Balta1701

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 12:35 PM) I still can't believe you're a supporter of child and spousal abuse by being a fan of the NFL. That's terrible of you. People have looked at the numbers and found that overall NFL players are charged with those crimes at a lower rate than the rest of society. That could be because the teams have their fixers who cover them up of course, but that's what the best numbers say and thus it leaves it on you to prove them wrong. However, the rate of beheadings done by Saudi Arabia is comparable to or even above the rate of beheadings done by Isis and significantly above the rate of that done by countries like say, almost anyone else. Similarly, their rate of funding for extremist groups including Al Qaeda is (or at least was) significantly above that of countries that are not Saudi Arabia.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 10:46 AM) Yes, because at least our goal is admirable. Defense from attack and ridding evil from the world is a good thing. It's better than "kill anyone that doesn't believe what I believe." edit: and obviously the US has made mistakes in the past, and will surely make mistakes in the future. But overall we do what we think is best for us and the world. Except for our continued use of oil. We do that because it's addictive. It's horrible for us and the rest of the world, but hey, what's a couple beheaddings if it means we get our fix.

Please just don't retell his origin story in Cap3.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Feb 10, 2015 -> 11:24 AM) Was there any dip in Edwin's velocity last year? He'd be a perfect candidate to grab if the Cubs let him go. He's been slowly trending downward every year since 2011. 2011: 94.7 2012: 93.4 2013: 93.0 2013: 92.8 Is that the cause of his struggles? Seems doubtful, but eh.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 07:51 PM) Hopefully he follows the Yordano Ventura trendline...he didn't come out of nowhere, but it sort of felt like it. Both with explosive stuff and their array of doubters. Where was Ventura the last two years on the Top 100 lists? Prospect Ratings by Baseball America: Pre-2013: Rated #85 Prospect Pre-2014: Rated #26 Prospect Prospect Ratings by MLB.com: Pre-2013: Rated #60 Prospect Pre-2014: Rated #35 Prospect Prospect Ratings by BaseballProspectus.com: Pre-2013: Rated #62 Prospect Pre-2014: Rated #12 Prospect B-R posts that info on minor league pages for players who make the lists.

One other thing to note is that steroids will not impact everyone the same way, and hell, different steroids will impact different people in different ways. Palmeiro liked winstrol because it didn't make his whole body explode, Bonds didn't care so he went with the THG that turned him into a chemical monster. Other guys who did those might have had different effects. A shorter boost could have helped with an injury recovery one time but led to joint degredation a couple years later. Someone might have grown a muscle too rapidly and then torn that muscle, ending their career. This isn't a double-blind study where "steroid a = more strong guy = hall of famer" . It's Steroid concoction 1 + person's own chemistry + person's own skills + how the "specialist" manages the juicing = the final player result. Some could work very well, others could have worked very poorly even on the exact same regimen.

"Isis is terrible! They kill people in horrible ways". "They make their money from oil and so do our "friends", who also kill people in the same ways. Stop using oil and you stop funding them" "Well, I guess beheading people for witchcraft isn't all that bad. I mean look at Texas, they execute innocent people too!". At least we've all agreed to find the good side of beheadings,

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Feb 9, 2015 -> 10:20 AM) Mahr with his typical medicine is evil (although it does good things, sometimes, I guess). He got a good tearing-apart by PZ Myers (Biology prof)

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 8, 2015 -> 04:44 PM) The ASMI came out with a statement last year basically blaming the rash of elbow injuries on max effort trying to light up guns. This just doesn't hpeen in major league parks obviously, but the scrutiny that occurs when a potcher's reading drop 1 or 2 miles an hour does give credence to the belief the number being out there for everyone to see most likely increases thr likelihoood of injury. That's very different from "Ballparks are artificially increasing the numbers on their radar guns".

