Balta1701

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Yes, and you relize I'm not actually defending either side of this story. I'm simply saying vote them out of office next time instead of letting them take additional seats. Our strongest voice is voting, not some silly petition about a law written in the 1700's after they win additional seats because all the progressive voters were too lazy to go out on election day and f***ing vote. I know, it's much easier to b**** about it from behind a keyboard, for example...with an Internets petition than to, you know, actually do something about it when we can. Great. As soon as we're all billionaires we can make that happen.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) So you are saying there are coaches out there that would have had a championship with the Bulls at least once the last 5 years? So you are saying there are coaches out there where Derrick Rose would be healthy?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:46 PM) http://espn.go.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/2429/luol-deng Deng wasn't always 100% healthy, but I'd say the trend accelerated after Thibs. You really don't think those extra 3-4 minutes per game had an effect? Are Deng's injuries 100% on Thibs? No, absolutely not. Is it partially? Yes, IMO. The 3 years before Thibs, Deng missed 19, 33, and 12 games. Then Thibs arrived. Deng then missed 0, 12, and 9 games the next 3 years (prior to being traded). He got more minutes and missed fewer games. I have no idea what other conclusion you could draw.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:38 PM) Try doing that next election cycle instead of through silly petitions. Um...you realize we're talking about a letter that could easily be described as a "silly petition"?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:26 PM) That was pretty awful. I couldn't even get through it all. The credibility was gone when he said something about Deng playing nearly 48 minutes a game, and then I closed it when he started talking about the Wonder Years. I didn't even get as far as you.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 01:34 PM) how is it childish to hold people accountable for their actions? That act, while it would probably be enforceable for normal folks, would never stand up to a court challenge if applied to Congress. The Constitution gives the Senate explicit right to "Advise and Consent" on foreign policy. The only way that the Supreme Court would rule so narrowly that the definition of Advise and Consent means they can't have any unauthorized contact with foreign leaders is if Democrats did something like this and Scalia et al got to play off their "original intent/exact meaning" setup, which they wouldn't do here because it's a bunch of Republicans.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 01:48 PM) Back to the DRose injury is all Thibs fault. Yeah, I'm sure DRose would be 100% healthy if he never met Thibs. Thibs has won 65% of his games usually with a depleted roster. When he is gone, probably next year, we will not see improvement. But it's the old, it hasn't worked so try something else. If it didn't work because of the coach, that would make sense. But that is not the reality.How many years did Michael Jordan play for the Bulls before it really worked? I guess he should have been traded a couple of years before he starting winning every year. At least he could have researched his Thibs is killing the players again claim. 2 guys are averaging over 31 minutes a game. If Thibs is killing players I will never, ever, ever understand WTF happened with Luol Deng. In 2009 I hated his deal because he was always hurt. Hell, I thought Boozer would always be hurt too because he was always hurt in Utah. He was dinged up in the first playoffs but then pretty much stayed on the court. Yeah his play fell off as we should have expected, but I probably wrote somewhere that we should expect him to miss 40% of the games we signed him for or something like that.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 01:41 PM) He threw 123 innings last year between college and the minors. I'm saying that going from throwing 123 innings to throwing 150-160 is not that big of a push and unless you push him he will never be able to throw 200+. You saying he should only 75-100 innings this year is pretty absurd. At that rate it would take him 3 or 4 years to get to 200 innings. I agree that 150-160 innings should be the goal. However, I will again note that there's a huge difference between 150 innings at college/minor league level and 150 innings at the major league level.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 01:30 PM) then don't. but then enjoy this kind of childish antics for the rest of f***ing ever. it has to stop, and it won't stop until WE stop it. Grow a pair. "childish antics" do not rise to the level of a crime oftentimes. Being childish back doesn't seem like an obvious solution. I will probably at least send my first communication to Toomey later.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 01:24 PM) Petition to File Charges Against the 47 Senators... Sign it, y'all. 16,000 sigs overnight. It's about damn time the American people actually stood for something again. I only wish the Dems had the balls to do what was necessary. I'm not going to sign that.

Obviously it's not appropriate but I don't know how you can expect any better from that party. They want a war that someone else takes the blame for.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 09:04 AM) That team is automatically worse than if you keep Cutler on his current contract. As bad as everyone thinks Cutler can be, you can do so much worse in the QB department. One thing I do get...if you're looking to get a replacement QB, "doing so much worse" may not be the worst route.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 09:35 PM) With three off days in the first 11 days of the season, we really don't need a 5th starter. Assuming Sale is out, each guy gets two starts and they would all be pitching on five days rest in their third starts. Hopefully Sale is back by the 17th though, because we then hit a stretch of 17 games in 17 days (assuming no rainouts). It's after this stretch I would target a possible Rodon call-up. At this point, Hahn and the coaching staff would have five starts to evaluate Danks & Noesi on and four/five AAA starts to evaluate Rodon on. And more importantly, we'd be about a week past the service time deadline. I'll straight up say I disagree with Balta on the need to baby Rodon throughout the season. His issues in college last year were due to extremely high pitch counts, not because he pitched a ton of innings. If he's a better option than Danks or Noesi, then he needs to be in the rotation as soon as possible as long as we don't lose the extra year of service time. I don't really care if he can only give us 20 or so starts. Take those starts from May to August and then shut him down or move him to the bullpen the rest of the way. There is no reason for this skip a start nonsense Balta is proposing. We need Rodon this year to help keep us in the race while see how this team takes shape. There's no need to f*** around with the rest of the rotation in hopes of getting a few starts from him in September. Again, take your 20 starts from Carlos and call it a day. Those starts from May to July are ultimately just as important (if not more) in terms of making the playoffs. And the good thing is if we need to add a starter, at least we'll have a better idea if we're a legit contender. I'll say I straight up disagree on your 2nd paragraph. Take a look at your own argument. Rodon was tired not because he threw a lot of innings but because his pitch counts were high. In other words, he was throwing a lot of pitches, not translating that into a lot of innings, and wound up with fatigue because of it. Is that something you seriously expect to improve while jumping directly from college ball to the big leagues? Big league hitters don't get themselves out easier than guys in college. Based on that set of statements you just, IMO, made an even more convincing case that Rodon for those 20 starts isn't a good idea and that he not only needs time to get stretched out but he has more work to do to be ready for the big leagues, at least for the first couple months. If all Rodon is going to give us is 20 starts and he can't be "Chris Sale dominant" in those 20 starts because he's putting up high pitch counts and not lasting 6+ innings, then we don't need Rodon to help us in the race, we need Rodon to get better and be ready to be a fill in when we need him in the rotation. In fact, based on what you just said, Rodon would not be in a position to "help us in the race" especially if he can't go more than 20 starts. Pitching a guy 20 starts and then expecting someone else who isn't stretched out to fill in for him is nonsense moreso than what you decided to call nonsense on my part.

Cliff Lee is also having James Andrews look at his elbow results.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 10:08 PM) You misinterpreted my comment. In Alexei's situation, people have made that comment because his contract will expire when Sox are ready to compete. In Cutler's situation, I am saying I don't think Cutler is good enough to lead us to a another playoff berth, not with Rodgers and Stafford in their prime, and for reasons I mentioned earlier on his inability to perform in pressure. What's the alternative for Cutler? A rookie QB, a free agent QB, hell, even give me Jimmy Clausen and $18 million where I can spend on 2-3 key defensive players. With Cutler absorbing that much cap space, it's hard to find an identity for this team. Are they an offensive minded team? Last year proved not to be the case. Are they a good defensive team that relies on the run? Could be, but it's hard to rebuild a defense when you have that much money tied up on a below league average QB. Q back: if the Bears hold onto Cutler this year, what's the cap hit like to remove him next year? They tied up so much guaranteed money the first couple years that even if they trade him it's hard to see them getting lots of savings this year IIRC. They certainly don't recoup the full $18 million in cap space, if they trade him I think it's like $10 million in dead space or so? You can do some things with $8 million in cap during a lost season, you could front load a deal to a veteran, but things can't even be as bright as you'd want there - you don't get $18 mil in cap space back even with a trade.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 05:06 PM) The 12-6 curveball isn't about inches. It's about trajectory on the clock. It starts at the 12 and drops to the 6. It's just the only publicized curveball because a good one can be highly effective and isn't unique to lefties or righties. I knew that, I just wanted to add a distance saying that it was moving up.

In 2010 the Congressional Budget office projected that the United States Federal Government would spend $11.2 trillion on health care in total over the period 2011-2020 not including the PPACA. The PPACA passed, massively expanding health care access and offering subsidies for people. The CBO just released a new set of cost estimates. If you do the math and project that into "How much will the United States Federal Government spend on health care over the period 2011-2020", the total now comes to $10.6 billion. Again to stress, the former estimate did not include Obamacare. The current estimate now does. As a nation, our total estimated costs on Health care to taxpayers with the PPACA from 2011-2020 are $600 billion less than the costs estimated without the PPACA. The government will spend a total of 4% less on Health care over this decade than estimated while simultaneously expanding health care coverage to 20 million+ people assuming the court doesn't decide against it. That's $600 billion in savings to taxpayers over a 10 year period. And every time they do a new adjustment, the total cost drops more and that amount looks even more favorable.

IMO, Apple isn't designing this to be a front line product or to replace anything. A segment of their market wants this type of functionality and a number of companies can provide it. If Apple provides that product and people are already part of their market, those people will stay with Apple's products. If Apple doesn't provide this product and people want it badly enough, that could be motivation to leave the Apple setup, and that doesn't just cost them the watch purchase, it costs them phones, laptops, and apple store purchases. Even if they lose money on the product directly, keeping people in their realm is a win.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 04:58 PM) Great quote by Melton: "He's got that great 6 to 12 curveball" That's a first. First guy who can successfully throw that pitch without being hurt will be the greatest pitcher of all time. "That curveball actually broke upward 12 inches"

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 02:07 PM) and you and i assume many others are making this assessment after 1 spring training game??? I'm pretty sure you could find me saying Rodon is the perfect 6th starter last year before we even traded for Samardzija.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 02:04 PM) All quite logical. But do they have the discipline to stick to this plan to protect guys in the heat of the August playoff drive? If they're throwing the likes of Penny, Carroll, Johnson and Beck out there, it might get ugly. The best case is guys like Montas and Danish can also end up pitching like Brandon McCarthy did down the stretch in 2005...and you take some workload off Sale and Rodon without putting the team behind the 8 ball or forcing a mid season trade deadline acquisition. That's why you be careful about it early in the year. Make sure Sale gets solid rest, because if you absolutely need to skip a start down the stretch, you're not adding extra innings onto a guy who's already pitched 220 or something like that, you're adding them onto a guy who's pitched 200. That's why Rodon being up the majority of the year is something I consider to be an unnecessary risk.

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 01:58 PM) sorry for having write this long explanation, which i agree with you. now this is what i was talking about a couple of weeks ago, when there was the huge discussion of the sox ownership and their priorities. i leave the rest of that statement unanswered. so to look at a viable options, how come they the FO went looking and addressing the pen, but didn't want to add the sp's?? i just can't understand that. even last week someone said or mention in passing that the sox wasn't planning on using Rodon, but the slight injury to Sale, might rush that. so as of right now, EJ, Beck, Carrol are the front runner to hold down the fort. that is not an encouraging group to put faith in. don't get me wrong, to pitch or to being able to pitch in the majors is an accomplishment, but the sox needs someone better. i guess, they will look at the waiver list again. all this crap to save money, money that is........... well you know my rant. peace No, Rodon is the front runner to hold down the fort. Rodon coming up and doing a start, or several starts, I have absolutely zero problem with. Carlos Rodon is penciled in as possibly the best or 2nd best 6th starter in the league and that's exactly what he should be to start the season. The team and the pitching coach who has done a good job with these things in the past have both voiced confidence in Danks and Noesi. Assuming no more injuries during spring training, Danks and Noesi are the 4 and 5 starters in some order and there's some upside possible with both. If either of them are terrible their first several times out, then perhaps by the time May is coming around you start looking at how Rodon is doing in the minors and if he's clearly outshining the people around him you say fine, bring him up and deal with the extra rest he'll need. If someone has an injury though, Rodon should be the #1 guy expected to fill in. If Sale has to miss his first start of the year they can probably get by with a single offday for that since there are always 2 offdays built into the first week, but if he's out more than a week, Carlos Rodon should absolutely get that start. Beck and Penny and maybe EJ/Carroll are your #7/#8/#9 starters and if we're relying on our #8 starter to pitch us into the playoffs then bigger things have gone wrong and no team that has to go that far into its depth is going to look very good anywhere. With Rodon as a reasonable 6th starter/first fillin guy, we have as solid of a replacement plan for a starting pitcher on a short term injury as any other team in baseball.

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 01:28 PM) i know what you wrote and many time i can understand but pls, do not take this wrong, i don't understand. for my simple mind, can you pls dummy it down, pls IMO, keeping Chris Sale healthy is the #1 key to this season. He's already having an issue with that, even though it's not with his arm. We shouldn't be ridiculous about it, we should push to get him over 200 innings, but we also shouldn't be crazy with him. If we're using Mr. "offday" for Rodon, then that means extra starts for everyone else in the rotation. The rest of the rotation doesn't get an extra 5th or 6th day rest, they just go every 4th day and you assume that they'll be ok. That's what I call being stupid with the guys. If you need to shift Sale around at the end of the year, or use Mr Offday to skip a start once because you need Chris to pitch the team into the playoffs, fine, but if Chris has already pitched 220 innings because he had to work every 5th day so Rodon could get his extra rest, that's at best a roll of the dice. Are you ready to put 250-260 innings on Sale's arm in order to make a playoff run? Is having Rodon up really worth that? That's what I call "not being dumb" with the guys. When you have a guy who has had elbow soreness complaints in 2 of his 3 seasons as a starter and a long DL trip last year, don't be dumb with him. Pitch him every time his spot comes up in the rotation, but use the normal 5 man rotation. Let him have extra rest 1/2 of the times he pitches because there's an offday. Don't just assume his arm will be able to take everything you throw at it. If he's going to get hurt during a normal season, fine it was meant to happen. If he's picking up the slack so that you could have a rookie in the rotation and his arm starts getting sore, is the rookie in the rotation a big enough upgrade that you're ok missing Sale for a while? No.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 10:28 AM) I will say that the even bigger picture is being missed here. it isn't JUST race, it is a government run amok, using law enforcement as a stealth tax system. It isn't about catching robbers and killers as it is shaking down peeps for tinted windows and making sure beauticians have the 'proper' licenses. There are towns all across the country that are infamous for shaking down motorists for the slightest of things, often just making them up, to provide revenue. I remember a story of a town that had only 250 residents but had a police force of 20, and had more tickets than most of their state combined. This is tyranny, and it doesn't matter the race. People rightly should be upset at the systematical targeting of citizens by police simply to feed their coffers. I'm almost a little bit impressed that you managed to write this entire post without noting the fact that "Taxes are bad! The finger thing means the taxes!!!!!!!!" kinda plays a role in why this happens.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Mar 9, 2015 -> 01:09 PM) We already know what it is and how much it costs. We still don't know how much Glass will really cost. They abandoned the current version of Google Glass earlier this year.