Balta1701

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 14, 2015 -> 02:29 PM) 50-50 it was an inside job. Would not be the first time a Muslim damaged their own centers, faked a crime and so on to gain attention, push an agenda, etc. Link. I should have taken you up on those odds.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 19, 2015 -> 01:00 PM) I'd like an argument for how saying "these ISIS terrorists deliberately targeted non-Muslims, in this case [Christians/Jews]" will incite these f***ing crazy assholes to hate us more than just saying these are "random" attacks. For the third time, i'll bring up my analogy that no one has responded to: White cops are targeting black teens and killing them. They admit that's what they're doing. The President doesn't bring up hate crimes or racism, he says it was just random acts of violence for fear of pissing off police/making people distrust the police more. Your response is, oh well, that's fine. Right? No, not a chance. And I wouldn't like that either. There's a big difference in this case. Saying that we're in a "holy war" or whatever people want him to say against Daesh could easily be viewed as making them even more legitimate as a religious group and as a direct adversary of the United States...helping their recruiting. Calling out cops in that case hopefully wouldn't encourage more angry white people to found police forces.

Link

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 02:51 PM) Its always easy to say that things would be better if we did nothing. We're in a thread discussing how both our allies and our enemies are beheading hundreds of people and killing thousands of others. Yeah, I think this is a particularly impressive case.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 06:03 PM) Totally disagree. He was exceptional the year Jordan was retired (PER of 23 and 22 those seasons). Tons of all-defensive teams and all-nba teams. I think he would have been great anywhere with his defense and passing. I think the reason Pip became such a great player on defense and passing was having to work in practice with a practice-jerk named Michael Jordan non-stop for so many years, personally.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 02:37 PM) I think at the end of this year we'll be able to make a convincing argument that he's the best hitter in baseball. Barring injury that's my feeling as well.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 02:31 PM) Eh. Plans are never a guarantee. Sometimes you have to stop something bad and hope for the best. Sure the last 4 times we've bombed countries in the middle east it's been an abject disaster, but 5th time's the charm.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 01:39 PM) The White House condemned the killings of the 21 Coptic Christians. What else do you want them to say? It was pretty obvious why they killed those 21 people. It's not the first time they've killed Christians. They have attacked all kind of religions. Mostly Muslim. I can't help but feel like this is some sort of "Obama hates Christians because he is secretly a Muslim!" Doesn't Newt Gingrich have a history of accusing the President of being a Muslim? He's crazy. Well for one, I'd like them to say "hmmm, maybe bombing Libya and collapsing the government with no replacement plan wasn't the best idea. You know what? Maybe we should hold off on other middle eastern bombing campaigns until we have some plan for what to do with the place."

