Florida, Day 4 (Rain, Rain, Rain, Dog Track)

TUESDAY, MARCH 2nd

I was crossing my fingers that the weather report would be wrong, but I woke up to a sheet of rain outside the window and decided to avoid standing around outside at the complex today. Instead I indulged in some Macinac Island Fudge ice cream at a cute ice cream parlor in Estero, and then decided to make my way over to the Dog Track.

I hung out at the $1-2 No-Limit tables and muddled around for a few hours. The action wasn't what I'm used to in Atlantic City, and the people there stick around forever with garbage hands on horrible draws. I managed to make around $100 and then found myself staring at pocket Aces -- always a hand I'm not that thrilled to see. I raised it up enough to scare most people away, got someone to push back at me, came over the top and he called. The flop was a rag and I bet strong, he went all in, I called, and he turned over pocket queens. I had him dominated. Then he turned a queen.

I was still a chunk of change over my original buy-in and hung around until my big blind where I found myself looking at a 10-2. There wasn't much action, everybody either called or folded and it got around to me and I was able to just check my big blind. The flop came around as a 10-5-2 rainbow and I was sitting pretty. I let someone lead out, came over the top of him, and everybody else scooted out of the way. He called, and we played it kind of slow, nothing was really coming on the board. He had a 10-7 and rivered me with a 7.

Not the best day for me, but I still walked out up $20, enough to pay for my lunch. I spent a little bit more time than I wanted at the Dog Track and came out around 3PM so I went and caught a movie with my cousin. We saw The Crazies, it was pretty scary. Not bad. The thing I was happiest about was paying only $6 for a movie when I'm used to paying $12.50 in New York. Highway robbery.

We ended up having dinner at a Persian restaurant nearby and I had some amazing Spicy Apricot Chicken and a triple chocolate flourless cake with sour cherry compote. Heaven.

My brother and another cousin just flew into town tonight. I plan on going to some more spring training workouts with my brother tomorrow, the weather should be better and not as rainy. For some good baseball info, check out Seth's podcast from last night. I was one of his guests along with Mike McCardell, Chris Herrman, and Jack Steal it was a great show. He's really pulled out all the stops for his new show, including tailored intro music for his callers! If you haven't listened to it already, check it out. If you can't listen on the night of, you can always check out his archives, I listen every Wednesday morning over a cup of coffee it's the best way to start out your day listening to some great Twins conversation. Also, be sure to check out Jack's and my podcast on Wednesday night at 9PM CST, 10PM EST as I'll be joining and talking some more about spring training!

I e-mailed a little bit with the guys making the documentary following around Miguel Angel Sano. Check out their website, the movie is called Pelotero. It's still in production and they're still raising financing for more shooting and to get it through post, but there's already some clips up including a great one on Sano. I hope to have them on an interview for my website or on a podcast soon so I'll let you know how that turns out. In the meantime, they told me that I missed some great batting practice from Sano the other day, he apparently jacked 9 home runs when I wasn't there. He's something special.

Stop by tomorrow for some more photos and info from Twins camp!

Cleveland Just Can't Do Anything Right

Well, I was kind of hoping I'd be pleasantly surprised to flip over to the Tigers/Indians game and see some miracle of how the Tribe edged Verlander. Apparently Cleveland did draw first blood, but that was short-lived, because at the top of the next inning the Tigers began a 4-run rally to take a lead which they wouldn't relinquish.

I thoroughly dislike cheering for Cleveland, it makes me feel dirty. And I know I will thoroughly dislike rooting for the Chicago White Sox from here on out as well. But the enemy of my enemy is my friend -- at least until next year. So -- here goes: "Go get 'em Sox! Ozzie, lead those boys on a win streak!"

**Taking a short break while I go throw up**

In all seriousness, hopefully they can do something that the Indians appear incapable of: win a baseball game.

Yeah, you guys are bad, we all know. Feel free to cry.

It's fun to look back and see ridiculous overestimations of some teams. Cleveland and their farm system always seems to be the little darling in the AL Central, but you've got to believe that fans (and probably Larry Dolan) are getting a little upset with Eric Wedge and Mark Shapiro, as their booming core of young players has suddenly all been shipped off in cost-cutting moves only to start over into another rebuilding cycle.

Anyway, I decided that watching Cleveland fall on their face to Detroit was dampening my baseball high, so I caught up on some of the World Series action that I've been missing every Tuesday night.

I'm trying to avoid hearing anything about the November 9 until, you know, Novemberish, so please don't spoil anything for me. I've already been leaked one name and that takes a little bit of fun out of watching (though it will always be fun, even to watch old episodes). I must say, Phil Hellmuth looks awesome at the tables this year, as much as it pains me to compliment the Poker Brat.

But who wouldn't look awesome if they arrived to the WSOP like this?

It's also kind of fun watch Jordan Farmar at the tables with everyone else. I guess after winning an NBA championship, the only thing to do is follow it up with a Main Event championship as well. He wasn't playing half-bad either.

