MVP Predictor-8/5/11

With two months to go...

AL Top 10 (previous)

1) A. Gonzalez BOS (1)

2) C. Granderson NYY (4)

3) J. Bautista TOR (2)

4) M. Cabrera DET (3)

5) J. Ellsbury BOS (7)

6) R. Cano NYY (8)

7) M. Young TEX (10)

8) D. Pedroia BOS (17)

9) D. Ortiz BOS (5)

10) M. Teixeira NYY (11)

36) E. Longoria TB (33) **Preseason Pick**

Out: P. Konerko CWS (6), K. Youkilis BOS (9)

NL Top 10 (previous)

1) R. Braun MIL (2)

2) P. Fielder MIL (1)

3) L. Berkman STL (3)

4) J. Upton ARI (7)

5) M. Holliday STL ()

6) M. Kemp LAD (4)

7) S. Victorino PHI (6)

8) H. Pence PHI (27)

9) J. Votto CIN (5)

10) C. Beltran SF (14)

14) T. Tulowitski COL (22) ** Preseason Pick**

OUT: B. McCann ATL (8), R. Howard PHI (9), J. Reyes NYM (10)

I want you to take a look at the stats for the following two players:

Player A: .336/.376/.508, 47 XBH, 36 RBI, 32 SB (in 423 AB) 55 team wins

Player B: .320/.368/.555, 45 XBH, 64 RBI, 2 SB (in 353 AB) 54 team wins

Just a reminder, the rankings I have come up with are based on a mathematical formula. They do not come from my highly biased opinion. That's why I created the formula, to keep any bias level for all players. The players listed above are very different types of players, but its interesting to compare their stat lines. Player A is Jose Reyes. For the record...yes Reyes is having a great year, but I fail to see the argument of him being the league MVP. Mostly because Player B's name first may be mentioned right here on this blog. Player B is Michael Morse. Yeah, THAT Michael Morse, the 1B/OF for the Washington Nationals. Just so you know, I currently have Morse ranked at #19 and Reyes at #21.

MVP Predictor-7/8/11

AL Top 10 (previous)

1) A. Gonzalez BOS (2)

2) J. Bautista TOR (1)

3) M. Cabrera DET (3)

4) C. Granderson NYY(5)

5) D. Ortiz BOS (4)

6) P. Konerko CWS (6)

7) J. Ellsbury BOS (16)

8) R. Cano NYY (15)

9) K. Youkilis BOS (9)

10) M. Young TEX (13)

33) E. Longoria TB (30) **Preseason MVP Pick**

Out: A. Rodriguez NYY (7), M. Teixeira NYY (8), M. Joyce TB (10)

NL Top 10 (previous)

1) P. Fielder MIL (1)

2) R. Braun MIL (2)

3) L. Berkman STL (4)

4) M. Kemp LAD (3)

5) J. Votto CIN (5)

6) S. Victorino PHI (10)

7) J. Upton ARI (6)

8) B. McCann ATL (12)

9) R. Howard PHI (8)

10) J. Reyes NYM (9)

22) T. Tulowitzki COL (20) **Preseason Pick**

Out: R. Weeks MIL (7)

2011 All-Star Picks

I'm taking a break from predicting the MVP to doing what everyone else is currently doing...predicting the All-Star game rosters. I like the challenge of attempting to find players from every team, along with removing the obvious East Coast bias in picking the starting lineups. I feel as though the voting bias takes place primarily from Yankee and Red Sox fans, but since the AL has lost only once (2010) in the last 14 years....bias away. These predictions are based on my personal opinions, not on how fans are currently voting with only days remaining in the polls. There are 34 players on each roster, and this year's game is played at Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ, so no DH will be used in the lineup.

AL starting lineup & batting order:

2B R. Cano NYY

3B A. Rodriguez NYY

1B A. Gonzalez BOS

RF J. Bautista TOR

CF C. Granderson NYY

LF A. Jones BAL

SS A. Cabrera CLE

C A. Avila DET

SP J. Verlander DET

Bench:

C A.J. Pierzynski CWS

C M. Wieters BAL

1B M. Cabrera DET

1B P. Konerko CWS

1B M. Teixeira NYY

2B H. Hendrick LAA

3B K. Youkilis BOS

SS J. Peralta DET

OF M. Joyce TB

OF A. Gordon KC

OF M. Cuddyer MIN

OF C. Quentin CWS

UTL M. Young TEX

Pitchers:

