Jake

The best argument I've heard about the whole raising money for conservation by shooting endangered animals business is this: the thing that is threatening these animals is the way that many of us humans regard them. We don't value their lives, well-being, habitat, etc. While we may get some money to throw at the problem by encouraging some legal, controlled hunting, we may in fact be making the actual cause of the problem worse. Hunting them trains us to continue believing that killing them is fine, morally speaking. Nobody wants the animals to be extinct but no one kill makes them extinct. But if every person can kill them for their own selfish reasons and feel no guilt, nobody will feel responsible for the collective well-being of the species. I killed one to put it on my wall sure, but that's just one and I paid a lot of money for it. It's hard to say for sure what the best way to approach it is. People have made similar arguments about global warming/pollution/the environment and I think there is a good counterargument in that case: technological and policy solutions could very realistically be a relatively permanent solution to the human-induced CO2 emissions problem and if we can do that rather than try to change worldwide attitudes, we should go ahead and do it. But when we're talking about preserving a living species, it's an ongoing problem that seems very difficult to fix with some sort of magic bullet solution. If someone could convince me that using the market to save them could work, I'd be open to it even if I would continue to be fairly disgusted by the means (killing innocent animals for no reason beyond self-fulfillment/aggrandizement).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 20, 2015 -> 12:31 PM) And yet his numbers were always pretty darn solid for a guy who has less than overwhelming offspeed stuff. His changeup is nasty IMO, but it's rarely a strike if batters don't swing at it. And I mean his fastball isn't exactly meat, it just always surprised me that people weren't really swinging at it like it was hard to hit. Luckily it always had a ton of run, too.

In general, this is a case where it doesn't make sense to compare Brady's punishment with people who have committed crimes. What Brady did can only be adjudicated by the NFL because it only concerns football games. Comparing to PED abuse makes sense.

LaRoche was adequate albeit slightly underperforming for the first two months or so and then suddenly just dropped like an absolute rock. Maybe it's injury, maybe it's mental, but something out of the ordinary for sure.

Crap defense, not a good baserunner, doesn't walk, has only a little bit of pop. He's one of those guys who has very few methods of being successful: has to just hit for a really high average because the rest of his game doesn't add value. If he were a right fielder, he'd be Avi Garcia. He's not a right fielder, so he has more value, but it's the same thing.

lol If you didn't get Bryant back, which you wouldn't, you'd be walking away from a Sale trade with Schwarber, Russell, and several other guys who aren't just throw-ins.

Trump has a relatively small portion of the stated votes in the national polls. A huge portion of his popularity as a candidate (as measured by the polls) is simply that there are a lot of people that like him as a celebrity and he has by far the best name recognition in the field. You could also frame this whole thing as >80% of Republicans vote against Trump. Our friends on the right aren't insane and Trump won't win the primary. I'd of course be tickled if he ran as a third party candidate and grabbed some votes, though.

I think it would be pretty crazy to acquire a huge money player and offload a great player at the same spot based on the hope you could flip him a week later. Why not just do a three-way deal?

I think the best argument Brady has is that the NFL's past and the way the investigation was carried out led him to have no trust that things would be carried out fairly. He was uncooperative because he didn't believe they would be looking for the truth when they used his evidence, only for anything that could be used against him. Of course, he probably did try to get those balls deflated, but they've done a fairly poor job of showing it.

We could always, you know, put him on the DL...

Moto G is an excellent option that is affordable but not so underpowered that it will frustrate you now or in a couple years.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jul 29, 2015 -> 11:41 AM) Ivana stated it wasn't true that The Don raped her. This is Trump's lawyer not Trump making the statement. I think the media blew this up a little too much. Ivana said that she felt very violated but didn't want people to interpret her comments as a criminal accusation. That's fair. It's also what I'd do if I didn't want to be in court against Donald Trump anymore. Trump's lawyer's comment was incredibly callous and inaccurate and is getting so much play because he proceeded to threaten the reporter with Donald's resources.

Samardzija's sinking K rate, velocity, and release point worries me as far as an extension goes.

Always assumed that was a self portrait

Are you guys having fun or what? ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

QUOTE (reiks12 @ Jul 28, 2015 -> 09:05 PM) Why did Betts jump over the fence? He had no reason to and could have stopped himself or crashed into the wall. I'm so tired of these hotshots trying to get their exposure on Baseball Tonight's web gem segment. If I was the pitcher I'd be LIVID if an outfielder did that to me. I'm pretty sure he did it to avoid crashing into the wall

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jul 28, 2015 -> 09:03 PM) What are their fans chanting? "Bulls***"

I honestly don't see any reason to call this a non-catch.

The point of jumping into the bullpen was to avoid running full-speed into the wall. Pretty clever.

Drug testers stay away, if his play is any indication the results will be HOT

They're doing so much crazy s*** after getting a hit that the broadcast can't even show it all

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Jul 28, 2015 -> 03:05 PM) Goodell said 4 days ago he was not aware of any appeal by Bell yet rules on it today what a liar. The NFL has reduced Le'Veon Bell's suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy from three games to two. That sound you hear is Bell racing back to the top of draft boards. Including the Steelers' bye, Bell is still ticketed to miss 23 percent of the fantasy regular season, but he's a dual-threat difference maker who provides a weekly edge in all formats of fantasy. That's especially true in PPR leagues, where Bell is a no-brainer at No. 1 overall. Bell is the goal-line back and primary checkdown target for an offense that wants to score 30 points per game this season. DeAngelo Williams will get the start in Weeks 1 and 2, where Pittsburgh is facing New England and San Francisco. Source: Jarrett Bell on Twitter Why the hell would you include that?

I'd be happy to give up Spencer Adams for CarGo, quite honestly.

I'd want to walk away with Stroman as well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 28, 2015 -> 11:27 AM) The changes really started to happen once the defense solidified. Alexei and Eaton started fielding like themselves again, Gillaspie and Johnson were banished, and everyone else stayed OK. This team has been a lot more competitive with each notch the defense has gotten better. I think one of the key things is we had bad defense guys in there--Gillaspie the poster boy and Micah for the first month--and they weren't really hitting. No use having no defense, no hit players. And I think Robin in particular felt that poor defense had a demoralizing effect on the team.