PSzalapski's Xanga

Twins must play Delmon Young every day

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:35:26 GMT

It's time for Delmon Young and Jason Kubel to play every day, and let Span, Gomez, and Cuddyer battle for playing time. Do you think I'm crazy? Just a minute.

The bottom line is that the Twins are on the bubble as a playoff team. If they are going to win more than 85 games, they will have to do it by their best young players having very good years. Kubel and Young are in that category. There isn't much hope for Gomez to do very well this year; he is too young and hasn't showed signs of being close to very good. Span is also too young, but has shown much progress; still, his potential this year is not as good as Young and Kubel this year. Cuddyer is a veteran and can contribute but also could use the rest five games per month.

Take a look at their stats:

                      PA   OPS
2nd half 2008 Kubel  212  .824
   April 2009 Kubel   67  .999

2nd half 2008 Young  259  .777
   April 2009 Young   50  .640

They both had great second halves last year in less-than-full-time duty. Kubel has been really hot all month; Young was in a slump through the first 15 games but has really turned it on in the last week. If they can together average 800 OPS with 600 more PAs each, the team will win the division. Furthermore, they have a chance of taking a big step forward; what if they together average an .850 OPS? Somewhat unlikely, but far more likely than Gomez even reaching a .700 OPS. If they only get 400 more PAs each and we have an extra 300 PAs of Span and Gomez, we are unlikely to get to the playoffs. On the other hand, if they underperform, no amount of Gomez and Span is going to save us, nor is an overused Cuddyer.

The Twins' only chance is to live or die with this potentially fearsome lineup, with Kubel, Young, and Morneau as heavy hitters; Crede close behind them; Span, Mauer, and Cuddyer as solid batsmen; and Casilla and Punto using their speed to the fullest. Any other regular lineup--even if it is less risky--can't make it.

Will Obama keep his promise to cut your taxes?

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:18:07 GMT

I'm putting this here so it can be preserved as a historical record. It is October 2008, and it looks like Obama is about to be elected president. On his campaign web site, he has a calculator that promises to figure out how much fewer tax dollars I will pay under Obama.

Let's see what it comes up with. My wife and I both work full time and we have no kids, so obviously this will be different if we have kids in the next two years, but let's try it anyway.

I've left the mortgage balance blank, since I itemize deductions. (Part of the plan is to allow a new partial deduction for mortgage interest even without itemizing.)

Obama should be able to implement his tax plan in his first year as president, so let's see if my federal income taxes in 2009 are $1000 less than 2008. Check back here in March 2009 for your results--how many of you think that it will even come close to $1000? I'm not holding my breath.

Speedy Rewards value of points

Thu, 16 Nov 2006 20:35:20 GMT

I've enrolled in SuperAmerica's "Speedy Rewards" program. I was curious to see what the best deal was in using my points, so I ran a quick Excel formula, plugging the value of each freebie item to me (your values may vary). I was generous with the values--of course I'd rather have $10 cash than a $10 Speedy card, but I gave that a $10 anyway because I know I will use it.

The verdict: The best deal is to save up for the biggest prize, the $100 Speedy Card. There, my points are worth about $0.15 per 100. If you can't make it that far, the $25 and $50 Speedy Cards are still the best deal. Unless you buy 25 gallons at once, avoid the discounted gas--you're much better off saving for a Speedy Card. If you'll never reach the 8500 points for a Speedy Card, the Food and Drink rewards are all good, if you would be buying those items anyway. I sometimes buy fountain pops or hot chocolate there.

Also, these are subject to change. Who knows, maybe they'll add in something better!

Incidentally, the general rule is they give out 10 points for every dollar spent. If we assume each point is worth a generous $0.0015, that amounts to a 1.5% reward on every dollar. The actual number may be more than that due to "double rewards", or other point-giving promotions, or less than that if they get you to buy from SA stuff you otherwise wouldn't (strongly resist this urge)!

Food & Drink Rewards	Points Needed	value	value per 100
Jumbo Specialty Dog	750	$ 0.89	$ 0.1187
32oz Fountain or Frozen Drink	750	$ 0.89	$ 0.1187
20oz Coffee or Cappuccino	750	$ 0.89	$ 0.1187
20oz Enon Springs Water	750	$ 0.89	$ 0.1187
Hershey's Take 5, King-Size	750	$ 0.50	$ 0.0667
Extra Polar Ice Plen-T-Pak	750	$ 1.00	$ 0.1333
2-Liter 7UP	1,250	$ 1.00	$ 0.0800
PowerBar Triple Threat Bar	1,250	$ 1.00	$ 0.0800
POWERADE 32oz Bottle	1,500	$ 1.50	$ 0.1000
20oz Coffee Travel Mug with Fill	1,750	$ 2.00	$ 0.1143

Merchandise Rewards	Points Needed
Classic Bic Lighter	750	$ 0.35	$ 0.0467
Gallon of Windshield Washer Fluid	1,750	$ 1.00	$ 0.0571
Speedy Wash "The Works" Car Wash	4,500	$ 3.00	$ 0.0667
45 Min. AT&T PrePaid Phone Card	4,500	$ 2.25	$ 0.0500
300 Min. AT&T PrePaid Phone Card	15,000	$ 15.00	$ 0.1000
Nokia TracFone (where available)	30,000	$ 20.00	$ 0.0667
STi Mobile Cell Phone (where available)	30,000	$ 20.00	$ 0.0667