SP J. Shields TB

SP J. Tomlin CLE

SP M. Pineda SEA

SP J. Weaver LAA

SP C.C. Sabathia NYY

SP F. Hernandez SEA

SP J. Beckett BOS

RP M. Rivera NYY

RP K. Farnsworth TB

RP J. Valverde DET

RP D. Robertson NYY

RP G. Balfour OAK

NL starting lineup & batting order:

SS J. Reyes NYM

2B R. Weeks MIL

CF M. Kemp LAD

1B P. Fielder MIL

LF R. Braun MIL

RF L. Berkman STL

3B A. Ramirez CHC

C B. McCann ATL

SP R. Halliday, PHI

Bench:

1B M. Morse WAS

1B R. Howard PHI

1B G. Sanchez FLA

1B J. Votto CIN

2B B. Phillips CIN

3B P. Polanco PHI

SS S. Castro CHC

SS T. Tulowitzki COL

OF A. McCutchen PIT

OF J. Bruce CIN

OF H. Pence HOU

OF J. Upton ARI

OF C. Gonzalez COL

Pitchers:

SP T. Lincecum SF

SP I. Kennedy ARI

SP C. Kershaw LAD

SP J. Jurrjens ATL

SP T. Hanson ATL

SP C. Hamels PHI

SP C. Lee PHI

RP J. Hanrahan WAS

RP B. Wilson SF

RP H. Bell SD

RP T. Clippard WAS

RP H. Street COL

MVP Predictor-6/26/11

AL Top 10 (previous)

1) A. Gonzalez BOS (2)

2) J. Bautista TOR (1)

3) M. Cabrera DET (3)

4) D. Ortiz BOS (4)

5) C. Granderson NYY (5)

6) P. Konerko CWS (6)

7) A. Rodriguez NYY (11)

8) M. Teixeira NYY (7)

9) K. Youkilis BOS (15)

10) M. Joyce TB (8)

30) E. Longoria TB (39) **Preseason Pick**

Out: J. Ellsbury BOS (9), A. Avila DET (10)

Notes:

-HOT: A. Rodriguez (10-18, 5 R, 8 RBI), A. Gonzalez (13-28, 6 R, 9 RBI)

-NOT: J. Mauer (3-22, 1 R, 1 RBI), G. Sizemore (2-22, 1 R, 1, RBI)

NL Top 10 (previous)

1) P. Fielder MIL (1)

2) R. Braun MIL (4)

3) M. Kemp LAD (3)

4) L. Berkman STL (2)

5) J. Votto CIN (5)

6) J. Upton ARI (12)

7) R. Weeks MIL (7)

8) R. Howard PHI (8)

9) J. Reyes NYM (9)

10) S. Victorino PHI (13)

20) T. Tulowitzki COL (19) ** Preseason Pick**

Out: J. Bruce CIN (6), A. McCutchen PIT (10)

Notes:

-HOT: P. Fielder (7-18, 5 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI), J. Loney (12-22, 4 R, 2 RBI)

-NOT: R. Zimmerman (3-26, 1 R, 2 RBI, 8 K), J. Rollins (3-25, 2 R, 3 RBI)

MVP Predictor-6/17/11

AL Top 10 (last week)

1) J. Bautista TOR (1)

2) A. Gonzalez BOS (3)

3) M. Cabrera DET (2)

4) D. Ortiz BOS (4)

5) C. Granderson NYY (7)

6) P. Konerko CWS (8)

7) M. Teixeira NYY (10)

8) M. Joyce TB (5)

9) J. Ellsbury BOS (11)

10) A. Avila DET (15)

39) E. Longoria TB (41) **Preseason AL MVP Pick**

Out: A. Cabrera CLE (6), C. Quentin (9)

Notes:

-Every team has a player in the Top 40 except for one, Oakland.

-Three teams (BOS, NYY, DET) have the most of any team in the Top 40 with five players each.

NL Top 10

1) P. Fielder MIL (2)

2) L. Berkman STL (1)

3) M. Kemp LAD (4)

4) R. Braun MIL (3)

5) J. Votto CIN (5)

6) J. Bruce CIN (6)

7) R. Weeks MIL (10)

8) R. Howard PHI (15)

9) J. Reyes NYM (9)

10) A. McCutchen PIT (14)

19) T. Tulowitzki COL (28) ** Preseason NL MVP Pick

Out: A. Pujols STL (7), G. Sanchez FLA (8)

Notes:

-Like the AL Top 40, every team is represented except for one. However, this isn't a last-place team like Oakland, it's NL West leading San Francisco.

