It's Been Fun

Today is this blog's third anniversary, and so it seems appropriate to announce that I won't be posting new content anymore.  I started this blog when I was unemployed and had little else to do than bitch spend hours analyzing my favorite baseball team. It was a lot of fun, and I got the opportunity to discuss the team and the sport I love with some pretty awesome fans I probably would not have met otherwise.  However, I no longer have the time to really put much effort into my posts, and frankly I haven't been very happy with the quality of work I've produced as of late.

Moreover, blogging just isn't much fun for me anymore.  It feels more like a job that I don't get paid for, and I think my work has begun to reflect that.  The internet is littered with bad blogs; I don't want this one to be one of them.  When your posts are all basically "I don't have time to cover this, but here is my lazily researched, snarky commentary", then  it is time to hang it up.

I will leave the blog up for, well, as long as I feel like leaving it up.  Maybe someday I will have both the time and the inclination to write again, and I will be back.  But for now, this is pretty much it.  Also, I am going to turn off the comments in a week.  As much as I enjoy interacting with readers, I don't have time to moderate comments and I don't want spammers hijacking the comments section.

*Grumpy Face*

Now that finals are over, and Christmas is over, and I have pretty much nothing to do all day for the next month or so, I had a ton of stuff I wanted to complain write about, and a ton of terrible MS Paint objects to make.  Unfortunately, my poor ancient macbook may or may not be on its last legs.  While I get my technical difficulties sorted out, I do have to take this opportunity to thank you, dear readers.  Sometime last week, this blog recorded its 16,000th page view.  For a crappy blog whose author hardly ever posts any new material anymore, that is a lot.  As a token of my appreciation, and in the spirit of the (um, belated) holiday season, I present my favorite Christmas carol of all time:

MVPs Be Roidin'

Apparently steroids make you dress like an asshole.

Ryan Braun, why couldn't you wait until finals week is over before testing positive for a banned substance?  I have no time to cover this, so I'll let the mainstream media do all the work for me.  Take it away, ESPN:

"National League MVP Ryan Braun, who last season led the Milwaukee Brewers to their first division title in nearly three decades, has tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug and faces a 50-game suspension if the initial finding is upheld.

------- snip -------

A source close to Braun said that when he was told about the positive test, he immediately requested to be tested again. That second test, using a different sample that was tested by Braun's camp, the source said, was not positive."

The risk of false positives is one of the major concerns the MLBPA had about PED testing, and a subsequent test has come up negative, so who knows? Perhaps Brauny is telling the truth.  Unfortunately, he faces an uphill battle to prove it if this is the case.  Players are essentially considered guilty until proven innocent under MLB's drug policy, so the subsequent negative test might not be enough to prove he is clean.  Fun fact:  it is also not enough for a player to prove that he did not purposely use a banned substance.  He has to prove that he had no reasonable grounds to believe that whatever it was he ingested contained a PED, either because it was tampered with or because it is not something you would expect to contain PEDs, like Gatorade or something.  I am sure glad that I don't have to prove to my employer that somebody slipped heroin in my coffee if I fail a drug test; I only have to pass a second test.  

The BBWAA did say that it won't strip Braun of his MVP award if it does turn out he was 'roiding, so there's that.  The bug-eyed one batted .332/.397/.597 with 33 home runs and a 179 wRC+ on his way to winning the award.  If he is taking any performance-enhancing substance, he really needs to hook up the Twins' clubhouse. 

Merry Christmas, Twins Fans

We got you a present!  Hope you like it:

From: your friends in the front office. XOXO

I have four papers due and four finals to study for, so I don't really have time to analyze what went down at the Winter Meetings.  However, I will say this:  the Wild keep winning.  The Twins keep making me mad.  Perhaps I will have a new official favorite team very soon.

Joe Nathan Is a Texas Ranger

I won't get to use this image anymore

For $7 million a year over the next two years.  I wish Twitchy the best, but geez, if you are going to spend that much on a reliever, you should have at least some assurance that he will be healthy.  Of course, the Rangers inked a tv deal worth $3 billion not too long ago, so I guess they can afford to take a $14.5 million flier on a 37 year-old with Tommy John surgery in his recent past.  It sounds like Nathan pounced on the Rangers' deal right away, and I don't blame him.  The closer market is pretty crowded this year, with Francisco Rodriguez, Jonathon Broxton, and Heath Bell still looking for work.  All these guys are younger and arguably better than Nathan at this point in his career, so it's unlikely he would have found a better deal elsewhere.  It is going to be really weird seeing him in anything other than a Twins uniform, though. 

As for the Twins, their bullpen was going to be a mess whether they re-signed Nathan or not.  The Twins had one of the worst bullpens in the league last year, with a 4.51 ERA, 4.43 FIP, and 3.79 K/BB ratio.  Glen Perkins was the best of a sorry lot, though Nathan picked it up towards the end of the season and finished with a 2.74 FIP in September and October.  With so many holes to fill, it wouldn't have been prudent for the Twins to plunk down $7 million a season on one reliever.  Of course, the down side is that this makes it much more likely the Twins will re-sign Matt Capps, who probably won't cost much given his horrible performance in 2011.  Huzzah.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

The NHL standings are, um, interesting:

(click to embiggen)

Yes, that is your Minnesota Wild.  In first place.  In the entire league.  As you can see, this is almost entirely due to their surprisingly strong defense and the fantastic goaltending they have gotten out of Niklas Backstrom (1.92 GAA) and Josh Harding (1.79 GAA).  GM Chuck Fletcher spent the offseason shoring up the offense, which has typically been one of the team's biggest weaknesses, but his efforts have yet to bear fruit.  Matt Cullen is leading the team with 8 goals and 11 points in 20 games.  Unless guys like Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi start doing more of this:



And this:



They won't be on top for very long.

No Way

In a surprising move, the Twins have announced that Terry Ryan will take over as interim general manager in place of Bill Smith.


The move is effective immediately.

Link

I have to go to work right now, so I'll have more thoughts on this later, but holy crap.  This is a move that was a long time in coming, I just didn't expect the Twins to actually make it.