Balta1701

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) Well the high velocity means that if Coop takes something off it for control purposes he's still going to be working with Major League velocity. I wonder if this guy has any kind of secondary pitch. He was in the Jarrod Washburn trade and at the time he was described as having a plus changeup.

Didn't do an exhaustive search but the last thing I can find seems to suggest the Phillies took him off their 40 man in October but he was "still in their organization". Found nothing about the White Sox signing or claiming him or anything else like that. Did I miss this?

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 02:49 PM) Who is Mauricio Robles, what does he have, and is there a chance he can be a serviceable lefty specialist? If so that might be the most interesting name on that list. Phillies claimed him from the mariners in 2012, turns 25 in march, 9.4 k's and 5.4 BB/9 innings while in the minors.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 02:23 PM) I am reading the points you guys are making, and I think they are understandable, but to me, I just don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who creates this ridiculously mysterious past and then seems shocked when someone bothered to vet her. I am really trying to be understanding here, I am. I keep going back and putting this in the context of a gay/lesbian person being outed, maybe 20-30 years ago when that was less socially accepted, and trying to make the comparison. However, the distinction in my eyes, is that in the vast majority of times when a gay/lesbian was outed, there really was no relevancy between that person's sexual preferences and whatever activity or topic that was driving the story. In this case, we have a woman who essentially drove the mystery by creating a clandestine past which, let's be honest, is going to be like catnip to any journalist who enjoys the profession at all. If maintaining the fact that one is a transgender person was of extreme importance to Vanderbilt, why not simply stand behind the science of the putter itself? Why not hire a physicist to prove up the science? Why claim that she worked on top secret DoD projects in an effort to create a legitimacy for the putter, knowing full-well that legitimacy would be vetted? I can understand how it was wrong for the author to mention that Vanderbilt was a transgender person...but why is that transgression so terrible in light of what Vanderbilt did to the investor? I suppose that wasn't the author's decision to make here, but I have a difficult time finding sympathy for Vanderbilt when I feel that her crimes were at the very least, far worse than anything any of the other actors in this story did. Again, I understand some of the criticisms here, I just have a difficult time finding sympathy for a person who essentially utilized her mysterious identity (and the very fact that most investigators/researchers aren't going to assume someone might be a transgender person) to her benefit in order to bolster the legitimacy of the product she was attempting to sell. Let's be fair here...as far as the article presented, the author did not seem to show interest in actually looking at the science of the putter itself. It was treated very tangentially in the article, and the article featured virtually no talking to anyone in the actual company or involved in the design, production, or promotion of the putter itself. The author never met with the main person in the story nor did he really seem to meet with anyone working on the product itself. Based on the way that article was written...if Ms. Vanderbilt had offered additional details on the putter or the science, does it seem like the author would have been interested? Maybe he would have been, but the article itself doesn't show that at all. He finds reasonable questions to ask about the background of the person, asks them, but in the process gets dropped a juicy personal detail and that becomes the #1 point of the article from that second on.

Shooting on campus at Purdue

My flight is canceled. This delays my interview for a couple weeks, but at least gives me a chance to heal. So not all bad.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 11:56 AM) Interesting how the article states that DeAza getting less at bats than Eaton or Viciedo in 2014 is a mistake. This is likely true from a production standpoint and it's why De Aza should be traded.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 09:36 AM) Don Cooper started in July of 2002. Buehrle pitched in 2000, but didn't become a full time starter until the disaster of the year that was 2001. Thus, it is literally impossible for him to lead the league in WHIP two years before Cooper was the pitching coach. Cooper was also the White Sox minor league pitching coordinator from 1992-July 02.

QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 11:18 PM) DC just doesn't seem like they have a clue as to what's going on. I'm speculating the Marvel movie would possibly be Dr. Strange but I have no idea. What I'd love to see and probably won't happen is to have Ironman 4 in that slot. I know I've heard that they might be done with Ironman, at least for now, but if Marvel wants to stay in that spot, it'd be nice to see them bring a big gun to the cinema as well. Heck even an Ironman/Hulk movie would work. I know Mark Ruffalo wants to have his own Hulk movie but it seems like Hulk can't hold a movie on its own, so adding Ironman would be great, but who knows. I'm probably more of a casual viewer with bad ideas, haha. Before IM3 came out, RDJ inked a deal worth a ton of money to appear in 2 more Avengers movies but he is not under contract to do any more iron man standalone films (and we also got a lot of talk about how the physical toll of the full movie was somehting he wasn't sure he wanted to do any more).

