The Weekly Minnesota Sports Survey

#-1: Wild (Last Week: -1).  Attending the NHL Draft being held at the X in St. Paul.  (Both days; in fact, I'm blogging this from the second day of the draft -- upper level, just about the other side from the stage.)  About as boring as I feared.  It's strictly a made-for-TV event, so if you're here in-person, the announcements of the draft picks (alongwith the players standing up from the seats and being hugged by their families -- that's a sweet moment) is punctuated with promotional videos of the team on the clock, interviews with the just-drafted players, and a lot of waiting.

And yet I'd recommend anyone go, if possible.  I think the NFL and even NBA drafts would be more entertaining, because there are more fans, but to see the business of franchises rebuilding their teams for the future is a wonk's wet dream.  Plus, you get to witness some important moments -- Aaron Boogaard's brother remembering the late Boogeyman by announcing the Rangers' first-round draft pick (to a standing ovation), or the first official announcement that the new stolen team from Atlanta will indeed be named the Winnipeg Jets.

For me, and for the Wild, the big news was the blockbuster (at least in hockey terms) of the first trade that went down Friday: Minnesota traded Defenseman and All-Star Brent Burns (and a second-round pick in next year's draft) to San Jose for the Sharks' first-round pick in this draft, current college forward Charlie Coyle, and current forward Devin Setoguchi.  Setoguchi was just signed to a three-year, nine-million dollar contract yesterday.

Some people are pissed off that they traded away Burns, a fan favorite.  He seems like a nice guy, but I'm not as high on him as others, and I think his All-Star nod last year was a gift.  He's injured too much of the time, and he gets out of position too much for my liking.  Consistency's a problem with the guy who's supposed to make an impact next year, Setoguchi.  But he and Coyle are the scoring punch the Mild need.

There were other critics before the trade that bashed General Manager Chuck Fletcher for not adding offense to the organization.  I ran through 19 mock drafts and they came up with eight different guys -- none of them the man the team draft tenth overall, a Swedish defenseman named Jonas Brodin.  Last year he had four assists ... and scored no goals.  Our D is overrated, but can we get some scoring?

But look at their second first-rounder: a guy who scored 38 goals last year.  Zack Phillips is a Center from a Quebec Majors team, Saint John, that won its league championship and had three of its guys in the Central Scouting Domestic Skater Top 30.  This is considerd to be a weak draft, but nevertheless, Phillips is 15th, so if you just go by these rankings, the Wild got a steal with the 28th pick.  (In fact, one guy did think the Wild would select Phillips with the 10th pick: Adrian Dater of SI.com.)  There's no way to know why whether these guys will pan out, but with what they know they need now, and what these prospects bring to the table at this time, this is a very good draft.  Grade: A-.

#-2: Timberwolves (Re-Entry!).  The Woofs didn't fuck it up!  The Woofs didn't fuck it up!!  They had the second pick in a two-man draft (OK, I thought it was one-man, but I let my emotions get the better of me) and they choose the other guy -- Derrick Williams, the Arizona forward who blew up and single-handedly destroyed Duke in the tournament this year.  My friend thinks he's going to have the career arc of Corliss Williamson, Glen Davis, or even Tyrus Thomas.  I hope not, but all my instincts and all the advanced metrics say Williams is going to be a beast.  And with the athleticism he displays in his highlights, he could be this year's Blake Griffin.

KFAN's Dan Barreiro is getting hung up by the fact that the Timberwolves used their second first-rounder, #20 overall, to trade down and down and down through the second round.  They accumulated a lot of cash -- all of which will be used to fire Head Coach Kurt Rambis, who, even though he sucks as a coach, has been cruelly frozen out of recent team dealings (a weasel move, David Kahn) -- a future first-round pick, and Malcolm Lee, a Guard from UCLA some progs like as a defender.  They actually selected three international big men and subsequently traded them for picks later in Thursday's draft.  I'm not too worried about it because 1) this team has so many holes they don't know where to start, 2) this draft, like the NHL one, is lame, so maybe that future first-rounder, albeit lottery-protected, will be in a draft a lot stronger than this one, and 3) I think international big men are overrated.  The Wolves have a long way to go compared to the Wild, but they had a good draft, too.  Grade: B.

#-3: Lynx (Last Week: Positive Numbers).  A 1-1 week, with their five-game winning streak snapped at Seattle.  Not a bad loss, but right now all but Tulsa are .500 or better in the Western Conference.  This might be a sign of things to come.  For example, the Storm held Rebekkah Brunson to only seven rebounds and two points, denying her of a WNBA record seventh double-double to begin a regular season.  Come on, Jynx, we need a winner here!  Two games this week: home to Indiana Sunday, at Tulsa Thursday.

#-4: Twins (Last Week: 0).  Their hot streak is no more.  A 3-3 week that started with finishing a sweep of San Diego ends with a three-game losing streak.  The good thing is that haven't lost badly; they dropped the last two games against San Francisco and their incomparable pitching (Tim Lincecum struck out a dozen Twinks in their win 2-1 loss Thursday afternoon), and they weren't blown out in any of their defeats.  But with the hole they dug themselves in April and May, any single loss could be fatal.  This week: finishing at Milwaukee, then a trio at home against Los Angeles (I hope to catch a game, maybe Tuesday's) before starting the home-and-home against the Brewers at Target Friday.

(One other thing: This game marks the first-ever time that Joe Mauer, our hometown hero, has been showed up publicly by a teammate.  After last [Friday] night's loss to Milwaukee, Jose Mijares called out Joltin' Joe for demanding all fastballs in his at-bat against Prince Fielder.  In a situation like that, a lefty pitcher throwing to a righty batter, I guess the call is to throw sliders.  The sixth and final fastball was sent into right field by Fielder, bringing home the tying and game-winning runs.

It looks like both ends of the battery are to blame.  Catchers are supposed to know you don't pump fastballs on a guy as powerful as Fielder.  And as you can see in Joe Christensen's write-up about this controversy, Manager Ron Gardenhire seemed to have expected sliders as well.  On the other hand, Mauer said that Mijares's slider was sucking the last time he pitched.  Moreover, as you can see in this Twitpic, Mijares threw that heater down the pipe when Mauer set up outside.  So, it looks like the pitcher badly threw a pitch the catcher shouldn't have called.

Remember that both players are struggling.  However, of Jose Mijares or Joe Mauer, take a guess as to who takes the fall.  Could he even be traded or cut?)