Friday's Notes

Baseball

• Center Fielder Torii Hunter is in the press yet again (I know, shocking!), this time he's talking about his disappointment with the Twins that they have yet to offer him a contract since his previous offer of 3-year $45 Million at the end of the season. He goes on to say that "it has nothing to do with money...that's just a percentage." And that his chances of remaining with the Twins are still "fat, but it can get slim quick.

• Earlier this week, the Twins made an easy move by picking up Joe Nathan's $6 Million option for next season. It's especially easy since his "market value" is probably twice that amount. The Twins will likely try to avoid any distractions next season and try to resign him this winter.

• Looks like, Charley Walters strikes again. Just a day after Walters published an article that the Twins have offered pitcher Carlos Sivla a "3-year deal worth slightly more than $7 million a season," Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune wrote this on his blog:

"One report said the Twins have offered Silva a three-year deal worth slightly more than $7 million per season. A local radio station went on to say Silva has “turned down” that offer. I called Silva’s agent, Peter Greenberg, and here’s the message he left on my voice mail: “No, the Twins have not made any offer to us as of 6:10 East Coast time, Thursday, Oct. 25. And you can quote me on that.”

Also spoke to a Twins official on the subject, and he said they have no idea where that’s coming from."

If you're wondering why I'm so critical of Walters, it's because he makes moronic statements such as this.

• Last night the Rockies kept things close but couldn't prevail as the Red Sox took a 2-0 advantage before the series heads to Colorado on Saturday. I like the Rockies chances in game 3 at home against Daisuke Matsuzaka, but with Josh Beckett likely starting game 4, I can't see another favorable match-up for them in the series. But it's baseball, and the reason I love it so much is that it's so unpredictable and anything can happen. But I'm not too optimistic for the Rockies chances in this one.

Football

• Falcon's corner back DeAngelo Hall's time in Atlanta may be coming to an end sooner than expected. The 23-year old in his 4th season got into another verbal spare with rookie head coach Bobby Petrino. He voiced his opinion (this time) through the media of his displeasure with the team cutting veteran defensive tackle Grady Jackson. Hall felt that the club was "signaling out" Jackson for the club's poor play thus far and called the decision "asinine." This is coming from him after being fined $100,000 by the Falcons just last month for his sideline rampage with Petrino.

How about a Chad "Ocho-Cinco" Johnson for DeAngelo "Big Time" Hall? Both teams struggle in the respected players position and both players are thought to be "on the block". It'd also be ironic that they'd be traded for one another after their known rivalry when they meet.

• And it looks like Brad Childress is finally "wising up" and will increase Adrian Peterson's role with the offense (likely meaning more "touches") as the season progresses. Well it's funny that it only took millions of fans or even people with very little football knowledge to figure that out before Childress did. I say this to you Brad Childress.

• In case you missed it, the Boston College vs. Virginia Tech football game did not disappoint. The #2 ranked B.C. Eagles down 10-0 went on a 91-yard scoring drive to put the Eagles down by just 3 with 2:11 remaining in the game. After recovering an onside kick, quarterback Matt Ryan and the Eagles came back and scored with just 11 seconds remaining in the game to put the Eagles ahead of the #8 Hokies for good at 14-10. Quarterback Matt Ryan made one of the best plays of the year as he rolled to the left, he threw a pass across to the back right of the end zone to connect with running back Andre Callender.

This win secures #2 Boston College's spot for the week and with #1 Ohio State playing a very tough #25 Penn State, it could put them at the top of the rankings by early next week.

It also erases some of the doubt of Matt Ryan's Heisman candidacy. With a great year now capt off with an incredibly clutch performance, Ryan looks to be the leader for the award at this point.

Basketball

• On Wednesday, the Timberwolves made yet another trade, this time moving proven veteran and scorer Ricky Davis along with Mark Blount to the Miami Heat for a package of 3 players including Antoine Walker. The Heat also gave us a conditional first-round draft pick in next June's draft.

I know some are very disturbed (others not at all) by this deal, because the team is losing it's most proven player in Ricky Davis who was looked on by many as the likely leader of our team this year. But, I'm not so sure it wasn't a bad move. I like that the Wolves are clearing room for Corey Brewer/Rashad McCants in the starting lineup which both have had impressive pre-seasons and both are important pieces to the future of our team. This season was labeled a "rebuilding year" after we traded away Kevin Garnett, and I think that keeping Ricky on the team was not the best thing for the future of our team since he likely wouldn't be an important piece for us in 2-3 years.

I will add that I do know many didn't like Ricky's attitude and thought he would hurt us more than help us.

I really have to give the Wolves and especially Kevin McHale credit. They said that we were going to rebuild, and they aren't pussyfooting around and they truly dismantled our team in about a year. So, we know he can dismantle a team, but can he rebuild it? That's the question we're going to be asking for the next few years, but call me optimistic.

One reason is because we have a good core of young players including guards Randy Foye, Brewer, McCants and Sebastian Telfair along with some talented forwards from Al Jefferson to Gerald Green. This deal also is moving two very over-payed players and we're getting a player in Michael Doleac who is a free agent next year, Wayne Simien who's still "cheap" and Walker who will probably never play for us (buyout, trade) so this deal definitely will help us in '09 when Kobe Bryant can opt out of his contract (I can dream).

Hockey

I want to say something constructive about Wild Hockey. But I'm still upset over their 5-3 loss against the Calgary Flames when they lead 3-0 with 10+ minutes remaining in the first period. And last night didn't help with a 5-4 loss in a shootout. It was a close game, but I just can't say anything constructive.