Santana Strikeout Leader

I have devised a very complicated, very involved formula for predicting strikeouts. Using this method, Johan "Sit Down, Bitch!" Santana will lead the AL in strikeouts, becoming the first Twin to do so since Camilo Pascual did in 1961, '62, and '63. This isn't really that complicated, but here it goes. You take the AGS for each pitcher by averaging is starts for the past 3 seasons. Then take (IP/GS)*AGS to find AIP. Then take (K/9*AIP)/9 to find AK. This is a pretty bastardized version, but it works pretty well. And I'm sure I'm not the first to try this, but I've never seen it before, so it's new to me.

Player	GS	AGS*	IP	K	AIP	K/9	AK
Santana	22	30	144.2	161	197.1	10.01	219.5
Schilling	21	31 1/3	145.2	130	217.1	8.03	193.9
Martinez	21	25 1/2	136.2	132	167	8.69	161.33
Garcia	21	33 2/3	148.2	123	238.2	7.44	197.1
Pineiro	21	23 2/3	140.2	111	158.5	7.1	125

*AGS found for Santana by 162 (number of games) divided by 5 (number of starters) minus a few for rest days. This is due to the fact he was out of the bullpen until this year. The abbreviations are pretty self-explainitory. And anything with an "A" means "Anticipated. Some notes about my predictions. First, it accounts for Pedro's late season arm troubles. Second, it's just a S.W.A.G. mostly, so dont read too much into it.
Related Links:

Give Johan A Nickname - See the humble origins of "Sit Down, Bitch!". Check out Bat-girl.com anyway for Twins insights.

Yahoo! Sports - See current K leaders.

Closing Shot: If I am +/- 4 K on any of these, I'll have a heartattack. Anyone else wanna give me my odds?

A Great Idea

For what ever reason, I really don't ask anymore, this great idea popped into my head. If Iowa wants to retain high schoolers when they go to college or college kids after they graduate and get jobs, they need to lower the gambling age to 18. This will do several things:

• First, increased revenue. Everyone here heads up to Minnesota on or about their 18th birthday. 18-21 year olds have little or no expenses, so they have cash to burn. That is three years worth of gambling money the Minnesotans are raking in from Iowa kids.
• Second, more kids would want to stay in Iowa. By the time people are 21 and can gamble, they've already been other places to gamble and decided they wanted to stay there. People say that there is nothing to do in Des Moines, but they wouldn't say that if they could get into Prairie Meadows at 18.
• And lastly, I wouldn't have to spend a day at Adventureland. Good thing Lisa (you might remember her from this post) is going to be miserable with me and we are going to Puderbaugh's afterwards.

Deloris Mertz, I'm talking to you.

Closing Shot: Wouldn't Mertz be a good name for a racehorse?

Twins Thoughts

Just some random thoughts I've had about the Twins lately.

Lew Ford is my favorite Twin. If anyone knows where I can get a jersey, lemme know. Anyone live near a proshop (Apple Valley anyone?) that can check and see if they have one?

The Twins play the Yankees during the week where I've already quit my job and school starts up again. Road trip!

The Twins should try to pull off a deal for a Todd Walker type, someone who plays solid defense and has pop in the bat. In short, the Anti-Rivas. You know, Walker is stuck behing Grudzielanek in Chicago, just dangle Restovich in front of them.

My brother has friends that are twins that are Michael and Ryan. Michael Ryan is a Twin. It has to be a conspiracy.

If Dougie's mom and Morneau's dad got together with some champaigne and Barry White, in 20 years the Twins would have the best 1B in a long time. Unless he came out with Doug's bat and Morneau's glove, then we'd just be going backwards. Better yet, while Mama Meintkiewicz and Papa Morneau are getting freaky, let Daddy Meintkiewicz and Mommy Morneau get it on, there by doubling our chances.

TGIJ - Thank God for Joe (Nathan, that is). Not only is he easier on the heart than Guardado (see Chris' comment), he proves that us tall, lanky fella's are useful.

