Friday,
September 24, 2010
Friday Links and Thinks
Week 3 NFL Picks
Good morning everyone! Sorry the Friday blog is a little tardy. I’m
taking a four day weekend, so I was driving last night from about 5:30 until
about 10, and at that point, went to sleep. So, it’s up early on Friday,
figuring out a plan for the day and a quick blog posting. The football picks
will be posted later. Having 43 people in the panel makes it a little more
difficult! It should be a fun weekend. We will be heading to the Twin Cities a
little later today, and this weekend I’ll be at the Minnesota Zoo on Saturday
and at the Gophers football game at TCF Field on Saturday night. You will
definitely want to check back here on Monday when I post a special Twins awards
blog where I contacted many Twins bloggers/writers/radio types on the Twins
MVP, Pitcher of the Year and Rookie of the Year. So, hopefully you find the
results interesting. I know that in the responses I have to this point, No fewer
than five (maybe six) Twins players have received at least one first-place vote
for team MVP.
By the way, I think it needs to be pointed out that the Minnesota Twins
have the best record in baseball going into play on Friday!
With that, below you will find the question of the week, a look at this
weekend’s Twins/Tigers series, lots of links to more great Twins blogs,
podcasts and more. Have a great weekend!
QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
What are your thoughts on the new Twins
theme song, Don’t
Call Them Twinkies?! I do know that it is way better than that Prince
attempt at a Vikings song.
WEEKEND AHEAD
The Twins have already clinched the AL Central title, so at this point it
is all about getting ready for the playoffs. Will they play Yankees? Will they
play the Rays? Well, they can’t worry about that because they can’t do anything
about it. But the team is trying to get healthy, and they are trying to set up
their postseason roster. As you can see, the Detroit Tigers will get to see the
Twins top three starters this weekend. Each will make one more start next week
before the ALDS starts the following week. I’ll make an assumption, based on
very little, that we won’t see Joe Mauer this
weekend. After his MRI yesterday, I would think that Denard
Span will get a couple more games off as well.
Here are the pitching matchups:
·
Friday
night – Francisco Liriano (14-8, 3.44, 1.25,
.250) vs Justin Verlander
(17-8, 3.46, 1.19, .231)
·
Saturday
night – Carl Pavano (17-11, 3.60, 1.16, .259)
vs Jeremy Bonderman
(8-9, 4.92, 1.39, .270)
·
Sunday
afternoon – Brian Duensing (10-2, 2.19, 1.13,
.243 vs. Rick Porcello (9-11, 5.22, 1.41, .289)
TWINS BLOGS
Here is a look around the Twins blogosphere. A good site to find 66 Twins
blogs is Newsbobber’s Minnesota Baseball Blog site., but you
can also look on the left side of this page for many. I’ve only included blogs
that have been updated in the last few days (let me know if I’m missing any
sites that I should add):
·
Aaron
Gleeman posted his weekly Link-O-Rama.
·
Nick
Nelson wrote of Francisco
Liriano and BABIP.
·
Here are a bunch of great blogs with their thoughts
on the Twins winning the division championship.
1.
Twinkie
Talk wrote some thoughts
on the 2010 Division Champions
2.
Knuckleballs
posted
Part
2 of a How Did We Get Here series.
3.
K-Bro
Baseball wrote various thoughts on the celebration, including her
dislike for Hawk Harrelson.
4.
Fanatic
Jack wrote Twins
Clinch Division, and then referenced Mr. Gardenhire’s
postseason record, just for fun.
5.
Lipgloss and Baseball remembers a great night and some
other Twins notes.
6.
I posted this the other day, but it’s really good,
so if you missed it, check it out. For the Love of the Game was at
Target Field through the postgame celebration. Here she has pictures
of the night.
7.
Peanuts from Heaven posts some Reactions
to a Division Title.
·
Take a look
at Game 158 of the 1961 thanks to Coffeyville Whirlwind.
·
Off
the Mark notes a Day
he waits for is finally here.
·
There’s just a ton of cool stuff at the That’s Twins
Baseball blog, so check it out, and be sure to get your Viva La Stache t-shirt.
·
OMG
MN Twins posted Cat
Names for several Twins players. (don’t ask, just check it out)
·
On
the Road with Shawn, he looks at Estarlin
de Los Santos and calls him The
40 Man Roster Pariah.
·
The
North Dakota Twins Fan posts a History
of the Homer Hanky.
TWINSCENTRIC
STUFF
Here are the links to the StarTribune.com TwinsCentric blog postings for this week:
·
Tuesday – Seth Stohs – Catching
up on the playoff roster
·
Wednesday – Nick Nelson – The
Minnesota Twins, Your 2010 AL Central Champs
·
Thursday – John Bonnes – Who
is the MVP?
·
Friday – Parker
Hageman – Celebrating
Brian Duensing
·
John
Bonnes is on The Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN Tuesdays and Friday’s
during the 7:00 hour. (Podcasts
available here.) I am on KFAN with Paul Allen each
Thursday morning at about 9:20. If you would like to listen, the podcast
is available here.
PODCASTS AND
MORE
· On Tuesday Night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins podcast, I was joined by Cody Christie (NoDak Twins Fan
) throughout the show and covered a ton of Twins topics. We were also joined by Brad Hand, a highly-regarded left-handed pitcher in the Florida Marlins farm system (their 2nd round pick in 2008) who is from Chaska, Minnnesota.·
On Wednesday night, I was a guest on Fanatic Jack’s podcast.