-Arizona has more players than any other team with five representatives in the Top 40.

MVP Predictor-6/8/11

AL Top 10 (previous ranking in parentheses)

1) J. Bautista TOR (1)

2) M. Cabrera DET (5)

3) A. Gonzalez BOS (4)

4) D. Ortiz BOS (6)

5) M. Joyce TB (2)

6) A. Cabrera CLE (9)

7) C. Granderson NYY (3)

8) P. Konerko CHI (17)

9) C. Quentin CHI (20)

10) M. Teixeira NYY (8)

41) E. Longoria TB **Preseason Pick**

Out: M. Young TEX (7), H. Kendrick LAA (10)

Notes:

-A pair of White Sox sluggers jump into the top 10 after each having solid offensive weeks (Quentin 8-20, 4 HR's, Konerko 6-15 2 HR's)

-Kendrick with the biggest drop now #23 after a 1-14 week with 4 K's

NL Top 10 (previous ranking in parentheses)

1) L. Berkman STL (1)

2) P. Fielder MIL (6)

3) R. Braun MIL (2)

4) M. Kemp LAD (8)

5) J. Votto CIN (4)

6) J. Bruce CIN (5)

7) A. Pujols STL (NR)

8) G. Sanchez FLA (7)

9) J. Reyes NYM (20)

10) R. Weeks MIL (12)

28) T. Tulowitzki **Preseason Pick**

Out: M. Holliday(3), R. Howard (9), C. Rasmus (10)

Notes:

-After not even making the top 40 cut, The Machine that is Prince Albert surged into the top 10 thanks to a 10-24, 5 HR week.

-Not to be outdone by fellow royalty, our other "Prince" (Fielder) posted an equally as impressive 7-20, 6 HR, 12 RBI week to claim the #2 spot in place of teammate Braun.

-Biggest drops of the week are by Holliday (injury), and Rasmus (3-20, 3 K's)

First MVP Prediction of the 2011 season!!!!

Woo hoo! School's out and I've got time to burn...for now anyways! Thus, the first installment of the MVP predictor for the 2-month old MLB season.

I made a preseason prediction for awards in each league, and since this is an MVP predictor...I'll be listing my MVP candidates along with the Top 10 in each league throughout the season.

AL Top 10

1) J. Bautista TOR

2) M. Joyce TB

3) C. Granderson NY

4) A. Gonzalez BOS

5) M. Cabrera DET

6) D. Ortiz BOS

7) M. Young TEX

8) M. Teixeira NY

9) A. Cabrera CLE

10) H. Kendrick LAA

41) Evan Longoria TB ** Preseason pick**

Notes:

-Bautista has a ridiculous lead over Joyce, who has his own substantial lead over Granderson.

-Players to watch: Ortiz and Cabrera each have had a monster week, look for them to jump in the rankings.

NL Top 10

1) L. Berkman STL

2) R. Braun MIL

3) M. Holliday STL

4) J. Votto CIN

5) J. Bruce CIN

6) P. Fielder MIL

7) G. Sanchez FLA

8) M. Kemp LAD

9) R. Howard PHI

10) C. Rasmus STL

31) T. Tulowitski COL **Preseason pick**

Notes:

-Top 6 and 7 of the 10 are from the NL Central.

-Players to watch: Bruce, Votto, Fielder, and Kemp have all had solid weeks, look for them to jump.

MVP Predictor-8/11/10

This week's update:

AL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Cabrera 1

2 Hamilton 2

3 Cano 3

4 Beltre 8

5 Bautista 7

6 Youkilis 5

7 Konerko 6

8 Swisher 9

9 Guerrero 10

10 Longoria 12

Out: Morneau (4)

NL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Votto 1

2 Pujols 2

3 C. Gonzalez 5

4 Holliday 6

5 Huff 3

6 Howard 4

7 Werth 12

8 A. Gonzalez 7

9 Uggla 11

10 Dunn 10

Out: Wright (8), Rolen (9)

Notes:

-Morneau no longer qualifies for the batting title, therefore is pulled from the rankings, even though technically his score is higher than Beltre's

-D. Young and Mauer sit at #11 & #12

MVP Predictor-8/4/10

This week's rankings:

AL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Cabrera 1

2 Hamilton 2

3 Cano 4

4 Morneau 3

5 Youkilis 5

6 Konerko 9

7 Bautista 15

8 Beltre 6

9 Swisher 7

10 Guerrero 8

Out: D. Young (10)

-Morneau's injury taking a toll, even though Twins are playing well.

