Welcome to a special Saturday edition of SethSpeaks.net. It’s early on Saturday morning, and I just can’t sleep any more. I’d love to, but I can’t! So, I figured I’d get up and write up something! So, here goes…
First, I’d like to thank all those who have come to this site. I hope the reading is interesting for you and you’ll come back frequently. Thank you also to those who have sent me e-mails of support, opinions, corrections and other thought. I will try to keep up with the e-mail and reply to them all. Thanks. And, I apologize to my sister for writing anything negative about Bert Blyleven. I'm sorry! (No need to call and yell though!!!)
I’d like to make an addition to yesterday’s column. I wrote the Rochester 1B Justin Morneau hit his 10th home run at AAA (his 16th overall this year) Thursday night. This is true, however, Rochester played a double-header that day and Morneau hit another homer (his 11th) in game 2. How long can he be kept at AAA?
I couldn’t figure out why Fox Sports North wouldn’t air a Friday night Twins game, especially one against Seattle. It just didn’t make sense to me. Until I saw that they were airing the Minnesota Gophers Regional tournament game against the University of Washington. The #2 seeded Gophers came up a little short, losing 5-3 to #3 Washington in the first round of the double-elimination tournament. Today they play Pepperdine in an elimination game.
So, the Twins weren’t on TV. The alternative for seeing how they did, for me, was “watching” the game on CBS Sportsline. This is actually fine. It shows pitch by pitch, and I’ve noticed it’s usually only a few seconds behind the live action. But, it’s just not the same!
There’s not a lot to say about last night’s game. Seattle won 6-0 on a complete game shutout by Joel Pineiro. Before the season, Peter Gammons actually put Pineiro in his top 3 AL Cy Young Award choices. He hasn’t performed to that level, but he is and will be very good. Kyle Lohse actually didn’t pitch too poorly after a slow start. He worked 8 innings and gave up just 3 runs. JC Romero came in for the top of the 9th inning and gave up 3 runs, including a 2-run home run to Mike Cameron.
1.) What was Dustan Mohr thinking? On a ground ball deep in the hole between short and third, Seattle SS Carlos Guillen flagged down the grounder and for some reason still threw it to first. I’m not sure if Mohr thought it got through, but he rounded first and then when he realized that John Olerud had the ball, he took off for second and was thrown out.
2.) Cristian Guzman finally got a hit in the 9th inning, his first hit in over 5 games.
3.) Did you realize that Corey Koskie is hitting just .250?
This afternoon, the Twins play at 3:05 on Fox. They are honoring Bob Allison and Bob Casey by putting them into the Twins Hall of Fame. Both are fair in my opinion. Allison was a very strong player for those World Series teams in the ‘60s. Bob Casey has been the Twins PA guy since the organization moved to Minnesota from Washington. So, longevity makes him a choice. I’ve been to about 12 Twins home games in the last two years, including both home openers. I think Casey is terrible and really needs to be replaced, but he’s almost like an icon. But, what will be really interesting would be to see the reception Kirby Puckett gets from the crowd when he goes out to introduce Bob Casey. My guess is that he will get a loud, standing ovation, and I hope that’s the case (since he was acquitted), but I’m sure there will be some random boos circulating through the Dome as well. Harmon Killebrew will be introducing the family of Bob Allison.
Just a quick mention of the Braves/Mets game last night. I did watch a lot of that. Greg Maddux got the win. Tom Glavine took the loss. And John Smoltz picked up the save. Glavine gave up 4 solo home runs. I would have loved to have seen a 1-0 game, but having CB Bucknor behind the plate, we had to just know that wouldn’t happen.
It was fun to see Sammy Sosa come back after missing 17 games with that toe injury. Is there anything better than watching Sosa sprint out to right field before the first inning of each game at Wrigley Field and acknowledging the crowd out there? And, Sosa with a goatee, have we ever seen that before?
Also, if you have a chance, I would encourage you to check out the ESPN Chat with David Clyde. Clyde was the pitcher who was drafted by the Texas Rangers out of high school and immediately called up to the majors. People asked him questions about whether he thought he was mis-handled, what he’d do differently, favorite ballparks, etc. Here is the question that I thought was the most interesting advice he could give to a high schooler contemplating going pro versus going college:
Kevin: (Aurora, IL):: My younger brother is a stud high-school pitcher. I am trying to convince him to go to college first and not turn professional just yet. Any advice I could pass along to him?
David Clyde: No. 1, it will depend on just how good he is. Where will he go in the draft? $1 million buys a lot of education. The other things is I don't know if I would want to face aluminum bats for another 4 years. If he really has a desire to play pro ball and the money is correct, I would go for it. You never know when he will get hurt. Esp. as a pitcher, it could happen at any time.
