Wednesday, February 2, 2005
QUICK HITS
According to one honest reader, I have a tendency to go "on and on and on" at times. That is absolutely, positively, certainly, without question, completely accurate. Right on the money. I couldn't agree more. So, my new plan is to write an article about three times a week, and on the other two days, I will link to a number of articles that I really enjoyed. I hope to use this format until at least the start of spring training.
SHOCK AND AWE - I found this page which lists the Top 100 Sports Websites. According to that, SethSpeaks.net is ranked #37 (up 464 spots from the previous ranking!) Sports Website. I don't know what that means, but that is pretty exciting for me! (#1 is NFL.com. #2 is NBA.com. #3 is NASCAR.com. #4 is NHL.com.) Aaron's Baseball Blog comes in at #9. The Hardball Times ranks #23. Baseball America comes in at #73. In other words, I don't really know what the criteria is for this report/list, but it says that the list is compiled in an automated fashion.
John Sickels has been writing "Down on the Farm" articles for ESPN.com for almost a decade. Frequently he discussed minor league prospects in depth for their website. John and I have exchanged e-mails in the past. Recently, ESPN informed Sickels that they were downsizing and that he would no longer have his articles posted on their site. It is really unfortunate because he is one of very few of ESPN.com's writers that I actually read (along with Peter Gammons and Jayson Stark). Twins fans who frequent the Dickie Thon Fan Forum know that John would post some thoughts on there from time to time. Yesterday, John's final ESPN article, Top 10 Prospects for 2005, was posted. It is, as always, incredibly interesting and well written.
Don't worry though, you will be able to read the writings of John Sickels in a number of places. You can order his book The Baseball Prospect Book 2005 (I just got mine in the mail yesterday!) at John's website (www.johnsickels.com). At the same site, on February 20th, you will be able to subscribe to The John Sickels Baseball Newsletter. And finally, John will be starting a blog of his own in a couple of weeks called MinorLeagueBall.com. I know that I will bookmark that and not miss a day!
Speaking of top prospects and how much I enjoy reading about them and predicting what they could be, did you hear the news yesterday on Phillies pitching prospect Cole Hamels? Hamels is a hard-throwing lefty who was the team's first round pick in 2002. He made just four starts last year before elbow problems sidelined him. He was invited to Phillies Big League camp this month. However, last month, he got involved in an "altercation" and broke a bone in his pitching hand. Very sad! I guess I can never understand what would get anyone upset enough as to get into a fight, but it does happen. Lets all just hope this isn't another Brien Taylor story!
I was checking out the Baseball Commentary Page yesterday, and I saw a very interesting link to a site called Google Fight. In it, you can put two subject into the blanks and compare the number of sites that google will bring you to with each. The winner is the one that links to the most sites. When I search my name, it brings up 1,510 sites. When I include quotations around my name (meaning it will only grab things with my first and last names in it), there are 1,280 sites listed.
In looking at some of the sites that popped up, I found a few that are interesting. In December, I had a chance to ask Twins Prospect Alexander Smit some questions and he was good enough to respond to them. I see that Will Young posted the link to it on the Baseball Think Factory and it garnered 45 Comments. Some are funny, but it is fun to read, very educational!
The Wolves lost again last night to another bad Eastern Conference team in Milwaukee. They played well in the first half and then just faded the entire second half. It was actually really ridiculous. Say what you want about Joe Smith, it is all deserved. But I can't help buy like the guy. No, he never lived up to the #1 overall pick status, but he has put together a solid NBA career. And, the man is almost always smiling.
American Idol judge Paula Abdul wants to make a comeback. She wants to return to a singing career. I have to admit, I'm actually a big fan of the early Paula Abdul music career. There are some great songs of hers that are a lot of fun to sing along to; Straight Up - Rush, Rush - Forever Your Girl - Cold Hearted - And, of course, Opposites Attract! Classics!
Jack Shafer wrote an article for Slate titled Blog Overkill. I think it is very interesting! It discusses the sometimes vicious relationship between newspaper writers and bloggers and much more.
Aaron Gleeman continued his look at the 2005 Twins showing projections of their Corner Infielders.
Ryan Maus of Twins Chatter wrote a very fun, interesting posting about seeing/hearing Twins GM Terry Ryan and Jacque Jones at a baseball clinic over the weekend.
The Twins Geek discusses former Twins Cesar Tovar and Zoilo Versailles today. You can vote for both for the Twins Hall of Fame here.
Check out this new Fantasy Baseball Website. From my first look at it, I love it, and I think that anyone who plays fantasy baseball will appreciate it!
Trista Rehn was the first Bachelorette. She married Ryan Suter in December of 2003. The second Bachelorette was Merideth. She picked the shy, quiet Ian. Well, recently the two ended their one-year relationship.
And finally, a long-time reader (and frequent contributor to Mailbag postings, Dewey Moede offered to occasionally type up some Quick Hits, some thoughts and ideas that he has on the world of baseball. Today, I will post his first such thoughts. He may write similar ideas from time to time. So, thank you.
Dewey Moede is a die hard baseball fan living in Albuquerque, NM. He is originally from Windom, Minn. He remembers his first Twins game that he attended with his father and they met Earl Battey. His favorite all time Twin is Harmon Killebrew who Dewey has interviewed on the radio 2 times.....once for 3 hours. Dewey has hosted many radio sports shows through out his 26 years in media. He has covered Major League Baseball and has been to Spring Training as a reporter covering the Twins and Chicago Cubs. He presently works for WB/UPN TV of New Mexico. At 48 he still play competitive Softball. He was the oldest player in the league and won MVP honors this past season when his team won the League Championship. Dewey is married to Sharon, an OR nurse. They have five children, Greg, Steph, Gretchen, Mike and Lars.
Who has a better coaching staff than the Twins? It sure says something about an organization that it has two Hall of Famers on the coaching staff for Spring Training........The Twins have Rod Carew and Paul Molitor. Terry Steinbach is also expected to be in Spring Training coaching the catchers.... Why not bring in Harmon Killebrew to work with Justin, Mauer, Hunter, Jones, Munson and others on "power hitting"?
Owners sure have over paid for pitching this winter..... Pirates ownership is really hopping mad on the owners spending spree this winter. The Pirates have a great new park but they're losing ways will continue....it's not only that they do not draw, but they have poor management. I dream when I think of what Terry Ryan could do with added revenue from a new park.......
Former Twin, Dougie no hit all glove, Mr. Crybaby finally made a deal to let the Red Sox show off the ball from the World Series, and of course the Red Sox have traded Mr. Crybaby. Dougie will always have an attitude problem.......no wonder Gardenhire wanted him out! remember his problems with TK?????
Pedro will be lucky to win 15 games with Dougie's new team, the Mets......... Pedro has a lousy attitude!
My friends in Arizona say watch the Big Units starts in the spring for the Yanks in cold weather. They say he was really helped by the warm temps in Arizona and his body will not react well to the April and May games up North.
And on that note, I wish you a great day. If you have any questions or comments on anything you have read above, please e-mail me. Have yourself a great day!