#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). That's more like it. This team, one with the talent to contend and even steal a World Series from the Yanks, responded to their 3-2 loss to Baltimore by ripping off five in a row, capped off with a dominating road sweep of hapless Kansas City. They have scored 53 runs during their winning streak, including 10, 19, and 11 in the sandwich three games, the first time they've scored in double digits thrice in a row since 1967.
And put me down as liking the trade for Matt Capps. Disregarding the inevitable truth that Major League Baseball is a business. The point is to win, right? Joe Nathan ain't walkin' through those doors. And Jon Rauch and his scary-ass neck tattoo wasn't getting it done. The Twinkies are locked into a huge battle in the A.L. Central with the White Sox and Detroit. What do you do? Trade for a closer, duh! And yeah, the team had to trade Wilson Ramos, who's poised to be a star player in the big leagues. It just so happens that we can't use this blue-chip stud because we already have an awesome catcher in front of him, Joe Mauer, who just might be the best player in the game right now.
Do we reject this trade because of value -- in other words, do the Twinks say no because they're giving up an almost can't-miss prospect for a guy who plays a position that many sabrematricians insist is a-dime-a-dozen? Fuck no! Why the fuck did we build these people a stadium for -- to not make moves before the deadline to prove they're pussies when it comes to competing?? I believe that sometimes you overpay in a trade to get what you want. This is one of those times, and it's perfectly acceptable. If Rauch can get back to first-half form by teaming up with Matt Guerrier as eighth-inning set-up men, then this is a good trade designed to help get this team closer to a title. (Of course, if Matt Capps is nothing like what he was with the Bastard Montreal Expos and keeps blowing saves just like Rauch did, then it's a bad trade. That's how evaluating trades works.)
This week they finish the softest part of their schedule with a three-game series versus Seattle at Republican-loving Target Field. They then go back into the shit by playing a workweek foursome at Tampa Bay.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -2). Went to see the Jynx play the L.A. Farmers Tuesday night -- what a fuckin' mistake. These guys, they can't do anything, especially shoot. Twenty-six percent from the field??? Their 13-point loss capped their season-longest homestand, a stretch where they really could have made hay, at 2-4. With their 18-point defeat at Phoenix last (Thursday) night, they have now lost five in a row, and they have now slipped below L.A. for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The only highlight this week: The Saturday night loss to the LifeLock was the highest-scoring contest in WNBA history, 127-124 in double OT. They can put that in the Wikipedia after the Jinks are folded after this season.
They do have another three-game homestand that starts Sunday against the juggernaut Seattle Bing and continues vs. Connecticut Tuesday.
#-3: Gopher men's hockey (Re-Entry!). And the talent drain continues this week. Nick Leddy decided to go pro and sign with the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, and Josh Birkholz, who was about to be suspended for drugs, quit the team and signed with some minor league outfit in Seattle. This is almost getting to be a goddamn joke.
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