games out of this thing, it's been too good not to! (It's a shame that 80% of America missed Game 3 because it was on Versus, but they probably weren't interested anyway, pretty sure the ladies softball gets better ratings. The lesson, as always, people are stupid.)
Going into Game 4 tonight, this Stanley Cup Finals is also bordering on the historic, after starting the series with 3 one-goal games, to quite from this story on NHL.com (http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=530929):
"A fourth consecutive one-goal game would move the Blackhawks and Flyers into rarified territory in terms of playing tight games. Not since 1968 have teams started a series with four one-goal games (Montreal won all four games against St. Louis in the only series sweep comprised of one-goal victories). The only other time it's happened was 1951, when Toronto beat Montreal in five games -- all of which went to overtime."
Here's hoping for another one-goal contest, perhaps some more overtime, then 3 more just like it, with the Blackhawks coming out on top of course!
Speaking of things that offered little intrigue, the NBA Finals started with a rout last night. I was mildly interested by the fact the Lakers were playing the Celtics, the one truly worthwhile NBA rivalry; but that quickly dissapated when I realized that the Celtics blew their wad in the Eastern Conference Finals. Kevin Garnett has the vert of a poor YMCA pickup player at this point, and his teammates aren't that much better. Unless they can find one of those alien pods from "Cocoon", this one will be over quick.
What has been intriguing? The NHL Finals. In case you hadn't noticed, and, to borrow a line from Bob Uecker, judging by the TV ratings you haven't, we've got the best final round series in a long time developing between Chicago and Philly. Full disclosure, I want Chicago to win in a big way, they have taken over as my surrogate team during these lean Wild seasons, due to the presence of my favorite all-time college hockey player (Toews) and that fact I know several diehard Blackhawks fans who deserve a title after all they've been through. Coming into this thing, I wanted a Blackhawks title, any way, any how, the faster the better. However, at the risk of having my seat on the bandwagon revoked, I'm really enjoying this series so far and was only mildy perturbed when the Flyers pulled out Game 3 in OT, thus guaranteeing at least a 5th game.
Does that mean I've wavering at all on wanting Chicago to win? Hell no, just saying if they can do it in dramatic fashion, well that's always better, right? This might be a playing-with-fire approach to things, the sports gods do not look favorably on getting greedy with playoff series, but any hockey fan (save the aforementioned Blackhawks diehards) has got to want 6 or 7 games out of this thing, it's been too good not to! (It's a shame that 80% of America missed Game 3 because it was on Versus, but they probably weren't interested anyway, pretty sure the ladies softball gets better ratings. The lesson, as always, people are stupid.)
Going into Game 4 tonight, this Stanley Cup Finals is also bordering on the historic, after starting the series with 3 one-goal games, to quite from this story on NHL.com (http://blackhawks.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=530929):
"A fourth consecutive one-goal game would move the Blackhawks and Flyers into rarified territory in terms of playing tight games. Not since 1968 have teams started a series with four one-goal games (Montreal won all four games against St. Louis in the only series sweep comprised of one-goal victories). The only other time it's happened was 1951, when Toronto beat Montreal in five games -- all of which went to overtime."
Here's hoping for another one-goal contest, perhaps some more overtime, then 3 more just like it, with the Blackhawks coming out on top of course!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
So what's the deal?
Last week's stretch of great baseball has pushed the Twins into a comfortable lead over the Tigers in the Central, with this, a thought has begun to gnaw at me: How do we get from Here (perennial division champs) to There (the World Series, or at least the ALCS)?
Now I may be getting ahead of myself here, after all 2/3 of the season remains to be played, but frankly this team looks like the class of the bunch and only a catastrophic injury could seemingly derail another march to the ALDS. (We were reminded how closely that can lurk aruond the corner on Sunday night, but it appears Orlando Hudson will be fine) So, having bemoaned in this space several times the lack of the Twins ability to beat elite teams in the postseason, the question is what can be done to shore up the weak spots as the season goes on?
It's pretty obvious that most Twins fans trust the lineup to score and don't feel the need to do much tinkering, short of a standout 3rd baseman. The pitching on the other hand, though steady thusfar, has a bit of a "House of Cards" feel to it, and not the kind you find in St. Louis. Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano have the talent, but are prone to mid-game lapses that result in a quick 3 or 4-run inning for the opposition. Kevin Slowey is a nibbler; to say he's "not overpowering" would give the impression that he is at least "powering", unfortunately, I would characterize him as rather underpowering. (Not sure if those are words, but they are too apt a description of his pitching to ignore, and if underwhelming is okay, I'm going with it).
Carl Pavano seems to employ the "chuck it and hope" approach best characterized by Livan Hernandez' short stint with the team two seasons ago, which went well for a time...and then went extraordinarily poorly for a time after that. I'm inclined to use the phrase "hope struck out" in keeping with the baseball motif while describing Livan's time here, but nobody really struck out toward the end of things, that was part of the problem. "Hope hit a towering shot to right" or "Hope lined a bases-loaded double into the gap" would be more apropo. Keeping with the hope theme is Nick Blackburn, who has been (gulp) the early-season stopper on this club, but reminded us last night why we need to keep our hope close at had when he takes the mound. We either hope the sinker is working, hope Gardy pulls him quickly to minimize the carnage when it's not, or hope the kids sitting 3rd row upper deck brought their gloves, because they will be seeing some hot shots coming their way.
