Balta1701

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 11, 2013 -> 09:45 AM) It's a team with slow and old players run by a rookie head coach who is going to want to run, run, run. It's a perfect recipe for poor defense, fatigue, and injuries. Hell, the Knicks might be better. If you want to talk about a team that can space the floor and drill it from 3, that is the team that can do it. And they still get rolled by the Heat. I just don't think Pierce and Garnett are a good fit schematically on that team. Take those 2 (and Terry, I guess) away from the Nets, and you are looking at a team that suffered a 1st round loss to a rather pedestrian Bulls team, yet suddenly, yet somehow Old Man Pierce and Denture Adventure Garnett are going to push them into a top 3 team in the league? You're crazy. I could certainly see a way for the Nets to be a real force come playoff time, but it involves them following the Spurs formula and seriously limiting the minutes of many of their key guys during the regular season. That will hurt their regular season record, but after that, we'll see. They have to be as clost to 100% as possible.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 11, 2013 -> 06:58 AM) If you won't have to answer to the voters next election time, who will you answer to? The person who is going to give you a job when your term is up.

I think there's definitely a lot of historic outrage and debate over the decision to deploy the atomic bomb in wartime.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 11, 2013 -> 07:43 AM) A budget is very detailed and specifies specific funding for each agency and in some cases even directs how money is to be spent within each agency. A continuing resolution simply establishes a temporary funding level that is based on some percentage of the previous year's funding level. It is essentially continuing the previous budget in lieu of writing a new one. Just so it's noted, this year there was just a "Continuing resolution" passed, but it included dramatic spending cuts in the Sequester. I know it doesn't make the news if several hundred thousand poor kids get kicked out of head start and don't go to school for a year because they're poor, but that's education those kids will never get back.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 11, 2013 -> 02:21 AM) I think Red Sox have the number one offense in the league. The Tigers have the #2 offense and play in a much more pitcher-friendly park.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 06:56 PM) Nelson Cruz was 27 when he finally saw the switch. That is the thing with hitters - it's almost more rare that you see a gradual increase, but instead you just see the flip switch on. To be fair...you shouldn't cite guys whose switch came in the shape of a needle.

