aboz56

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 19, 2005 -> 06:49 PM) CD's. Don't know about their CD's, but I know the quality of their DVDs are second rate at best.

Also a thanks goes to Hawk and Casey Harrelson in the original recruitment of AJ.

AP Top 25 1. Duke (66) 2. Connecticut (5) 3. Villanova (1) 4. Memphis 5. Florida 6. Illinois 7. Oklahoma 8. Gonzaga 9. Washington 10. Michigan St. 11. Louisville 12. UCLA 13. Geo. Washington 14. Boston Coll. 15. Texas 16. Maryland 17. North Carolina 18. Indiana 19. Kentucky 20. Nevada 21. N.C. State 22. Wake Forest 23. Tennessee 24. Ohio St. 25. Iowa

All of these guys listed are not difference makers. Most of them are injury risks. Let our young guys come in and take some spots in the pen. Our pen is not that bad. It's not as deep as last year, but it's not bad. Jenks Cotts Politte All three of those guys are solid and will be mostly 8-9 inning guys. I also think Hermanson will be able to pitch. Our rotation is so solid that we don't need a really good long man. If Garland stays, McCarthy will be in the pen. If he doesn't, McCarthy will be in the rotation. I think Tracey, Baj and a couple of non-roster invitees will take the final 2/3 spots, depending on how many we carry in the pen. Also, if we do trade Garland, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bullpen arm in the deal to maybe take one of the last spots. When it's all said and done, I expect us to carry 7 in the pen.

Neither one of them is worth a s*** if you ask me. Grossman is the better of the two. Bears need to get someone better next year though. (Wait, don't they say that every year.)

QUOTE(Milkman delivers @ Dec 19, 2005 -> 03:16 PM) Think this might mean Contreras will be signing an extension soon? I sure hope so, I'd like to see a 2 year deal for Jose with an option for a 3rd year. Something like this: 2006 - We already have him signed 2007 - 8 million 2008 - 8 million 2009 - 10 million team option with 3.5 million buyout So basically, 2 years, 16 million with a team option for 2009 at 10 million.

I'd trade him to Toronto or Atlanta and let him rot.

He'll be back next game after Grossman gets hurt on the opening play.

Great news. That's a bargain if you ask me. Might be time for an AJ jersey

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Dec 19, 2005 -> 12:25 PM) This is a good thread. Thanks a bunch for the info, everybody! I love this kind of stuff. I agree, great thread, hope to see it stick around and if anyone ever has any questions on burning and what not, I'd be glad to be of any assistance.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Dec 19, 2005 -> 12:14 PM) My burner is +R, thats the only reason. I always burn at 8x, my friend told me when I first started burning to only burn at 4x, but I tried 8x and it worked fine so just like DVD brand, I never changed. Why fix what isn't broken. If yuden is cheaper, I'm willing to give them a shot cause you said they're good quality. I know Fry's always has DVDs on sale for dirt cheap, but I never tried them cause I figured they wouldn't work as well. The brand is GQ....which I think is their own knockoff brand. The only thing I buy of that brand is their 8x10 photo paper. It's .99 cents for 20 sheets. and works great for movie covers. I would never use it for pictures though. Only reason I burn slow is you get less chance of a coaster from burning slower. I'm not mass producing or anything, so I can wait 14 minutes to burn at 4x. As far as store branded media goes, I wouldn't ever touch that stuff. Reading that DVD link I posted in my last post should give a pretty good idea as to what you can expect to be quality media and what you can expect not to be quality media.

More on DVD media quality: http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm Chaos, if you are looking for some +R Yuden, here is a great link for you: http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden...us-r-media.html Although I will say you can get -R a lot cheaper and I think they are just as good. Just curious as to why you prefer +R over -R. Is it your burner? These are what I use for the most part. Some of these will allow you to burn at 8x, but I never burn above 4X anyhow. http://www.supermediastore.com/taiyo-yuden...e-spindles.html

QUOTE(Sox Hustler @ Dec 18, 2005 -> 12:50 AM) Well coming from someone like you who knows their cd's I am surprised to see the comments on memorex. Did you have bad experiences with memorex because like I said, I've been using them for years and some of the first cd's I burned are working great. Try burning on a Memorex DVD and then actually getting it to play in a stand alone DVD player. I've done it and the playback issues are just terrible. Tons of skipping, freezing, etc. I bet out of a 50 spindle, I had 20 bad ones the last time I tried them. If you can get away with it and get it to work, that's great, but I would say for cheaper you can get Verbatims and Yuden's and know you are getting top quality media. Like I said, I've never had a Yuden bad disc, even with about 1000 burns to date. Http://www.supermediastore.com Read their reviews and what not.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 17, 2005 -> 10:35 PM) Is Imation any good? I have 200 of those. Depends, are you talking CDs or DVDs?

