ptatc

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 02:06 PM) They require their members (and students) to meet certain academic standards to be eligible. "Student-Athletes" and all that bulls***. Also, there are true student athletes in sports other than football and basketball. My daughter is at a DI university running track and cross country. She would not be able to attend that school without the scholarship and is maintaining a 3.6 GPA. The issue is the "student-athlete" who doesn't want to be a student.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 02:06 PM) They require their members (and students) to meet certain academic standards to be eligible. "Student-Athletes" and all that bulls***. Well that's a different topic than than monitoring academics. The minimum standards are really low. Personally, I think there should be an alternative to college athletics. Only kids who are going to spend the 4 years should even be allowed to go to college and participate in collegiate athletics. However, with the money generated by football and basketball it would really hurt the universities. The NCAA and pro sports should get together and form minor leagues for football and basketball. This way the universities still get some revenue but they aren't the minor leagues for those sports. Maybe there should be a rule that if you attend a university for football and basketball you can't participate in pro sports for 2 years after you leave. Edit: It really isn't the fault of the NCAA. It's that the pro sports won't allow the athletes in their sport until a certain age. You can't fault the NFL as the athletes aren't physically mature enough yet. Also, athletes who go to the universites with no intention of focusing on the college education.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxfan1986 @ Jan 24, 2018 -> 08:53 PM) Johan Santana was the best pitcher in the game for a 5 to 7-year period. I think he's a Hall of Famer and it's criminal that he's off the ballot already. I think his time was just too short. He only pitched over 160 innings or so for 5 seasons. He was only a full time starter for 8 seasons.

QUOTE (JenksIsMyHero @ Jan 25, 2018 -> 01:51 PM) I love that the NCAA is in the morality/legal arena, but not academics. Makes sense. What would the National Collegiate Athletic Association have to do with academics? It is by definition the Athletic governing body.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 24, 2018 -> 06:24 PM) Thome only behind Bomds, McGwire, Ruth and Giancarlo in HR %. Higher OBP than Rickey Henderson. All time leader in walk off HR. Same amount of postseason HR as Big Papi in 102 less plate appearances. Did it clean. He is more than worth. Very deserving. No doubt. No one more deserving.

QUOTE (zisk @ Jan 24, 2018 -> 08:53 AM) Weed stays in your system in trace amounts longer than booze. It is also much less harmful to the human body than booze. I don't even smoke weed but it shouldn't be tested for IMO. If you show up to work sober, I couldn't care less how you get your buzz on. Doesn't matter. I don't care what it is. If you're employer has a policy and you fail it 3 times, you get what you deserve.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jan 24, 2018 -> 08:37 AM) Apparently, sons of former MLB players that are named after said player themselves become very good baseball players. At least that's what Guerrero Jr. and Tatis Jr. seem to be showing. I think Griffey Jr. already had something to say about that.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 06:46 PM) Is this for pot? If so, this is so stupid. After a third failed drug test, you deserve what you get.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jan 23, 2018 -> 10:42 AM) Should WR be the #1 target for the Bears in round 1? Or OL, or DB? With that high of a pick, go impact pass rusher. Leonard has not stayed healthy. They need to pressure the QB.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 21, 2018 -> 10:23 PM) Okay, PTAC, you're as "middle of the road" as it gets around here. What's the compromise on immigration that the Republican House and Trump can actually sign off on without risking a total rebellion from their base of supporters? Unfortunately, the politics have become so "us against them" I'm not sure what the compromise would be they would agree on. I know what I would probably view as a compromise but I'm not sure they would agree to it. The Democrats all seem to fall inline and can agree what they want. However, the Republicans are split in a "moderate" and really conservative group on this issue so they can't agree amoung themselves.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 21, 2018 -> 07:37 PM) Deporting hundreds of thousands to a country they've never known and tearing families apart entirely because of who they are is exactly what America represents to the rest of the world right now, with good reason, because that's who we are. You make it sound like the US is the only country where immigration is an issue. The main push for the Brexit was around the same issues. The people in the UK wanted to kick out the LEGAL immigrants to stop taking their jobs and paying for them in their economy. If anything the issues of immigration are worse the here, it's just that there are more here due to the size of the countries involved.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 21, 2018 -> 01:21 PM) The Jags defense can easily cause havoc on the Pats offense, we've seen defenses win big playoff games recently. But it's so hard to believe Blake Bortles can win a game like this, especially against Belichik who will have something up his sleeve for him. Pats 20-17 Wow did the refs do everything they could to give the Patriots another posession before the half.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 06:40 PM) The F***? Are you actually not counting the explosion in franchise value? Where they went from neat playtoys to billion dollar assets? Thats what the article was referencing.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 03:01 PM) Before I respond, I'd just like to preface by saying that I'm not one of those people who doesn't understand Yelich's value- the combination of his contract, defense, and hitting makes him one of the most valuable assets in baseball. That said, Rutherford/Hansen/Cease is probably fair value once you factor in Jeter's ineptitude. I wouldn't do it because we're not yet at the point to sell prospects for premium assets, except for in some crazy case where Mike Trout were made available. I'm not as down on Rutherford as you, but I especially disagree on Cease, who I believe can still be a starter. I don't put much stock in his 2017 numbers, which were tainted by a comically bad defense behind him. I would never trade 2 possible high end starters in one trade for a position player.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 03:01 PM) The average salary has only jumped 28 times after inflation since they were artificially held down in the 60s? I'm stunned it's that little. And "Since the first CBA" is a pretty terrible standard to use for this - the players salaries jumped by factors of 10 in 1967-1982, and again by factor of 10 from 1982-2000, then only by a factor of 4 over the last 17 years. Either revenue growth has dramatically slowed or the share going to the players has decreased dramatically. It's still double what the owners received.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 02:25 PM) Why do we begrudge the worker gains, but not the owner? I don't think anyone begrudges worker gains. It's just a fact that their salary is so much more than the average person that people have money envy. If you think people don't begrudge the owners money you haven't read the posts on here about JR being a billionaire and too cheap. Or the comments about the McCaskey's being too cheap. This town dislikes most owners because they are rich and "cheap."

