Links of the Day for 8/21/06

Powered by Intern Sam

People. Why are we booing A.J.? Honestly, it’s just childish, and it makes it seem like we’re one of those towns where the majority of the baseball fans have no earthly idea how the game works, and have merely wandered into the ballpark because they heard there was beer inside. (Helloooooo, Philadelphia!)

Intern Sam was all for booing Chuck Knoblauch, and we could even see giving it to Kyle Lohse a bit if and when he ever darkens the Dome’s revolving door again, but Pierzynski? Really? We loved this guy, you know we did, and when he was traded (that’s traded, as in “left the team due to circumstances completely out of his control,”) he was a class act, refusing to badmouth the club that had just sent him to an NL team with an average age of 74.

So what’s to dislike? The fact that he continues to play hard, even when the opposition is his former team? Just zip it, folks. (And while we’re on the subject, could we also stop booing every time the opposing pitcher throws over to first? They’re supposed to do that.)

• You know things are going well in August when Ozzie Guillen goes out of his way to give your team’s role players a cool nickname in between ripping every other contending team in the league.

• Speaking of Guillen, the Chicago press have clearly turned baiting him into an intramural sport, and the Sun-Times appears to be running away with the division title.

• Oh, and when Ozzie’s done running his mouth, the Thought Police would like a word with him…

• As everyone knows, Dennys Reyes has been one of the great bullpen surprises of the ’06 season, going 6-0 with a 0.99 ERA in his role as the team’s designated LOOGY (that’s a Lefty One-Out GuY, for those readers not as dorky as Intern Sam.) Reyes is also a free agent at season’s end, and while the team has approached his agent about an extension, the PiPress says that negotiations have stalled. It’s not the most crucial personnel issue facing the Twins, of course, but given how dominant the bullpen has been, it’s worth keeping an eye on.

• Joe Mauer’s run for the batting title has been a national story for months now. But Murray Chass points out that Mauer’s impressive year may be merely the most obvious sign of the rise of a new generation of catchers who can really hit. Will it last? No one knows. But for this year, the catcher is king.

• It’s official: we’re all Yankee fans now. A few more days of this, and the AL Wild Card becomes a two-team race, and that oughta suit Twins fans just fine.

• In blogger navel-gazing news, the newly slimmed-down Aaron Gleeman has apparently landed an awesome job. (Like, with actual paychecks and everything!) He just won’t tell us what it is yet. Congrats, Aaron!

• According to LaVelle Neal, the Twins’ 2006 draft class is turning a lot of heads down in Fort Meyers and Elizabethton. These guys are all still years away from becoming true prospects, of course, but it’s never bad to hear that things are going well down on the farm.

• As if this weekend hadn't gone well enough already, the Twins' team doctor has cleared Francisco Liriano to begin throwing a baseball again. Mid-September seems like a realistic timetable for his return to the rotation, assuming no further setbacks.

• That’s it for today, y’all, and for Intern Sam, that’s it for the month. [Shameless self-promotion ahead. Proceed with caution…] Believe it or not, someone is actually paying your Monday morning GameDay regular to go tripping around Europe for the next two weeks. Not only that, thousands of people will (hopefully) be applauding him while he does it.
  
  And if your interest in supporting overachieving local teams extends beyond sports, you can even tune in to your local Minnesota Public Radio classical music station (KSJN 99.5fm in the Cities) this Thursday at 1:30pm to hear the results, live from London. Intern Sam promises to be more entertaining than the Jim Rome rant you were planning to listen to at that hour (not that this is setting the bar very high, of course.) Enjoy the baseball and the State Fair, kids, and keep the Monday seat warm for us…

• Oh, one more thing: since we’re blowing town tonight, we won’t be around to defend ourselves when the Phillie fans (led by the TwinsGeek’s very own Voice of Reason) jump all over us in the comments for that crack in the first paragraph. So before the onslaught begins, let Intern Sam just remind everyone that he grew up in Pennsylvania, he’s a lifelong Phillies fan, he worships Harry Kalas and Darren Daulton as gods, and none of that changes the fact that Phillies fans generally suck. (All six of them.)

[editor's note - It's a good thing you're getting out of the country, Sam. TVOR will be waiting
when you get back. Don't forget what happened to poor Mitch Williams' dog....]

[editor's wife's note - Sam, you sounded like a rational person and were making valid points, (though points open to healthy, intelligent debate) until you said you worship Darren Daulton as a god. You are aware, of course, that Darren Daulton now thinks he is a god, so I suppose your worship is appropriate, at least to Dutch. 'Nuff said.]