Balta1701

Good first few minutes for the Vikings.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 04:25 PM) Megatron vs peanut - 4 catches and 53 yards per game Vs rest of NFL - 7.8 catches 127.6 yards per game How much you want to bet he was counting down yards by Johnson the whole game, and had said "he's not getting to 2k on me".

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 04:11 PM) Defense played fairly well, lots of turnovers. But the offense didn't take advantage of most of the opportunities. Cutler played a good game though, as did Forte and Bennett. Jeffrey had a pretty good game too. Wasn't thrilled with the O-line of course, and the playcalling/coaching was nonsensical. 3 Time outs wasted because the play didn't get in on time.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:58 PM) Ugh...I hope that timeout doesn't come back to burn us... I really don't mind that one. That's actually a good time to use one, key 3rd down that you need to convert, make sure you're 100% comfortable with how the playcall matches up with what the defense shows. Besids, if they didn't use it there, they'd just blow it later in the game failing to get a playcall in.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:53 PM) tice is really just not good at his job(s) Tim Jennings, however, is.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:49 PM) They just aren't consistent enough on offense to do that. There'll be a penalty or a stupid throw or a sack pretty soon. I was wrong. Just a terrible playcall/setup. Need 4 yards, try to get 25 by throwing into double coverage down along the sideline. brilliant.

QUOTE (southsideirish71 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:46 PM) We need a nice long drive with a TD at the end of it. People need to catch the ball, stay in bounds and chew up the clock. They just aren't consistent enough on offense to do that. There'll be a penalty or a stupid throw or a sack pretty soon.

QUOTE (daa84 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:47 PM) Stafford completely acted and sold that hit to the head. That's just not a penalty. When a QB is going to the ground, and I can see it on my TV, 3 people should not be diving at him. It was way too clear, just let up, he's sliding and giving up.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:37 PM) Bush comin back next week?? No, he was put on IR a couple weeks ago.

Earl Bennett earning that contract today.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) If they settle for a fg attempt I will vomit What did it taste like?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:16 PM) Not the day to have an off-game, Brandon There was nothing that could be done there by the WR. I'm not sure if the QB could have either.

LOL, and that's why the Bears would still be a threat if they get into the playoffs. Because they keep finding ways to get the ball.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 03:07 PM) Offense has to put up something here. Sigh. I really can't remember the last time I saw the Bears put up a consistent, long-duration, multiplay drive.

QUOTE (TomSeaverFan @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 02:58 PM) I'm wondering if head to head matchups mean anything or do they even out during the course of 162 games with various teams beating other teams? Detroit seemed to have no problems beating the White Sox and seems like the only team in the division capable of sustaining it for the long haul. At least it seems that way to me. Detroit was 8-10 against Cleveland last year, that hurt them somewhat.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 02:43 PM) I've always liked Bell...he always seems to play well when he gets a chance. I'd love to see them use him more. Tell me if I'm wrong, but my mind remembers his problem having been the fumbles?