-Delmon Young will likely be named AL Player of the month despite falling just short of the Top 10.

-Guerrero continues to slide down the rankings after a hot 1st half.

NL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Votto 1

2 Pujols 2

3 Huff 4

4 Howard 3

5 C. Gonzalez 15

6 Holliday 6

7 A. Gonzalez 5

8 Wright 9

9 Rolen 11

10 Dunn 10

Out: Hart (7), Prado (8)

-A single points separates #7-12 with Uggla and Werth missing Top 10

-Carlos now the hottest Gonzalez in the league, surpassing Adrian in the rankings highlighted by his walk-off cycle vs. the Cubbies

MVP Predictor-7/28/10

This week's MVP Predictor update

AL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Cabrera 1

2 Hamilton 2

3 Morneau 3

4 Cano 4

5 Youkilis 5

6 Beltre 8

7 Swisher 11

8 Guerrero 6

9 Konerko 7

10 D. Young 15

Out: Longoria (9), Crawford (10)

NL Standings

Rank Player Previous

1 Votto 2

2 Pujols 1

3 Howard 5

4 Huff 7

5 A. Gonzalez 3

6 Holliday 4

7 Hart 11

8 Prado 10

9 Wright 6

10 Dunn 9

Out: Ethier (8)

Notes:

-Cabrera increased lead to over 2 1/2 points over Hamilton.

-Votto's huge week (12-26, 1.231 OPS) not only retakes the lead over Pujols, but jumps to a commanding 10 point cushion.

-Players climbing fast (last 7 days):

AL: Delmon Young: (17-32) 1.418 OPS

NL: Aubrey Huff: (10-26) 1.176 OPS

MVP Predictor-7/21/10

Crazy week in "The Predictor" standings...lots of shuffling in the NL and a new league leader!

A couple of questions to ponder this week:

How much should the team's record play into a player's MVP score?

How much should the player's 2nd half totals play into their chances? How about their Sept/Oct totals?

Here are this weeks rankings:

(I'm leaving the scores off because its too hard to format)

AL

Rank Player Previous

1 Cabrera 1

2 Hamilton 2

3 Morneau 3

4 Cano 4

5 Youkilis 5

6 Guerrero 6

7 Konerko 8

8 Beltre 9

9 Longoria 11

10 Crawford 7

Out: Swisher (10)

NL

Rank Player Previous

1 Pujols 2

2 Votto 1

3 A. Gonzalez 4

4 Holliday 9

5 Howard 11

6 Wright 3

7 Huff 7

8 Ethier 6

9 Dunn 5

10 Prado 10

Out: C. Gonzalez (8)

Notes:

-In the AL, Cabrera remained in the lead despite a strong week by Hamilton (13-26)

-Cabrera's lead slipped from 7.73 points last week to a mere .77 points this week...could we see a new leader next week?

-Morneau remains in 3rd despite being placed on the DL for a concussion and not seeing action since July 7

-As the Cardinals pass the Reds in the division, Pujols also passes Votto for the NL lead. St. Louis leads Cincy by 1/2 game...Pujols leads Votto by .23 points. Its creepy how similar their stats are.

-Ryan Howard holds the week's biggest jump thanks to a big week (9-24, 4 HR's)

MVP Predictor-7/14/10

Here's the official midseason prediction, even though it is a repeat of the first two players my high-tech formula spit out. Miguel Cabrera and Joey Votto continue to lead the race in their respective leagues. However, Albert Pujols cut Votto's lead in the NL in half in the last week and looks to be making a charge. Some big questions for the 2nd half include...

Will the Reds and Padres continue to hold on to division leads to give their hitting superstars a chance at the MVP?

Will Vladamir Guerrero's body hold up during the 2nd half of the season to propel a Texas team that looks to be getting stronger with the addition of Cliff Lee?

