The Skolney Blog

Ecstatic to have meaningful baseball back. Less enthused at being immediately reminded of how MLB has been so thoroughly overtaken by the pitch count Nazis. Jake Odorizzi. 6 shutout innings, 93 pitches. Never even seriously threatened. But (adopts terrified voice) oh no he's close to 100 pitches! His arm is going to spontaneously combust if he goes over 100! Eek! In all the years that pitch counts have become more important to teams than winning, there has never been a shred of evidence that 100 pitches makes someone more susceptible to injury than 110 or 120. They're just numbers, which all need context. It's all connected to the analytics zealots, the WAR mongers, but it drives me insane. It's not to say that leaving Odorizzi in for another inning would have made the difference for the Twins today, but nothing makes a team flailing at the plate perk up more than seeing a pitcher who has been dominating them leave the game. Twins will be fine. This was just a parti...

Twins: 89-73 This club should make a slight improvement over last year. They overachieved last year, and benefited from a woeful crop of AL teams, but instead of just standing pat they actually made some significant improvements. 6 weeks of no Santana and half a season of no Polanco (who was garbage until August last year anyway) will hurt a little, but they should be able to at minimum hang in the wild card race all season. A full season of good Buxton would be huge. Dozier and Mauer are both in contract years, so you know they will both be good. Besides Castro the lineup should be potent. Pair that with a still not stellar but certainly improved pitching staff  and about 37% of your schedule being against the White Sox, Royals and Tigers, and this should be a wild card team. League predictions: AL EAST: 1. Yankees 2. Red Sox 3. Blue Jays 4. Orioles 5. Rays It hurts, but the Yankees are going to probably run away with things. Boston is still loaded enough to get a wild ca...

The reaction to A Wrinkle In Time has been rather amusing. It's received mostly negative reviews, yet many have been furious it didn't receive WORSE ones. It takes very little thought to figure out what type of person would be so invested in tearing down a film famously being the highest priced project ever helmed by a black director, with a black girl lead, and with Oprah so heavily featured in the marketing. But if you actually watch the movie, it's obvious why even the negative reviews have largely cut the film a break. It's a freaking mess, but it is one of the most creative and unique messes in ages. It's sort of ironic too that the whole theme of the movie is antithetical to the entire angry internet troll mentality. That's another way the film stands out. It's really REALLY sincere. You can tell the book was written long before detached cynicism became the 24/7 personality of so many. The film reeks of being severely cut down from a longer original...

Nick Foles carves up Mike Zimmer and Bill Belichick defenses to win a super bowl. A 16 beats a 1. Next?

Hell of a comeback.

😭😭😭😭😭

Not looking good.

Cousins ✔ Good backup in Siemian ✔ Restructure the Tay Train ✔ Sheldon Richardson to pair with Linval ✔ I'm amazed there are still Spielman haters out there.

Love that it stayed super serious. The 2 jokes were pretty clearly from moments in the early part of the film. This is going to be an emotional grind. Thanos looks badass. Shuri muh baby! Peter and Dr. Strange! Tony and Star Lord! Thor and Groot! I can't even believe this is only part ONE basically.

*cuts to shots of Tony and Cap* 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Damn you Marvel. You're really gonna do that to us.

I never knew there was this whole little basement-dwelling crew of (naturally) right wing nut jobs who stalked my Twitter (new AND old?🤔) and then talked about how CRAZY I am! I had a whole bunch of Vikings fans who used to talk shit behind my back and stuff cause I favored Ponder over Cassell. But at least there there was a common interest. If you're some die hard Trump fan who is loving our country's slow descent into absolute fascism, then why would you pay attention to me at all? I'm a bleeding heart, angry liberal. Block me and move on. I doubt you basement-dwelling freaks would even find much interest in my Twitter going forward. I don't have much choice at this point, but I'm going to be doing very little politically-themed tweeting anymore. Maybe just retweets, bland stuff. No more engaging with the Trumptards. No point anyway. Not like I'm going to get through to these people. It can't be done. Donald Trump could stab to death every me...

Guess I gotta learn to spell that name properly. Siemian not simian. Don't know what's going to Denver, but Siemian is the right kind of backup. Young but with experience, cheap, and if he has to play he could at least play capably. ...... Vikings fans mad about this too, of course. Mad about dumping a late 2019 pick for a decent backup QB and a pick. I swear, some of these people are complete fucking idiots.

Gawd, there are already Vikings fans saying how we can't sign Cousins again in 3 years cause he will be too expensive. The ink isn't even dry on this first deal yet! Hell, the ink isn't even WET!

I'm out for a week for telling a cuntservative to blow me, but twitter is swimming with cuntservatives viciously attacking students nationwide for participating in the walkouts to protest guns. ..... Hi stalkers. I 👀 you. Don't have any fucking clue who most of you are, but thanks for stopping by anyway.  

Because of course. 😩😩😩

Knew both were gone, especially with Cousins coming in. Bradford leaving has me pretty ambivalent. I would have taken him back as a cheap backup, but somehow he gets $15 million guaranteed from Arizona. But this closes the book on that whole weird saga. I will go to my grave questioning if Rick really HAD to give up a #1 for the guy, but in retrospect only bad luck made it a bad trade. Sam gets us to the playoffs easily in 2016 if the whole offensive roster doesn't implode. And you had to retain your hopes of a run in 2016. Very sad to see Teddy go. He will go down as one of the most tragic figures in the history of Minnesota sports. Who would have guessed how much would be lost with that Blair Walsh shank? Teddy never played a meaningful snap in purple again. Had his knee not exploded on that August afternoon, he would have likely ascended to at least borderline top 10 QB level by now. Who knows if either of the last 2 seasons get us to the super bowl with him, but he deserved t...

