Vikings' coach Frazier, GM Spielman lousy judges of talent - Minnesota cuts bum Jefferson

Well the Vikings dumped another bum in cornerback A.J. Jefferson this afternoon. Even though they only shipped a 6th or 7th round pick to the Cardinals for him last year, you would have thought the Vikings had landed a future All-Pro after hearing head coach Leslie Frazier heap praise on Jefferson after the acquisition.

Frazier was the one who wanted to sign washed-up has-been Donovan McNabb to play quarterback two years ago, and Spielman has swung and missed on a number of draft picks in the last few years (Josh Robinson, Tyrell Johnson, Christian Ponder, Mistral Raymond, Marcus McCauley, among others) so it's not surprising that they wasted a draft pick on a player like Jefferson. Jefferson contributed nothing during his time with the team.

Frazier might be a good coach, and Spielman might be the type of that write up a great scouting report, but when it comes time to select a talented player, neither has shown that they have much of a knack for it.

If they did the Vikings record would be a lot better than 2-8-1.

The Mentalist / Red John storyline disappointing

Well broadcast television disappoints again. All the best shows are still on cable.

After six years of developing the Red John serial killer storyline on The Mentalist, it came to an unsatisfying conclusion. The way the Red John story was built for the first four years of the show was fantastic. Things slipped story-wise in season five and the start of season six, and now that it has supposedly concluded with Patrick Jane killing Red John, I'm feeling let down. Too much of the back story does not make sense at this point. Sherriff McAlister as Red John doesn't fit. The few times we heard the serial killer's voice just doesn't jive with how McAlister was played by Xander Berkeley and how the sheriff’s lines were written. I'm supposed to believe that McAlister changed his voice that much? Nah.

I expected more from the The Mentalists' writers and producers. The idea that law enforcement was somehow involved with Red John is kind of shaky and doesn't add up. A better way to go, after the end of season three, might have been to develop some of the law enforcement characters as possible Red John suspects, but in the end have him not be in law enforcement. The whole "Blake Association" idea doesn't make much sense or add to the story at all.

The Mentalist was pretty good with weekly stories that were wrapped up in an hour. The Red John story left much to be desired.

Ah well. At least Justified and The Americans will be returning in January 2014. On the FX channel - cable TV, of course.

Death, dying, medicare, and obamacare

Funny how people moan and groan about their taxes, government waste, and "entitlement programs" yet no one wants to discuss how to start changing all of it.

Twenty percent of Medicaid dollars go to one percent of the people who use it. Many are the elderly in nursing homes.

Medicare spends 25% of its $551 billion annual budget on medical treatment in a person's last year of life.

One way to save money would be stop spending billions of dollars of machines and drugs that do nothing except prolong our misery when we get older. In the United States we treat our pets more compassionately at the end of their lives than we do our people.

It would be better to have discussions about how we want to die when we're young. If someone wants to be kept alive at the end through machines, fine, it would be their choice. But I'm sure many of us would opt for hospice care. If money was re-directed from hospitals and doctors who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for tests and medical equipment toward hospice care, not only would billions of dollars be saved in our taxpayer money but people, and their relatives, could be spared the horrific way of dying that now exists for many Americans - plugged into machines in an intensive care unit of a hospital.

If someone is 20 years old, you do everything it takes to save their life. When someone is 90 years old and frail, it would be best to just let nature take its course.

Nothing is going to change though. Most Americans just don't want to talk about it. Others make death and dying into a political or religious issue. If that's the case, then I hope everyone just stops complaining about the national debt and taxes. Because we already know where the money is going and how to change things.

A job interview at Goldman Sachs

I’m sure lots of people have had strange experiences while searching for and interviewing for jobs. People who do the recruiting and interviewing of job candidates often have funny stories to tell. Sometimes I wonder though, if other people looking for a job have had anything similar to mine.