Here are this week's standings:

American League

Rank Player Score Previous

1 Cabrera 200.18 1

2 Hamilton 192.05 3

3 Morneau 189.35 2

4 Cano 184.39 4

5 Youkilis 181.54 6

6 Guerrero 179.77 5

7 Crawford 176.38 11

8 Konerko 175.35 7

9 Beltre 172.65 8

10 Swisher 171.82 12

Out: Longoria, Hunter

National League

Rank Player Score Previous

1 Votto 186.37 1

2 Pujols 183.16 2

3 Wright 175.47 3

4 A. Gonzalez 174.15 4

5 Dunn 172.42 9

6 Ethier 171.99 6

7 Huff 171.87 8

8 C. Gonzalez 171.21 11

9 Holliday 168.83 10

10 Prado 168.05 5

Out: Rolen

MVP Predictor update

Here are my MVP predictor updates, as of 7/7/10:

AL:
Player: Score: Change:

Cabrera 197.57 -

Morneau 189.35 -

Hamilton 188.75 -

Cano 182.18 -

Guerrero 182.00 -

Youkilis 179.79 -

Konerko 172.27 -

Beltre 170.86 -

Hunter 170.06 -

Longoria 169.61 - Dropped out: None

NL:
Player: Score: Change:

Votto 184.25 -

Pujols 177.43 -

Wright 175.93 -

Gonzalez 171.39 -

Prado 170.55 +3

Ethier 170.03 -

Rolen 169.12 -2

Huff 167.74 -

Dunn 166.67 -

Holliday 166.48 - Dropped out: Corey Hart

Nick Blackburn

While following yet another disappointing showing by Nick Blackburn on GameCast, I decided to spend some of the time investigating the pitch selection of the Twins struggling starter. Here's what I came up with:

Blackburn threw 62 pitches on Saturday.
53 Fastballs (including 3 cutters)
9 Off-speed

That comes out to 86% of all pitches were of the fastball variety.

Of the 6 hits he gave up (2 doubles and 4 homeruns), 5 of the 6 (83%) were put into play by fastballs, which only makes sense since that's what he mainly threw.

Two things are fascinating to me:
1) Four of the Tiger batters saw only fastballs. Three of them (Ordonez, Guillen, and Avila) hit homeruns. The fourth (Santiago) hit a double.

2) In Nick's first start this month (6.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R (4 earned)) against Tampa, he threw...drumroll please...85% fastballs (& cutters). In his stellar month of May, he threw less than 80% fastballs & cutters and over 13% changeups. This month's changeups...less than 5%.

If you look at Nick's Pitch type and value on fangraphs.com, you'll see that his sinker (fastball) is his best pitch by far (1.7w) and that his changeup is his worst (-1.4) for the month of July. However, if you go back to the month of May when he went 5-0 with a 2.65 ERA, you see that his fastball value was 7.1w and his changeup an unspectacular -1.0w.

To conclude: He's throwing less off-speed, which is making his fastball more predictable, and therefore more hittable. I'm not saying that he needs to get batters out using his off-speed, because his career numbers show us that he gets batters out by throwing his fastball. What he needs to do is throw the off-speed more often to keep hitters off balance, otherwise you're punching your ticket to LA to throw in the Home Run Derby.

MVP Predictor

Alright...move over Bill James and Rob Neyer. I have created the next award prediction tool. For those of you who get your MLB info and stats from ESPN.com, you may have seen the Cy Young Predictor that James & Neyer came up with to predict who has the best chance at winning the league's Cy Young award based on each player's current stats. They developed their tool based on which pitchers won the award in previous years and what baseball writers tend to base their votes on.

Well, after many days and weeks of research (pretty much just last night), I have come up with the MVP predictor to determine which player currently has the best chance of winning this year's Most Valuable Player Award. It calculates a players value based on the following criteria: Team Wins, Hits, Runs, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, On-Base Percentage, Batting Average, and On-base Plus Slugging.

Why come up with such a tool? Doesn't the award go to the best player that season? In fact it doesn't, ala Alex Rodriguez's 2002 season where he accumulated 57 HR, 142 RBI, and an OPS of 1.015 and finished a distant 2nd to Miguel Tejada's 34 HR, 131 RBI, .861 OPS.

Well, the voter's look at more than just the player, as we all know. The team's performance also comes into play. A glimpse at the standings in 2002 shows A-Rod's Rangers finishing in last in the AL West, an incredible 31 games behind Tejada's Athletics, despite the incredible season by the Rangers' SS.

