Ramblings

Vikings Thoughts-
Adrian Peterson is practicing with the Vikings again.............This guy is a beast.........He tore two ligaments in his knee just 8 months ago.............And he is already back.............Filthy........

random thoughts

 Twins Thoughts:
The Minnesota Twins continue to lose baseball games at an alarming rate. This week it's the bullpen that can not get the job done....This team needs to trade away Liriano, Willingham, Span, Morneau, and anybody else on the team that will fetch prospects....The Twins are a good 3-4 years away from competing again.......Now is the time to bottom out and acquire prospects, who will hopefully blossom into integral parts of the next competitive Twins era............Bottoming out, will also allow young players, such as: Aaron Hicks, Joe Benson, and Chris Parmelee to play in the big leagues.....There is no better time than now to see if these guys can contribute at the major league level........What do the Twins have to lose? Besides more baseball games.

Twins Grades: Starting Pitchers

There is only one word that describes the Twins pitching staff at the All Star break: Brutal. Out of 30 Major League teams, The Twins are; 29th in ERA(4.86), 28th in quality starts(30), 28th in whip(1.41), and 29th in Batting Average Against(.281). (whip= walks/hits per innings pitched.) This is a team that plays half of its games in a "Pitchers Park." (Target Field) Imagine what the stats would be, if they played in a hitters park.
Starters:
Scott Diamond: A
-I shudder to think where this team would be without Diamond. He has been the only consistent pitcher in the Twins rotation. He boasts; a 7-3 record; 9 of the team's 30 quality starts; and a 2.62 ERA. He has accomplished those statitistics in just 12 starts. Diamond, leads the team in wins, quality starts, era and whip. His 2.62 ERA is fifth best in the American League. He is having an incredible season. And would be a legitimate rookie of the year candidate, if Mike Trout wasn't having an MVP year, as a rookie, for the Angels.

Twins Grades at Mid-Season- Position Players.

In this post, I will be giving letter grades to the Minnesota Twins' positional players. As we enter the second half of the season, the Twins have a 36-49 record. They are currently in the basement of the American League Central Division. Minnesota trails the Division leading Chicago White Sox, by 11 games. The Twins are 9 games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second AL Wild Card spot.

A horrible start to the season for the Twins has knocked them out of any serious playoff contention. Minnesota should use the second half of the season to see who can contribute to the franchise's future. Meanwhile, they should trade away some of the veterans who will not be around by the time this team is in serious playoff contention. In other words, this team needs to be completely rebuilt. On to the grades

quick takes on the T-Wolves and the Wild

Nic Batum is coming to town...................... It is about time the Wolves listened to me................. If the Timberwolves can sign him, he would be the perfect addition to this team..................Get it done Kahn..............Does a Frenchman count as a white guy in David Kahn's mind???? I hope so because the Wolves need him........Greg Stiemsma is also in town to be wooed by the grand master Kahn............Great, another big white guy stiff.........just what the Wolves need if they amnesty Darko.........I guess he would balance out the Frenchman, if he signed

Top 5 hitters in MLB History

 This is my list of the top 5 hitters of all-time

5 Thoughts on a variety of Sports Subjects

 

5 Thoughts on a Variety of Sports Subjects

1. Pavel Bure Makes the Hockey Hall of Fame-

This is long overdue, as Bure definitely deserved to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.  Bure scored 437

Late Night Finals Ramblings & other ramblings

  
A begrudging congrats to Lebron on winning his first NBA Title.....He played phenomenal throughout the Finals and the whole Playoffs for that matter........Congrats to the Thunder, on a Hell of a Playoff run for such a young team.....They will be back next year, and better than ever......Kevin Durant needs to command the ball more.....He is the best player on his team, and they need to get him the ball more in early game situations....I still hate the Heat, although I'm torn on which Heat player I dislike most... Let's break it down list style...

A quick take on Knuckleball Pitchers in the MLB (by request)

RA Dickey, the MLB's only current knuckleballer, is 11-1 with a 2.00 ERA so far this season. Dickey's stats in his past six starts; 6-0;  allowed just 2 runs, 1 earned, for an ERA of 0.18; 63 strikeouts; just 5 walks allowed; and just 20 hits against. That is phenomenal. Especially only allowing 5 walks in that time frame as a knuckleball pitcher, as the Knuckleball is the hardest pitch to throw for a strike. In his past two starts, Dickey has thrown complete game 1-hitters. Just Sick. He is the first player since 1944 to accomplish that feat.                                  more after the jump.