QUOTE (woods of ypres @ Feb 18, 2015 -> 01:34 PM) Lets see Eaton do it again before we start ranking him. More important, let's see him do it for >123 games.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 04:04 PM) Rebounding is just one of the areas WB does better Rose. I am not going to split hair on how much better or whether rebounding is important for a guard or not. I think in the end it all ties back to hustle and effort plays, and Westbrook definitely puts more effort in all areas of the game, that's why I said back then "Rose could learn a thing or two from Westbrook". And the moment you were referring to I think came after Rose got out rebounded by Kidd 11-0 in a loss to the Mavs. Noah was out that game and that was pre-Boozer I believe. Coming out of college, Rose was often compared to Kidd and thought to be a nightly triple double threat. Needless to say I was disappointed that his rebounding left something to be desired, but I have accepted the fact that he's not going to be an all around guy like Kidd, Rondo or Westbrook but instead makes his mark on scoring the ball and playing within himself. To flip this back on you guys, I think I was one of the first to hop on the Westbrook train and thought he could be better than Rose, but no one took it seriously at the time. I think even had Rose not been injured, Rose vs. Westbrook would certainly be a fun and legitimate debate today. Also on that train of thought...Rose taking plays off now or not giving max effort isn't 100% surprising either given that he still is trying to stay healhty for a full season.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 02:51 PM) Um, what? I wasn't making a prediction at all, I was talking about how Vegas establishes lines and odds. I have yet to make a prediciton about the Sox myself, and if I did I'd certainly say 90 is possible (though maybe not likely). I took that from the statement "it certainly won't be way off, not like 10 games" about their prediction of the white sox winning 80.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 02:08 PM) Supposedly a second Avengers:Age of Ultron trailer will air with the premiere of SHIELD on March 3rd haven't we already seen 2?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 01:42 PM) I wouldn't say "certain", but I would put it out there around a second standard deviation possibility. That would mean that the Vegas odds are off by more than 10 wins for 1.5 teams every year. Last year there were 3 teams that outperformed their Vegas odds (found here) by 9.5 wins or more, the largest was the Orioles who outperformed by 18 wins. There were 4 teams that underperformed by 9.5 wins or more, the largest was the Rangers who were off by 19.5 wins, so 7/30 teams were off by 9.5 wins. Vegas missing by 10 wins is a 1-standard deviation event. Vegas missing by 20 wins is a 2nd standard deviation possibility. The average miss last season was 6.57 wins. y-Baltimore Orioles 18 New York Yankees -1.5 Toronto Blue Jays 3.5 Tampa Bay Rays -10.5 Boston Red Sox -16.5 y-Detroit Tigers 0.5 w-Kansas City Royals 9.5 Cleveland Indians 5 Chicago White Sox -4 Minnesota Twins -1.5 z-Los Angeles Angels 10.5 w-Oakland Athletics -1 Seattle Mariners 6.5 Houston Astros 6.5 Texas Rangers -19.5 z-Washington Nationals 8.5 Atlanta Braves -8.5 New York Mets 5.5 Miami Marlins 7.5 Philadelphia Phillies -3 y-St. Louis Cardinals -1.5 w-Pittsburgh Pirates 3.5 Milwaukee Brewers 2.5 Cincinnati Reds -7.5 Chicago Cubs 4.5 y-Los Angeles Dodgers 0.5 w-San Francisco Giants 2.5 San Diego Padres -1.5 Colorado Rockies -9.5 Arizona Diamondbacks -16

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 01:23 PM) IT certainly won't be way off, not like 10 wins or anything in this scenario. But these are not game matchups, so it exposes one-sided money, therefore it has a larger effect than in a specific game. Really, you're certain this team can't win 90 games?

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 12:45 PM) No, because I believed that the 2010 Westbrook had potential to become something close to the 2014 Westbrook that 2010 Rose couldn't, even had he stayed healthy. In 2010, I saw Westbrook as a guy who would contribute to every aspect of the game and could do everything well if he plays with the right attitude. At that time, he was superior to Rose in terms of rebounding, drawing fouls, defense, and passing. Rose was better as a scorer, shooter, and floor general. Not saying WB was better at the time, but there were aspects of his game that I admired and would have liked Rose to adopt. I'd be willing to bet that Rose would have improved his passing and defense a ton had he actually been on the court working with Thibs for the past 3 seasons. Rebounds maybe not, but that'd be in part because the Bulls have had Noah and Gibson as their main rebounding guys so Rose would actually be out of position a lot of times to clean things up.

QUOTE (bmags @ Feb 17, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) I would love to see what 2010-11 rose looks like with Durant alongside him rather than Deng. I would love to see what 2014-2015 rose looks like if he hadn't missed 3 seasons. And that's referring to his game, not to hardware on his hands.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 16, 2015 -> 03:38 PM) It was still OUR first pick though, it would have been nice to see a different approach to it. I can't remember, but wasn't Walker considered a reach? Like a 3rd roundish guy at the time? I will say though, in regards to the "toolsy OF" approach, it is kind of amazing that we've so far had next to zero luck with drafting them. Mitchell, Walker, Thompson, Hawkins so far, Danks to a lesser extent. You'd think that one of them would have put things together. That's the crapshoot of the draft though I don't specifically call that being the case, my memory had some people saying he could have gone there or higher, but I could be misremembering that one?