So, can we just take the best player off the team with the best record? Not so fast. Fast forward just one year to the 2003 campaign where we again see Rodriguez having a stellar year, only to see his Rangers again finish at the bottom of the division, 30 wins less than the league leading New York Yankees, who finished 101-61. The great Yankees surely had the MVP that year, right? In fact it was one of the closest MVP races in history, with 48 points separating the top three candidates when the dust settled. This year, Rodriguez received the award, with.....Carlos Delgado (3rd place Blue Jays, 15 games behind the Yankees) finishing in 2nd. Finally, we see Jorge Posada of the Yankees in 3rd, even though his team ended up with the best record in the league and making it all the way to the World Series.

So, what have we learned? The MVP race is somewhat unpredictable, but voters seem to weigh heavily on two areas: your team's finish in the division and OPS. So...I have developed a tool to help predict the winner. I won't reveal the formula for my methods (you never know, it might become famous and I'll make a little money on the side because of it). But I will give you who I believe will win the award as of the end of June.

My MVP's through June are:

Miguel Cabrera & Joey Votto

Scoring is shown below:

AL Rank Player Score
1 Cabrera 188.40
2 Morneau 186.44
3 Hamilton 183.19
4 Cano 183.10
5 Guerrero 180.86
6 Youkilis 176.74
7 Konerko 169.50

NL Rank Player Score
1 Votto 177.01
2 Pujols 175.86
3 Wright 172.05
4 Gonzalez 168.50
5 Rolen 167.57
6 Ethier 162.50
7 Hart 161.22

Dogsledding!

Alright, I finally had enough interesting pictures and stories that I have a reason to write. It's getting late, so I'll have to just say that I don't have the time to tell about the miles of hiking, chopping through the bush, mushing a team of dogs, sleeping in a tent in -25 degree weather, eating moose for multiple meals, or growing a sweet beard. However, I do have time to give you this link for my facebook photo album. Trust me, the stories are much better in person, so make sure to ask me about the adventure that I'll sure be talking about for years to come!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2022003&id=110800404&l=661e9f867e

Catch up!

First and foremost, I will honestly tell you that I didn't even realize that I had not posted anything for...64 days. What does that mean?

Well, first of all (being the stat guy I am) it means that there have been 352 visits by people in that timespan that have gone away with zero of our life happenings. Secondly, it means that life has surely been busy!!!

-I must admit that the reason I am blogging is because I felt guilty after being in church yesterday. Should I feel guilty after leaving church....? I think that's a little too deep of a question for today. Anyways, I got a shout out from Uncle Ken during the sermon, and then when we were eating lunch he reminded me that I hadn't blogged since "1 week to go...", and he had expected to see something around the time when the Twins won game #163 against the Tiggers. So here's my shout out to Uncle Ken in the blog post that he inspired.

-School is going well. Definitely a different set of kids this year than last...different interests, different personalities, but that's a good thing I guess. If all classes ended up being the same, I don't think I would teach very long.

-Since I last blogged, I've had the opportunity to hit a number of baseball games. Linds and I went with a couple friends to watch our Kane County Cougars take on the Beloit Snappers in late August. Beloit is the Class A affiliate of the Twins, so I guess I was rooting for the visitors. We got to see a couple Top 5 Twins prospects play...which apparently only excited me, and got to watch an extra inning of baseball, also which excited only me.

-Kirk, Cody, and Tim made the drive out in late September to watch the Twins take on the Sox. We got some pretty sweet seats for a decent price, went home with two batting practice balls (thanks to Matt Guerrier and Jason Kubel), and a TWINS WIN!!! It was the first time I got to see the Twins win in Chicago, so it made the walk through the parking lot a good one. Its amazing how many high-fives and fist-pounds we gave to random Twins fans when we saw them walking out of the stadium.

-There were a couple days in the past few weeks where I was stuck watching games by myself on T.V. Linds has been busy with volleyball, so I had to watch game #163 and Game 3 of the ALDS by myself for the most part. Seriously, I think #163 was the best game I have ever watched from start to finish. I still have it saved on our DVR so I can watch it over the winter.

-Like I said, Linds has been really busy with volleyball, along with work and school. I've gone to most of their games, a couple tournaments, and a few practices. They're doing REALLY well. Volleyball as a whole isn't the most popular sport at school, and I think part of her goal was to make it a bigger deal. The last game I was at there were quite a few students there watching the game, which is good because then I don't have to pump up the crowd by doing backflips during timeouts.