Just tuned in and did the classic "bears up by 10 but expected they were losing based on comments in game thread" move.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 05:25 PM) Flawed does not mean useless. It just means not untouchable. The Chisox system was pretty bare when they traded an a-baller named Chris carter for Carlos Quentin, but that won a division title.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 06:59 PM) Exactly. The spoiled brats who lose and can't congratulate the opponents properly should be denied the right to participate anymore. And any winners who can't shake hands with the losers and tell them "good game" ... same to them. So if this happens so often that you'd lose a large fraction of the league, you just sold me on this being a better idea.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 08:44 PM) Steve Stone thinks Danks will add 2-4 MPH on his fastball in 2014 and be a much better pitcher. Might be right. If Dodgers believe that, then he is very tradable. Ethier would help. He certainly is a better player than Dunn, and all you guys loved it when we signed him for 4 years for about the same $$ Ethier is due thru 2017. Ethier would help the Sox. Maybe Hahn can get more from LA, especially if they sign Cano. If Danks has another bad year in 2014, then he will have no value for rest of his contract. Hahn should find out what kind of value he has now. Ether right now is not a better player than Dunn was when he was signed. At least not a better hitter.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 05:01 PM) Makes the AL Central a tad easier in 2015 Scherzer, Hunter, and VMart all hit FA that year, the Tigers have $90 million already committed to 2015 just for 4 guys, and Doug pFister and Austin Jackson will be in their 3rd Arb years in 2015 and will probably cost $10 million+ each that year as well. The only way they can stay out of long-term financial trouble is if their owner is willing to continue losing money.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 04:56 PM) If he could play, he'd be under contract with the Indians. That doesn't seem right at all, he's had at least 4+ seasons since he became arbitration-eligible according to B-R. Even counting the time spent on the DL he was a full free agent in 2011 but signed with the Indians for a decreased amount in 2012. he then got $5 million to rehab and play 0 games in 2012. I don't know if they're somehow allowed to make him the $13 million qualifying offer but I can't imagine they would.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 04:34 PM) How's that any different than the current system? At least if there were term limits the buddy-buddy, old gentleman's club crap would stop. When California did that, it wound up hardening the two sides and increasing polarization even more because the people who can occasionally make deals to keep the government running are people secure enough in their seats from years of service that they won't be thrown out if they make a deal.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 03:19 PM) Cuts in grants and funding thanks to the sequester is having a major impact like this as well, no? I've just already assumed that the grant application I put in this year will be sequestered and the grant that funds me had 20% lopped off the top, requiring me to find additional funding like sending in that additional grant that I'm assuming won't be funded because of the sequester. How to make that work...I don't quite know. Oh, and I'm still waiting to hear about that grant, so it would be nice if we actually had a "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", but for the moment we don't. It's a f***ing joke. But hey, since it doesn't get coverage, ruining people's careers is unimportant and like they said here, the sequester happened and didn't do any damge.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 8, 2013 -> 06:35 PM) The U.S. is suspending its entire Antarctic research program and recalling its staff from bases around antarctica which are funded by NSF. This will cost hundreds, maybe thousands of scientists a full year of work and there is no turning back from it once the people leave because research trips cannot happen. This will also cost millions, maybe billions of dollars in lost research funds, it will cost support jobs worldwide for the entire year. Projects that have been monitoring things continuously for decades will be lost and some may basically start next year at square one. A recently hired professor at UT got the call today saying that the trip for her research was canceled. Tenure processes at universities generally have reviews after about 4-5 years. Losing an entire field season could cost a researcher years of work. This could legitimately destroy her career.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 03:11 PM) The thing that I don't think a lot of people understand is that the Cubs could conceivably be REALLY good for 5-7 years and not even make it to the World Series. Pat Gillick was the GM for 4 incredibly good teams and only 2 of those teams won World Series, getting 3 titles in all. Now, I think that will do a lot to get their popularity back to where it was, but the opportunity to "take back" Chicago is not out of the realm of possibility, especially if so much is tied to the Cubs winning the World Series. The thing I don't think a lot of people understand is that the Cubs could conceivably be really bad for a lot more than just the next 1-2 years. As it stands right now, their entire future depends on having a large fraction of high-risk prospects actually turn out. That format could change of course if they do what they should do and trade some of these guys to fill in their pitching staff, but so far they haven't tried to do that, and Castro and Rizzo at the very least did not take steps forward this year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 02:37 PM) If Theo has any brains at all, he will back up the truck for Price. I don't care what is said about their system right now, odds are astronomical that any of those prospects even ends up close to Price's stratosphere. 100% correct. Javier Baez should be on the table right now.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 02:26 PM) Closer to this land, yes, but why would the Dodgers want Danks? They genuinely do appear to need back of the rotation pitching. Regardless of having an option on Capuano, the back of their rotation was a weakness this year. A guy who has a track record, could be had for nothing but dollars, and all of the other things Danks could bring, does fir their needs.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Oct 9, 2013 -> 10:36 PM) Those low attendance numbers do loom large for that franchise, the Ricketts have to be looking at those. Their opening day payroll in 2010 was $146 million, in 2012 it was $88 million, in 2013 it was just over $100 million.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 10:47 AM) Teams used to hold off celebrating until winning the LCS and World Series. Those you've actually won something. Frankly, if you win the LDS or the play in game, go out and get drunk with your teammates or something. The champagne celebration is too much for those. I wonder if they're actually told to do it for the cameras.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 9, 2013 -> 10:11 PM) To which part of the question? My post is poorly written. No, the "natural born" addition is totally unnecessary.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 07:32 AM) As Democrats I believe it is important to look past partisan politics and wonder if this really is the boondoggle that will destroy America. The folks across the aisle are not stupid. It is easy to dismiss this as a ploy because if it is successful, it could destroy the party. Are they simply looking after themselves, or looking after the country? The shutdown or the PPACA? Because this type of governance reminds me so much of how California got itself into such trouble. You had an entrenched minority focused on a couple issues that, thanks to very poorly written laws and rules for how the houses operated, had just enough people to prevent any budget from being passed unless virtually all of their demands were met. Consequently for decades it was nearly impossible to pass a budget or alter the tax structure at all, and the state only became governable once that minority finally became small enough that budgets could be passed while ignoring them.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 10, 2013 -> 09:57 AM) Guys play hurt all the time. He did sit out several games. It was no secret. They mentioned it several times. He was obviously limping along a lot. Professionals play, and don't worry about what it will look like on baseballreference.com. The team didn't have better options.I don't know why that is some managerial accountability problem. Beckham played 25 games in June, 20 games in July, 29 games in August (27 starts), and 22 games in Sept. He played more in those last 2 months than he did in July. July has the AS break for a couple games true, but if that's giving him "extra time off", then I don't know when he ever had time on.

QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 9, 2013 -> 09:50 PM) And worse of all, the Dems will do it when they have a cause they believe in. Like when they shut the government down over the tax cuts and Iraq war.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 8, 2013 -> 09:16 PM) Much better episode of SHIELD Yay an origin story