December 18, 2008

Link-O-Rama

  • Seth Stohs' self-published Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook is now shipping. No one is more devoted to covering the Twins' minor-league system than Seth and there's zero doubt in my mind that anyone who enjoys this blog will enjoy his book, which includes a foreword by Pat Neshek and nearly 200 profiles featuring every significant Twins prospect. Not only is buying the book a great way to learn about Twins prospects, doing so supports the work of someone who's blogged for free since 2003.

    Seriously, for just $12.95 you can get a great book and support a great cause, so please go buy it.

  • If you're ever wondered what Cash Warren sees when he comes home following a long, hard day of doing whatever it is he does, here's your chance. Bastard.
  • Kevin McHale has finally figured out who's responsible for the Timberwolves' awfulness: Bloggers.
  • If you're curious what the oft-mentioned "media room" at the winter meetings looks like, Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times snapped the following picture that shows me hard at work (or something):

    You can click on the photo to see a full-sized version and then actually zoom in even further from there, at point you should be able to easily identify me and spot a mid-conversation Peter Gammons chatting away on the opposite side of the room. Baker must have taken that photo early in the morning or late at night, because there were usually at least five times that many reporters in the room filling literally every other chair.

  • Joe Posnanski has fallen even deeper in love with Ron Gardenhire after sitting next to him at lunch.
  • Emily Blunt appears to be a perfectly lovely woman, but it must be rough for John Krasinski to break character after a long day of being paid to flirt with the world's cutest receptionist.
  • In what is sure to be a trend-setting move within the struggling newspaper industry, both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press announced this week that they will shift resources to the "digital delivery of news" while delivering physical, ink-on-a-page newspapers on just Thursday, Friday, and Sunday:

    [Detroit Media Partnership CEO Dave] Hunke said the moves would allow both papers to maintain their news-gathering forces, shift resources to their Web sites, develop new ways to deliver information digitally, enhance multimedia offerings--and, for the foreseeable future, keep Detroit one of the nation’s few remaining two-newspaper towns.

    The strategy contrasts with significant across-the-board cuts, including sharp newsroom reductions and outsourcing of jobs, at many newspapers struggling to maintain traditional delivery. "There is a day of reckoning coming for newspapers, which in my mind don't change and change rapidly," Hunke said. "That is a way of life that is going to disappear [for some newspapers] as early as this coming year."

    It remains to be seen whether the newspapers in Detroit will be successful with their changes, but they deserve credit for at least attempting to keep up with the rapidly shifting media landscape rather than following in the footsteps of most newspapers by simply clinging to the old way of doing things until it dies completely. Fewer and fewer people are interested in having the previous day's news printed on paper alongside tons of advertisements and dropped on their doorstep, and that trend isn't changing.

  • Charles Barkley is now officially prepared for his upcoming political career:


    And those aren't your average-sized shoes, either.
  • Apparently referring to a former Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com as "sloppy seconds" will cause you to be blackballed from your chosen field of employment, which is an important lesson for everyone.
  • If you've ever wondered what it would look like if four reporters from the Chicago Sun Times dressed up as old-time gangsters for no apparent reason, it's your lucky day. I'd gladly pledge five bucks toward funding a similarly ridiculous photo shoot featuring the Minneapolis Star Tribune sports department, so perhaps newspapers have stumbled upon a much-needed new source of revenue.
  • Some all-time greats like Barry Sanders, Sandy Koufax, and Jim Brown walk away too soon, while others unfortunately stick around well past their prime.
  • Last week the Pittsburgh Post Gazette ran a fairly lengthy article about Baseball Prospectus naming the Pirates medical staff the best in baseball for 2008. The article carried a "Magazine names Pirates medical staff best in MLB" headline and referred to Baseball Prospectus as "the magazine" four times in a dozen paragraphs, which is odd given that Baseball Prospectus is a hugely popular website that publishes several books each year and is also not a magazine. Is having editors really all that helpful?
  • Friend of AG.com Joe Mulder has started up a new site that's ... well, let's just say devoted to articles that can be read while sitting on the toilet. Fear not, however, because the site's motto is: "Don't worry, it's classy." Not only is Mulder a big Twins fan, he unnecessarily tried to coax me into plugging his new site by sending along this photo:

    Adam Carolla on the left and Bill Simmons on the right, with a guy in a Twins jersey in the middle. You could find a picture of some guy eating Chinese food and watching baseball on television while in bed next to Keeley Hazell, Marisa Miller, Elisha Cuthbert, Jenna Fischer, Kate Beckinsale, and Mila Kunis, and I'd be marginally less jealous (depending on how good the Chinese food looked).

  • Right back at you, Marisa. Oh, and there are a ton more where that came from.
  • I'd never seen a single episode of How I Met Your Mother before stumbling across the show Monday night, which wouldn't be noteworthy except for the fact that the title of the episode was "Little Minnesota" and the scene stumbled across revolved around people in New York hanging out at a Vikings bar. CBS will be sad to know that even tailoring programming specifically to me couldn't stop a channel change.
  • Friend of AG.com Steve Treder recently penned a good article over at The Hardball Times about the most interesting Rule 5 picks of the past three decades and a familiar name sits atop the list.
  • Finally, this week's AG.com-approved music video is T.I. performing "Whatever You Like" on Jimmy Kimmel Live:


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