-kidding

-One good story (as it turned out) from the past two months concerns the Beretta. I thought she was dead. Well, not dead...dying in an ungraceful way. It sounded as if there was some sort of fan or belt that was going out (not a mechanic, so I had no idea). But the weird thing was that it happened for 1-2 sec and then stopped for about 5 sec, and then it would start again. It was so bizzare that I wasn't sure how to explain it to the mechanic when I took it in for a routine tune-up. Well, he heard it as well but couldn't figure out what it was from, so I took it home and we started looking for a new vehicle. Now you need to know (and it sounds rediculous), but I really like my car. I've had it for 8 years and 4 months and its the only car I've ever called my own. If it was dead on the side of the road or I couldn't get it started in the morning, then I might've felt differently, but it just wasn't that unreliable. I felt pretty good about getting an Equinox for it, realizing that I would let Linds drive it and I would probably take the Regal to work. Anyways...back to the story... We were driving to school together on a Friday, and the next day we were planning on going to seriously look at vehicles. As we were driving, it was like I had an epiphany (as Mr. Vanderaa would say) and I shut off the defrost of my car. The noise stopped. We sat in silence for about 10 seconds before Linds got the courage to say "There's no way." Then she decided to turn it back on. It wasn't more than 2 seconds later that the noise started again.

Moral of the story? Still kinda excited about getting an Equinox, so is there anyone interested in a '93 Beretta with a duct taped front end, no AC and (now) no defrost? Heater still works for now, so jump on it before that dies too!

-I think I'll probably try and do a Twins season recap sometime. You know me and blogging, so hopefully it happens. I think its more of a "get away from it all and somehow still feel productive" thing.

Just want to leave you with a few stats since I began tracking the visits to the blog.

Total visits since Jan 1: 1,838
High visit day: 19 (January 5 & September 8)
1000 visit day: May 28th

So long everybody...

1 week to go...

Well, summer is almost over. You always wonder where the time went and (maybe more importantly) what you did with all of it. Well, what I did was...

• very little schoolwork
• start refinishing a coffee table
• knock off another MLB stadium off the list (Miller Park)

Now, it may not seem like a whole lot, but here's what I came up with after summer's close...

• i teach for 9+ months out of the year and put in more time than your typical 8-5 job, so I was ready for a break
• i know that this coffee table will eventually end up in the basement of our future house (which i also picked out and found this summer...add that to the list), so there's no real sense in rushing it (this might be procrastination, so I'm riding a thin line)
• i want to see every major league stadium in my lifetime, so one new one a summer is a solid pace (plus the two Chicago stadiums I made it to before the summer began), and now my total stands at 8

The list goes on to include fishing trips, a wedding (maybe I should write it as a fishing/wedding trip), camping trip, trips from friends, trips to friends, trips from family, and trips to family. Minor league baseball, NFL training camp, a Taste of the city, and travels in six different states.

So as summer comes to a close and people ask me what I did, I struggle to come up with a really good answer. Depending on the person, I usually respond with "Nothing...absolutely nothing." to "Little bit of this and a little bit of that..." to "I hit the books and revamped my whole curriculum and view of teaching."--only to school board members, of course...

Hope all of you had as busy of a summer as we did. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty exhausted, I could use a break before school starts...

So long everybody...

A shot of our latest Kane County Cougars game, former Twins draft pick Tyler Ladendorf batting...

Trip, Trade Deadline, Twins

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to update you on our lives and what's been happening the past few weeks. We just got back from a camping trip with my extended family to Lewis & Clark Rec Area by Yankton, SD. The trip was bookended (is that a word? it sounds really literary, or something, so I'm going to use it because it makes sense) by stops at the Van Wyk residence to break up the drive, construct a couple bonfires (one sub-par and one simply amazing), and spend some time fishing. During the trip I managed to play a total of 36 holes of golf, 10 of which were great and will keep me from disowning the sport forever, 26 of which made me want to crack my driver over my leg and run over it with the cart.

I'm blogging from our house again, which means that our laptop is fixed, complete with a new motherboard and a hole in my wallet.

Thanks to the fixed computer, I was able to follow along on one of my favorite days of the year yesterday, the MLB trading deadline. I don't know if its something to brag about or not, but I feel like I was one of the first Twins fans to know about the official accquision of Orlando Cabrera, which wasn't discussed on MLB Network for another 15 minutes, or posted on the Star Tribune website for another 2 hours.