Closing Shot: Doesn't Lew just look like a goofy sonofabitch?

Random Thought

I was on my break today, and I picked a blade of grass. This made me think: If you pick a blade of grass, is it a quick death like getting your head removed, or does the life slowly leave like getting shot in the stomach? If any of you Bio majors out there know, fill me.

Closing Shot: Everyone should go watch this. It's really funny and has a good message, that message being that people have too much time on their hands. No, seriously, "from the liberal weiners to the right wing nut jobs" we should all get along. I mean, come on. What a great audience! Ok, I'm stopping now.

Things That Annoy the Hell out of me v1.0

I consider myself a fairly tolerant person. However, there are some things that I just cannot stand. Everyone has these things that just rub them the wrong way.  Today I got another dose of one of my biggest annoyances - people that have no sense of direction. Today, a person who works next to me was saying, rather loudly (another one of those things), that she had to "go up to Spencer" to see the dentist. This seems to be a fairly innocuous statement, except for the fact Spencer is almost due West from my house. Since almost the entire world, except some kooky Aussies, defines North as up, that makes a trip to Spencer "going over", not "going up". I once had a friend of me say that he was "going up" to see his cousin. Fine, except TEXAS is not up from IOWA! Texas is most definitely down from here.  Don't they teach geography anymore? Look for v2.0 next time someone does something like this, like talk way too loud.

SHINJO SIGHTING!

Today, while browsing MSN, I stumbled across a most excellent discovery. I found the latest picture of Tsuyoshi Shinjo, formerly of the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets and currently of the Nippon Ham Fighters. I swear I am not making that up. He is the starting centerfielder for the Ham Fighters. The translator on Altavista doesn't do Japanese well. That and I'm at work without the Japanese character pack installed. Regardless, armed with this new information I am going to research Shinjo's home runs (he has 13) and see if any were on the same day as Lew, Wily Mo, Pokey, or Rocco. Perhaps the three-fer is there.
Shinjo Links:

MSN Picture - The picture that started it all. Go to #13 in the gallery.

Nippon Ham Fighters - offical site.

Closing Shot: Is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure on of the greatest movies ever, or is it just me?

Ken Jennings, my hero

In case you've been living under a rock, Ken Jennings is currently a 38-day Jeopardy! champion, having won $1,321,660. For this, he is my hero. Previously, winners were done after 5 days on the show, no matter what. Now that the producers have changed that rule, he is just destroying people. The other day, he answered the first 11 questions correctly before anyone else go to answer a single one. Yesterday, he finished with $75,000. I would have to work 10,000 hours to make that. That's 1 year, 51 days, and 16 hours straight. That's insane. All my life, I've dreamed of being on Jeopardy!. Hell, even my first word was Jeopardy!. True story: I'm like 8 months old or so, and I watch Jeopardy! every night with my parents. Granted, I have no freaking clue what is going on, but I watch anyway. So one day there is a commercial with Alex Trebek's picture on the screen and the Jeopardy! music in the background.  I yell "Jeopardy!", and my parents are confused as hell. And then I didn't say another word for 6 months. I remember getting "Final Jeopardy" right in kindergarden. I've waited to be on the show my whole life.  I tried out for Jeopardy! in Chicago about a month ago, and I made the list to be called. And finally, Ken comes along and makes Jeopardy! cool. Everyone is talking about Ken Jennings and how much he's won. He is the greatest thing to happen to geeks since the advent of the Internet. Ken Jennings, I salute you.

Ken Jennings Links:

Jeopardy! - Get your daily Ken Update
The Summer of the Jeopardy Guy - A Bill Simmon's article from ESPN.com. Jeopardy! on ESPN, sweet.
Yahoo! TV - A least one article a day about Ken.

Closing Shot: This has nothing to do with Jeopardy!, but as I laid on the couch watching TV last night, I could feel my heartbeat in my feet. Is that weird?

