'All this negativity in this town sucks' - Rick Patino

There seems to me a lot of moping around Vikingland and for good reason: Our favorite team stunk up the joint this year. But its over, and I am feeling optimistic about next year. Why? Well, first I am an optimistic person. life is to short to be negative 55% of the time.

Second, we are going to have a ton of new players on this team. I think one of the reasons we were bad this year is that our teams got collectively old real fast. Next year, we are going to see an infusion of fresh, new, and  young talent (we saw glimpses of this with Joe Webb (not saying he is going to start next year, but could be a decent #2), Lorenzo Booker, and Chris DeGeare)

Third, Les Frazier is our coach. I wasnt a 'Chilly is the worst coach ever', but I wasnt a Chilly backer either. He was a middle of the road coach (Eric Mangini, Gary Kubiak, and about 10 other coaches fall into this category) with a decent eye for talent. Maybe the best thing for Chilly is to be a front office guy. Anyway, we got a nice guy in charge and maybe things wont be so wound up between the players and the coach and the coach in the media. By the end it just seemed very toxic in Vikingsland. Frazier brings a fresh voice (even though he was on staff for a few years) and maybe some new ideas and it just seems right that he is a head coach.

and a fourth reason to be optimistic? because in 2011, you just throw out the record of 2010! we are 0-0 and the only reminder of the 2010 season will be announcers bringing up stats of last year and file footage of the Dome caving in (after the 2,534,092 viewing of it, I am finally sick of seeing it)

maybe its been discussed and I missed it, but has anyone been to TCF Stadium? Do you have a scouting report about the stadium (good sightlines, parking, bars nearby, etc). It would probably be helpful to those people who dont know the area/never been there

Also, I know that the Gophers had a hard time selling games, but does the stadium get loud if the fans can get into it? The one positive (the only positive?) is that the fan noise can reek havoc on the opponents. It would be nice to have that advantage at the Bank

here is a link to a 1500ESPN story about it

It was reported a couple weeks ago that John Gordon is going to have a reduced broadcast schedule for the upcoming year, and its now finalized. I would have prefered to have Kris Attebury fill in and do more play by play, but adding to pros (and Twins TV veterans) to the announcing booth should be exciting. They are adding Ted Robinson and (current Wild play by play man) Bob Kurtz.

As a guy who listens to a lot of games on the radio (no cable), at least they got some professionals to do it instead of sticking Dan Gladden on lead vocals. I like Dazzle, but he is not a PBP man. I listen to quite a few Wild games, so adding Kurtz wont be that much of a shock to the system for me (I think he has done Red Sox games and some St Paul Saints radio stuff). I remember Ted Robinson doing Twins games as a kid. It would be fun if Jim Kaat could come in the booth and do a few games with him

any thoughts from you folks?

I was only 4 years old when he was coach, and really didnt know about the Vikings until about 1988/89ish (Joey Browner was my favorite). Maybe this long season got me thinking about other terrible years. I wen to WIkipedia to see if that could give me any insight to that year and there wasnt a whole lot there.  So, to the older fans out ther, what was that year like? Where there chants of 'Fire Steckel' in the crowd? paper bags over the head at the games? Did people even go to the games by the end of the year?

I dislike the all purple look the Vikings had for the Arizona game (I never liked these new jerseys to begin with) but if you saw the game, Berrian's yellow shoes stood out because everyone else was wearing black shoes

And, he seemed to step up his game with catching those slants over and over. Kudos to Berrian for stepping up after being a non factor all year. Too bad he'll probably be fined for the awesome shoes

three questions: did anyone like the All-Purple look? did Berrian's yellows shoes look good? Will Berrian be more of a factor the rest of the season?

I tuned into the 5pm sports today and Mike Max on WCCO TV was talking about the Kahn/Team fine and he said something to the effect that Kahn is terrible and anytime he opens his mouth he is asking for trouble.

This isnt the first time I have heard him take pot shots at Kahn. I started to notice it last year when the Wolves went into that late season losing skid he kept on saying how terrible of a franchise it is and Kahn is doing terrible moves. It dont get why he hates on Kahn? Maybe Kahn turned down an interview request and is bitter. Or Since Max is an uber disciple of SId Hartman, Sid hates him so Max hates him.