MLB Power Rankings

Welcome to the first edition of Michel's MLB Power Rankings. Yes, it is the time of the year when baseball is the predominant thing to talk about, because all of the other sports are either finished or soon to be finished for the year.

Special Thanks to Ticket King for being my first paid sponsor. And to all of the people reading this, thank you.

30.Chicago Cubs(23-44):  Proud owners of the worst record in the bigs. . The only thing interesting about the Cubs is; who will they trade, to speed up there rebuilding process? SP Ryan Dempster is as good as gone. Can they find takers for Alfonso Soriano's gigantic contract? Is Matt Garza on the block, or will new GM Theo Epstein see him as part of the future? more after the jump

Matt Cain Perfect Game

Pitching is getting out of control in the MLB. Matt Cain, of the San Francisco Giants is the latest example. He just got done throwing the second perfect game of this season, and the fourth no-hitter of the year in the MLB already. Cain, finished with 14 strikeouts. Equaling Sandy Koufax, for the most strikeouts in a perfect game. Koufax set the record in 1965. Watching the last two innings, while I finished my golf preview, Cain looked un-hittable. The Houston Astros had no chance. Shit, the 1927 "Murderers Row" Yankees would have had no chance to hit him. He was filthy.  Every single pitch he threw, he threw with a purpose. His fastball was topping out at 94-95 MPH with sick movement, and he was locating it wherever he wanted. His off-speed stuff was knee-buckling, starting from one chalk outline of the batters box and finishing right off the far side of the plate. This was not a fluke, and was easily the best pitched game of the year, so far.

Late Morning Stream of Consciousness

  


RIP Dark Star........The Sports Show will not be the same without you.........Hope you are somewhere were you can drink and gamble............It has been just one day without the NHL, and I miss it already......Stoked for the Wild to not suck next year(hopefully)......I also hope the NHL is not dumb enough to lockout its players again.........But this is a league that missed an entire season, so you never know.......Terrible officiating in game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals......Two hits from behind 10 seconds apart.......No call on the home team, and a 5 minute major for the visiting team.....not saying it was rigged(boxing) or manipulated(NBA) but that was a terrible call.....Does not take away from the fact that the Kings deserved to win the Cup..........Zach Parise just stated that he would not play for the Rangers next year........One less team the Wild has to worry about competing with......I think he ends up back in Jersey, or with Detroit........Those two teams have a track record of making the playoffs and competing for the Stanley Cup most years.......Sadly, the Wild do not.......The boxing match on saturday night was definitely fixed.....Manny was a huge favorite, but his odds dropped dramatically in the two days before the fight, meaning all the smart money was bet on his opponent, Bradley......This was the most egregious fix of a sporting event, since the 1919 Black Sox,......Kevin Durant proved that he is the best player in the NBA with his performance last night.....In his first Finals appearance he scored 36 points; becoming the 4th youngest player to score 35+ points in a Finals game.....He scored 17 of his 36 in the fourth quarter...I hate Dwayne Wade......I never used to, but after watching him stink up the court, for the most part in these playoffs, his whining and false bravado have really soured me on him.....He never used to do that.....Wade will be the reason the Heat lose in the Finals from a Heat perspective, but Lebron will get the blame.....The fact is the Thunder are the better TEAM....The Twins should not trade Denard Span.......He is the best all-around player on the team and he is still improving......I can not famoth why they would even discuss trading Denard......Somehow the Twins are only 8.5 games out of the Division lead......Just goes to show the AL Central is always winnable........Byron Buxton has been compared favorably to Mike Trout of the Angels.....If he is half as good as Trout, the Twins will have hit a Home-run that pick, which they need.......Trout is already third in the MLB in winshares, and he has only played 38 games in the big leagues this year........Imagine the attention he would garner if he played on the East Coast......He is better than Bryce Harper, the Nationals phenom............that is not a knock on Harper who is having a great season......it is a compliment to Trout, the best rookie since Ken Griffey JR........