Best Names Ever Update

Last night both Lew Ford and Wily Mo Pena hit home runs.  This marks the first time I've noticed 2 players from the Best Names Ever List to hit home runs on the same day.  The research is going to be hard on this one to see if its ever happened before.  I'm only going to do Major League home runs.  Minor League research is really hard.  Cool Papa Bell is dead.  Mookie Wilson hasn't played in years.  Shinjo went back to Japan.  And Razor has 0 career major league home runs.  Stubby Clapp hasn't made the majors yet.  I'll see what I can rustle up.

Update:

This has happened before.  I've found 6 times since Opening Day 2004.

July 21 - Wily Mo Pena and Lew Ford

July 17 - Wily Mo Pena and Lew Ford

July 11 - Wily Mo Pena and Lew Ford

June 10 - Pokey Reese and Rocco Baldelli

June 6 - Lew Ford and Rocco Baldelli

May 30 - Wily Mo Pena and Lew Ford

 

Keep your eyes posted for any additional occurances.  I'm hoping for a three-fer.  I'm going to work on previous years later when I get a chance.  If anyone wants to give it a whack, go for it, I'm all ears.

My first comment

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I am pleased to announce a first for this blog - a response by another human being to something I wrote. I'm not counting Lisa's profanity laced tirade. I goaded her into it, and it was more out of spite and wanting to contribute to the discourse this site tries to promote. No, the lucky person was none other than Paul Katcher, of PaulKatcher.com. You might have noticed a link to his site on the left side of your screen. His was one of the first blogs I began to read, back before it was a blog even. I first started reading his site in early 2001. I first contributed to his site under my real name on this day. The popcorn fork is all mine. I've got the email to prove it too. Along the years I've posted as Andrew, McGuire, and The 7th Angel. I've reverted to my online gaming name lately because I recently re-discovered the joy of online gaming. That's why this is the7thangel.blogspot.com in case anyone cared. In any amount, thank you Paul for validating this blog's existence. Don't forget to check out his site.

The ESPY's: Foxx, Gagne, and Diana Taurasi

Did anyone else see the ESPY's last night? I didn't see all of it, but what I saw was a pretty good show. South Park was counting down their most outrageous shows and I Love the 90's was on again for like the 12 straight day, so I watched it again. Jamie Foxx was funny, but not hilarious. What I saw, I liked his little sound machine skit. Boom...Game Bitch! That was really funny. For the most part, there were no surprises. Most people (read: not me) voted for their favorite players or events, so there really wasn't much that wasn't expected. I voted for who I thought deserved it. I would have much rather voted for Freddy Adu for Breakthrough Athlete, but I voted for LeBron because he has done more to "break out" than Freddy. The only award I didn't approve of was Eric Gagne for Best Record Breaking Performance. It is impressive, and he did destroy the old record, but the guy only pitches 3 outs a night. The NL West is not exactly a power-laden division either. A lot of those saves came against the Padres and Rockies. I would have rather have Michael Phelps' 5 World Records in one meet win. Swimming is an exhausting sport. You use muscles you didn't know existed. The man was dominate enough to set records in 5 different events, a feat never even considered until it happened.

Also, who else thought Diana Taurasi looked hot in her outfit? I always thought she was kinda cute, but last night she looked great. She also looked really good when she was at the NBA Lottery Night representing the Phoenix Suns. She kinda reminds me of this girl I went to high school with. She always wore a tshirt and gym shorts and looked like a basketball player, which she was. And then during homecoming coronation, she wore a dress and her hair down, and everyone was stunned. She looked amazing, and no one knew she did until then. It is kinda the same, how Diana doesn't look that great until she gets out of the jersey.

Closing Shot: Did you know that LeBron is French for "The Bron"?