Vikings fans and the self-appointed genius bloggers going nuclear over the Cousins deal impending. Spewing the same tired WRONG takes they've spewed for weeks.

Case Keenum to the Broncos. Good spot for him. Easier conference, still a proven defense behind him. If he indeed wasn't a Shurmur-led one year wonder he'll have a chance to succeed. I suspect he was though, and obviously so did the Vikings. That doesn't mean what he did for us in 2017 was irrelevant. The amount of the credit he should get for 14-4 is debatable, but there is no question that had he not stepped in for Bradford and mostly played well we do not have that season. That run from the Tampa game through the Thanksgiving win at Detroit built the season. Case only had a couple games where he really was more than just a very solid caretaker, but with that defense playing like they did it was all they needed. Basically he was in 2017 what I had once hoped Christian Ponder would be. But c'mon Case apologists, after that Lions win he did very little the rest of the way. The passing game did very little the last 5 weeks of the regular season, and included in there...

1. Packers fans achieving sobriety 2. Philadelphia media calling out Eagles fans for their thuggish  behavior. 3. Donald Trump displaying humility 4. Donald Trump displaying remorse 5. Donald Trump displaying empathy 6. Donald Trump displaying any recognizable human emotion. 7. Infinity War being a disappointment 8. Twitter being consistent at all in enforcing their conduct policy 9. Me hitting the lottery 10. The Vikings, Wild and Wolves all winning titles before I die

So I see Vikings Nation is already going into a collective panic about the Cousins chase. Instantly going into worst case scenario hypotheticals is such a Vikings fan thing to do. Errrmagerrrd wherrrt if we derrrrnt get Kerrrrk! We're getting Kirk Cousins. Just a question of which day the contract is signed, and what the terms are. The pathological need for some to turn Cousins into some duplicitous diva tease, who is going to sabotage the Vikings entire off-season, is laughable to me.

Wrapped it up pretty quick. Not exactly a reflection of my enjoyment of it. Felt it was a pretty mixed bag, a lot like season 1. Actually a lot like all the Marvel Netflix shows not called Daredevil. Was bogged down by a lot of annoying characters. I don't recall hating Trish in season 1, but almost every scene with her this time was excruciating. And Jessica's mom was just not compelling.

One upside of my Twitter banishment is I am largely spared the attention-seeking goofs who have no apparent connection to the league, the Vikings, or anyone in the know, yet constantly claim to have inside knowledge about what moves are about to happen. "My sources indicate the Vikings will sign Kirk Cousins" Well yeah, tons of actual credible media folks have said the same. Just cause you have a blog or something (nothing against blogs) doesn't mean you have special info.

A long form movie review? What is this, 2005? Anyway, I mostly enjoyed Gringo. It doesn't start that well. The first 30 minutes or so are dominated by the asshole characters played by Charlize Theron and Joel Edgerton, not to mention Thandie Newton's detestable wife, that it's a slog. But things pick up after that. The movie's zig zag plot is a lot of fun,  and it's all made fresh by casting David Oyelowo, an actor who I've only ever really seen be serious, as a kind of sad sack put-upon everyman. He takes to it like a duck in water. And we also get some fun turns by Sharlto Copley and Amanda Seyfried. It's never THAT funny, but it's a fun watch.

The Twins quiet off-season sure has turned around. First the Odorizzi trade, and now signing Lance Lynn. Great move for a couple reasons. One, it gives them one more solid rotation piece, which is always good, but in particular for the Twins, who now should ably weather the Santana absence,  and also this takes some of the pressure off Berrios. As of a few weeks ago they desperately needed Berrios to become an ace NOW. Now he can simply take another step up, preferably still into ace territory, but it's not mandatory. These moves should more or less lock the Twins into 2018 contention. They won't be as good as Boston, Houston or the hated Yankees, and I'm not sure they have closed that whole 17 game gap on Cleveland, but they should be a wild card team, and at least should be very much in it through all 162. If not, hey, Lynn can be traded for a nice little haul. Similar to the Jaime Garcia deal.

Meanwhile there's someone on Twitter RIGHT NOW calling me a vile human being and a lunatic. I reported the tweets.... ....and Twitter tells me there is no violation. Can't. Make. This. Up.

So why am I blogging to myself? Well, once again  I have had my Twitter account shut down. Allegedly this will only be for a week, but I know where this is headed. So why not chronicle the madness that has been my Twitter existence these last 6 or 7 months. My original account was started waaaaaay back in early 2009. Didn't even really know what Twitter was. I read an article in this thing called a "newspaper" about it, then checked it out and decided to start an account. Didn't really even use it that much for a long time, primarily because I did not have a phone that I could use to tweet. But once I did get one in early 2011 I was off and running. I was addicted. And for like 6+ years there was no change  I had some ugly run-ins with right wingers during the 2012 election, which taught me to not have my actual name on the account, but beyond that no real issues. Until last year. I can't recall exactly when I first had my account locked. It was either late la...