Ramblings
By Tom Grout
April 8, 2008
-Free throws. How many times has your basketball coach hounded you about making free throws? What is the last thing a player usually does after practice? Free throws.
The importance of free throws turned out to be the turning point of college basketball’s greatest game of the year, the NCAA Championship Game. Memphis missed some key free throws in the waning minutes to seal a victory. They had Kansas down mentally, physically, and by the scoreboard but they couldn’t put them away because of missed free throws. Guess what all teams in the country are going to be working on in practice next season, whether it’s grade school, high school, college, or pro teams. It will be free throws.
-The Wild start their playoffs this week with Colorado and they are coming into the playoffs playing very well. It doesn’t matter what level you are playing at, the team that is the hottest going into the playoffs usually ends up with a pretty good run. Marion Gaborik is playing at his best right now as are Bret Burns and a few others. The fourth line has really come through when the team needed them along with veterans Sean Hill and Keith Carney who had to pick up the slack left by injured defenseman Kurtis Foster.
Carney and Hill along with Aaron Voros will have to step up again as defensemen Nick Schultz just had an appendectomy. Schultz being out now hurts. Schultz is one of the best and steadiest defenseman in the league and having him out of the lineup will make the task a little more difficult.
Playoff hockey, especially if you have a favorite team in it, can be exciting so I am looking forward to it. If you like a rough and tumble game the Colorado series may be just for you as they started picking on each other last Sunday in the final game of the season. The one thing Colorado did that was not smart was to pick a fight with Marion Gaborik. Before the playoff is done, either Derek Boogaard or Chris Simon will have something to say about it.
-The Twins have played for a week now and it is still early to know what type of team they have. Michael Cuddyer getting hurt doesn’t help much. The starting pitching hasn’t been too bad, a few glitches but not bad, in fact they have been in every game and if they could have gotten some timely hitting they could have won some more.
I don’t think the Twins have gotten their bats to where they want them yet but I think it will come. There are a lot of new players on the team and it takes awhile before the new player smell goes away and they start to gel and play together.
Carlos Gomez has been just fun to watch. What an exciting player and if he can bunt consistently like he has shown so far, he will be an exciting player at the top of the order.
It also appears the Nick Punto era may be coming to a close. Punto has always been a big favorite of Ron Gardenhire and he seemed to find a way to get him in the lineup. Now the new guy is Matt Tolbert. Tolbert has filled in at second base and shortstop and although he has made a few mistakes, is hitting well enough to at least take over the utility role that Punto was suppose to have. The season is still young and Gardy may still find a starting spot for Punto but for now I am pleased.
-On cliche that is used by a lot of athletes and especially the Wild players is actully one word "huge". They use it so often it becomes quite funny, it's a huge goal, huge game, huge save, huge anything.
My youngest son and I came up with a couple other words to replace "huge". Gramatically they don't fit, but we don't care. They are "large" and "behemouth".
This game was a "large" win for us. That shot was "behemouth". It would make an interview a little more fun and interesting with the new catch words.
New player smell?? gotta like that one Tom..Im still mad I lost my office pool to a girl,,lol.It will be large if The Wild can get a first game win tonight..huge even.Finally, I imagine you wrote this before hearing the news, but,, what a sad situation for Carl Eller, I hope he can get his life back on track after this latest run in with the law.
The Eller situation has been coming for a while. A year ago my son's group was in the bar and ended up having a few with Eller and company and he was way over the line in his drinking. Way out of control. He's a big guy too, news said he threw a cop! It is sad.
Twins - I'm not as impressed with their bats yet as I'd hoped I would be. Monroe and Morneau need to get more aggressive. Not everyone can be selective like Mauer. Pitching is fine, they're throwing strikes. I think the Twins will do good with Gomez, he's the excitement the rest aren't. They seem to be a methodical team, not exciting. Hopefully they'll loosen up. Who is the idiot that predicted fabulous things from the Tigers. Oh, that was me, I must've been sniffing too much new player smell!
Wild - Tough start, hockey is decided by inches however, it could've went the other way.
Free throws. yeah. I recall our 5th grade basketball team being paid a visit by the varsity coach, who as a player had been a 2x scoring leader in the Big Ten. He told us not to work on the 20 foot jump shot. He said that important games were won and lost on layups and free throws. Through the years I'm still amazed at how accurate that is.
Twins. Agreed, not deep enough into the season to know what we have, but enough to make some comments. The superlatives for the defense of Everett have slowed to a trickle, now being limited to "nice range". Where is the arm?
Tolbert is a real nice surprise. A young Punto with, perhaps, some talent. Gotta love his dedication. Who would give him Everrett's job? Show of hands?
Gomez -- would anyone trade him straight up for Ellsbury at this point? I wouldn't, and I was a guy that thought Ellsbury was the best guy on the Santana table.
Kubel/Monroe -- so far not even close. This could be Kubel's breakout season. Monroe is showing why this is his third team in 10 months.
Blackburn & Baker -- these guys can pitch! is 14 wins the over/under for them for the season?
Boof -- geez, he's trying. Loved his Saturday effort. He'll get there, but the road is rocky.
Crain, Rincon -- WTF?
Lamb -- nice guy, but looks like the dead-center definition of mediocre. How is he the choice over Buscher?
Mauer -- Healthy, ready etc. Geez, how many RBI opportunities has he had? Is anyone else getting tired of groundballs to second? Yeah, OK, it moves the runner over. Just what we want from our batting champ.
Demonte Young -- 42 AB's, one extra base hit. Vulnerable up and in, low & away, low, high, and seems confused by breaking stuff. And, yeah, they can break stuff in on his wrists. Other than that, he's a hell of a hitter. Looking for the time that he's a hell of a GOOD hitter.
Harris -- this guy can hit! Not too bad in the field either. I like he & Tolbert as the middle infielders at this point.
Reyes -- He's back, he's back! Now he just needs a role.
Hernandez -- Love to watch his slow, deliberate, high wire act. Who'd have guessed 3 starts, 3 wins? My he can throw people crap, seems like nobody ever gets anything good to hit. I love it.
Bass -- Came out of nowhere to pitch himself onto the roster. hasn't pitched himself off it yet. I'm pulling for him.
Dinner Spam -- glad he's in the Bigs, he's earned it. He's contributing. Sure covers the ground in right field. Looks real solid at the plate. Behemouth question: What does the future hold for him?
Liriano today -- I got a bad feeling. Maybe it was the hashbrowns.
After watching the Twins this weekend, I must say that TDawg has got it about exactly right. Span looks to be alot better player that Young so far. Span looked real good. Young just doesn't seem to have a clue at the plate. Pitchers are just toying with him. Lamb is so unimpressive that only his mother could be happy with his play. And Everett is a major step backwards thus far from Bartlett. Liriano struggled a little but I didn't think it was a bust. It sure does show what a "huge" gap there is between being a minor leaguer and being a top-notch pro. He's off only a little, yet still is a long way off from being back to his old self. The young pitchers are doing well. Overall so far I'd grade the Twins a B-, maybe C+.
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