Once I went on an interview for a job as a college recruiter, with Goldman Sachs. This particular office was in lower Manhattan. The director of college recruiting was a guy named Mike. At the start of the interview he mused, “There’s mostly women working in college recruiting.” Hmm, maybe this gives me an edge, I thought. He didn’t ask me any questions though. He just rambled on for a couple of minutes about Goldman Sachs.

Suddenly, he looked past me (his office was surrounded by windows). He stood up, grabbed a stack of what look to be like tickets to a game or concert wrapped with elastic bands, and raced out the door. I turned around, but he had already fled down one of the hallways, disappearing from sight.

So I sat there for a few minutes, wondering what I should do. Wait until he comes back? Leave now? It started to dawn on me that I wasn’t going to get this job even if I stayed, so I was about to go when a girl named Kim walked in.

“Mike had to go, but I’ll finish the interview,” she said brightly. Then she proceeded to talk a little about the job. She didn’t ask me any questions, or ask if I had any questions about th position. She did talk at length about the bars in the area and how everyone in the department liked to go out for drinks after work.

After a few minutes she stood up and held out her hand. “It was nice to meet you,” she said. For some reason I said thank you, nice to meet you too, instead of saying what I really felt, which was, why did you even bother to call me in….

I’ve thought that maybe they didn’t like the way I looked. If that’s the case, and I’m sure some interviewers consider that above all else (although they would never admit it), why not ask for a picture? A photograph with the resume on the back. It would save us all a lot of time and money. By looks, I mean beyond the blue suit/white shirt/red tie/polished shoes/clean shaven appearance.

Who knows. Maybe this isn’t as ridiculous as some others’ experiences. It feels like it was a waste of time and energy. On the other hand it’s given me something to write about, so maybe it wasn’t a total loss. Stay tuned for upcoming stories about job search…

Employers like Katia Beauchamp of Birchbox make me laugh

I just read an interview with Katia Beauchamp, the founder of Birchbox, an online business. She was discussing the hiring process at her company, and how if candidates describe a past job as not fun, she does not consider hiring the person. She claims it's a person's job to make your life fun.
 
Well I would agree it's up to each individual to find their own version of happiness in their personal life, but to think that any job can be made "fun" is silly and only shows that the person saying it has lived a sheltered and privileged life.
 
Lots of people are in lousy jobs, mainly because of lousy managers. Some people just can't wave a magic wand and put themselves into the job of their dreams. There are other factors at play, some of which are out of their control.

To not hire someone because they were in a bad situation is short-sighted and narrow minded. What is important for hiring managers to consider is, what can the candidate do to solve problems in the job that I'm hiring for? What has gone on at another job in someone's past is irrelevant. As is their past and current salary.

The "no one is ever allowed to say anything negative" nonsense that some recruiters believe in is silly. Some people wouldn't be interviewing for new jobs if something bad hadn't happened at the last one. I guess hiring managers would rather be lied to.

If the person is a good candidate for a job, I'd rather know more about what you're looking for in a job with a potential company and why you weren't satisfied with your previous job, instead of saying everything was all peaches and cream.

New baseball book: The Perfect Game

THE PERFECT GAME is a novel for middle grade readers. It is about a twelve year old boy’s roller coaster experience while playing one season of organized baseball.

Joey Coltasanti, nicknamed “the professor” by his father, is ambivalent about playing his last year in summer league. A shortstop, he loves baseball and longs to realize his dream of making the town’s all-star team, and then winning enough games to advance to the state’s world series. However to reach this goal he must overcome his own anxiety that blocks his talent from shining through on the field.

Internal concerns are not the only obstacles in Joey’s path. He also has to deal with Mr. K, the coach of his team for the past two years. Mr. K uses sarcasm and intimidation with his players, as well as favoring his own son over Joey and his teammates. Added to the mix is Joey’s new neighbor and friend, twelve year old Mindi. A saxophone-playing member of Mensa, she is also a pitcher in the summer league who mows down opposing hitters with a blazing fastball and pinpoint control.

