Saturday, December 03, 2005

Twins Trade for Luis Castillo The Twins signficantly upgraded their second base situation by dealing for Luis Castillo, who was the last original Marlin with the franchise.  Castillo is 30, and brings to the Twins a demonstrated ability to get on base, with a .370 lifetime On Base Percentage (OBP).  Castillo's a slap hitter without much power; he was extremely dangerous on the basepaths earlier in his career, and while injuries have slowed him the last three years he will certainly bring speed and aggressiveness to the Twins.  In the field, he's a three-time Gold Glover.  He is a dramatic upgrade over last season's 2B's, and at $5 million next year (and in 2007 if he gets to 501 plate appearances this season) he's reasonably priced.  To get Castillo the Twins had to move Travis Bowyer and Scot Tyler to the Marlins.  Bowyer can bring 99 MPH heat, but doesn't have a secondary pitch right now.  His stuff is good enough that he might be effective without a secondary pitch, but it will depend on if he can control his fastball.  Losing Bowyer hurts, but the Twins have other options for power arms in the bullpen (JD Durbin, Boof Bonser), and the Twins bullpen doesn't have any glaring holes as it is now.  Scot Tyler is a 2nd round pick from about three or four years ago who has had arm problems and is still in Class A.  The Twins won't miss him, and probably won't miss Bowyer, either.  It's a good deal for the Twins, trading excess pitching talent for a needed piece who fits multiple needs. The Twins still need a power bat, and the current speculation centers on Frank Thomas, Mike Piazza, and Rondell White, with rumors still floating about bigger names like Nomar Garciaparra and Hank Blalock.  Piazza or Thomas could be dramatic upgrades if they were healthy, but those are big "if"s.  And you wouldn't want to break the bank for either of those guys, but sure, if the Twins could get either Piazza or Big Hurt for the right price, bring them on in.  I have a sneaking suspicion Matthew LeCroy could have put up similar numbers for far less money if you gave him the 500 AB's, and after hearing Terry Ryan say they cut LeCroy because he couldn't be the third catcher, one wonders how Frank Thomas fits that bill.  (Or why you have to have a third catcher at all.)  But, if healthy, both of those guys have the potential to transform this lineup.  Garciaparra would be a great upgrade, I think, but he also comes with major health issues, and wouldn't come cheap.  He's a tight-ass headcase, too, but maybe this team could use some intensity.  But you could put Garciaparra at third base, and that would be a dramatic upgrade over Michael Cuddyer, who won't be back at third next year no matter what happens. But the real prize would be Hank Blalock.  By all accounts the Rangers are asking for Francisco Liriano in return, and under no circumstances should the Twins make any deal involving Liriano.  But if the Twins could, say, get Blalock for Scott Baker, they should think long and hard about that.  Hank Blalock could anchor the right side of the Twins infield for the next five or six years.  The Twins are most likely playing for 2007.  Hank Blalock would be a major cog in a great Twins team in 2007.  Would Piazza, Thomas or Rondell White?  Go get Blalock. 8:59:04 PM    Say what?[]

In the Headlines I used to have a kick-ass headline collections, just things I had cut out of the newspapers that entertained me for some reason.  I lost the collection years ago, and now the only one I can remember is an NFL headline from around 1988: "Oilers spew all over Bengals".  Recently I was inspired to start a new collection when I saw this secondary headline about a local hockey game: "Both teams hit the pipe during the third period". Yesterday I added: "Gustavus men to play Messiah for soccer title".  8:41:19 PM    Say what?[]

