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QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 11:46 AM) What forensic evidence? Where can we see the actual evidence or a review of that evidence by an expert witness and not just a reference to it in a GJ question? Why are you privileging Wilson and the "several others'" (no firm number? how are you so sure then?) testimony above other conflicting testimony? All of the witnesses, that I've read, agree that he was moving toward the officer. Some say he was "charging" others say he was waling with his hands up. But all agree he was moving toward him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 09:31 AM) if he had his hands up and was yelling something like "I give up" and the cop continued shooting, an entirely reasonable response would be to slowly walk towards him with his hands up so that he could hear him. I don't agree. The officer doesn't know if Brown is tricking him by saying he is surrendering and is just waiting until he is close enough to attack him again. When you give up you stop and possibly kneel or sit down not continue at the officer. Either way even if it was his intention to give up, the officer had every right to feel threatened when a person who just attacked him was coming toward him again.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 09:09 AM) Twice, with what doesn't appear to be much effect: Somebody punching you in the face twice doesn't generally justify deadly force in response. So because the kid punched him but it didn't leave much of a mark the officer has no right to feel threatened. Maybe if he punches him and stops there it doesn't. However, when the officer tells him to stop and he continues to advance on him the officer has every right to feel threatened. I don't think someone should die for it either. A non-lethal weapon would have been better, but he didn't have that option. He should have had a stun gun. I know he explained it but it still would have been better. If Brown would have stopped and gave up. It wouldn't have happened. He continued to advance toward the officer and the officer had every right to feel threatened.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 26, 2014 -> 08:28 AM) Was he slowly walking towards the guy with the gun 30 feet away or was he charging like the Hulk? These are the kind of details that could be hashed out in an actual trial, or at least by an investigation from an independent prosecutor. Which witnesses were in the appropriate place to see that behavior? How rapidly was he moving at the end. How many agree that his hands were up? How long would it have taken him to take the steps required based on the position he reached? How have the witnesses stories, including that of the shooter, changed with time? Are either of those inconsistent with the autopsy results? The grand jury with a "witness dump" simply is in no position to evaluate these issues. In the process of putting together an actual case, a prosecutor would have to answer questions like that in order to tell their side of the story of what actually happened. Because this was a trial with no prosecutor, none of that ever happened, there was no effort to evaluate how these witness statements fit together or to paint a coordinated picture on behalf of the deceased. Doesn't matter. If you continue to advance toward an individual you have already repeatedly punched in the face, the individual has every right to feel threatened. both parties are probably exaggerating a little. The officer trying to say he was charging the others side of witnesses say he he was slowly moving. Either way the fact that he was advancing toward and person he has already attacked gives that person a right to feel threatened.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 25, 2014 -> 07:40 AM) In a fair system, this would not go over well with cross examination, but that's why it shouldn't have been tried by a grand jury. That's what was reported by witnesses. He continued to walk toward the officer with his hands up as the officer was shooting him.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 09:24 PM) No. They met like once a week and unlike most grand juries where a prosecutor presents enough evidence to get an indictment after which point a trial would start the prosecutor decided to present all of the evidence, including testimony of the defendant. All of which is not particularly common and makes a decent case that the prosecutor was trying to make sure an indictment did not happen. Good. That makes much more sense.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 09:19 PM) Batteries? Lighter fluid on police cars as well.

It said in an article that the grand jury has been seated since May. Are they sequestered like a regular jury? Having this going since May is crazy.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 05:27 PM) It's not reversed when a cop is involved. But we're at a grand jury level here, no a full trial. The burden is simply probable cause, not beyond a reasonable doubt. If a full, public trial can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt, okay. But so far as we can tell with just some leaks from the GJ, the "probable cause" seems to have been met. You also don't have "at best" split testimony in this case, though. You've got the guy who killed Brown and is trying to avoid a murder charge and, from what's publicly known, multiple witnesses all telling a different story from the one Wilson is and more or less similar to each other. They all agree that he's surrendering. Some believe Wilson fired at Brown as he was fleeing, others don't appear to say one way or the other. All agree that he was fatally shot while facing Wilson. Most seem to agree that he staggered towards Wilson possibly after being shot again, but none support Wilson's version of being charged. They all agree he has his hands up but continues to move toward the officer. This is the part where the story loses credibility to me. I can't envision a scenario where the officer feels threatened but tells Brown to continue to walk toward him. He would tell him to get down and stay still so he can handcuff him. So., even if he is attempting to surrender, he is still increasing the threat by walking toward the officer.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 02:19 PM) The problem with trading Sale is it would be unprecedented. There's no such deal that has happened. Someone's going to come at me with the Teixera deal but that was just Daniels doing his HW and getting the Braves to pay a premium for a guy at the end of his rookie contract. The only comparables I can think of would be the Ricky Williams and Herschel Walker and those aren't even in the MLB. Off the top of my head weren't the trades for Dan Haren, Randy Johnson and Bartolo Colon pretty big ones?

QUOTE (StRoostifer @ Nov 24, 2014 -> 02:11 PM) Yup. I am now in the group of folks that feel an over pay is in order if a team wants to acquire Alexei. Thank you Hanley and Boston. Or does this make bogaerts available and pushes Alexei's value down?