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Feb 8, 2015 -> 03:50 PM) I went to this page, http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=...=0&sort=0,d expecting, perhaps, to see a lower HR/FB ratio in recent years vs. the steroid era - stronger, juiced players being able to clear the fence more readily being the theory - but I don't think there's anything significant there. There does seem to be a small trend of pitchers suppressing FB's and creating GB's a bit better. One way or another, the arms are currently winning. Umps are also calling bigger, more accurate strike zones over the last 5 years, particularly at the lower edge of the strike zone. Combine that with the better overall pitching quality and there you go.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 8, 2015 -> 12:05 AM) How many pitchers from this current generation are going to make the Hall of Fame or even make it to 200 wins? There might be more focus on pitching than ever before...but it's obviously going to shift back to hitters at some point, because casual fans clearly prefer offense to defense. If that wasn't the case. soccer/football would be much more popular in the US than it is. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/226964-...-the-90s/page/8 Take the "Top 30 pitchers from the 90's" and adjust their statistics to the new norm of the last few seasons for offense. Yet another factor is the fascination with radar gun readings, many of which have been cranked up 2-3 MPH higher than reality in order to get fans more excited about numbers in the 100's. Are we to believe pitchers magically are throwing much harder in the last five years than at any time in history, after basically having the notion that guys in the 50's and 60's like Sudden Sam McDowell, Ryne Duren or Nolan Ryan threw that much harder than anyone in modern baseball? QUOTE (Reddy @ Feb 8, 2015 -> 12:12 AM) um... yes? emphatically yes? In 2008, the average fastball clocked at 90.8. By 2013 it had risen to 92. In 2003, only 1 pitcher threw 25+ balls clocked at 100+. In 2013, 22 pitchers did. Your only explanation for this is that its a league-wide conspiracy to crank up radar gun readings.

2003 was last time? Therefore 2033 should be about the next?

QUOTE (asindc @ Feb 7, 2015 -> 10:04 PM) There aren't 10-15 current pitchers that are as good as Pedro, Clemons, and Johan in his prime. I remember how Liriano looked when he came into the league in 06. He made Johan look less than spectacular. Chris Sale does that all the bloody time, and Sale isn't the best pitcher in the league.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 7, 2015 -> 07:02 PM) There were the same amount of top guys then. But by all means, ignore how the approach at the plate has changed, which probably is all about money. They don't ding you in arb for high strikeouts. If they did, strikeouts would be way down. The overall k rate has increased 50% the last 40 years. It is higher now than before the DH. 11 pitchers struck out 180 or more last year. There's also good evidence that umpires are calling a larger strike zone these days. Anyway, yes, if you compiled a list of top 10 pitchers in 2005 and top 10 pitchers in 2014, you'd find that both lists had ten people on it. I fully agree, there were the same number of top 10 pitchers. There were even the same number of top 20 pitchers, top 30 pitchers, and top 40 pitchers. My point is - if you put them all in the same pool, most of the top 10 pitchers would be from the recent year. The top 10 right now >>> the top 10 in 2005 if they were put one against another.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 7, 2015 -> 06:27 PM) So you are saying despite that being the era of Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson, and Johan Santana in his prime and Roger Clemens, there are so many more great pitchers that would add 7000 strikeouts a season? If you really thimpnk it is pitchers and not approaches, next time MLB Network shows a game from the 80s watch it. You will see a huge difference. In the steroid era when hitting 30 homers was no big deal, striking out wasn't as big of a deal. You have to manufacture runs now. Fanning kills that. I think that giving a list of 3 or 4 names is missing the fact that there are 10 or 15 guys doing that same kind of stuff right now, yeah.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 7, 2015 -> 05:50 PM) Not like this one. 7000 more strikeouts in 2014 than 2005. It was the era that de-emphsized contact and changing the approach with 2 strikes. Now that the ball and players aren't as juiced, it had really changed the game. I don"t think Mike Trout needs to choke up with 2 strikes, but Barry Bonds all roided up choked up. It is the one thing in sabermetrics I will never understand. Strikeout as a hitter meant very little, your strikeout rate as a pitcher drops or rises, big news. Guys who hit 4 homers strike out 140 times. jason Giambi led the AL in strikeouts with 140 in 2003. Batting average with strikeouts is .000. If you put the ball in play, on average there is a 30% chance you will get a hit. There's another ingredient though - how many Chris Sales were there in 2005? The number of incredible pitchers seems to have surged over the past 5 years to a level that we haven't seen before (maybe in no small part based on the effectiveness of TJS and pitchers willingness to push themselves to it?)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 10:54 AM) At $500k a year? Sure, you take a chance on him. That seems more reasonable than two prospects and $10 mil.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 05:51 PM) Eminor3 was talking about on field antics in comparison to Sale, or at least I thought, and Balta switched over to media relations. Regardless, I don't think him playing with fire was a detriment. Maybe Peavy showed up one of his defenders a few different times but it's not that big of an expense considering the energy he brought on a regular basis. In the media, Sale and Peavy are entirely different. Based on what we've seen so far, Sale shows great composure with the media. I'd say the same thing about Peavy's "on field" antics. Be pissed at yourself when you do something wrong and pumped up when it goes well. I'm ok with that, as long as you're living up to it. If you're giving up a 5 run innign every game you can't be pissed every time. Sale losing control and going after VMart is a bit much, i can see how that was over the top. Problem with Peavy? Was pretty much that all the time and never backed it up.