A most grievous error

I cannot believe that I left my all-time favorite player off the "Best Baseball Names List". That's right, my favorite player and I forgot. Here he is, the starting first baseman for your Indianapolis Indians...Raaaaazoooor Shines! Yep, Razor Shines. That guy was awesome. You can check out his BaseballReference.com page, but you'll be less than impressed. He was a career AAA player. I remember going to Indians games as a child and thinking I was in the presence of a god. Razor was the Indians in the Late 80's/Early 90's (see what he did here). He led them to greatness. FOUR straight AAA titles. Look and see who his teammates at some point in Indy: Andres Galarraga, Randy Johnson, Andre Dawson, Marquis Grissom, Tim Raines, Larry Walker. When they came to Indy, they didn't blend with the town. It was just a minor delay until Montreal. Razor knew he was not destined for the Majors, and he came to embrace the city of Indianapolis, just as the city embraced him. He was the Derek Jeter of the Indians, so identifiable with his team. When you think of the Yankees, you think of Jeter. When you thought of the Indians, you thought of Razor. I remember at the old Bush Stadium after Razor retired, they put his portrait up with all the other all time Indians greats: Ken Griffey, Sr., Harmon Killebrew, Nap LaJoie, Al Lopez. And right there, standing majestically with his bat rest upon his shoulders was my hero, Razor Shines, taking his rightful place among the greats of the Indians.

All-Star Sham

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, sporting identical 42-45 records for a total 84-90 (6 under .500) combined 6 players. That's a player every 14 wins. Meanwhile the division leaders White Sox at 46-38 and the Twins at 47-40 (It's only 1/2 game, they'll pull through) for a combined 84-78 had a total of 2 players, meaning they had a player at the game for every, oh say, 42 wins. How division leaders with above .500 records while sub-.500 teams can send 6 combined is beyond me. Maybe, like my Dad said, its the way the Twins play team baseball that prevents the emergence of big names on the national stage. It's really sad that teams that function as a unit would recieve less attention than the few bright spots on a below average team. While I'm on it, how did Jake Westbrook receive the nod over Johan Santana as Curt Shilling's replacement. The numbers are comperable:
Santana- 7-6, 123.2 IP, 3.78 ERA, 136 K.
Westbrook- 6-4, 106.2 IP, 3.21 ERA, 56 K.
Santana leads in wins, but not winning percentage. Westbrook leads in ERA, but Santana leads in IP and K, the latter by a ratio of about 2.5:1. Statistically, it is a tossup, but I think that Santana has emerged as the Twins leader as a pitcher (with my respects to Radke), beginning to get double digit strikeouts and eating innings every outing.

Closing Shot:
Other Teams that Got Hosed

Oakland - 47-39, 2 GB 1 All-Star: Mark Mulder

Atlanta - 45-42, 1 GB 1 All-Star: Johnny Estrada

Other Teams that Got Too Much

New York - 55-31, 7 Games up 8 All-Stars: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Gary Sheffield, Mariano Rivera, Tom Gordon, and Javier Vasquez. 8! That's too many for any team.

Best Baseball Names

This is just a list of my favorite names in baseball.  No obvious nicknames.  Anyone can have a nickname.  Some of them are nicknames, but they are so often called by them that no one knows their real name.  Ducky Joe Medwick doesn't make it because his real name is right there.  But Ducky is a great nickname.  Mookie, on the other hand, I had to look up his real name (William Hayward Wilson, if you cared)

• Pokey Reese - I saw him play in AAA in Indianapolis before he came up with the Reds, and I thought his name was the coolest.  I've followed his career ever since.  I'm glad Boston has taken a shining to him.
• Wily Mo Pena - Pronouced "Willie", he is a Reds backup outfielder.  He's been going to get some more playing time now that Griffey is down again.
• Stubby Clapp - Second base for the Syracuse SkyChiefs, Toronto's AAA team.  I was in Indy a couple weeks ago, and they played Syracuse.  Man, the bachelor party sitting in front of us would not let up on him.
• Lew Ford - Or any other name where you can yell his name and sound like you are booing him.  It confuses the out-of-towners.  That means you Rich.
• Mookie Wilson - Mookie. Ha.
• Rocco Baldelli - "Paulie, won't see him no more"
• Tsuyoshi Shinjo - Mets/Giants player from Japan who is now back in Japan.  Shinjo sounds like something a ninja would use on you.
• Cool Papa Bell - He was so fast, he slid into second and his line drive hit him in the back.  And a name like Cool Papa is just plain cool.