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 23, 2014 -> 07:20 PM) Semien is 100%, without a doubt, the best MIF prospect in our system. I'll take Anderson

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 23, 2014 -> 10:29 AM) I will say I'm just somewhat disappointed in that it seemed like this would be beginning of a new team strategy for using our position players. For first time since forever, the possibility that our DH could be switched among 11/12 position players could have happened rather than just having two 1B. In all likelihood finding a LH non 1b for this would have been extremely expensive. But, just feeling a bit of "more of this then, eh?" Probably still hesitant due to the kotsay experiment.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 11:54 PM) A career.470+ slg player in the cell... Um... Yea, I'll take that bet man. you mean like the career .510 slg that Dunn had before coming to the cell.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 06:53 PM) He actually doesn't K that much, below league average last year, withing ~2% points of league average each year with the Nats. His BB/K rate last year was super sexy: 14.0%/18.4%. He's been super consistent with the K's throughout his career, typically around 21-22%. His first PA with the Sox will be only his 20th in the AL FWIW. I know. It was a comparison I just couldn't stop myself from laughing at.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 06:49 PM) At this point, the Sox have two guys who will need to be platooned. Both Gillaspie and LaRoche should not face LHP. Most of us assumed that Semien would share 3B, and I would guess that Viciedo would be first in line to take the RH tandem for LaRoche. However, there may be more possibilities to emerge. So the wish list is now down to an out fielder, who does not have to be left handed, at this point, a right handed starting pitcher, and a closer. He's had less than 2 years worth of AB's in the majors. This is not a time to write a guy off and say he can't learn and improve.

Big lefty from washington named Adam with big power and alot of K's, spent most of the career in the NL. At least it's for only 2 years and less money this time. (just kidding by the way just thought it was funny)

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 03:45 PM) It includes positional adjustment, which factors his production in relation to DH. This would include zeroes for defensive value for DHs It said it include UZR is it negated as well. If so, how can you have one stat that uses multiple nulls for different variables and still maintain it's validity?

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 03:22 PM) Dudes he's fat. There's also a well-supported precedent of fat dudes getting bad real fast around age 30. This is rate of change of combined component runs, so it's basically WAR: EDIT: Source: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/how-will-prince-fielder-age/ This graphs only applies if you want him in the field as it considers position and uzr as well as hitting. I don't think it takes a genius to figure out if your are short and overweight you aren't going to be a good fielder at most positions. I wonder what it would look like if you are looking at a dh, so only hitting.

IMHO This is one of the most important aspects of the minor leagues and "learning to be a professional ballplayer." People to often complain about rushing good players. Most often it helps them in the long run. Beckham should have spent more time in the minors. I really think it would have helped him learn to adjust out of the MLB spotlight.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 02:36 PM) You're right, he's not fat, he's a perfect physical specimen. Billy Beane is not regarded as the king of "Sabes," that title would belong to Bill James, if anyone. Also, Dude, sabes is not the preferred nomenclature. Sabermetrics. Signing a player for one year who is gong to cost $6-10 million who the Sox will not trade at the deadline would be among the most pointless moves they could make and is the definition of spending money just to spend money. Torii Hunter makes as much sense for the White Sox right now as Michael Jordan does in that, at one point in time, they were both outfielders. Political correctness at it's worst.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 12:51 PM) It is still hard for me to understand how power is vanishing in baseball without anyone talking about the ball. They were talking about the ball when it was considered the "steroid era", I remember Hawk calling it a Titleist. But even without steroids, say there were none, players are bigger and a lot stronger these days. Pitchers throw harder than ever on average, yet the power numbers are falling off a cliff. There are more variables than size and strength in the power equation. Speed of the bat is more important than either of the other two in the physics of a swing. With the increase pitch velocity, you need to swing even faster to make up the difference. Personally, I think the increased pitch velocity is mostly from the pitchers trying to throw harder all the time. With the decreased expectation of innings pitched and analytics, pitchers throw harder more often. There is absolutely no correlation between muscle strength and pitch velocity. The PEDs allowed the pitchers to maintain thier pitching within games but moreso allowed relievers to recover faster and pitch more often. Of course changes in the ball and size of the ball parks made a difference as well.

QUOTE (GreenSox @ Nov 20, 2014 -> 08:43 PM) Wow - you mean it will only take Quintana and a top prospect to land a high K hitter with a .654 OPS! The love of declining veterans is getting sillier by the minute. .654 OBP is not good. Nor is 159 strikeouts Hahn would belong in an asylum if he gave Avi or Montas for Bruce, much less both. Spare parts only. How does one bad injury filled year constitute a "declining player." If you want power you need to deal with the high K rates. The rampant PED era is gone.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Nov 21, 2014 -> 11:30 AM) Melky has always had some ability. I think his attitude has been questioned in the past. I do agree, I would think he's still juicing. Maybe if he gets a multi year deal, he gives it up for a couple years, and the team who signs him is left holding the bag. I still think juicing is rampant, and really think MLB has made an effort to keep scoring down to at least make it look like players aren't making a mockery of their testing, which is supposed to be the best of its kind. The problem is, the testing is always a step behind. The only way to truly rid the sport of it is to do baseline blood testing when they begin professional ball. This way they will know when they are taking something. They will not know what but they will know the chemistry has changed. Currently, they can test for all known PEDs with the urine and blood tests. However, there are always new PEDs being produced. It's mostly linked to track and field athletes as it's a bigger market but they will trickle down to NFL and MLB.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Nov 19, 2014 -> 08:56 PM) Sale Qunitana RHSP FA Rodon ( after 6 weeks ) Noesi That's ideal for me and obviously it requires trading Danks... Which I think is a hot topic on Rick's cell phone right now. Fingers crossed. That's good except you need a replacement for Rodon as he will only pitch 165-175 innings this year.