OMG, Phil Ivey made it to the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

This is huge.

Just returned home today from an epic weekend on Lake Mille Lacs. One of my good buddies from college is tying the knot in early August, and about 30 guys participated in a weekend full of golf, fishing, camping, great food, drinks, bar action, etc. We even had a chance to watch the Brock Lesnar fight in its entireity.

Let me say this… I love Brock Lesnar! His post-fight interview definitely crossed the line, but it was hilarious. And he clearly tapped into his old WWE “heel” days, trashing a dazed Frank Mir after he had already pummeled him.

Lesnar = huge buy rates. Dana White knows this, even if he’s forced to scold Lesnar publicly. Now sign Fedor and let’s see what Lesnar’s really made of!

Anyhow, the Twins just took two out of three from the White Sox and finish the first half of the season 4 games behind Detroit (1/2 game back of Chicago) in the AL Central. As I’ve said many times, this team has a few major flaws, but those flaws are extremely fixable.

For a look at how the Twins may fix those flaws (bullpen, 2b, etc.), I encourage everyone to check out TwinsCentric: An Unapologetically Biased Guide to the 2009 Trade Season for Twins Fans Only, written by four of the best Twins bloggers around — John Bonnes, Parker Hageman, Seth Stohs and Nick Nelson. Foreword written by yours truly.

It’s a 65-page state-of-the-Twins breakdown, with information on needs and available trade prospects. The primer also looks at every team in the Bigs and discusses whether those squads are buyers or sellers.

Speaking of which, my buddy Darren “Doogie” Wolfson basically stole the words from my mouth with this post. I agree with basically everything.

I’ve used Fanball.com for fantasy leagues since 2003, and for the most part, their site is serviceable. Certainly not as good as the glory days when the one-and-only Paul Charchian ran the show, but good enough.

Unfortunately, Fanball has always pumped out RIDICULOUSLY INFERIOR player updates. I mean, the worst player updates ever.

When I go to CBS Fantasy Sports, I can find 100-word updates on each player at least once a week, sometimes more. When I go to Rotoworld, Yahoo! or even ESPN, I can find awesome player updates with advice.

But Fanball always goes the path of John Madden, stating the insultingly obvious.

“A.J. Burnett won his eighth game of the season on Wednesday. He held the Twins to two runs on seven hits and four walks over 6.1 innings in the Yankees’ 4-3 win.”

Thanks. I already saw that in the box score.

“Kurt Suzuki went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI in the A’s 5-4 loss to the Red Sox on Wednesday.”

Oh yeah? Cool. Thanks for the details.

But on Thursday night, Fanball took it a step further. Whoever the Johnny Jackass is who wrote the following update should be fired immediately for unnecessary stupidity…

“Scott Olsen (WAS) was rocked for five earned runs on six hits over five innings in Thursday’s 11-10 win over the Astros at Nationals Park. He had two walks and four strikeouts.”

The problem? The aforementioned game between Washington and Houston was suspended earlier this season and picked up in the 10th inning on Thursday night. Olsen obviously never appeared on Thursday night.

OK, this isn’t really a huge deal. I’m just venting six years worth of player update frustrations.

Fanball, please tell your writers to not be so lazy and incompetent. Tell them to do more than simply sift through box scores and rehash information we could gather ourselves by watching SportsCenter.

And Ron Gardenhire, please stop hitting Matt Tolbert 2nd.

Thank you.

Hey everyone, I’m moving my website to a new template. Sick of maintaining it from scratch, as it’s a huge pain in the ass.

Check back soon!

So I’ve obviously been horrible about blogging regularly this summer. This is because I’ve been extremely focused on Minnesota Poker Magazine and a few other things, but as always, you can find me talking about baseball on the radio three days a week (Monday morning at 8:20, Wednesday morning at 10:05, and Sunday evening at 5:00… AM 1130 KFAN and KFAN.com).

Or, if you don’t want to hear me, you can simply avoid listening to the radio at the aforementioned times.

Anyhow, here are some random thoughts from my Twins notebook:

- I know the White Sox are right in the thick of the AL Central mix, but I still believe it’s a two team race between Detroit and Minnesota. I don’t trust Chicago’s starting pitching as much as I trust the other two teams’, and I certainly don’t trust their ability to field a healthy offensen for three months.

- Francisco Liriano has more movement on his pitches over the last two starts. It’s still a bit concerning that his four pitches range between 85-92 MPH, but if there’s enough movement I suppose he can make it work. Would rather see a changeup in the low 80s though.

- How awesome has Nick Blackburn been this season? Talk about a nice surprise. He’s throwing A LOT more fastballs this season than he did in 2008 (60% vs. 47%). Just attacking hitters. He’s also leaving more runners on base, and he’s cut way down on his HRs allowed.

It’s a slight red flag that Blacky is ctually walking more batters and striking out fewer compared to 2008, which leads me to believe his success won’t be quite as prevalent in the second half of the season. But you don’t need to blow hitters away to succeed in the Bigs. And Blacky is proving just that.

- Bullpen guys I’d like to see the Twins go after at the deadline: Matt Capps (PIT), Jeremy Affeldt (SF), Cla Meredith (SD). Please don’t roll with status quo and hope it leads to a division title. Not a good gameplan. Be proactive!

- Here’s a chicken scratch version of my All Star snubs (notice I’m not a huge fan of pitchers who go to All Star game because of high win totals…):

AL Pitchers (Wakefield biggest non-deserving guy for me… 10 wins DOESN’T MATTER)
- Cliff Lee (3.39 ERA, 82 K’s, but only 4 wins… not his fault)
- Dallas Braden (3.13 ERA, only 6 wins…)
- Blackburn? ERA around 3

AL Hitters (Josh Hamilton non-deserving)
- Russell Branyan (20 bombs, OBP machine, hitting .295…. but where do you put him?)
- Adam Lind (18 bombs, hitting over .300… but too many OFs)
- Miguel Cabrera (hitting over .320… 16 HR, but too many 1B)

NL Pitchers (Jason Marquis undeserving in my mind, even after lights-out performance last night… the rest are tough)
- Joel Piniero (WOW… 3.39 ERA, only 12 BB and 3 HR allowed… but only 6 wins)
- Jair Jurrjens (2.73 ERA, but only 6 wins…)
- Javier Vazquez (seriously? 3.05 ERA, 130 K, 23 BB… only 5 wins… UNREAL how he’s not on the squad)
- Yovani Gallardo (2.75 ERA, 114 K)
- Ubaldo Jimenez (3.75 ERA, 85 K, only 4 HR allowed… Would rather see him than Marquis)

NL Hitters
- Pablo Sandoval (hitting over .330, OBP guy, best hitter in SF lineup)
- Mark Reynolds (23 HR, 58 RBI, 13 SB…)
- Adam Dunn (22 HR, 59 RBI)