Post your favorite names.  If anyone actually reads this.

The Affleck Theory

Does anyone else remember when Ben Affleck was cool and made good movies? Many will point to J.Lo. as the beginning of the end. I think this back goes farther back than that debacle. Checking his IMDb.com page, he hasn't made a cool movie since Good Will Hunting in 1997 or maybe if you want, you can stretch it to Dogma in 1999. By this time, Ben was becoming more and more popular, and it got to him. He started wearing Armani instead of flannel. He started dating starlets and divas. Now he's shilling crap like Pearl Harbor, Gigli, and Jersey Girl. And what the hell was Paycheck. I think its time to bring back the Ben Affleck we used to know, flannel, scruffy stubble Ben, instead of this prissy girly-man.

Other Victims of the Affleck Theory

• The MINI-These were so much cooler before they became popular. Once The Italian Job came out, everone wanted one. I've wanted one for years. Now I look like a mindless lemming when its the lemmings who are following me. MINIUsa.com


• Poker-Remeber when ESPN didn't show 8 hours of poker a day? Now everyone and their dog thinks they are World Series of Poker material. I have to admit I watched some of the new season last night, though. My brother (age 12) was yelling at the tv about when to fold or raise. This from the kid who is still not sure if a straight or flush wins. World Poker Tour


• Spinners-You know, those rims that spin. Those were pretty cool when rappers and sports stars had them. It let you know someone important was in the car. Now, you can buy some at K-Mart. I swear I saw some on a Geo Metro.

Feel free to comment about your additions to the list.

Am I Bad Luck?

Last night, I walked into the kitchen and ask my dad how the Twins were doing? He said he didn't know and we should turn on the tv. They were up 5-0 against Arizona in the 4th. Next thing I know, it's 5-3, then 5-5. All the sudden, in the span of a half an inning, the Twins went from a comfortable lead, to fighting to win. It was a good thing they won too, because the White Sox lost to the Cubs, so the Twins gained a game back and are now only down by 1 game. It would have been a shame to waste such a good opportunity. This isn't the only time this happens. It's already happened several times this season. Also, I was so excited about the Pacers having the best record in the league, that I watched every playoff game. Boston went smoothly, but that's just because they suck. Good job Danny Ainge. (Also, one game was on Relays Weekend. Anyone that goes to Drake knows what that means. I was passed out on the couch from partying since Noon, so I technically didn't watch it. I woke up during the post game. And then went back to the bars.) Then the Heat gave them problems, but they still won. I wanted the Pacers to make it to the Finals, but every game I watched or listened to on the radio against the Pistons, they lost. I'm bad luck, I'm sure of it.

Derek Jeter

I am a big baseball fan, first and foremost. If I had the talent to progress past freshman ball in HS, I would have. Being a baseball fan that doesn't root for the Yankees (Go Twins!), I hate the Yankees. However, the baseball fan in me appreciates and applauds Jeter's effort last night, sprinting into the stands to catch a ball in extra innings. Yankee Stadium is not exactly the Oakland Coliseum (I refuse to call any stadium by its corporate name. Network Associates be damned!), and Jeter didn't slow down a bit. What's more is he held on to the freakin' ball! The guy landed like 5 rows up on his face. He came out of the stands bloodied and brusied, but he helped his team win. You have to give it up for a guy like that.

New site

I've decided in an attempt to draw more readers, I'm actually gonna start writing again. However, I've also decided a more high profile site would help. You can still see the old blog at www.angelfire.com/ia2/mcguire/pages/blog.htm