QUOTE(Rex Hudler @ Dec 17, 2005 -> 06:26 PM) alex, have you always been an MSU fan or did you grow up a UK or U of L fan and morph to MSU later with the emergence of Coach Izzo? I have never been a fan of either (U of L or UK). I really was just a college basketball fan in general up until about 1998 when I started to take a liking to Izzo. Met him shortly after and got to talk to him a few times (once for about 30 mins or so). What's not to like about Izzo? The guy is so intelligent and sharp its amazing. His passion when he talks about the game is something I admire. Back in the early 90's, I remember attending my first final four (1991) cheering for Duke to win because I loved Hill and Hurley so much. In 1997 when I went again, I remember pulling for Arizona to take down UK because by then I despised UK so much. Then in 2000, I was there to watch the Spartans cut down the nets which was awesome. Never was an IU supporter either under Knight but now under Davis I have started to cheer for my alma mater. In fact I cheer for the Hoosiers except when they play Mich St. I'd rank them as my team 1A for me.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Dec 17, 2005 -> 11:07 AM) I haven't seen TY anywhere, then again I haven't looked for it. Memorex doesn't work so well on my DVD players(Magnavox and a Samsung) so I use Sony and they work great. Two things Sony isn't overrated in: Computers & Blank CD's/DVD's. I use Memorex for blank cd's, however, since they're usually cheaper and great quality. Memorex is crap. I wouldn't use it for anything other than backing up pictures or mp3 files. Anything I wanted to play in a DVD player or CD player I would never put on a Memorex disc. Usually made by CMC Magnetics which is a crap company.

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Dec 17, 2005 -> 11:41 AM) You'll be happy to know that the same company makes almost all of them, no matter what the name on the package says. Just thought I'd share this. And they all have bad sectors of discs every now and again. I had damn near a whole package one time that was bad. Pissed me off. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Sorry Kap. Yuden makes a ton of discs, including their own brand, Sonys, some Fuji's and others, but there are tons of different companies who manufacture discs. DVD geeks like myself use a program called DVD Identifier which will tell you who exactly manufactures the disc upon putting it in your drive. Here is a good list of media codes, along with manufacturers. http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/155431 As you can see, a lot of different media out there with a lot of different manufacturers. A lot of it has to do with the dye that is used on the bottom of the disc. Some of these el cheapo discs are guaranteed to have a high coaster (bad disc) rate. I tend to stick to mostly anything that is Yuden or Mitsubishi made. Generally you'll just find Yuden's online at sites like supermediastore.com. Any Made in Japan Sony Discs are usually Yuden along with Made in Japan Fuji Film. Stay away from anything that is not Made in Japan. Made in Taiwans are pretty much crap. Store brands are all pretty much crap media, except Office Depot, who has their media made by Ritek. Anything else, compusa brand, staples brand, office max brand, complete crap. Some Maxell is good (depends if its Made in Japan or Made in Taiwan), Memorex, as a rule, is pretty much crap. I've had several bad spindles from them before I "saw the light" so to speak. Over 1000 burns to date using Yuden media, with not a coaster to report. Stick to the good stuff.

This is what Louisville gets for playing nobody. Neither they or Kentucky should be ranked. Oh well, maybe this helps MSU move up a few spots this week.

Curious as to what type of media you guys use: For me, I just stick to TY (Taiyo Yuden) and Verbatim for top quality burns.

Since the XM My Fi portable antenna they give you with the product sucks, I've been doing some research and have heard this could be the latest and the greatest for portable reception: http://www.xmfanstore.com/showproduct.php?id=clipxt I may try this soon as its gotten some good reviews on this site.

Crede and Rowand both panned out. Carlos Lee as well.

Unless he cuts down his strikeouts, he will be another Mike Cameron. I know Jason has been a huge fan of Young for a while, with good reason, but to say at worst he'll be Mike Cameron is an overstatement IMO. Let's not forget that Mike Cameron is a pretty damn good MLB player. I saw a guy from Baseball Prospectus the other day on ESPN News talking about Young and he seemed to believe the same thing I do, Young is a high ceiling guy, but the strikeout numbers are disturbing. Young is an awesome combination of power and speed nontheless and was the major chip for us to acquire Vazquez. I think his defense would be slightly less than that of Cameron's.

If he's lucky, another Mike Cameron.

If you want a good site for burning and what not, here ya go. http://forums.afterdawn.com