First off, Happy Easter, everyone.
#0: Gopher softball (Last Week: -1). I'm kind of running out of new angles to cover this team. That's not on them; I still don't know college softball all that much. What I do know is that this Gophers program, which re-ascended to its program-best #6 ranking this week, endured through three rain delays during Friday's storm to beat Northwestern at Cowles, 6-2, then came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Wildcats Saturday, 3-2. Oh, and as of press time they are leading the Big Ten. OK, for those reasons I'm going to toss them a non-negative bone as the top team of the screening week.
After finishing up with the series-ender this (Sunday) afternoon, they will travel to Wisconsin to play in something I have never seen before, a midweek in-conference doubleheader. Guess they have to cram in those games when they can. They will then come home to host Iowa for a three-game set starting on Friday.
Hey, I just noticed something: As of press time, Michigan is tied for second place in the standings, and Ohio St. is fourth. The Golden Gophers don't play either good squad this season. Come to think of it, the series with the Hawkeyes may be the most competitive games the U. will have the rest of the year. Huh.
#-1: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -2). Hey, guess which other Gopher club is leading the B1G?! The Gopher baseball nine is, as of press time, atop of the table ... and by 1 1/2 games ... and this despite dropping their first conference contest yesterday (Saturday), a 13-12 shootout loss in Indiana. This a day after clubbing the Hoosiers 11-0. Add a 6-1 win at North Dakota St., and it's fair to say that hitting isn't a problem with the U. right now.
I'm looking at the rest of the team's schedule, and it's the damnedest thing, but just like with the softball squad, these guys are going to be able to duck what, at least for now, are the best contenders in the league. The three teams closest to the Gophers are Maryland, Michigan and Iowa. Minnesota will not play any of those teams this year. Huh? Just like with softball, baseball teams in the B1G apparently play only eight conference opponents. With the bloat of expansion, there are, technically, 13 other league opponents. Does it really make sense to not play so many fellow conference squads every year? Maybe anticipating the relative weakness in the conference slate, Manager John Anderson scheduled five games (at home) against two teams out-of-conference in order to bolster his club's resume for the NCAA Tournament. Two of those games are against Georgia St. The other three are against Long Beach St., which, as of the Baseball America poll for April 10, is ranked 12th in the nation. That series might feature the best foe the Gophers will play this season.
The U. has a four-game homestand over the next eight days -- well, after the rubber match today against Indiana. They host South Dakota St. Tuesday then Nebraska for three starting on Friday.
#-2: Twins (Last Week: -3). A 3-3 screening week in the middle of a part of the schedule that begins, and I didn't see this until just now when I was checking the schedule online, with the Twins playing exclusively American League Central Division squads. And as of right now, they are tied with the Detroit Tigers (which beat them two-of-three midweek) for the lead in the division. In fact, when you look at the majors as a whole, only Baltimore has fewer losses than Minnesota's four, and only Houston, Cincinnati and Colorado have more wins than Minnesota's seven. Whodathunk Minnesota would be a top ten team in the league two weeks into the season?
The lineup has produced well enough, even though the glaring worrisome spot remains with Byron Buxton. Near the top of the lineup Opening Day, he was dropped to the bottom fairly soon thereafter, and then dropped to the bench fairly soon thereafter that. The guy is a mainstay in Centerfield, but he still can't hit worth shit ... and yet his On-Base Percentage remains pretty high. So he can draw Walks but not generate hits with his bat? What do you do in the case? And with Buxton five years removed from being The Top Prospect In Major League Baseball, isn't he now who soon of us think he will ever be -- potentially a guy who till be in the bottom third of any ideal lineup?
Meanwhile, the pitching has, so far, been spectacular after being the main factor into the squad's downward spiral to The Worst Record In Twins History. Phil Hughes has been great, but it's Ervin Santana, at least this staff's ace, who has carried this team on his back. Santana threw a Complete Game, One-Hit Shutout in yesterday's (Saturday's) 6-0 win over the Chicago White Sox on Jackie Robinson Day. He has won his first three starts and has a 0.41 Earned Run Average. It's the first time Santana has won his first three starts to start a season. He's the first Twins Pitcher to go the distance in a CGSO since Scott Baker did it against Kansas City August 31, 2007. There shouldn't be that much of a gap. And it's only the 17th one-hit game in Twins history. There should be more. Anyway, Santana, who projects to be the third-, maybe second-, best Pitcher on a World Series team, is by far the ace so far this year for this team.
They spend the next eight days at Target Field. That coincides with the end of the run of A.L. Central teams they play to start their schedule: The rubber game vs. the Pale Hose, then four with Cleveland and then a three-game series vs. Detroit starting on Friday. At home. Just like the U. softball and baseball teams. A lot of rounders-based sports by the local teams starting series in the Twin Cities on Friday.
#-3: United FC (Last Week: -4). Copy note: I used to refer to these guys on the WMNSS just as "United." But then I realized that technically this team's name is "Minnesota United FC," so from now on they're going to be "United FC" when I list the side here.