Anyway, I admit, I am not the biggest basketball fan, but I do want the local team to succeed. I have noticed more Wolves talk this offseason that in years past but its about 90% negative. So you know what I say, Kahn must be having a great offseason! 'In Kahn I Trust' I say!

Again, Im not great NBA mind, but if your team wins 15 games in a season, you gotta do something. Keep on swapping pieces until something fits. Whats wrong with that? I have a gut feeling the Wolves are going to surprise some people and win more than 25 games this year

anyway, maybe someone else has noticed this too (about Max) and thanks for letting me vent a bit.

GO Wolves!

I was looking at some stats at Pro-Football-Reference and noticed some monster single season offensive numbers put up by some Vikes

Brett Favre was pretty awesome

Passing Yards

1. 2004 Culpepper 4717

2. 1994 Moon 4264

3. 1995 Moon 4228

4. 2009 Favre 4202

Passing TDs

1. 2004 Culpepper 39

2. 1998 Cunningham 38

3t. 2000 Culpepper 33

2009 Favre 33

1995 Moon 33

QB Rating

1. 2004 Culpepper 110.9

2. 2009 Favre 107.2

Even through AP had a 'down' year, he was still a beast

Rushing Yards

1. 2008 AP 1760

2. 2009 AP 1383

Rush TD

1. 2009 AP 18

2t. 1992 Terry Allen (!) 13

1975/1976 Foreman 13

Sid Rice had one of the better receiving years in team history (8th best)

Rec Yards

6. 1996 Reed 1320

7. 1998 Moss 1313

8. 2009 Rice 1312

Shaincoe's 11 Rec TD's was good for 9th best in team history (most for a TE)

Someone made a FanPost about Percy's All-Purpose Yards record. The Vikes have had only 3 people crack the 2000+ mark

1. 2009 Percy 2081

2. 1990 H. Walker 2051

3. 2008 AP 2021

the Vikings had had 13 KO returns in their franchise history, Percy Harvin had 2 this year, the only Viking to do so

Ryan Longwell had 55 XP attempts and 54 makes, but 2nd best in franchise history. And his 132 points was good for tied-for-2nd best in franchise history

1. 1998 G. Anderson 164

2t. 2009 Longwell 132

1975 Foreman 132

1994 F. Reveiz 132

Of course the numbers are nice and all, but the goal is to win the Super Bowl. Heck the Vikings have not been to a SB in my lifetime. I hope this is the year.

Maybe its because the Vikings seemed to have few dominant running backs in thier franchise history, or backs seem to burn out after a few year, but Adrian Peterson (if healthy) will dominate the rushing and scoring record books for the franchise.

After today's amazing 180 yard preformance, Peterson has already racked up 3281 yards in his career, jumping from #9 on the Franchise rushing yards list to #7 (passing Michael Bennett 3174 and Tommy Mason 3252)

His 3 TD's today gives him 25 rushing TD's placing him at 8 on the list (breaking a tie for 10th with Alfred Anderson and Fran Tarkenton (22), passing Terry Allen's 23 at 9th place ). Leroy Hoard's 25 tds is next and if AP has a great year, he could be in 4th place on the rushing list. (Robert Smith is there with 32)

I love watching AP run, and the stats just back it up on how great he is

(numbers found at the awesome pro football reference.com )

Lost in the hubbub of yesterdays offensive misery and lack of two point conversions (really? thats a controversy? I was watching the game with a group of 10 Vikes fans, and no one said anything about going for two. Are we looking to hard for things to complain about to get Chilly out of here?) was a pretty dominating game by Kevin Williams (as Gonzo meantioned in the Post Game thread). 8 tackles and FOUR SACKS! Damn! When was the last time a Viking had that many sacks in a game?

I dont get Twins Cities radio where I live, was there any buzz about this?

as was mentioned in the Game Thread, Livan might be out the door, as per LaVelle

There are strong indications that the Twins will cut loose righthander Livan Hernandez in order to make room for lefthander Francisco Liriano.