Family Entertainment Night We were all fired up to watch Swiss Family Robinson last night.  None of us had seen it, but it seemed like a good classic family movie about a family that gets stranded on an island, lives in a crazy treehouse, fights tigers and elephants and gets attacked by pirates.  What's not to like?  But there was a problem.  The DVD I pulled out of the Swiss Family Robinson Netflix sleeve wasn't Swiss Family Robinson.  It was the first six episodes of Season 2 of Arrested Development.  At first I was bummed, because I really wanted to see that damn tree house.  But then I realized I hadn't seen much of Arrested Development, and had heard great things about it.  But we weren't going to watch that with Linus, so what to do? We ended up watching Jeremiah Johnson with Linus.  None of us had seen it, but I had heard good things and queued it up for Netflix.  Robert Redford plays a guy who gets out of the Civil War and decides to become a mountain man.  Redford's character doesn't say much, staying stoic through ample hardship, most brought on by the harsh high Rockies and the inevitable conflicts with Native American tribes trying to hold onto their territory.  The movie was filmed in Utah, places like Zion National Park and Ashley National Forest; it's one of the more beautiful movies I've seen, and the film is paced and designed to highlight that beauty. It was an interesting film to have Linus watch, and I wasn't sure what we were going to see going in.  I've talked to him a little bit about how Native Americans were the original people in this land, and a bit about how this country was transformed by immigration and exploration.  Jeremiah Johnson is a violent movie; Indians attack and kill settlers (and sometimes each other), and settlers attack and kill Indians (while also taking the land, transforming the landscape, and depleting resources).  Despite that, I thought the movie was a pretty honest portrayal of what the time was like.  (Yeah, like I know what that time was like.)  The Indians commit the acts of savages, but there isn't a lot of moralizing about it.  It's said and known in the movie that these acts only happen because you are on Blackfoot, or Crow, or whoever's territory, and that's what happens when people invade--you protect what's yours.  The movie helped me move back through time by showing the various tribes with dignity and realism.  Some of the shots of Crow scouts moving through the forest on their horses are striking.  I don't often find myself thinking about all the resilient and diverse cultures that walked through time worshipping places like the Kansas plains, Minnesota Lakes, or the Rocky Mountains long before Europeans got here, but I found it impossible watching this movie not to think about how much was destroyed or lost in such a short time, and not all that long ago.  I went into it concerned whether Linus was going to see a movie that showed characitures of Native Americans as savages, with the settlers as noble warriors personifying Manifest Destiny, This Land Is Our Land.  But this movie never gets into whether the expansion or the methods behind it were right or wrong; it's simply a window into what happens when cultures collide.  We know which side eventually ended up with the spoils, but in the early encounters depicted in Jeremiah Johnson nobody seems to win, settlers, mountain men or Natives included. Despite growing up in a place of subtle beauty, the Kaw River Valley in Kansas, close to the showy mounds of the Flint Hills, when I was in Kansas I never found myself thinking about what those landscapes would have looked like or meant to the many people who were here before us, primarily the Pawnee, Shawnee, Potawatomi, and Kickapoo tribes.  Intellectually I knew they (or at least, "indians") had been there, but I hadn't given proper consideration to what the land had been like with those people as its stewards instead of "us".  After Linus was in bed we watched all six of the Arrested Development episodes.  I had seen it before, but only bits and pieces.  It's one of the best shows I've seen on TV, so naturally I'm not surprised it was cancelled.  I just love it, especially Will Arnett, the older brother.  There were several moments that just busted my gut.  Jane wondered whether the people who thought they were getting Arrested Development but instead got the Swiss Family Robinson were as thrilled about the mishap as we were.  8:25:55 PM    Say what?[]

Orange Kit Kat When we were on our way home from visiting Jane's parents a few weekends ago, I bought a Kit Kat.  It was some sort of limited edition, an Orange Creme version.  There was an also a mint Kit Kat, but I hate mint candy bars.  Jane turned her nose up at it when I presented it to her, and I in turn scoffed at her reaction.  "Why wouldn't an orange Kit Kat be good?", I said.  Orange is good.  Kit Kats are good.  Ipso, facto.  We didn't eat the Kit Kat on the way home that day.  Then it sat in the car for the next several weeks, alternately freezing and thawing.  On two occasions, late at night Jane and I wanted a tasty treat, the Kit Kat was mentioned, but no action was taken and the limited edition bar remained in the car.  I began to make jokes about the sacred Limited Edition Kit Kat.  As I explained to Linus, the bar was still in the foil wrapper, increasing it's collectible value.  I deeply regretted not buying the Mint Kit Kat, so I could describe its "Mint condition".  I postulated I could make hundreds of dollars selling the Kit Kat on eBay.  Then I declared I was going to take it on Antiques Roadshow, which doesn't even make sense because it's not an antique, but somehow was funny anyway. Last night, it all came to an end.  It was 12:30 am, we were watching Arrested Development, and that Kit Kat's time had come.  We each took a bite and cringed.  It was terrible. 5:32:13 PM    Say what?[]

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