A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
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It can’t get any worse.
Really, it can’t.
The Twins are 18 games below the .500 mark. Yesterday, Francisco Liriano was put on the 15-day DL for left shoulder inflammation—and he’s only one of the many crucial Twins players who are MIA.
Sitting at the bottom of the MLB, the Twins have never looked so bleak. Naturally, I keep thinking we’ve hit the bottom. It can’t get worse, right?. It might not get better, but at least I know it can’t get worse.
Oh baseball, you proved me wrong once again.
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Here again are the qualifications for each type of league, for a player to be considered worthy of a pickup on the waiver wire:
Again, these percentages are found on Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball.
Alright back to the great potential finds on the waiver wire.
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[Editor's note: This post was originally published on May 25th. Now that the sale of Thrashers is final, it's time to revisit what the new Winnipeg team should be called.]
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Now that the Atlanta Thrashers’ move to Winnipeg is all but a done deal, the time has come to start thinking of a name for Manitoba’s new NHL franchise.
Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz has said that the team will not resurrect the Jets moniker. And Thrashers, a reference to Georgia’s official state bird (the brown thrasher), would not be geographically appropriate.
What names would be suitable for the only NHL team in midwestern Canada? Here are some possibilities:
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This is from last week, but I just saw it. Terrific work by the always entertaining and information Basketball Jones.
The LeBron James Headband Timeline.
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Game 1 of the 2011 NBA Finals is only hours away my friends. This is where legends are made, champions are born, and dreams are broken.
Also be sure to check out my NBA Finals preview!
With a series destined to provide us with star power, amazing play, and two teams full of players who are dying to win a ring, I would like to toss out a little treat to whet your appetite.
Before we become engrossed in this year’s memorable Finals performances, let’s relive 10 of the all-time best individual performances from NBA Finals past
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In today’s Hot Clicks, Jimmy Traina linked out to two videos that I could not pass up posting here. They feature a couple of dads who are, shall we say, not the most smooth operators when it comes to catching foul balls.
And when there are kids involved, well, antics like these make even the nicest and most well-meaning dad look like a gigantic tool.
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There are an inordinate amount of baseball statistics that can tell you about one aspect of a player’s game.
This is especially true in hitting, where batting statistics come from a series of fragmented situations that largely have no correlation from one at-bat to the next. You could be down eight runs with no one on base in one at bat against a rookie knuckleballer and then have the bases loaded with the chance to win the game the next, facing a closer who routinely tops 100 mph.
There are so many variables that can change in one at bat, which is why I think OPS is the best statistic to measure the quality of a hitter.
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While we’re on the subject of good dudes and scholarships…
I am compelled to say something good about a football player for whom I’ve had mostly bad things to say. But I have to be fair, and give positive credit where it is due, so in this post I will quickly give some well-earned kudos to former Browns WR and current New York Jet Braylon Edwards.
Edwards recently “made good on a vow to provide college tuition to a group of 100 eighth-grade students in Cleveland in 2007.”
I don’t think it was necessary for him to preface the announcement by calling himself the “2nd most hated man in Cleveland”, but whatever. The end result is 100 kids getting an opportunity to further their education when that might not otherwise have been possible. Edwards is footing the bill so he gets the credit.
Nice job Braylon.
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Brian Wilson burst on the scene last year and became a household name for sports fans because of his beard, his wild-crazy-unique personality, and, of course, his tremendous ability on the mound for the eventual World Series champs.
Add something else to the list of descriptors for Brian Wilson, if you hadn’t already: he’s a good dude with a big heart who seems to have his priorities in order.
Case in post, the Michael Wilson Scholarship he just announced yesterday, Memorial Day, to honor his late father’s commitment to the U.S. Air Force.
Wilson announced the establishment of the Michael Wilson Scholarship to honor his late father and the elder Wilson’s commitment to the U.S. Air Force. The scholarship will be awarded annually for each of the next five years, beginning with this year, to two future airmen or airwomen preparing to be officers.
“It doesn’t have to be the smartest students. It doesn’t have to be the hardest-working,” the Giants closer said. Rather, said Wilson, the recipients should demonstrate leadership qualities and the ability to overcome obstacles, such as coming from humble beginnings.