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 16, 2015 -> 01:06 PM) Yeah, you could make that argument for Walker but there was nothing wrong with picking Mitchell where we got him. People are just made because "OMG we passed over Mike Trout for him!!!" Also IMO it's kinda hard to make that argument for Walker too...he was a sandwich pick, not a first rounder. A guy with decent speed who is raw but mgith have a shot isn't a bad gamble in the sandwich round.

Saudi Arabia is at 30 this year and there were others last week. Yawn.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 16, 2015 -> 11:39 AM) Dude, that's coming very soon. Silver is evaluating conferences and whether we should even bother with location-based divisions. We'll be seeing the best 16 teams in the playoffs within the next 3 seasons. As for the ASG, at that point my guess is they'd be smart and just have it turn to a fantasy draft the roster thing like the NHL and NFL have done. I kinda hope they keep some remnant of it in scheduling...I like having the Bulls get some extra games against nearby teams and a 3rd long-duration west coast trip would seem kinda rough.

QUOTE (Y2JImmy0 @ Feb 16, 2015 -> 10:39 AM) That wasn't really the problem though. The problem was that Kenny Williams wanted high-upside athletes and Jerry Reinsdorf didn't want to spend any money on the draft. So what they did was start drafting high-upside athletes that were cheap. Because of this philosophy, they ended up with the Jared Mitchell's and Keenyn Walker's of the world. I blame JR far more than I do KW in this instance. The way the White Sox handled the draft under the old rules was disgusting. BTW, Jared Mitchell might well have been used as an example for how successful that method was if he didn't destroy a leg.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 14, 2015 -> 04:31 PM) Thanks for the post Jimmy. I fail to see the fascination with Kevan Smith. I'll give him credit for learning how to hit pitching he is too old for and the White Sox love his makeup but I have trouble assessing any value to a catcher who can't catch the ball well enough to be in the majors. Compared to the consensus, I am big on Davidson. Just about everybody is waaaaay down on him (and understandably so) other than Keith Law. I know not to assess prospect value with the potential opportunity they may or may not have, but Davidson is in AAA with the guy ahead of him being vastly inferior in terms of potential. Here's the problem...the next time the White Sox have a kid in their system who is struggling because he strikes out too much who they help him reach his full potential and turn him into an above average big leaguer, it will be the first time.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 14, 2015 -> 04:21 PM) It isn't the janitor's fault because of Paterno. yet you want the entire university punished because they allowed it to happen? A university doing its job should have a standard procedure where you can report these things without having to worry about facing repercussions. Many universities are discovering they have issues like this with their sexual assault reporting policies right now. That kind of failure is something that at the very least permeated the entire athletic department. That's a deliberate setup to make sure things involving the football team are covered up.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 14, 2015 -> 02:25 PM) If I don't report a crime because I believe Balta will fire me, is that your fault or mine? And seriously, take a job as a janitor with benefits before accepting a paycheck from that university. Frankly it would be mine. Especially if I'm in a position of power over people where I'd have the ability to fire them, you want people to expect that you'd do the right thing if they did the right thing. If they did the right thing and reported a raped child, they felt that because of that the wrong thing would happen to them. That's on the environment of fear as much as anything, and that's not just on the coach, that's on everyone who allowed that plague to flourish.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 14, 2015 -> 01:47 PM) This conversation is way off scale for a message board. It involves a personal matter that you have to deal with. Again, I do not believe the institution is evil. I believe the faculty you would be joining would have made an entirely different decision than the couple people that did. Therefor I would have no problem accepting a position there. Well the cold would suck. I bet you will discover that the adults around the university share your disdain and are upset about the shame the event has placed on the university. The reason why it's bigger than just those handful of people is that the university was clearly willing to adopt a "joe will handle his business" policy. This is what the NCAA terms as a "culture of noncompliance". The best example I can possibly give of that is the janitors - they caught Sandusky raping a kid and their first thought was that they can't report it because they'd lose their jobs. That's not a failing on their part, that's the indictment of the wider system. Everyone just knew that you couldn't take on the program and people felt threatened enough by its power that they didn't feel confident reporting child rape. That continues to be why I had no problem with the punishment as meted out and why the people who are happy about it being dropped bothers me. Whether that type of a setup, where the football program is treated as more important than anyone else, still exists or not at that institute, I don't know.