Positive Numbers: Lynx (Last Week: -1). As I've harped on many times already, this sports market is waiting -- pining -- for some team to step up and be great. The Mild and the Woofs won't be good for generations. The ViQueens were supposed to be good, then the Dorian Gray painting for Brett Favre broke. And the Goofs? Not holding my breath.
Could the local Women's National Basketball Association team be our salvation? And will local fans be willing to embrace this team, and this sport, or will they continue to resist because the players are usually tall, black, ugly lesbians? I'd rather not spend my time rooting for losers to come around, so even though it's early (again, this team has often started fast, only to fade at the end), their 96-85 win over the Atlanta Dream last (Friday) night, bringing their record to 4-1, we should all be paying attention to this team.
They continue to do what they should do: Put the focus, as diverse as the attack is so far, on Forward Rebekkah Brunson. She had 18 points and, more importantly, 14 rebounds for the Jynx. That will give the starting backcourt of Lindsay Whalen (who had 16 points and eight assists) and Seimone Augustus (who led the team with 25 points) some cushion in case they get have bad shooting nights. They're still pretty thin in the depth chart back there (the reserves are the great Candice Wiggins and the second-year Monica Wright, and I don't think either runs the point exclusively), so they need the frontcourt to produce night in and night out. If that all holds up, Maya Moore will have the space to learn the WNBA game, and when she does, I'm sure she'll become the new face of this team -- and then, watch out, everybody else. But like I've said before, this should be expected; with eight first-round draft picks on this squad (five of them by the Lynx), they should've been in the playoffs two years ago.
Two games this screening week: They finish a delayed home-and-home when they visit Atlanta tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, then visit Seattle again Friday. Remember, the Lynx snapped the Storm's 18-game winning streak at home on the 9th.
#0: Twins (Last Week: -2). It might be too little, too late, but you have to give mad respect for the Twinks for what they did this past week: 5-0, including taking 3-out-of-4 from the American League West-leading Texas Rangers and a 2-0 sweep (with an unfortunate rainout, third of the season at Target Field, fourth in its history, and four more than at the Metrodome) of the Chicago White Sox. They have now won 12 of their last 14 games.
Starting pitching is the reason. A nondescript rotation that the team nonetheless pinned their hopes on before the season began is now rounding into form. Carl Pavano, Francisco Liriano, Nick Blackburn, Scott Baker, and Brian Duensing might comprise the best rotation in baseball right now -- Philadelphia Phillies included. It's as if they all finally decided to not depend on the crappy bullpen and pitch into the eighth. Well, they've cut the deficit in the A.L. Central to single digits, so it's working.
And now the cavalry is coming: Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Joe Mauer are back, and Jim Thome and Joe Nathan will be back soon (even though his arm may still not be 100%; they say that after you fully heal from Tommy John surgery, you need another year of regular pitching work to get back to where you were and find out how much you still have left). On the downside, Justin Morneau is back on the Disabled List; aftereffects from that concussion must seriously be hurting him.
They continue interleague play by finishing their series (and homestand) against the San Diego Padres, then going on the road for three games at the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants and a weekend series at the Milwaukee Brewers.
#-1: Wild (Re-Entry!). Yeo-Yeo-Yeo-Yeo-Yeo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Had to get that off my chest.
I don't get it, mostly. Todd Richards was hired as the second-ever coach of the Mild because he was young and his fresh face and ideas could be a breath of fresh air. But lack of experience was one of the reasons General Manager Chuck Fletcher canned him after only two years. The assumption, then, was that he would find the anti-Richards, someone with a ton of experience, who knew the National Hockey League conventions of changing lines, and would not seem outcoached during games. Someone like putative front-runner Craig MacTavish.
But no, Fletch decides on Friday to go with another fresh face who lacks experience, Mike Yeo. Mike Russo of the Star Tribune defends the hire (or at least looks on the bright side) in his opinion piece, and he makes an impressive case. But I still think Fletcher hired him because of his time coaching at AAA Houston. This organization is bottoming out right now, but starting at the end of next year, they're going to be able to wring out the bad contracts former GM Doug Risebrough handcuffed them to. When the youngsters come up to the Big Show, I think Fletcher wanted them to remain under the tutelage of the guy who coached them in the minors.
That makes sense -- but that's a very long-term view for a team that is listing badly. Plus, the perception that they're going to not bullshit and get the veteran coach was out there, and now that the rug was pulled out from under fans, and that the new coach has the same fallow bona fides as the previous failed one, Wild fans are going to know why the fuck did Fletch pull this bait-and-switch. And I'm one of them.
This team is still going to blow, especially on the offensive end. Russo says his one year at Houston (his only year running a hockey team of any kind) was impressive especially because he was able to maximize offensive output from a team that has no offense. Well, it's going to be the same situation here, but let's see how similar the minors are from the majors in that respect. And unfortunately, he's not going to have a lot of time. Richards only got two years. And Fletcher only has two years on his contract.
Yeo apparently was very impressive during the news conference introducing him as new Head Coach. He ingratiated himself to writers who probably didn't know him by saying all the right things. Who was the last person to do that? Oh yeah -- Tim Brewster of Gophers football. That went well.
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