Fuel Discount Rewards*	Points Needed
10¢ Per Gallon Discount	1,750	$ 1.70	$ 0.0971
25¢ Per Gallon Discount	4,375	$ 4.25	$ 0.0971
50¢ Per Gallon Discount	8,750	$ 8.50	$ 0.0971

Gift Card Rewards	Points Needed
$10 BLOCKBUSTER Gift Card	8,500	$ 10.00	$ 0.1176
$25 Speedy Cash Gift Card	17,500	$ 25.00	$ 0.1429
$25 Foot Locker Gift Card	19,000	$ 15.00	$ 0.0789
$25 JCPenney Gift Card	19,000	$ 25.00	$ 0.1316
$25 Circuit City Gift Card	19,000	$ 25.00	$ 0.1316
$40 Applebee's® Gift Card**	30,000	$ 40.00	$ 0.1333
$50 Speedy Cash Gift Card	34,000	$ 50.00	$ 0.1471
$100 Speedy Cash Gift Card	66,000	$ 100.00	$ 0.1515

Monday, October 31, 2005

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 13:41:46 GMT

Hi, I've turned most of my attention to my new site, ShareYourFaith.org. Head on over there if you want to read my thoughts on evangelism and the Bible.

No more posts should be expected here on my Xanga site.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:10:14 GMT

Get your foghorn ready:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,167280,00.html

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 17:26:40 GMT

A bit of earthly wisdom from James Lileks, at http://www.lileks.com/bleats/index.html:

" We went to heaven: Krispy Kreme, a treat I’d been building up for two weeks. We pass the place, I tell her of the wonders inside, and promise we’ll go there after supper some day soon. Today was the day. Krispy Kreme Day. The store is big, certainly bigger than it needs to be. It’s just a donut shop, for heaven’s sake. I recall the Mr. Donuts of my youth, in Fargo – often small shops stuck in a decommissioned gas station or shoehorned between larger stores in the mall. The free-standing units were modest. (And orange. But what wasn’t.) The moment I walk in to the KK, I swoon; the smells in the air and the designs on the wall combine to make a perfect potent piece of Americana, and at that point I don’t care what the donuts taste like. I just want to live here. Maybe some day she’ll recall the place and have the same affection for the look & feel of the 50s as I do, simply because they were married to the smell of dough and sugar at a crucial age.

"She was very impressed by the donut. “It was awesome,” she said.

"And yes, I am trying to raise a fat kid. Of course! Goes without saying! McDonald’s, Krispy Kreme – that's all she eats. Look: we do McDonald’s once a fortnight, at the most, and she has a cheeseburger. No soda, no juice, no fries; she gets the apples. Occasionally I buy a small fries, and we split that. We never get donuts. But that’s not POLICY, it’s just the way we live. If it’s POLICY then you make the forbidden things alluring and attractive; if you stigmatize them you undercut your own authority because they see no reason why the items are taboo, and if you make all sorts of heavy food rules whose moral weight exceeds that of the Ten Commandments then the kid's going to have food isssues. Make the fun stuff part of a rotating sequence of balanced indulgences that roll around with predictable regularity,, and you raise a sane kid. Says me. Get back to me in a decade."

Monday, August 22, 2005

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:07:16 GMT

This has been driving me nuts, and I finally found an answer. If you are using MythTV and you want to view the metadata of a nuv file (or perhaps other formats as well), try midentify. Just try:

midentify [filename]

Monday, July 18, 2005

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 21:00:33 GMT

So the Twins can't hit. What else isn't new? We've won the division three years in a row on excellent pitching and average hitting. Now, the White Sox have excellent pitching and really good hitting, so they are beating the pants off us in the division. Check the Twins record now and last year at this time--you'll probably be suprised to see it's about the same. Why does it feel like we're doing worse? Because we now have a standard of quality (The ChiSox) in our faces telling us how good we really are.

Can we rise to meet that standard, or are we going to be root, root, rooting for second place and the wild card for the next three months?

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 15:43:22 GMT

I'm not one of these guys:

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:23:27 GMT

We need to teach our kids to swing a bat in the same way we tell them to shoot a gun. A bat is not a toy--it is sports equipment and a deadly weapon at the same time. Never shoot at someone unless they are about to kill you. Never swing a bat at someone unless they are about to kill you. If the parents had taken this responsibility, this boy would not have considered using the bat in the heat of the moment-- This from NBC4 in California:

"A 13-year-old boy allegedly killed another teen by hitting him in the head with a baseball bat during an argument at a concession stand after a Pony League game, authorities said Wednesday.
Jeremy Rourke, 15, was pronounced dead at a hospital after the Tuesday night attack, said Brenda Shafer, a spokeswoman for the coroner's office.

A homicide investigation was underway, but the younger boy had not been arrested, said Don Manumaleuna, a sheriff's spokesman. Authorities said the boy was detained after the incident. "He just didn't realize it, it just happened and before you know it and then like I say, I told him, 'What did you do, why did you do that?"' parent Sam Cordova said. "I could see it in his eyes that it was starting to sink in, oh my gosh, what did I do?" Cordova said. The nature of the argument was unclear. Authorities did not know whether the boys were spectators or members of the baseball teams that had played. The Palmdale Pony League field has a sign promoting sign-ups for boys 5 to 14 and encouraging parents to "Protect Our Nation's Youth." The city is about 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles."