Balta1701

Well here we go, come on Hector, earn that faith I showed in you this offseason.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 05:31 PM) Tigers first team since 1995 to throw shutouts in each of their first 2 games. No team that has dome this has eveer made the playoffs. Well that seems like a useless statistic with little predictive value.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 04:28 PM) I can understand wanting to look at Sanchez, since there's a decent chance a decision will be made in a week or so, but I sure hope Micah isn't relegated to RHP with so little data at this point. Won't sweat it. Yet. Otherwise, agree with wondering what Boni's role is at $4M. Org love of Beckham still needs an enema. I have no problem this early in his career if he's relegated to facing RHP. Protecting him a little bit isn't a bad thing after basically leapfrogging AAA.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 8, 2015 -> 01:40 PM) 5 years into his policing career with probably countless incidents such as a "fleeing suspects" and this time the adrenaline made him spazz out? I cant buy that one. There's a reason why police departments in south carolina have opposed body cameras. Because you're probably right and if things aren't filmed the guy would get off without charges.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Apr 4, 2015 -> 01:52 PM) So...officers should be fired for something they said (texted) in private and what appears to be mostly while not on the job. So should people who tweet/text death threats to pizza owners also be fired from their jobs? If we are policing thought and speech, I would think the death threats are just as bad as racial comments. Or is headhunting only OK for certain groups? Well personally I think they should face charges of some sort. Don't know about firing but that should leave a legal record too.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 5, 2015 -> 07:55 PM) Dear lord the Padres went nuts this offseason. QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 5, 2015 -> 08:08 PM) Probably for where they are at, you are correct, but I don't have to pay anyone, and Kimbrel is the best player in this trade by far, and maybe the best closer in baseball. The Padres did OK. Pretty sure I saw yesterday that the Padres TV deal comes up this offseason, so if they get their ratings up...could be worth a lot more money for them.

QUOTE (shipps @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 06:11 PM) They have to pay him the ridiculous money they gave him. They should be mad at themselves. Actually seems like there's a deeper issue here. If the Angels wanted to write something into his contract about "drug abuse relapses" they probably would not have been allowed to do so because drug abuse is covered by the drug testing agreement with the union. The Angels probably had no legal way to cover themselves in the event of a drug use relapse by Hamilton other than the agreed upon program. While giving that contract out they had to trust that if he did have a relapse that impacted his performance it would be dealt with by the suspensions as spelled out in that program. They likely took that into account when assessing the risk of that contract. Now that suspension that they expected in the case of the drug program is not happening. That means what they believed would happen when they assessed the risk in that contract is incorrect and that contract became riskier than they thought when they signed it.

One down 49 to go.

woo first pitch

Sitting back, relaxing, and it has been strapped down.

You have my sympathies.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 01:49 PM) At the very least, just play street football with or use the football to play with your kids (even if you didn't want the autograph). I'd have to imagine either there was an excessively high starting bid or no one bothered marketing it.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 11:32 PM) Cutler donated a signed ball to the Anti Cruelty Society's fundraiser. There were no bids. Was there a starting bid or did I miss out on a $1 NFL autographed ball?

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 3, 2015 -> 10:42 AM) Sorry, but it is a hell of a lot harder to close major deals like this than "set the table". His job of setting the table for a deal in Israel Palestine in 2013 with one party explicitly not interested in a deal was more impressive than getting China/Russia on board. Iran 2013 looked as close as ever, now we look like we bought ten years for change. That's a lot of time. I think "getting countries to put sanctions on Iran that they didn't want to put on Iran" is a pretty effective job of closing multiple major deals.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 07:53 PM) Elite hitter is Robbie Cano or Chase Utley in his prime. Anderson profiles similarly, but can he manage to get into that 15-25 homers (annually) category? Most would peg him for 8-12 at this point, but of course these are just projections. More like Durham than Cano....and, without plate patience/discipline and increased walk numbers...and those contact rates, he can't quite be putting himself in the conversation as an elite hitter. He hit 9 home runs in 364 PAs last year. That's a 15 HR/season pace already as a 21 year old.

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 05:36 PM) I'm not sure who will be more hated this year, LaRoche or Gillaspie. Both are going to be whipping boys, along with Danks. ? Predicting a big falloff for him?

QUOTE (Dunt @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) I have to believe that the first round pick will be above Anderson, right? If a top 10 pick is immediately your third best prospect, your system is sitting pretty. I very much disagree. Maybe when you get a top 3 pick that happens, but Anderson this year should be rocking in the middle of AA. If he hits like he did last year and improves a bit on defense we're talking about a legitimate top-25 in baseball prospect by the time the lists roll around next offseason. Maybe better than that. Anderson not being at the top of this list when we get to the post draft list means either Rodon hasn't been called up yet or something went wrong. We're used to our first round pick immediately being at the top because our system has been so bare for so long. No longer the case. Guys who have been in the system for several years should be higher than a guy being sent to rookie ball.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 04:19 PM) Kerry, regardless of whether you with his policy implementations, has been prolific as SOS. Again, lends me pause on Clinton. Didn't Clinton put together the sanctions regime on Iran that eventually led to this?

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QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 01:06 PM) With what Hawk did during spring training, I have a really good feeling about him in AA this year. All right, no calling him that until we change announcers. I was wondering what Harrelson had done to him and scared for a second.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 01:12 PM) The irony is that because Pence misjudged the backlash from this, he is being put into a corner to give more Gay rights in Indiana, then have ever existed before. For his agenda, he would have been better off to have done nothing at all. There's a decent chance that this winds up making sexuality a protected class here in Pennsylvania as well. The Republican-dominated state legislature here is making rumblings about making sure they don't look like y'all.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 12:37 PM) At some point you brought that up and I said it doesn't work because what religious practice would be substantially burdened in that situation? On top of the fact that race is a protected class whereas sexuality is not. edit: page 3, btw. I can give the specific example of "fundamentalist mormonism", where one leader of that sect, in his deeply held beliefs, holds onto the original mormon teaching of dark skin as a curse from god and rails against marriage between the races in terms I'm not going to use right now.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 12:43 PM) There are laws in place protecting race discrimination. There are no laws (federally) on sexuality. That's a huge difference. I'm also pretty positive that the original RFRA included language about it not applying to any other federally protected class. So the single, only reason you can cite for why these cases aren't comparable is that race is a protected class. Ergo, you are either choosing, you think race should not be a protected class and you would be ok with businesses discriminating against mixed-race couples or you think that sexuality should be added to federal and state protected classes. Which is it? Your defense to whether it would be ok is "it's a protected class". That's not a moral argument, that's avoiding answering the question based on a legal statement. Is it ok to discriminate against a group if its small enough or disliked enough to not receive protection?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 12:30 PM) See page 2 or somewhere early on in this thread. That analogy doesn't work. I did not see any explanation for why that doesn't work on page 2.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Apr 2, 2015 -> 09:47 AM) It's not though. That's the intended consequence in a limited, specific circumstance, but the point of the law is to provide protection to Christians that don't want to work gay weddings or in some way support gay weddings. As some people have already come out and said, they'll serve gay people, they won't serve at a gay function. There is a distinction there, whether you agree with it or not. Would you be ok with a restaurant refusing service due to miscegenation?