July 13, 2012

Link-O-Rama

• August 1 will be the 10-year anniversary of this blog and it seems like I should do something special to celebrate, but so far I'm drawing a blank. If you have any ideas besides "announce your retirement" I'd love to hear them, but please keep in mind my usual level of laziness.

Glen Perkins outed himself as a stat-head with interesting thoughts about how knowing the numbers can help pitchers and how advanced metrics might underrate relievers like him.

• Finally, my working from bed while lying down emerges as a brilliant way to beat the system.

• This almost makes up for all the parents who threw their kids' baseball card collections away.

• All you need to know about my appearance on KFAN with Paul Allen yesterday: It was three segments long and after listening my mom said: "Now you have two Jewish mothers."

• Making fun of Jonah Hill would be easy, except the best-case scenario for my current weight loss involves spending the rest of my life in constant fear of following in his footsteps.

• And at the opposite end of the spectrum there's Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Mila Kunis.

• Should the Twins trade Denard Span, Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau, and Francisco Liriano? I'm glad you asked.

• Amazon's plan for taking over the world would guarantee that I never leave the house.

• Eight years, one marriage, and two children later former Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Jessica Alba is still getting the job done.

Larry Bird had a very sensible take on the current Olympic team vs. Dream Team "debate."

Ballplayer: Pelotero is a new documentary about teenage prospects in the Dominican Republic that's made headlines because Bud Selig is angry about how it portrays the allegedly corrupt system in which they sign with MLB teams. Twins fans should be particularly interested in the film because it tells the behind-the-scenes story of two players who signed as 16-year-olds in 2009 and one of them is Miguel Sano. Here's a preview:

Sano is now the Twins' top prospect and one of the best prospects in baseball, and the movie opens today. I'll have a review early next week, but in the meantime I'd encourage anyone in the Twin Cities to see it locally at St. Anthony Main Theatre in Minneapolis, where Ballplayer: Pelotero is showing from July 13-19 as part of The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul. For show times and further details, click here.

• As someone totally obsessed with the Food Network show Chopped this is pretty great.

• When he's done counting his $18.3 million Antonio Esfandiari can say he won the richest poker tournament of all time.

• One out of every eight MLB regulars was an All-Star this season and even that might be stretching the definition of "regulars" a little bit.

Adrian Peterson hired Roger Clemens' lawyer following his arrest in Houston.

Kyrie Irving does things with a basketball that shouldn't be possible and it's only a practice.

Zach Lowe's blog on SI.com has become an hourly must-read during the NBA offseason.

• I'm way too excited that this show is coming back on the air next week.

• Minnesotans complain a lot about Joe Mauer's contract, but it could be much, much worse.

• I saw Moonrise Kingdom and definitely enjoyed parts of it, but mostly came to the conclusion that I just don't get Wes Anderson.

• If you're interested in a movie that's still quirky, but in a less annoying, more compelling way I rented Death of a Superhero and highly recommend it.

Dov Davidoff's appearance on You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes was full of really deep, interesting conversation with some comedy sprinkled in.

• As always, the combination of Chelsea Peretti and Harris Wittels on the same podcast can't be beat, especially when you add in Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman.

• Netflix instant recommendation: The Swell Season is such a well-done documentary that I loved it despite only barely being familiar with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

• This week's Gleeman and The Geek episode mostly featured me obsessing about unknowingly wearing a shirt that John Bonnes owns too, but there's also a look back at how our winter over/under predictions for the Twins have fared.

• Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is "For You" by Angus and Julia Stone:

11 Comments »

  1. I had never heard Hansard before he opened for Eddie Vedder last year. He was great live. Very raw and emotional music.

    You may want to check out the soundtrack for the movie, Once, if you want to hear more of him.

    I’m pretty sure he just released his first solo album, too. I could just look it up to make sure I am providing factual information, but that sounds too much like work…

    Comment by mini_tb — July 13, 2012 @ 9:23 am

  2. Perkins did an Audio fan Q&A on Fangraphs after that post as well:

    http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/fangraphs-audio-glen-perkins-answers-reader-qs/

    Comment by dl3mk3 — July 13, 2012 @ 10:05 am

  3. Anniversary idea: collect some of your favorite or most popular posts over the years?

    Comment by Andrew — July 13, 2012 @ 10:30 am

  4. What’s weird is all non-perishable FOOD available on Amazon.

    Good song. Angus and Julia Stone have some great music. Not for everyone, but they have some interesting stuff that sometimes borders on alt-country

    Comment by funoka — July 13, 2012 @ 10:49 am

  5. how about the 40 greatest Twins, quick before it changes.

    Comment by al — July 13, 2012 @ 11:15 am

  6. I quit watching Wes Anderson movies… because they aren’t very good =)

    Comment by Sobersoul — July 13, 2012 @ 11:53 am

  7. Anniversary idea:

    Post the Top 10 Twins players by accumulated Win Shares from August 1, 2002 to August 1, 2012.

    Then, if you’re feeling ambitious, check how many times each of those players were mentioned in your articles over the years. It will be a good test to see if you’ve been giving props where they are deserved.

    Comment by Matt #3 — July 13, 2012 @ 12:32 pm

  8. Trading Liriano will not get back a great return in prospects being a rental and the SP FA crop is deep this coming year.

    Rather than look for a team to get the best fringe prospect on a rental why not try to package Liriano with a bad contract allowing them more payroll felxibility to pursue SP via FA.

    For example Liriano + Blackburn to NYY for nothing in return. Just absorb Blackburns contract, if you could convince them to take on Nishi also all the better.

    If they just let Baker, Liriano, Pavano, & Blackburn go they will have plenmty of room to fill 3-4 rotation spots. Around Diamond & Gibson.

    Comment by Trevor — July 13, 2012 @ 10:28 pm

  9. Thanks for linking to Deadspin post with Chopped application, that was the funniest thing I’ve read in some time.

    Comment by Ryan — July 14, 2012 @ 12:36 am

  10. “Politero” was FANTASTIC…I remembered some of the controversy at the time about his age and name issues but didn’t realize how nasty MLB was (admittedly having been burned through deceit before) and how close the Twins came to not signing him…Very interesting looks at where 20% of the players in all of US organized baseball come from..

    Comment by neal polister — July 14, 2012 @ 5:28 pm

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