Several people with knowledge of the situation have said over the past two days that it’s time for Liriano to join the major league roster and, while he has won 10 games, Hernandez’s recent results indicate that it is time for a change.

Liriano is scheduled to start on Friday for the Red Wings but it looks like that won’t happen. It’s unclear where he would be inserted into the Twins rotation.

Indications are that the Twins are willing to eat the remainder of Hernandez’s $5 million salary. 

http://ww3.startribune.com/blogs/neal/2008/07/31/has-livan-hernandez-made-his-last-start-for-the-twins/

If you missed it, or are just tuning into the website, Carlos Gomez was injured in the first inning of Friday's game in Cleveland.

Joe C. has the initial report:

Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez crashed into the outfield wall to make a first-inning catch tonight and lay on the warning track for several minutes before leaving Progressive Field on a stretcher.

Gomez, 22, appeared to injure his right hip. He raced into the left-center field gap to take a hit from Cleveland’s Ben Francisco. Grady Sizemore tagged up at second base and scored on the play.

From his side, Gomez flipped the ball to left fielder Delmon Young, who fired the ball back to the infield.

For as much as Delmon Young rocked with the bat, Carlos Gomez stunk it up.

Jason Morneau's swing seems the same after the HR Derby, and even legged out a double. Alexi Casilla quietly had 3 hits too.

The Rangers did not have a hit after the 4th inning, and did not have a baserunner for the last 3. It was thier first time being shutout all year. So a tip of the hat to the pitching staff

any other thoughts?

Livan Hernadez is not going anywhere. No matter how hard people pray to the Baseball Gods, Livan is going to be with the Twins for the rest of the year. Unless some team offers a super deal in trade. The Twins are not going to cut him and eat the rest of his salary, then have him picked up by a team like the Yankees or Detroit. Livan then will be helping those team beat the Twins while the Twins pay him. thats is NOT going to happen.

Micheal Cuddyer will not be traded. Cuddyer will not move to third base. Micheal Cuddyer is going to be the Twins RFer if and when he returns from the disabled list. The Twins have too much money invested in him switch positions. The Twins will not release him (again money) or trade him (he has been VERY loyal to the Twins novice Twins fan should know the Twins value loyality more than anything)

Because he is signed on for next year, Mike Lamb is going to be on our roster unless some team offers us something in return in a trade. Lamb could actually be a useful person, filling in at 1B when Justin needs a break (like he did on Thursday afternoon). yes, Lambs numbers are terrible, but he adds some depth in the infield. (Nick Punto cant play first, ya know). And Lambs numbers when runners are in scoring position do not look terrible (. 356/ .362/ .444/ .807 small sample size of 58 plate appeareance)

The only way Boof Bonsor leaves this team is via trade. He can not be snuck through the wire and be sent to AAA. Craig Breslow, same thing.

there are about 10 other things, but this post is getting way to long lol

Thats just some of the things I have seen around the  'Comments Section' of the Twins Blogosphere that I want to comment on. Thanke for listening

I have watched the end of the last few games (thank you crappy work schedule) and I am amazed at how loud the few, the proud, the Kansas City Royals fans can get.

The one night it went into extra innings, instead of heading for the exits, the crowd cheered extra loud rooting for that game winning run. Tonight, Mark Buehrle was dominate, yet the fans at Kaufman were still with the game, cheering loudly whenever a Royal got on base. Then place exploded in the 8th. Wow! What noise they made. The announced crows was almost 15k, but after Teahen slide across home plate, they sounded like 55,000.

So kudos to Royals fans for sticking with your team, even though things have not gone quite the way you wanted so far this year.

I'm a Twins fans (dont hold that against me!), but I thought I would share my thoughts on that. One of these days, I am going to make a trip to Kaufaman. I have heard nothing but good things about the experience.