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 02:35 PM) Well the Bush injury put a damper on that. Then if you don't have any other option (even Bell for some reason) in short yardage...don't call the Forte dive play. If you need 1 yard, use the QB sneak. If you need 2 yards, call a screen. If you want to put the ball in the RB's hands, call a toss sweep to the outside.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 30, 2012 -> 01:40 PM) Yeah, that's a huge shortcoming of his. Not the worst shortcoming to have, just means you need a coaching staff that knows he's not a short yardage back, and a short yardage back as a backup. Not having to take the short yardage hits would extend his career if they ever realized how bad he was at it.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 07:33 PM) Green folks, can someone tell me what the usual response to the climate change critique that we've only been recording temps since the 1800s? I assume there is one, but for the comfort of my mind I have to know how science accounts for what would otherwise seem like a big hole in the theory. We have a number of other proxies for temperature. They don't have the small error of a thermometer, but you can combine things together quite well, particularly if you know a bit of geology. There are many ways of measuring it, most of which agree pretty well, but the best are the ice cores. Some particularly fun ones are the records of the Royal Navy. I really like that one in fact, you've got mobile weather records, written down, going back several hundred years, taken at noon, with known equipment, covering the globe. You can reconstruct temperature from water samples, from shells that grew at the time, from plants that grew at the time, from the bodies of people from the time, etc. Thanks to those ice cores recovered from Greenland and Antarctica, we can safely say that we're at the warmest atmosphere in 120,000 years. We can also safely say that we have the highest CO2 content in the atmosphere in >800,000 years, probably >2 million although the data gets a little fuzzy past 800,000 years ago because we lose the ice core record. If we stopped emitting CO2 right now, by the time 2100 rolls around, we'd have the warmest atmosphere in 800,000 years.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 07:03 PM) I don't think them winning 8 more games than last year is their worst case scenario. Then you're talking about them pulling off 97+ wins. With their defense I'd struggle to see them pulling that off from that side...but their bullpen was also a big weakness for them. #10 bullpen ERA in the AL last year, despite their ballpark advantage, and they're down another man in their pen as of now (Valverde). They'll probably wind up blowing $15 million on Soriano to get their pen back to where it was last year...but that defense and bullpen isn't going to propel them to 97+ wins.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 06:06 PM) I still don't get why people think we are so far away from the Tigers. We outscored them by 22 runs last year, while only allowing 6 more runs. We were pretty much even with them last year in terms of production. Honestly, if Thornton doesn't blow 10+ games and Ventura doesn't make some major rookie mistakes, we could have won the division. And IMO the only guys who really overachieved last year were A.J., Rios, & Quintana. Dunn & Konerko sucked in the 2nd half, Ramirez had a bad year, and we didn't get much from Viciedo and Beckham. Sure, Peavy & Sale gave us excellent years, but they're both very talented pitchers. They could break down this year, but so could Verlander and the rest of the Tigers' pitching staff. I just think the two teams are a lot closer than most people think. The Tigers were 3 games ahead of us last year, and they've added Hunter and Martinez and get a full year from Sanchez. Worst case scenario, that could make them 8+ wins better than they were last year, which means we'd have 11 games to overcome. They can also legitimately expect Peralta to have a better season than last year, possibly Avila as well. In that worst case scenario, Danks coming back and a few guys having better years is unlikely to come anywhere close to 10 wins. So that's why people say we're far behind the Tigers, and that's plausible. The other side of course, is that Hunter is 37 and unlikely to put up another 5 win season like he did last year, Martinez is coming off a serious injury, Cabrera is unlikely to win another triple crown, and yes, their bullpen is a bit of a weakness. They also still have the same defensive concerns they had last year. So, if the Sox get a performance out of Danks and their pitching staff, this isn't hopeless...but it could well be, if things go Detroit's way.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 05:43 PM) I agree with Marty here. If you can get him and the price is reflective of a guy owed a lot of money who has yet to prove he is elite anywhere but Coors Field, jump on it. But if your paying for a 26 year old with his overall numbers, it could really blow up in your face. He is a talent and may produce big numbers for years no matter where he plays, but up until now, despite some great overall numbers, he hasn't done much to warrant his paycheck or a large package of talent to acquire him close to sea level. Especially since his contract is backloaded, I'd expect the asking price right now for him would be enormous. The kind of price they got for Jiminez. They can wait a year to move him to see if his numbers explode one of these years.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 05:14 PM) There was a gun club in Philly that took all their old POC guns that didn't work anyway to a buyback, ended up with over $2k of gift cards and used those to buy ammo. Getting these stupid guns off the streets is worth being taken advantage of by jerks like them (or the ones here endorsing them). If you'd like to save that taxpayer money instead, we can be proactive and keep the guns from getting there in the first place.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 04:35 PM) Danks, Dunn, and Konerko accounted for 2 WAR last year. They account for roughly 43% of the current payroll, there are no simple answers. Everything should be open for discussion. And Travis Hafner accounted for 0.6 WAR last year while playing the DH spot. So, you basically want to take Viciedo's 0.5 WAR last year, assume he won't get any better, move Dunn to the LF spot where his value will go significantly down because of his defense (typically 1 WAR to 3 WAR worse based on his NL history), and put Hafner into the DH spot to get 0.6 WAR. Net loss, 1 to 3 WAR, due mostly to your obsession with putting Dunn in LF.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Dec 29, 2012 -> 04:15 PM) Not a bat short on paper? I was being kind, if you mean they are more than a bat short you're closer to being right. If you are counting Axelrod and castro as rotation depth there are at least 25 teams who have 8 better starters. Please name them. Yes, I would say that the team which scored the 7th most runs in the AL last year and has upgraded its team OBP is not a bat short on paper. You'd say the Yankees are a bat short on paper.