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Wild's Shootout Winning Ways, Twins' Spring Games, and Vikings' Decision Days
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Wild's Shootout Winning Ways, Twins' Spring Games, and Vikings' Decision Days

We discuss how Frederick Gaudreau is leading the Wild's shootout winning ways, how the Twins’ injury-proofness is already being tested, and the hard decisions the Vikings need to make before March 15.

We discuss how Frederick Gaudreau is leading the Wild's shootout winning ways, how the Twins’ injury-proofness is already being tested, and the hard decisions the Vikings need to make before March 15.

The Wild are Shootout Gods!

  • The Wild got another shootout win over the Islanders, Tuesday

  • Ryan Reaves won a fight and scored his first goal of the year

    • At his kid’s hockey game, he was hearing a lot of chirping from kids who had more goals than him; his response via Joe Smith on Twitter: “Wherever you are, eat that”

  • Wild are one point behind Dallas in the Central

    • Stars have a game in hand

    • Only one point ahead of the Avs, who have three games in hand

    • Firmly in the playoff hunt, however

Spring Games Already Testing Twins’ Injury-proofness

  • Pablo Lopez looked great; Jorge Lopez had command issues but did touch 97 on the gun

  • Trevor Megill doesn’t look great

    • Got one out; allowed three hits, three walks, and six earned runs (162 ERA)

  • Our baseball boner for Brooks Lee is getting bigger

    • .444 average, 1.000 OPS

  • Elliot Soto and Edouard Julien are mashing 

    • Julien went yard twice on Monday 

    • Julien in AA ball last year posted a .563 on base percentage and a .686 slugging percentage

    • If Lee and Julien keep producing like this, what do the Twins do?

  • Tyler Mahle’s stuff looked good today

    • Velocity already at 94; better than last year)

  • Injuries? 

    • Larnach–late scratch today–some sort of lower body injury

    • Miranda has a sore shoulder (that’s why he’s been DHing so much)

  • Thoughts on pitch clock: love it!

    • Hopefully results in more manager/umpire arguments and ejections

    • Keeps the game moving by punishing slow-ass players

What Hard Decisions Will the Vikings Make?

  • Do the Vikings extend Kirk Cousins again?

    • This is the last year of his contract

    • Kwesi Adofo-Mensah doesn't say yes or no to a Cousins extension: “Let’s go full numbers, we talk about necessary and sufficient conditions in math; a necessary condition is having a starter-level quarterback, a quarterback above a certain threshold. Now that doesn’t mean for-sure you’re going to win, that's not the only thing you need, but that is one of the things you need. Having a good level quarterback is a necessary condition. Kirk (Cousins) meets that threshold, we know that...How long does he meet that threshold? Those are things we need to answer. Is there a chance to add somebody maybe with different skill sets? These are all questions we gotta answer so there’s not one right way but I do know one thing, he is good enough, he meets that first threshold. That's a question a lot of people can’t answer with a yes, so we have to make sure we treat that in the proper importance that it is.”

  • Who’s gone on March 15th? 

    • Adam Thielen, Dalvin Tomlinson, Patrick Peterson, Chandon Sullivan, Garrett Bradbury?

  • Will the Vikings’ defense improve with younger players and Brian Flores?  

    • The right scheme, especially on defense, is more important than having superstars 

    • We do get back players we just drafted last year: Lewis Cine (S) and Andrew Booth (CB)

      • We drafted heavy on the defensive side of the ball last year

Anthony Edwards Acts Alongside Adam Driver in Latest 65 Promo

  • The Wolves haven’t been good on the court, but this made us laugh

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Anthony Varriano’s Substack
Minnesota Foul Play-by-play
Colorful commentary on Minnesota sports and play-by-play on foul play in sports with our attorney on retainer.