Feeling for Minnesota

This is primarily going to be a sports blog where I discuss stadiums, rankings, and favorite teams. I will also touch on books, tv shows and other things that interest me. With that being written, I wanted to harp on everything that has been happening in my current state. By now if you have seen even 15 seconds of news you should know about the bridge collapsing in Minneapolis over the Mississippi river. It has been a tough week in Minnesota and I was going to write that BEFORE the tragedy of yesterday. Now the "tough" week I was going to write about seems ridiculous considering what I was going to write about was sports. I don't want to get into my thoughts on the bridge because honestly there isn't much to say. There isn't any organization or person to blame. There isn't anything one can do in the short term. All there is to do is give sympathy to the families and people affected.

If you want to read more about the Bridge trajedy then please check out a news website. Otherwise I am going to be providing my random thoughts on the past week in Minnesota sports.

Minnesota Sports Folies

The most famous and loved Minnesota athlete since Kirby Puckett got traded for:

• Al Jefferson
• An expiring contract (Theo Ratliff)
• Craig Smith part two (Ryan Gomes - http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/headToHeadResults?statsId1=4164&statsId2=3976&)
• Someone who can apparently dunk (Gerald Green - http://youtube.com/watch?v=qKZkK1NZz3U)
• A main character in a book (Sebastian Telfair - http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Sebastian-Telfair-High-Stakes-Business/dp/1594861072)

AND

• Two first round picks.

Thoughts:

• I think Jefferson is a quality player and have thought that ever since seeing him play in high school in Mississippi for Prentiss. I couldn't believe at the time that the Utah Jazz could draft Kris Humphries instead of Jefferson. However, the rest of the players are worthless in my mind.
• When Kevin McHale tried to sign Joe Smith (by all account an average player) to a secret deal they got hit hard by David Stern who took away 5 draft picks (2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005). http://www.nba.com/news/smith_wolves_001025.htmlThis was later reduced to 3 draft picks, which is a still a huge price for an average player. Now look at the players that McHale has drafted since Kevin Garnett: http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/history/draft.html

1st rounders:

• Ray Allen: Traded away for Stephon Marbury. This is noteworthy because Ray Allen is now going to be on the same team as KG and also because Stephon's Marbury's cousin (Sebastion Telfair) was in the KG trade from Boston.
• Paul Grant: Who cares?
• Rasho Nesterovic: Apparently McHale likes tall, nonathletic, white centers.
• Wally Szczcerbiak: Actually a good player (an All-Star) that McHale drafted from Alma matter Miami University in Ohio. Of course since he was a good player, McHale traded him to the Celtics.
• 2000, 2001 and 2002: No first round draft picks
• Ndudi Edi: McHale decided to make up for lost time by drafting this career 2.1 ppg player who has played in a total of 19 career games: http://www.nba.com/playerfile/ndudi_ebi/. I am sure the Timberwolves wouldn't want to have Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, or Josh Howard, who were the next three draft picks.
• 2004: No first round draft pick
• Rashad McCants: A player I not so affectionately call Rashad McCan't Play in the Nba. A 34% three point shooter who has averaged 7.0 ppg. Not very good for a player who is known to be a shooter/scorer. It isn't like he is bringing much else (1.6 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.6 spg, and 0.2 bpg). to the table.
• Randy Foye: Jury is still out, but I would rather would have had the player the Twolves originally drafted: Brandon Roy: Rookie of the Year.
• Corey Brewer: Jury is still out

It has been a pleasure watching Garnett play in the Twin Cities the past two years and I wish him the best. It still is beyond unfortunate that he couldn't stay here and be competitive because McHale messed up so much.

• Here is a good article from Mark Stein about the Twolves: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2956950
• This one hurts (KG in a Red Sox jersey): http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070801&content_id=2123890&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
• After Santana signs with the Red Sox in 2008, do you think we can officially consider all Minnesota teams the minor leagues for Boston teams. Seriously, Randy Moss, David Ortiz, Kevin Garnett are all on Boston teams. What next? Are we going to ship over the Mary Tyler Moore statue? What about the cherry in the spoon? How about if Boston builds the new Mall of America?
• Adios Luis Castillo. It was fun watching you play and I wish that you could have started with the Twins earlier on in the career. Seeing Castillo beat out infield hits (league leader the past two years) on the turf in the Metrodome was a sight to see. The Metrodome and Castillo were made for each other and it is sad that he only got a year and a half here.
• In regards to Santana, I am almost to the point of begging Carl Pohlad to pay the big bucks for Santana. Whatever it takes ($20M a year), just pay the best pitcher in the league. With Santana, Mauer, Morneau, Hunter, Boof, Nathan and Liriano the Twins could make a run at the World Series for the next 5+ years. Pohlad - pay Santana first, Morneau second, and Hunter third, and Nathan forth.

That is it for today.