I was at the North Star Roller Girls championship bout last (Saturday) night -- congratulations, Kilmore Girls -- so I was only able to follow the match at Houston through Twitter. So, a giveaway Goal and two substitutions due to injury, all before the second half? And they gave up an opening Goal within the opening third of the First Half? An absurd combination of bad luck, the Dynamo's 12 shots in the First Half and horrid play (specifically when it came to being ready when the fucking ball was being thrown into play) resulted in a 2-0 Halftime lead for the Dynamo, which portended a backslide for a side that seemed to have improved to just expansion team bad the past couple games.
And yet, with tallies by Christian Ramirez and Johan Venegas, and bend-but-not-break D, the Loons came back to tie Houston and take a point home with them. And from what FiftyFiveOne was saying, due to scoring chances by Ramirez, MNUFC could have won by four Goals and they could have lost by four Goals. It sounded like a cray-cray match. But hey, it's the Loons that were the first squad to take points from Houston in Houston this year.
They are off until next Sunday, when they start a three-game homestand.
#-4: Wild (Last Week: 0). Well, fuck. I don't know where to begin with this, dropping the first two games of the series at home to a St. Louis team that traditionally has pissed down their legs in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Mild had the Center depth they have chronically lacked. They had the better talent on paper. They have more points than the Blues. Advanced metrics at SI.com say the Wild are going to win the fucking Stanley Cup. AND NOW THEY'RE DOWN 2-0 TO ST. LOUIS, AND GOING ON THE ROAD, TOO?!?!?!
Yes, both games were decided by a Goal, and Blues Goalie Jake Allen has been standing on his head, and the Blues have shown a historic tendency to choke on leads like this. But the Wild are our team, and when it does something bad, of course we start slagging them. And we should. Because it's not as if we're the Chicago Blackhawks (which, by the way, also dropped the first two games of their series versus Nashville at home). We have an embarrassing history of underperforming in the postseason, and they're living up to that reputation right now. The inability to just score at any time despite defensive difficulty remains a bugaboo for this franchise, and it appears as though it will send them to another humiliating departure, despite being a chic pick to win the Cup.
Guys, this shit is on you to fix. Fix it.
#-Infinity: Timberwolves (Last Week: -5). OK, so I was at the home season finale Tuesday against The Bastard Seattle SuperSonics and Russell Westbrook, who, after passing Oscar Robertson for most triple-doubles in a season, didn't play at all. I don't know how my friend got rewarded to tickets to the home season finale, especially when the big news was the unveiling of the Woofie Dogs' new logo. But he got them.
(Aside on the logo. It's ... nice. It is also virtually identical to the team's secondary/court corner logo. I thought that for all the hype, it was going to be a radical departure from what we had, which, admittedly, wasn't bad. I also thought it would be busier. It has the North Star, something that apparently is now requisite for all Minnesota teams [and also not a bad thing]. And it steals the Seattle Seahawks' color scheme of deep blue and psychadelic/neon/puke green. We'll see if that's reflected in the team's new uniforms. But while it's clean ... again, it's virtually identical to what we already have, including the circle and the wolf howling at the moon. And you paid a design firm for this?)
Anyway, Oklahoma City ended the First Quarter doubling up the Dogs, but then the Wolves came back. They even led for a while, before Steven Adams started really killing the team from the inside and Dontas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo starting killing them from the outside. I like the play where Karl-Anthony Towns was going to take a three at the buzzer down two to win the game, but dammit, of course, he missed. That joins other near misses like yet another choke job at The Team That Was Stolen From Us (Basketball Version) and the regular season finale at Houston. An 0-3 week, and a six-game losing streak to end a year where they improved from 29 wins to 31, and not the 50 I was hoping for. Whoops.
Britt Robson of MinnPost centered on the club's lack of depth and defensive deficiencies in a piece late in the season. But he reiterates what I believe to be the main takeaway from this year. With the exception of Zach LaVine, who was lost to injury in the middle of the year, Tom Thibodeau had a year and decided to use it to run his best young players (Towns and Andrew Wiggins) to see what the hell he exactly had. It's a great strategy to see what is really in these players' hearts. Unfortunately, a year is enough to make solid conclusions, and it looks as though the putative future of this team rests on two players who are great on offense but suck on defense. Which happens to be the Head Coach's (and General Manager's) specialty. That both KAT and Wiggy sloughed off on D late in the year is even more disconcerting. This brings up the possibility that all those minutes they played this year (they are #1 and #2 in most minutes played) has burned them out ... both with playing basketball and, scarily, playing basketball under Thibs.
This is the point where one has to question the HC. He's not out there with the ball, KAT and Wiggy are. Thibs was fired from Chicago mostly because people started tuning his red ass out. Is that already starting with the Timberwolves? That is the important question to ask, and everybody on this squad has an entire offseason to answer it to the fans' benefit correctly.
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