Now this is not to say these guys all stink, in fact they've all done a decent-to-strong job early in the season, it's just...
Are they bad? No.
Are the good? Sorta.
Is there one that jumps out at you as a game one starter in a playoff series? Um...
And that's the problem.
Maybe all this is just coming to the front of my mind because the team is about to face two legitimate aces in it's next two games, when Seattle rolls out Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez vs. the Twins duo of Slowey (an eight of hearts) and Pavano (a ten of clubs). To be fair, pitching isn't everything, if it were the Mariners wouldn't be close to buried in their division with some of the best starters in baseball on their roster. But in a playoff series, where rotations are shortened to get the best pitchers to the mound more often, the advantage of an elite arm or two becomes huge.
So it's time to finally make that big deal we've always dreamed would happen, but has never quite come true. It's been a season of firsts for this team, they've broken the mold in many ways and should be applauded for it, but all the moves made so far just seem to scream for a finishing touch, and the strating rotation is the spot to make it. Now I know we're going to need to bide our time, let teams fall off, get some of the prentenders to come to the realization of what they are and allow the potential of lost stars to loom in front of them. But when that happens, we need to pounce, it's the only way to move beyond where we've been so many times already. (Just not Roy Oswalt, or any other NL pitcher making $30 million over the next two years, check out what the aforementioned Livan is currently doing to that league if you require any more evidence of it's inferiority)
Now, back to the pesky business of winning this division, stay healthy, build momentum, and don't shy away the coup-de-grace acquisition that could be the finishing touch on a nice looking ballclub.
Now I may be getting ahead of myself here, after all 2/3 of the season remains to be played, but frankly this team looks like the class of the bunch and only a catastrophic injury could seemingly derail another march to the ALDS. (We were reminded how closely that can lurk aruond the corner on Sunday night, but it appears Orlando Hudson will be fine) So, having bemoaned in this space several times the lack of the Twins ability to beat elite teams in the postseason, the question is what can be done to shore up the weak spots as the season goes on?
It's pretty obvious that most Twins fans trust the lineup to score and don't feel the need to do much tinkering, short of a standout 3rd baseman. The pitching on the other hand, though steady thusfar, has a bit of a "House of Cards" feel to it, and not the kind you find in St. Louis. Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano have the talent, but are prone to mid-game lapses that result in a quick 3 or 4-run inning for the opposition. Kevin Slowey is a nibbler; to say he's "not overpowering" would give the impression that he is at least "powering", unfortunately, I would characterize him as rather underpowering. (Not sure if those are words, but they are too apt a description of his pitching to ignore, and if underwhelming is okay, I'm going with it).
Carl Pavano seems to employ the "chuck it and hope" approach best characterized by Livan Hernandez' short stint with the team two seasons ago, which went well for a time...and then went extraordinarily poorly for a time after that. I'm inclined to use the phrase "hope struck out" in keeping with the baseball motif while describing Livan's time here, but nobody really struck out toward the end of things, that was part of the problem. "Hope hit a towering shot to right" or "Hope lined a bases-loaded double into the gap" would be more apropo. Keeping with the hope theme is Nick Blackburn, who has been (gulp) the early-season stopper on this club, but reminded us last night why we need to keep our hope close at had when he takes the mound. We either hope the sinker is working, hope Gardy pulls him quickly to minimize the carnage when it's not, or hope the kids sitting 3rd row upper deck brought their gloves, because they will be seeing some hot shots coming their way.
Now this is not to say these guys all stink, in fact they've all done a decent-to-strong job early in the season, it's just...
Are they bad? No.
Are the good? Sorta.
Is there one that jumps out at you as a game one starter in a playoff series? Um...
And that's the problem.
Maybe all this is just coming to the front of my mind because the team is about to face two legitimate aces in it's next two games, when Seattle rolls out Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez vs. the Twins duo of Slowey (an eight of hearts) and Pavano (a ten of clubs). To be fair, pitching isn't everything, if it were the Mariners wouldn't be close to buried in their division with some of the best starters in baseball on their roster. But in a playoff series, where rotations are shortened to get the best pitchers to the mound more often, the advantage of an elite arm or two becomes huge.
So it's time to finally make that big deal we've always dreamed would happen, but has never quite come true. It's been a season of firsts for this team, they've broken the mold in many ways and should be applauded for it, but all the moves made so far just seem to scream for a finishing touch, and the strating rotation is the spot to make it. Now I know we're going to need to bide our time, let teams fall off, get some of the prentenders to come to the realization of what they are and allow the potential of lost stars to loom in front of them. But when that happens, we need to pounce, it's the only way to move beyond where we've been so many times already. (Just not Roy Oswalt, or any other NL pitcher making $30 million over the next two years, check out what the aforementioned Livan is currently doing to that league if you require any more evidence of it's inferiority)
Now, back to the pesky business of winning this division, stay healthy, build momentum, and don't shy away the coup-de-grace acquisition that could be the finishing touch on a nice looking ballclub.
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