I know that many athletes have foundations and scholarships, so Wilson isn’t breaking new ground here. But as he does most things, Wilson is taking a different approach to this, weaving in the memory of his father, the military, and kids who might not otherwise be scholarship material.
Nice job Brian. As I said, a good dude.
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If you were on Twitter yesterday, you undoubtedly saw the incessant talk and anticipation regarding George Dohrmann’s article about Jim Tressel for SI.com. It was rumored that new allegations in the article were what hastened Tressel’s resignation on Monday.
Brilliantly, SI waited until around 8:00 pm CT to release the article on SI.com. There is no telling how many additional pageviews they received from sports junkies like me, obsessed Bucknuts around the world, and other college football fans who were eagerly anticipating reading it.
For those of you who have not yet read it, here it is.
You can read and form your own judgments. All I’ll say is that whoever edited the article did a great job of ending the first two pages with strong statements:
For more than a decade, Ohioans have viewed Tressel as a pillar of rectitude, and have disregarded or made excuses for the allegations and scandal that have quietly followed him throughout his career. His integrity was one of the great myths of college football. Like a disgraced politician who preaches probity but is caught in lies, the Senator was not the person he purported to be.
The Clarett and Baker scandals were further evidence that Tressel was, at best, woefully ignorant of questionable behavior by his players and not aggressive enough in preventing it. At worst, he was a conduit for improper benefits, as Clarett alleged. The latter interpretation is suggested by a story that has long circulated among college coaches and was confirmed to SI by a former colleague of Tressel’s from Earle Bruce’s staff at Ohio State in the mid-1980s. One of Tressel’s duties then was to organize and run the Buckeyes’ summer camp. Most of the young players who attended it would never play college football, but a few were top prospects whom Ohio State was recruiting. At the end of camp, attendees bought tickets to a raffle with prizes such as cleats and a jersey. According to his fellow assistant, Tressel rigged the raffle so that the elite prospects won — a potential violation of NCAA rules. Says the former colleague, who asked not to be identified because he still has ties to the Ohio State community, “In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That’s Jim Tressel.”
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Last weekend saw the first installment of interleague play this year with a few teams faring better than others. Everything is back to normal, at least for now…except for Buster Posey’s foot causing you to scramble for a replacement.
This week offers some new questions. Will an old flame spark again? Is everything going to be ok in St. Louis? What should you do now that Adam LaRoche is going to be out indefinitely and other injuries are starting to pile up?
Well worry not because we are going to take care of all that with this week’s hitting planner.
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Whose stock is rising and whose is falling? Here is a list of players going in opposite directions as May rolls into June. Among the names discussed: Asdrubal Cabrera, Eric Young Jr., and Chone Figgins.
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Throughout the 1990s, there were many uber-talented baseball teams that fell short of the greatness and immortality that comes with winning one or multiple World Series titles.
The best example of this was the Atlanta Braves. The Braves of the ’90s featured a stacked starting pitching staff and a consistent offense that won them eight out of nine NL Division crowns and 100 games four times during the decade. Unfortunately, the Braves struggled during the Fall Classic, where they only won one out five World Series, with the only victory coming at the expense of my beloved Cleveland Indians.
Other teams that never could put it all together and win a title during the 90s were the Cleveland Indians, the Texas Rangers (who constantly got spanked by the Yankees in the postseason), and a Houston Astros franchise that had a few pretty good years during the latter part of the 90s.
Another franchise that had the young talent to become a playoff contender, and a possibly even a dynasty, during the 90s was the Montreal Expos.
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Nothing like dropping earth-shattering sports news on a holiday.
Just saw this tweet from friend of MSF Glenn Moore of The Dugout Sports Show:
According to Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel has resigned.
The same sentiment is echoed here by 10TV.com.
Memorial Day message to the men and women who keep us safe: THANK YOU
It is not even 9:00 yet on Memorial Day morning and already there is epic breaking news in the sports world. But the resignation of the lying leader of a bloated college football machine should not obscure the meaning of today, and it won’t for proud Americans across this great land.
As MSF’s own Ari Kaufman emailed to me today:
I could not have said it better myself.
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