Summer!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Gophers
Well the Final Five was pretty much awesome. The Gophers performed much better than anyone expected and every game all weekend was competitive, with the exception of CC phoning in their performance in the 3rd place game. Kangas played outstanding for three straight nights and despite the team losing 2-1 in the final was awarded the tournament MVP, only the second time the award didn't go to a member of the winning team.
Heading into the WCHA tournament the Gophers were ranked 7th in the conference. A couple of weeks later they entered the NCAA tourney as the 11th seed. Too bad they had to go and suck it up.
Vikings
The Vikings added a bunch of much needed defensive depth. Here is what I think about the guys they signed:
Michael Boulware: Good backup safety and special teamer. At 6-3, 220 he could almost fill in as a LB in passing situations or something. Good addition.
Kendrick Allen: Uhh
Ellis Wyms: Nope
Derrick Pope: Smallish MLB who saw extended PT in Miami last season. Similar size as Zach Thomas who he was playing for and a similar style player too I’d guess. Should be another good special teams addition and backup for EJ.
Benny Sapp: Sapp has been a solid nickel corner for the Chiefs over the last few years. There was a really funny clip in Hard Knocks (the HBO show) where they were trying to have a CB meeting and he kept making the loudest snorting sound I’ve ever heard over and over again. The coach kept being like “Benny stop that,” “Benny what’s wrong with you?” etc. and he appeared to not even notice and just kept watching film. Finally he stopped the film and yelled at him. They also talked about how well he was playing too, in a later episode if I remember correctly. They also liked to make fun of his little mini braid/spikes or whatever they are. Anyway, I think this is why they let him walk:
I’m not sure what this signing means for the Vikings CB situation next season. With Toine the obv. #1, Mac and Griffin as 2/3 and Charles Gordon as an impressive #4, I’m not sure who the odd man out will be.
Twins
Last weekend the Twins signed Nathan to a 3 year, $41m extension. I know they aren’t calling it that, but they had Nathan signed through the year for an awesome $6m! Will Nathan be worth $41m between ’09 and ’11? I’d say he probably will be. But for a mid-market team who is solidly in the middle of a rebuilding phase, I just don’t see how it makes much sense to tie up so much money in a closer who will be 36 by the time the contract ends. But hey, I think it was probably the best of all of the team’s big signings/extensions this offseason. I can’t say I’m not glad he is going to be around for a few more years.
So it looks like the Twins’ roster to start the year will be:
C Mauer
C Redmond
1B Morneau
2B Harris
SS Everett
3B Lamb
LF Young
CF Gomez
RF Cuddyer
DH Kubel
OF Monroe
IF Punto
IF Tolbert
SP Hernandez
SP Bonser
SP Slowey
SP Baker
SP Blackburn
RP Baas
RP Rincon
RP Crain
RP Reyes
RP Guerrier
RP Neshek
CL Nathan
My thoughts:
I believe that Gomez is their best option in CF, but I wish they sent him to AAA anyway. I’d like to see him hitting successfully in AAA before becoming a full-timer at the MLB level. I’d also like to see them do what the Rays claim not to be doing with Longoria, keeping him in the minors until the end of May so that they can have him for another year before he becomes a FA. Congrats to Baas and Tolbert for making the team.
I don’t expect a lot from the Twins in terms of wins this season but man am I excited for it to start. I have my DVR set up to record the game if I can keep from following it from work. I watched the whole Braves, Nationals game tonight (boom Chipper!). I wore shorts and a t-shirt to the store this afternoon. Projections are just an educated guess at the most likely outcome. Here’s to seeing breakout seasons by Delmon and Kubel, a strong rookie campaign by Gomez, maturing by Baker, Bonser and Slowey, resurgences by Mauer, Morneau and Cuddyer and most importantly a Cy Young comeback season for the Cisco Kid. Baseball is back!
Posted bySL__72 at 11:02 PM
Labels: Gophers, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Vikings
It's always good to see the Vikings add to their flawless public perception by bringing in a guy who fights with his own teammates. Whatever. I would guess they brought him in because they know he is a solid nickel and we've have injury concerns at CB the past couple of years, especially with toine. Anyways, I got into a verbal scuffle with my roommate last saturday because i claimed antoine winfield is a top 5 cb in the league, and he said he wasn't even in the top 10 (clearly he's a sconnie packer fan). Where would you rank him? I asked him to name 5 better, and he came up with a weak list of 3, including champ bailey (i'll give him that one) deangelo hall (questionable) and chuck woodson (unquestionably worse than antoine).
I'm really excited about gopher sports this upcoming year. We had one of the worst sports seasons in recent memory, and i think we are on the rebound. In football basketball and hockey we are adding a boatload of talent, which will hopefully fill some of the holes we had this year. Plus our football team lost basically nobody of interest sans dom barber, so i'm confident that with an extra year under their belt they will be much improved.
The twins are gunna suck, and although signing nathan was questionable, i think they did it because closers seem to have a relatively good longevity compared with other positions. Off the top of my head i think of trevor hoffman, mariano rivera, and billy wagner of examples of closers who pitched late into their 30s (and sometimes 40s), so i don't see his age (36) as a huge factor, because i still see him being effective at the tail-end of the contract. Plus he's a lovable guy. Plus we need one proven pitcher on our roster.