01.31.08
Posted in Baseball, General
at 7:52 pm
by GC
Straight from the celebrity Wall of Fame at 2nd Ave’s Jade Mountain to the wire services, lefty Frank Viola tells the AP’s Dave Campbell the Twins didn’t get decent value for the still-unsigned Johan Santana (link taken from MetsBlog).
As the Johan Santana trade story unfolded, Frank Viola couldn’t help but see the parallels to his own departure from Minnesota 19 years ago.
Both were left-handed aces with Cy Young Awards on their resumes who priced themselves out of the Twin Cities – and onto the New York Mets for a multiplayer package of mostly unknowns.
The Viola deal finally came at the July 31 trade deadline in 1989, much later than most people around the game expected. The delay helped the Twins get a better return from New York for their ace.
“That’s why it worked out for me, because they waited,” Viola said.
“I question the trade somewhat, as a fan of the Twins and not an ex-ballplayer,” he said. “I guess if you’re a Minnesota fan like I am, you hope this is the best Bill could’ve done under the circumstances.”
Players offered earlier in the process by the Red Sox and Yankees probably would’ve made a stronger impact for Minnesota, though it’s unfair to predict what kind of career any of them will ultimately have. Center fielder Carlos Gomez and right-handed pitchers Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra are four of the Mets’ top prospects, but none of them are considered sure bets to be All-Stars.
“You’re talking four guys with a big question mark by all of their names,” Viola said. “Carlos Gomez, he has to be comparable to a Kirby Puckett and a Torii Hunter? Good luck with that.“
Please, all hands up all Twins fans old enough to remember the 6 player deal that brought Viola to Flushing. How many of you said to yourself when the trade was announced, “thank god we held out long enough for David West”?
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Posted in Baseball, Blogged Down, Rock Und Roll
at 5:05 pm
by GC
Former 15 Minutes/Dream Syndicate main man Steve Wynn has an album of baseball songs — recorded with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey amongst others — hence the following interview culled from KEXP.org (link courtesy Repoz).
A baseball record! Why?
I™ve wanted to do this record for years. I™m a big baseball fan ” and former sportswriter ” and always thought the game and the colorful characters throughout history would make an interesting platform for spinning yarns and making statements and metaphors for bigger things in life ” assuming, of course, that there are bigger things. I kept putting off the project until I got into a long conversation with Scott McCaughey at the party before R.E.M.™s induction to the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. Turns out he was as big a baseball geek as me, and we immediately decided to do the record as soon as possible.
Are these original songs, or collected nuggets from over the years? I have to confess, until I heard the Bob Dylan Radio Hour baseball segment, the only recorded baseball songs I had heard were the Barbara Manning LP and the Pernice Brothers™ song œMoonshot Manny.
We wrote 16 brand new original songs and could have easily kept going. In fact, we were going to seek songs from other rock baseball fans ” Barbara, Joe Pernice, Ira Kaplan ” but ended up getting into a hot streak of Ichiro proportions. I think we™re already planning the second and third volumes.
Wynn, McCaughey, Buck, Pitmon¦ how did the mix of Yankees, Mariners, Braves and Twins fans go?
No rhubarbs, no bruhahas, no¦well, you get the picture.
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Posted in Basketball
at 3:31 pm
by GC
Magic Johnson, the N.B.A. legend and part owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, met with Knicks president / head coach Isiah Thomas for about 30 minutes before their teams played Tuesday night. Johnson expressed sympathy and support and made this bold claim about the Knicks: œThey™re going to make the playoffs. I think that they™re going to be a tough eight or seven seed, too. – Howard Beck, New York Times, January 31, 2008
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Posted in Baseball
at 2:03 pm
by GC
While Twins fans ponder a future sans Torii Hunter and Johan Santana, Tigers reliever Todd Jones (above) surveys the latter’s depature in The Sporting News and and muses that while “it’s always hard to gauge what you are getting when you deal for prospects”, “in the Twins’ case, a few factors are working in their favor”. (link swiped from Repoz and Baseball Think Factory)
No. 1, Terry Ryan still is connected to the organization. He has an unbelievable ability to evaluate talent. Need we mention, A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. If you think that was luck, how do you explain Chuck Knoblauch for Cristian Guzman and Eric Milton? So if Ryan had his hand in this deal, rest assured as long as there’s no major injuries, the Twins will be OK.
No. 2, the Twins were not left holding the bag. They can feel good knowing they made a competitive offer to Santana. When he told them no thanks, they waited and got the best deal they could instead of turning into Jim Bowden and the Nationals. Remember when Bowden waited and waited and thought he could convince Alfonso Soriano to stay in Washington? Instead, Soriano walked and the Nationals didn’t get much.
Here’s some advice to GMs: If you can’t sign your guys, forget about posturing and fans’ blowback and deal the guys immediately. And when Santana gets his six or seven years at $20 million per, don’t say, “Ah. It’s just about the money.” Some of it is, for sure. But Santana is one of those guys who clubs can’t wait to make a mistake on. GMs can’t get hurt on Santana deals. He’s in his prime and has an amazing track record. Plus, he just went to a huge market to a team that didn’t make the playoffs and whose No. 1 starter from a year ago (Tom Glavine) has gone elsewhere. This creates the financial perfect storm for Santana.
Though Jones’ point about the Pierzynski for Nathan/Bonser/Liriano trade is valid (if not repeated elsewhere), I’m not at all certain that “GMs can’t get hurt on Santana deals”. We’ll see how Barry Zito’s 2nd season with the Giants works out — presumably he’ll accomplish more for San Francisco than Mike Hampton did for Colorado.
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Posted in Hockey, MMA
at 11:18 am
by GC
Other than extending Joe Rogan’s career. No offense to the Flyers’ Riley Cote, but it’s pretty hard to imagine Dave Schultz reviewing his own fight footage on YouTube (video link swiped from 700 Level)
Mostly because that would’ve required the invention of YouTube prior to the modern advent of the ‘net. We should, however, give Fred Shero credit for trying.