I'm glad the Twins made a move, if nothing else, I hope it keeps Mauer in Minny beyond the end of his current contract, which runs through 2010. He mentioned a few weeks ago that its going to be hard to sign an extension if the team doesn't show that its willing to make the moves necessary to keep up with the other big boppers of the AL. Now I don't think that all the needs were addressed (just look at the bullpen's line last night...4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, but none bigger than the game-tying homerun that Guerrier gave up to Mike Napoli leading off the 8th inning)

The Twins' move looks even less significant after watching the Tiggers add Washburn, a solid starter. I must admit though, I don't believe that Washburn will continue to put up the same numbers for the final two months that he has through the first four. Neither do I think that the Sox accquision of Jake Peavy is as great as everyone is saying. He isn't supposed to come back until the end of August from an ankle injury, so he'll get at most 5 starts this year, so I'm not that convinced he'll have that big of an impact on this year's regular season outcome.

A quick look at his Home/Away stats for his career:

Home: 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP

Away: 3.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP

I am in no way trying to say that he is horrendous away from PETCO Park, but it just shows how playing in a pitcher-friendly ballpark helps out your stats. Not to mention moving to the AL, which is much more hitter friendly with the DH in the lineup.

On a positive note (well, not for Twins fans I guess) Peavy is one of the premier pitchers in all of baseball when he's on. Kinda like Mark Prior was when he was on. Also, he's not a rental player for the coming year, the Sox control him through 2013.

Finally, just a look at his stats against other top AL teams:

Yankees 0-2 3.60 ERA 1.30 WHIP

Red Sox 0-1 5.40 ERA 2.00 WHIP

Rays 1-0 0.00 ERA 0.71 WHIP

Tigers 0-1 4.50 ERA 1.00 WHIP

Twins 0-0 2.84 ERA 1.34 WHIP

Angels 0-1 3.38 ERA 0.75 WHIP

Rangers Never faced

Take the record (1-5) with a grain of salt, because don't forget he was playing for the Padres.

So long everybody!

Picture time...

I just wanted to share a few pictures with you, some have been on facebook, and some have been on Lindsey's blog, but for those of you who haven't seen them, I thought I would share...


We took a trip to the Field Museum (Natural History) and I kept waiting for a little Owen Wilson (Jedidiah...Night at the Museum) to pop out and try to "manhandle" me. (If you don't get it...watch the movie) So here's a picture of Linds and I in front of Sue...



The Field Museum is right next to Soldier Field, so me being....me, I decided to take a picture in front of the monument outside of the stadium.



On the second weekend of the season, the Twins came to town to play the Sox, and I was able to get 4 tickets from a student of mine. It was a day of surprises, because it was Linds' birthday the next day and I managed to keep secret that her parents would be coming up to join us. The other secret was that the tickets I got were 8 rows up from the field, see below for the UNZOOMED view from our seats...



One of the highlights of the day was meeting Joe Nathan and getting his autograph and a picture. It wasn't the warmest of days (which you'll see in a couple pictures), so I asked him for his stocking hat, but he turned me down saying that he wouldn't give it up until they were back in the Dome.


Here's the shot from our seats...the game was alot of fun until Lirano gave up a TON of runs in the bottom of the 5th. The Twins ended up getting absolutely shallacked 8-0, but it was fun nevertheless.



The main reason for adding this picture isn't to show you the wonderful scoreboard of U.S. Cellular, or how close we were to...just about everything, or to show you how many people were there, but rather for you to look at the number at the top left-hand corner of the scoreboard. (Click on the picture to zoom) That number will explain why we left after the 8th inning of a 8-0 game and went straight to Famous Dave's for ribs and mashed potatoes.....mmm....ribs...mashed potatoes....baked beans....more ribs....oh, sorry...off on a little tangent there.



Since we saw such a poor game the first time around, when the Twins came back to town a little over a month later we decided to go to another game. There were a few differences (instead of 8 rows from the field, we were 8 rows from the top, the weather was MUCH nicer, and the Twins scored), but there were also a few similarities (Liriano pitched, Liriano got shelled, Liriano didn't make it through 5 innings, Twins lost again)



Finally, here's a picture from when we went back for Nate & Nicole's wedding. Ben and I went fishing 4 different days, and this was on Day 1. Just to clear things up, I caught mine first and we were both pumped about it because it was the biggest one we had pulled out of that pond. When Ben pulled his out 45 min. later and we decided that his could probably eat mine, we got even more excited. All in all, it was a VERY successful fishing weekend where we caught 40-50 fish, mainly bass, and the biggest ones were about the size of the one Ben is holding.

So long everybody...