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 02:21 PM) Yet everyone seems to feel bad for the owners having to spend money, even though they are all 10x richer than the players. Yes. they are the owners not the employees. They spent the money to buy the team and assume all of the risk if the team doesn't do well or if the team loses money. The players have zero risk. The will make their money regardless of what happens with the team. They can sign a 100 million dollar contract, get hurt and never play again and still collect all their money.

QUOTE (Dam8610 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 01:39 PM) When expressed as a percentage of what the total profit is, yes, they are. That could be true but that's not what a salary is. The comment was that the salary is less and less. The salaries are not less. I had the same discussion in the financial section. I can't believe how many people think that employees should make as much as the owners. It boggles my mind. Also, the players have fared much better than owners since the first CBA. Here is some info from this article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhause...8/#5e48ba273e48 It marked the latest coup for sports’ most powerful union where the average salary has jumped 20,700% (2,832% after inflation) since players signed the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in pro sports in 1968. Baseball owners have also experienced dramatic gains during that time however they have not kept up with the growth in salaries. The values are up 11,300% on average, or roughly half the increase in salaries.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 01:16 PM) Oh crap, didn't realize they had less than 4 months to find a new station. Yikes. Less than 2 months if you want to hear Spring Training games.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 12:27 PM) So basically the owners are pocketing more money and players are earning less and less. That has all the making of another labor stoppage. Players salaries have increased at a dramatic rate. The players are not earning less.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 18, 2018 -> 03:12 PM) It's not just that - the lack of a hard salary cap is hurting now too. You have 2 behemoth teams, the Yankees and the Dodgers, that are well built for about $200 million, and one of them is going to add Bryce Harper next offseason to a team that already was really good. You then have a handful of other well built teams, but basically you have right now 4 behemoth teams, 2 of them with huge money spent. If your team wins 88 games next year, do you really think you can outgun the Dodgers in a 7 game series and the Indians in the next one? I don't. Teams know that if they are stuck in the middle, that isn't good enough right now. They need to be exceptional, and they can't get there with the talent available. The issue is that the Union really doesn't care about teams being competitive only that salaries continue to increase. I agrre that a hard salary cap and floor would benefit them more in the long term.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 07:56 AM) Yeah, I think pretty much all the clear channels come in really well. Honestly WTMJ almost definitely comes in better than WMVP. I remember that.

QUOTE (3GamesToLove @ Jan 19, 2018 -> 07:49 AM) The 1000 signal is awful out west of the city. It was bad enough growing up in Oswego, and I think it's probably even worse now that I'm in rural Kane County. Yes. When i lived in Sugar Grove. I had difficulty getting the signal especially on bad weather days.

What a great idea to raise the 401k match to get people to save more for their retirement instead of a cash bonus. I'm glad some companies are actually thinking ahead for the benefit of their employees. Not sure how to post a link so I just copied the URL http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/col...0111-story.html

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jan 18, 2018 -> 08:29 PM) Limited playing time? From April 6th to June 15th he got 200 plate appearances. He was practically an everyday starter before he got hurt. During that period he put an .804 OPS & wRC+ of 115. It honestly doesn’t seem like you followed him very closely last year. And again, you continue to ignore Leury’s AAA stats in 2015 & 2016, which were better than Tilson’s AAA numbers. Furthermore, Leury has much better physical tools than Tilson and offers much more versatility. If Leury can come anywhere close to the numbers I mentioned above, he could be a poor man’s Ben Zobrist and that would be incredibly valuable. There are legit reasons to believe Leury is finally tapping into his potential and he deserves everyday at-bats to see what he really is. I don’t need to give 600 at-bats to Charlie Tilson to know he won’t play a significant role on our next playoff team or become a valuable trade chip. Your comment about his good 200 at bats is exactly the limited time I was talking about. He will have good stats in limited time but over the course of a season the stats will even out and show exactly what he is. You described him perfectly with your comment on versatility. This is why he will be around as a versatile utility guy, so why not develop him in that role. I don't think he is finally tapping into his potential. I think he will be exactly what he is. I feel much better that you don't need to give 600 at bats to Tilson. He probably won't be any better than Garcia and probably won't be around on your next playoff team. However, Garcia probably won't be anything more than a utility guy on those teams either. So why not see what the Sox have in Tilson because neither are going to be much, it's just that Garcia can play the infield and OF so they'll keep him around. Edit: Actually, I can believe I've spent this much time on this subject. Neither player will be of any significance on a good team. If either are prominent players in 2019, the Sox will be awful. I'm going to leave it at neither are very good, neither will be most than extra pieces and neither are relevant to the success of the Sox future.