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 21, 2014 -> 08:18 AM) Hardly remember getting lake effect snow by Ohare in the past I think that's because the winds usually blow from west to east.

I....can't use his nickname any more....

QUOTE (Jose Abreu @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 11:54 PM) Industry sources tell me he had a good lunch with his wife and Mr. Nakamotsu. He enjoyed a Big Mac with Large Fries and a Large Coke from McDonalds. That s*** is nearly poison. He's destroying his athletic career. Now I don't want him.

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:12 PM) Its a sign. Watching Major League 2 on Mlb network and Tanaka is in it. He's going to Cleveland?

Didn't need them today, even was able to practice my talk while standing and walking around for an hour. Just pissed at the timing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:26 PM) Your suggestion is appreciated, it's just frustrating and poorly timed. Minor swelling, don't feel like it fits that description, can walk around somewhat normally, stairs are annoying and just had to use them a lot while packing. Besides, I have no time to get an xray tomorrow, if it's terrible when I get home I'll consider it strongly.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:15 PM) X-rays are a good thing if it hurts that much, especially if it hurts at the tip of the fibula. Palpate that area just in case.(a perfect use for x-rays even though it's common put here out of context) Your suggestion is appreciated, it's just frustrating and poorly timed. Minor swelling, don't feel like it fits that description, can walk around somewhat normally, stairs are annoying and just had to use them a lot while packing.

Walking is not.

Simmons and an ESPN writer who is also on the board of Directors for GLAAD have what are, in my opinion, very well done articles on the reaction to this piece posted today, including Simmons basically apologizing for the mistake of not understanding how the article would read to that community.

Probably better days to sprain your ankle than the day before you get on a plane for a job interview. Sigh.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:52 AM) I personally don't doubt that Bonds was clean between the time he was drafted and 1999. The body type doesn't signal anything, and the research and types of PEDs was no where close to where it is currently. I also think the absolute significant boost you see between 1999 and 2000 compared to his 2001-04 is a pretty good indicator too. I come back to guys like McGwire, Palmeiro. These guys juiced quite heavily at young ages in the early 1990's or late 1980's and you couldn't tell. Palmeiro didn't really explode at all because his drug of choice was Winstrol, and McGwire didn't really start to inflate until the 1990's. His numbers when he was 31 don't look all that outrageous compared to his rookie year. Rafael Palmeiro pointed at Congress and denied juicing and a lot of people believed him because his body type didn't look like Bonds until he was caught for abusing a steroid that was supposed to do exactly that - help you build up but only to a certain extent.

More at link. Someone asked for actual scouting on the guy.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 10:05 AM) You can say with 100% certainty that he was not clean from 2001 and beyond. That's all I care about. If you look at the numbers, you can make implied assumptions that he was pretty clean. He may not have been 100%, but I have no idea if Frank Thomas used amphetamines. He's going to say "no" now, but he may not have known at the time what they hell they were exactly. That would make him not 100% clean. However, I do have dates as to when Bonds used. Also, regarding Braun and Cabrera - Braun has never been a small guy. He isn't the muscle bound freak that Bonds was, but let's not confuse skinny with weak. Braun has always had muscles galore. Regarding Cabrera, his size has increased proportionally to the increased number of trips he has made to the taco bar. He's fat. (Probably was unclear I meant Melky Cabrera, who was caught juicing). The reason I have to say that there's no reason to assume they were clean prior to 1999 is the topic of the thread, which specifically asks "how good would they have been without the juice". To ask that question assumes you saw them for a time when they were actually clean, which is an assumption we should have considerable doubt about.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:56 AM) Bonds went from a really good, all around player to a monstrous hulk of a man between about 1999 and 2002, which coincides with a gigantic uptick in production at the plate. Can't post the images as they are dynamic images, but just look up "Barry Bonds [year] Topps/Upper Deck/Score/[card company]" and you will have distinguishable photos between years. But IMO that does not imply he was 100% clean beforehand. We can't say based on physique that these guys are clean. We might be able to see giveaways that they're dirty if they do certain types of drugs, but that doesn't mean they're clean if we don't see those giveaways. If it did then everyone would be nailing body type changes in skinnier guys like Braun, MCab well before they actually get caught, and I'm still waiting to see someone with a good record of calling that out before guys are suspended.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2014 -> 09:50 AM) I don't think that's the case at all. When you talk like Richard Sherman did at the end of the game - an irrational, psychotic, rambling fool - then people are going to question his intelligence. I gotta concur on this one. That was definitely a "WTF was this guy thinking" moment.