I love that; $1 million buys a lot of education! I wonder how much education the $90 million Lebron James got from NIKE would buy????Fantasy Sports -
I love fantasy sports, especially fantasy baseball. To see how your players do on a daily basis just makes watching the games and the highlights a little more exciting. Fantasy football is great too, and that is just a one-day (and Monday Night) a week thing.
One fantasy baseball league that I’m in (co-owning the team with a friend) is just a weekend league, where you get points for your players each day, and get a win or loss for Friday’s games, Saturday’s games, and Sunday’s games. In other words, for a weekend, against an opponent, you can go 3-0, 2-1, 1-2 or 0-3, with that record going to your season record. In that league, each weekend, we play 5 Starting Pitchers, one Closer, one Catcher, 2 Corner Infielders, 2 Middle Infielders, 3 outfielders and 1 extra hitter. It’s a 10-team league. Our roster is:
C - Javy Lopez
CI - Adam Dunn, Frank Thomas and Corey Koskie
MI - Jeff Kent, Rich Aurilia and Cristian Guzman
OF - Sammy Sosa, Bobby Abreu, Austin Kearns, Jay Gibbons and Bobby Kielty
SP - Kenny Rogers, Kyle Lohse, Rick Reed, Mike Mussina, Jeff Weaver, Jason Schmidt, Kurt Ainsworth and Mark Buehrle
RP - John Smoltz and Ugueth Urbina
Right now, we’re 13-11, which is good for 3rd place in the league.
Now, in what I consider my “main” league, I own a team where I put in a lineup on Sunday and the results of the games Monday through Sunday add one game to your record. Right now, I’m sitting at 6-2 with a one game lead over 2 of the 3 teams in my division. In that league, each week we play C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, Middle infielder, Corner Infielder, 4 Outfielders, and 8 pitchers (any combination of starters and relievers). We then have 5 players on reserve. We can also put up to 5 players on the disabled list (they actually have to be on the DL to be able to do this). Eligibility rules say that a player must have played 25 games at a position to be eligible. And, once they play 10 games at a position this year, they are eligible at that position as well. Here is my roster:
C - Javy Lopez
1B - Paul Konerko, Adam Dunn, Aubrey Huff
2B - Luis Castillo
SS - Nomar Garciaparra, Jose Hernandez, Felipe Lopez
3B - Tony Batista
OF - Pat Burrell, Adam Dunn, Torii Hunter, Aubrey Huff, Xavier Nady and Carl Crawford.
P - Roy Oswalt, Kevin Millwood, Kris Benson, Andy Pettite, Kenny Rogers, Kyle Lohse, Ugueth Urbina, Elmer Dessens, John Thomson, Tony Armas, Dontrelle Willis, Rich Harden and Robert Person.
With Oswalt coming off the Disabled List, I will have to activate him and drop someone. Not sure what I’ll do yet. Any suggestions would be welcome, I’ll have to do that by tomorrow.
Other thoughts - Konerko (8th), Burrell (5th), Hunter (6th), Hernandez (9th) and Oswalt (2nd) have been disappointing thusfar. Hopefully, they’ll all turn it around. Lopez (22nd), Huff (21st), Urbina (12th), and Lohse (18th) have been pleasant surprises.
I won’t write about my teams too often, but if you’re in a league and ever want to get a second opinion on something, please feel to write me and ask.
Basketball
OK, I officially don’t understand what’s going on with the NBA Coaching situation. It is now being reported that Detroit Pistons head coach, Rick Carlisle is not going to be re-signed so that they can make a run at Larry Brown. Carlisle led the Pistons to the best record in the Eastern Conference (insert sarcastic remark here). His Pistons lost in 4 games to the New Jersey Nets, but they played with an injured Chauncey Billups, so their only real scoring threat was Richard Hamilton. I just don’t get this. They also have the #2 pick in the upcoming draft and are said to be taking Darco Milicic, the 7 foot, 17 year old from Europe. I just don’t get it!
Doug Collins was also fired as coach of the Washington Wizards, but that was not at all a surprise.
Movie Review -
I watched A Guy Thing last night, starring Jason Lee and Julia Stiles. I laughed, I thought it was a great movie. For those of you who are familiar with Jason Lee, this is one of his best performances. I mean, when you watch a movie and think that no other actor would be more perfect for this role, that means something. I though he was hilarious! Julia Stiles was OK too. Her character had a bit of an edge (not as much as in 10 Things I Hate About You), but also showed the occasional softer side (not as much as Save the Last Dance). It’s certainly a romantic comedy. I found myself laughing out loud on numerous occasions. I would recommend it. The big question for me is: Julia Stiles or Selma Blair? Selma Blair or Julia Stiles? Why is there even a question?
Have a great rest of the weekend! Go Twins!!