The happiest of Saturdays to you! The Twins may have lost to another last-place team last night, and may have lost Orlando Hudson for awhile, but I'm adopting the philosophy espoused by Dave "Killer" Carlson. One with the universe... one with the universe... nothing matters...
Why yes, that was a "Slap Shot" reference in the middle of July! I can only explain this by saying that I've seen Kevin Slowey pitch three times this year in person. You'd be thinking about hockey too. But on with the links:
*Let's start, then, with a hockey link: Bryan Reynolds at Hockey Wilderness wonders why people are using crazy new statistics to criticize the Mikko Koivu contract, given that, if anything, the statistics actually support the contract.
*Over at Picked Off at First, Erin has what may be my favorite stat of the year: Bengie Molina's cycle-completing triple actually took longer than two inside-the-park homers this season. There's also a comparison of Molina and Mike Redmond, possibly the only two athletes to play in a major professional sport this year that could not beat me in a footrace. I find the whole thing wonderful.
*John Bonnes has done the payroll math, and he has an important message for all Twins fans. Please scoot up close to your monitor so that you can hear this clearly: The Twins cannot afford Roy Oswalt or Dan Haren, because both have contracts for next year, and the team can't afford them next year. Get used to Brian Duensing, in other words.
*And finally: this week, Spencer Hall goes rally driving (or more accurately rally riding) with Travis Pastrana. This would be more entertaining if Hall had driven, as he probably would have done a powerslide into a tree while drinking sweet tea and bourbon, but it's fun nonetheless.
That'll do it for me this week. Please, enjoy your weekend, and here's hoping that by the time you read this, the rain will have moved on out, wherever you are. (Unless you're somewhere with awesome weather, like San Diego. Then I hope you get a foot of rain, localized only inside your car.)