QUOTE (asindc @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 06:21 PM) How many games should he have played? 8 more, because he should have rested a few and that would have led to him hopefully not winding up aggrivating the ankle and winding up on the DL.

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 11:30 AM) I'm doing a pro-con speech in my high school english class on vaccinations. Any suggestions? My stance will be pro-vaccinations and I have to refute all of the autism concerns If you've got time to watch a video, I strongly, strongly suggest watching this. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/vaccines...ling-shots.html It will not only set you up with the good done by vaccines but it will give you a very good introduction to the counterpoints and how the science actually deals with them. "Yes this person got sick right after having the vaccine, but the vaccine set off a condition that is genetic and would have been triggered by something else had it not been the vaccine - in fact, that's why some people can't be vaccinated." "Yes, people did get polio from the vaccine for a time, but they switched vaccine formats based on the science to eliminate that". "Here's the basics of what we actually know about autism". ETc.

I think the combination of never getting any rest and pitchers doing different things with him in the 2nd half really wore down his power numbers. If Robin doesn't try to kill him again this year (and conveniently we have a DH who also plays 1b!) I think there's a good chance he snaps out something like a mix of the two halves - higher average than the first half but maybe similar power levels. I think he hits 40 this year, barring injury.

QUOTE (raBBit @ Feb 6, 2015 -> 02:25 PM) I don't know if that ever was a detriment to Peavy. Obviously Peavy was more expressive on a regular basis but I don't know how you'd be able to quantify any effect that had. Sale on the other hand had his moments where he'd blow up but they were just more memorable than Peavy's day-to-day antics. I remember Sale going ape on the water cooler against the Rangers in August 2013, I remember him freaking out in Detroit last year and then just throwing big fists pumps after big outs. Either way, I don't understand your parallel here or how Peavy's attitude became in issue. Seems like more a comparison of convenience than anything. I am biased because I played with a lot fire and like watching animated guys. I wouldn't have minded Peavy's attitude at all if he'd been able to back up his talk. He talked a huge game, seemed like he'd never shut up, and then didn't do that much when given the ball. I got sick of reading quotes about how he'd be better and they'd be a strong team because Peavy wouldn't be contributing. JFP became "Just f***ing Pitch" with that.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Feb 5, 2015 -> 04:41 PM) As you are a Bills fan, I am completely appalled that you support OJ Simpson's actions. Spousal abuse and murder should not be tolerated! As I said, beheading is horrible. But not as bad as Americans having to conserve gas. F*** that, behead all you want.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Feb 5, 2015 -> 06:48 PM) A torn meniscus is pretty minor. He should be back by then. Isn't that what knocked Rose out for 2013?

Ahem. (Drops mic)