Next year I hope Morneau throws another casino night, because I'll definitely be flying back to Minnesota to play some Hold 'Em with him. I'm not going to pass up that opportunity again.

In other news, the Twins were finally eliminated ... from the Wild Card, don't worry. Just a wake-up call as to how pathetic the Central has been this year (Seattle outlasted us in the Wild Card standings...). Let's hope that's the last time we see that awful capital "E" after our name.

Tomorrow, we carry the momentum into Kansas City. Go Twins!

Bring on the Dirty Laundry!

*Due to the increased importance of this series with the Chicago White Sox, my desire to say goodbye to the Metrodome during a meaningful series, and the lovely convergence of the Minnesota State Fair, I will be returning to Minnesota for Tuesday and Wednesday's games against the White Sox! Let me know if you're going to the game and make sure to say hi! I'm going to bring my lucky Rick Aguilera jersey and sit right down by the field close enough to trash talk Gordon Beckham and try to get inside his head. Let's go Twins!

Leaving for Atlantic City and returning to NYC in the middle of a game in time to watch the Twins have one of their signature Dome rallies in the 8th inning was the perfect way to spend a weekend! We played at the Taj Mahal and The Tropicana this weekend and had a great time. My poker buddies and I didn't win as much as we should have due to some bad beats, but we didn't lose money, which is the key. Similar to the Twins' season thus far, no? They haven't really made the big runs they should have been capable of with the talent of guys like Mauer and Morneau, but here we are going into September and postseason is in the air alongside Minnesota State Fair cheese curds!

Going into this season, I was eyeing this upcoming White Sox series at the Dome, its convergence with the State Fair, and already planning coming back for my last hurrah at our stadium, and I simply prayed that at the very least these games would be meaningful. With the Twins and Sox separated in the standings by only 1 1/2 games and the Twins only 4 1/2 back from the Tigers (who are about to play the suddenly decent Cleveland Indians), we are in great shape. And we could be in even better shape soon!

If the Twins are serious about acquiring Harden, I'm all for it. Penny would be a decent boost to our struggling rotation, but Harden could be the golden ticket. Before being traded from his career in Oakland over to the Cubs last year, Harden has been plagued by an injury history that would make even Michael Cuddyer groan. He holds a career 3.36 ERA and 1.22 WHIP and average just over a strikeout per inning. Plus he's on my fantasy roster already and it would give me one more reason to cheer for him.

If the Twins can sign him to an extension (preferably incentive-laden), that also just might give Mauer the whiff of looming success that he's been hoping for before re-upping.

I must also say that I'm very happy after watching Jon Rauch pitch, and from what I hear, Mahay didn't do awfully himself. At the least, they have adequately replaced Humber and Gabino -- now we just need to see a fresh face in place of Keppel. And speaking of Keppel, I'm not quite ready to give ultimate confidence to Rauch and Mahay just yet, because hopefully we all remember how dominant Keppel looked in his first few starts until his career stats began to catch up with him. But I'm willing to applaud Rauch and Mahay for their performances, and I'll definitely be rooting for them to keep up that level of success and make the Twins look brilliant in their waiver wire maneuvering.

SEPTEMBER CALL-UPS

Things have already been written about the September Call-ups, and I don't mean to add anything that hasn't already been said. But I will say that it looks as if by all means the Twins front office hasn't given up on this season, and judging by Gardy's words and the Twins' place in the standing we're going to have to wait to see some of our long-anticipated prospects hoist a bat or toe the rubber in the majors.

Obviously Morales was going to come up, I don't think anyone didn't see that coming. But the real question was whether the front office would keep the party line and bring back Buscher, Tolbert, Swarzak and Dickey, or whether we'd see some of our better prospects (who might not be as refined yet), like Valencia, Tolleson, Plouffe, Hughes, Huber, Slama, and Delaney. At least Gardy stated that he wanted to see Valencia up but he's being told that "it's not the time". I just wonder who exactly is telling him that! Gardy is the manager!

I still wouldn't be surprised if someone like David Winfree or Brock Peterson makes a surprise cameo in September, as soon its going to be time to cut bait on them and we might as well add some extra bats to our bench for the stretch run and get a look at them up here. Although the real question is who would we remove to add them to our 40-man now that we know Tolbert and Buscher are coming up. Perhaps Dickey? The real surprising thing is that Tolleson and Hughes haven't been announced as coming up as they're already on the 40-man roster and could provide some valuable bench bats -- and Tolleson has versatility in the infield and outfield just as Tolbert does.

In another somewhat overlooked move, Yohan Pino was traded to the Indians to complete the Carl Pavano acquisition. This could actually come back to haunt us as he's been on fire lately, and despite falling out of the picture the last few years he once was a very promising prospect. Chances are he would have been taken in the Rule 5 draft this year anyway, as there are many prospects to add to our 40-man roster this offseason and not enough spots for all those deserving. I wish him luck, but it's going to be tough to like Pino if he comes back and makes us look foolish!

Ok, hopefully I have some good news tomorrow to write in regards to Harden (or Penny if Harden doesn't work out). But in the meantime, check some of the great blogs on the left for some more Twins news!