And also while I'm doleing out praises, you have a great blog community here. I check in almost everyday

6 hits in his last 9 plate appearances, but his hot hitting goes farther back, in his last 15 games, Delmon has had 5 3-hit games (his state line reads .390/.429.576/1.005)

If you want to back farther, I'll go back to June 1. Since then Delmon has played 25 games and had 101 plate appearances and 33 resulted in hits (12 XBH and a stat line of .344/.366/.531/.897)

So my question I pose to you: Will Delmon keep getting those hits (hopefully for extra bases) or is this just a nice hot streak and the hits will dry up soon and we'll all go back to throwing foam objects at the TV screen whenever he is up

story

Its a shame that Seattle will not have a pro basketball team (unless another team is placed there). I always thought they were a pretty good basketball town. This will effect the Wolves somewhat, since OK City are in the same time zone so that means one less 9pm central time start

Lets hope this Oklahoma City thing works out for the long run. I hope a situation like this does not happen for the Wolves

can someone fill me in on this Marek Zidlicky guy we got from Nashville. I gotta say, I did not watch too many Predators games last year

We traded Ryan Jones. Apparently we was a minor leaguer, was he any good? He must of been if another team wanted him.

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm relatively new when it comes to following hockey hardcore. I like to watch the game, I really did not follow it closely until last year

does anyone have an explaination about why Livan's walk rate has plummeted this year? I was looking at his season stats and he has a Radke-like 16 walks in 103.1 innings. His graph on FanGraphs tells me he has been right around league average most of his career (see pic below)

Could it be he just throws the ball down the middle of the plate and gives up a ton of hits? Its not strikeouts because Livan just does not miss bats.

via www.fangraphs.com

Press Release from the Twins

10 players signed so far

TWINS 2008 FIRST-YEAR PLAYER DRAFT
As of June 13, 2008:

Aaron Hicks, OF
Tyler Ladendorf, SS
Bobby Lanigan, RHP
Daniel Ortiz, OF
Dan Osterbrock, LHP
Evan Bigley, OF
Michael Harrington, OF
Dave Coulon, LHP
Steve Blevins, RHP
Alex Curry, RHP
Javier Brown, SS

Hicks, Ladendorf, Ortiz, Blevins, Curry and Brown have been assigned to the Gulf Coast League Twins, while Lanigan, Osterbrock, Bigley, Harrington and Coulon have been assigned to Elizabethton.

I don't type out many of this things because I don't want to look like an idiot.You people are pretty sharp (lookat that 15 questions post) But, I was curious how the Twins offense stacked up against the other Central Divsion foes. I know that KC's offense is bad, but I guess I haven't paid attention to Cleveland too much this year, thier numbers shocked me on how rotten they are.

(I am using BA/OBP/SLG/OPS because those are the stats I know and are comfortable with. If anyone wants to chip in with the new fancy stats go right ahead.)

 In order of the standings and these team stats are good from Monday morning:

Chi .243/ .326/ .402/ .728 (221 runs scored)

Min .266/ .322/ .382/ .704 (227 runs scored)

Det .270/ .342/ .432/ .774 (246 runs scored)

Cle .232/ .313/ .362/ .675 (202 runs scored)

KC .256/ .314/ .362/ .676 (179 runs scored)

Couple things. This past week that twins have drawn a lot of walks raising thier OBP. even after all those walks, I still would of guess we would of be towards the bottom of the pack. but we actually rank 22nd in the majors in that category.

The Twins have hit only 29 HRs, second fewest in the league to KC, but to my surprise they are 24th in the league in SLG. I would of thought they would be 28th or 29th.

If you were wondering, the Twins ranked 8th in batting average, 11 points behind the BoSox.

So my conclusion, yes the Twins could walk more (55 walks in the last 11 games is a good sign) and the Twins could use more power. But, it could be worse. If Cuddy could turn around his slide and if Delmon hits for a little more power and in Justin pops a few more home runs, our offense can be really good

I guess its still early, but what do you guys think...still worth keeping around or ditch him

Has your opinion changed since spring training? Has Gardy used him right?

yes many questions here...but I was just wondering. He seemed to have been batted around like a pinata during spring training, but now that the season has started, that has calmed down.

Myself, I guess I have no real opinion about him. He is on the roster, he seems to fit in. good enough for me.