Joey decides to play, with events during early season contests testing his will to continue. Eventually a tumultuous game involving adults who can’t seem to grow up leads to changes in the league. A benevolent new coach arrives in town, and things begin to turn around for Joey and his underdog teammates. Eventually joining forces with Mindi on the all-star team, Joey moves closer to fulfilling his dream. Advancing to the state’s world series means finding innovative ways to win pressure packed games, which leads to Joey confronting his fears on the field. Ultimately he learns more about winning, losing, and the exciting game that is baseball.

 

THE PERFECT GAME by Christopher J is available in the Kindle Store at Amazon.com for 99 cents.

Who was the Yankees MVP in 2013?

In 2013 the New York Yankees finished tied with the Baltimore Orioles for third place in the American League Eastern Division with a 85-77 record. They managed to accomplish this with a roster of players consisting of a hodgepodge of journeymen, scrubs, and not-ready-for-prime-time minor leaguers, since many key players missed most of the season due to injuries. The extended absences of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Curtis Granderson led to gaping holes in the team's lineup.

Manager Joe Girardi deserves some credit for keeping the Yanks in the race for much of the season. He handled the pitching staff well and squeezed enough out of the position players to enable the team to finish over .500 for the season.

General Manager Brian Cashman deserves zero credit, since all he did was throw stuff up against the wall and hope that it would stick. The minor league system, under Cashman's direction for the past seven years, provided practically no help during the season.

Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner contributed offensively during the month of April, helping to keep the Yanks above water early on. Unfortunately neither one provided much for the remainder of the season.

Granderson didn't provide his usual punch when he returned from injuries, batting .229 with seven homers and 15 RBI's in 61 games and 214 at-bats - numbers that don't translate well when projected over a 162 games season.

Eduardo Nunez didn't show much while filling in for Jeter at shortstop, with a .260 average, 3 home runs, 28 RBI's and 10 stolen bases in 90 games and 304 at-bats. His fielding average was .953, well below the league average of .973, and he was projected to cost the team 18 runs as a shortstop, according to zone fielding calculations.

So who were the top ten most valuable players for the Yankees in 2013?

10) Brett Gardner - Gardner was reliable, playing in 145 games, but stole only 24 bases with an average on-base percentage of .344, and wasn't as much of a sparkplug as had been hoped. In centerfield he cost the team 20 runs, according to one zone fielding statistic.

9) Jayson Nix - Nix actually came up with some key hits that led to Yankee victories, even though he played in only 87 games.

8) Lyle Overbay - Overbay also came up with some clutch hits in crucial situations, leading to Yankee wins. He hit 14 homers and drove in 59 runs.

7) Ivan Nova - Finishing 9-6 with a 3.10 ERA, Nova pitched well and kept the Yankees in the race in the summer.

6) Chris Stewart - Stewart handled the pitching staff well, and threw out 32% of runners attempting to steal.

5) Mariano Rivera - Most people would put Rivera higher on the list, but he blew seven saves - 92 wins would have landed the Yanks a playoff spot.

4) Hiroki Kuroda - Kuroda pitched well for most of the season, keeping the team in games.

3) Alfonso Soriano - Providing much needed pop in the lineup during the second half of the season, Soriano hit .256 with 17 home runs and 50 RBI's in only 219 at-bats.

2) David Robertson - Robertson had a great year as a set-up man, with a 2.04 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, .213 opponents’ batting average, and 77 strikeouts in 66 innings pitched.

1) Robinson Cano - While I think Cano is an over-rated player, statistically he had an outstanding year both offensively and defensively, accomplishing this with only average players around him. His .314 batting average, .383 on-base percentage, 27 home runs and 107 RBI's along with a .991 fielding percentage make him the Yankees' Most Valuable Player for the 2013 season.

 

 

 

 

source for statistics: http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Yankees ought to just release Alex Rodriguez

The Alex Rodriguez saga is dreadfully boring. Here's a guy who had tremendous talent, yet still decided to use steroids and whatever else to try and get an edge that he really did not need. Now there's suspensions, arbitration, lawsuits, stupid quotes by lawyers and baseball officials...who cares. This is more boring than a reality show.

The Yankees ought to just release Rodriguez and pay him whatever millions of dollars that he's owed. If another team picks him up, fine. I wouldn't worry about it. He's not a good player anymore, and the Yankees don't need all the nonsense. Just sign Mark Reynolds to play third base. They'd basically end up giving the team the same production on offense and their defense wouldn't be much different.

Giving Rodriguez a 10 year contract was dumb, a move that George Steinbrenner would have made if he had been lucid at the time, although he didn't have to be, since his dumb son Hank made the deal anyway.

Can we please move on from this craziness and get back to just playing baseball?

Where is the $13 billion fine money from JP Morgan going?

Where is the $13 billion fine money from JP Morgan going?  Is going to pay down the national debt? Is it going to be spent on something we don't need?  How come reporters don't ask these questions? Why am I asking it in a blog?

Do dentists give out candy on Halloween?

Do dentists give out candy on Halloween? Just wondering.

Vikings would have been better off trading Peterson, Allen

The rumors swirled for days but trade deadline came and went without the Vikings trading defensive end Jared Allen. Too bad.  Although it's unlikely anyone would have given up a first round pick for a two month player rental, it would have been great if Minnesota had landed a first rounder for Allen. 

The Vikings have many holes, since general manager Rick Spielman and his scouting crew have swung and missed on too many draft picks and free agents in the past few years, so any additional help through the draft would have been useful for next year.

What would have been even better if the Vikings had been able to pull off a Herschel Walker type of trade. If I was Minnesota's GM and another team had offered their first, second, and third round picks for 2014, 2015, and 2016, I would have taken it.  It would be better for the Vikings to add more good players to their roster, instead of relying on one extraordinary player to do everything for them.  Adrian Peterson may be the greatest running back in NFL history, but the Vikings are still mired at the bottom of the league with a 1-7 record.

The Cowboys were able to draft outstanding players because of the Vikings generosity twenty four years ago, and won two Super Bowls as a result. Too bad no one out there in NFL land is as stupid today as former Vikings GM Mike Lynn was back in 1989.

Vikings' coaches are dumb

Being a Minnesota Viking fan can drive a person crazy. Only the Chicago Cubs can be a more difficult team to root for.
 

Sunday's 27-23 loss to the Dallas Cowboys is just another excruciating loss for the Vikings. What is hard to understand, as usual, is the thinking of the coaches. Why defensive coordinators slack off at the end of games when they have a lead is beyond me. They allow the opposing team to march down the field and score seemingly at will. Why not just keep playing the same way the entire game. Rushing more guys and keeping pressure on Tony Romo would have made more sense than trying to cover all the Cowboys receivers, especially since the Vikings were missing safety Harrison Smith and cornerback Chris Cook to injuries.
 

Why would head coach Leslie Frazier opt to try the Cowboys offsides on a 4th down, instead of letting kicker Blair Walsh try a 54 yard field goal? The fact that Walsh pushed an extra point attempt wide does not matter. Walsh is recovered from his hamstring injury and has made field goals over 50 yards look routine. It would have made more sense to just let the offense go for it on that 4th down instead of trying to draw the Cowboys offsides.
 

Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave continues his conservative play calling, making us wonder what he's thinking. Tackle Phil Loadholt is 6'8" and weighs 345 pounds, yet can't move anyone off the line.
 

Defensive coordinator Alan Williams said last week he wasn't "changing anything" despite the fact the Vikings' defense is at the bottom of the league in most statistical categories and the team is sporting a 1-7 record.
 

Rick Spielman and his scouting staff have obviously swung and missed on some players - Josh Robinson, Brandon Fusco, Charlie Johnson, John Carlson, Toby Gerhart, Erin Henderson, and Mistral Raymond to name a few - haven't amounted to much and are some reasons why the team has only won one game so far this season.

 
If Frazier and his crew don't win some games during the second half of this season, it's time they, along with Spielman, be shown the door in January, and Vikings fans will have to once again look to the future for some hope.