Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 10:13 AM) Thankfully we don't have any issues with trafficking in this country where things like drugs and illegals can easily get into the country... So, based on the standard with guns, we need to give up on immigration enforcement and just declare that the borders are open to anyone who wants to come in.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 10:11 AM) I'm such a naive human when it comes to guns. The fact that a gun like that (or any gun) could just be sitting around waiting to get snagged - I just don't see how it's possible. Then I think of gun shows. It would be really nice if we were allowed to do things like track where guns used in crimes came from to see if there was a trend with them being purchased (or disappearing) from specific stores. Unfortunately, that is another thing that Congress has declared, in their infinite wisdom, we're better off not knowing, and thus prohibited the FBI from keeping those statistics.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 10:04 AM) I don't think the return will be much more than shedding salary though. Then they won't trade him. It's really that simple. If they wanted to just shed salary, they either would have done so already, or they wouldn't have signed Peavy. Floyd and Thornton will only be traded if Hahn is happy with the return.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 10:04 AM) Sale and Quintana only. Peavy does not qualify for the technical Verducci effect due to his advanced age. He's been up there before in innings, he knows what it's like, and he knows how to deal with it. Still, you get the idea...his innings shot up to a level where they haven't been in 5 years. If Cooper holds his top 5-6 starters together and they pitch like they're capable of, then that's a big improvement on last year. You've got a deep rotation with a legit #1 and several guys who could be #2's. Compared to the line of struggling rookies and guys getting tired at the end of the season we saw last year, that could be your big, division challenging upgrade. The downside risk though, is that three or four of these guys tire out early, put up ERA's in the 4's, and maybe even get hurt and don't throw 150 innings.

QUOTE (Lamar Johnson 23 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:50 AM) Here's the bottom line...as of 12/21/12, the current Sox are not as good as the 2012 Sox. We have taken a big step backwards at C, (and left handed hitting!) and arguably at 3B (the jury is still out on Youk vs Keppinger). If Danks comes back, that's a plus. Does Danks coming back come close to equalling the effect that Victor Martinez coming back to Detroit will have? Not likely. I'm not suggesting "panic mode" yet, but if the Sox don't make MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS prior to the 2013, they might as well start the rebuild ASAP. Just one man's humble opinion.... To be fair...there are a couple wild cards also. You're also not just going from Youk to Keppinger, you're going from 2.5 months of Morel + Hudson + 3.5 months of Youk to Keppinger. That makes it a lot more likely to be a wash/upgrade. But where we really need to improve on last year is the pitching, if we want to compete. We had too many innings where guys were put in situations they shouldn't have been in because of injury or lack of depth. This year, a lot of those guys are now 2nd year players. If they improve somewhat now that they're no longer rookies, then that can make up the difference. Danks returning could also help a lot. The biggest downside risk though, is also the pitching...and that's because of the Verducci effect. If that holds, then Peavy, Quintana, and Sale are all high on the list of risky guys, because they vastly increased their innings load last year. If our pitching coach can overcome that trend and take advantage of those guys being stretched out to improve their late-season reliability...then that can overcome that gap.

Double-post.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:39 AM) You are just gonna ride the technicality of Napoli not signing all the way to the end, huh? It's like he thinks we're a bunch of 7 year olds who can't read between the lines of what he's saying.

QUOTE (Lamar Johnson 23 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:33 AM) Didn't AJ throw out a higher percentage of base stealers in 2012 than he had in previous years? Correct. Some may think that's a consequence of the pitchers being more prepared, but that's something he definitely improved on.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:41 AM) And still got a 4 year deal, dude has value to a lot of teams. He clearly has value. IMO, his greatest value is to a team that is close to competing but is iffy on starting pitching depth...such that he can eat a good number of innings, give average performance in those innings, give his team a chance to win, and take some pressure off of the rest of the rotation and the bullpen. The Cubs aren't in that boat. In fact, it's entirely possible that by paying fair market value for a pitcher who does what Jackson does, they're hurting their long term plan. Jackson will probably still eat innings next year...those are innings that could have been given either to developing young pitcher(s) or to finding pitchers on the scrap heap who might be able to turn careers around. And that's on top of hurting their draft stock by winning a hadnful more games. If they're already in a position where they don't have the talent to compete and they know that...then a deal like that for Jackson gets in the way of trying to find and develop cost controlled talent. Throw a Philip Humber out there, maybe he has an excellent first half and you can trade him for a couple minor leaguers at the deadline.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:22 AM) Not the greatest defender? LOL. It's not like he's league average. He's bad. He was never a good catcher, and last year he showed regression. He went from bad to really bad. Which is funny, because both fangraphs and B-R have him being better on defense in 2012 than he was in 2011. The only year he's been moderately below average on defense was 2011. Aside from that, including 2012, he's been about average with everything rolled in together.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:17 AM) You watched him catch last year. It was brutal. Yes. He's not the greatest defender back there, but if he's not a catcher then there are like 8 catchers in the league.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:13 AM) The proof is in the pudding. Nobody wanted AJ. That's why he didn't even get a 2 year offer. He's just not a catcher anymore. I would have loved to have him as a back up, but there's no way he'd do it. With his attitude, it would be more harm than good. Huh?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:13 AM) People don't get killed by money stolen from banks

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 21, 2012 -> 09:02 AM) The catchers who signed were back ups like Laird and Ross. The only starting catcher who signed I believe, was Russell Martin. Napoli, who isn't really a catcher, has not signed. Not exactly true/fair/realistic. Napoli was signed...but the deal hasn't been completed because of health issues.

Speaker Boehner tried to offer his own version of a "fiscal cliff" solution in the house, preserving the upper income tax cuts, defense spending, and including a bunch of budget cuts. Despite the large Republican majority in the House, the speaker pulled his own bill because he did not have enough votes for any plan. The House Republicans are totally unable to pass any plan.

Yeah, this needed to be made.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 05:24 PM) There's no way there's no market for Thornton. He's a reliever with 1 year left on his deal (plus an option) so the value isn't incredible, but I just can't and won't believe there's no value or market there. The problem with all of these guys isn't that there's no value or market for them...it's that the Sox would want a return good enough to make the team worse next year by subtracting the guy. Unless they're desperate to shed salary (and based on the Peavy contract they're not), they can wait and see if someone offers them something worth while. If not, they can be content to go into the season with this team. They're not going to just give these guys up for spare parts. Hahn has every reason to wait and let people meet his price.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 03:54 PM) 2014 will mark the first season since 2008 that Edwin Jackson won't be starting the season on a new team nor be traded. How do you know that?

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 03:39 PM) Cubs signing of Edwin Jackson is official. Can't see Garza being on the Cubs roster come March. I can't see how they'd trade him until he's pitched some to show off health.

QUOTE (Jake @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 02:55 PM) You're right. The only thing you need to "change" to make a muscle grow is progressively increase the resistance. The only benefit to occasionally changing things up is if your original design was flawed to the extent that you were neglecting certain muscles. Even then, it wouldn't be productive to completely change your workout very often if you plan on making specific muscles grow. If you want to get sweaty, then sure, just sweat in every different way you want to. For someone that wanted to improve their physique via muscle growth, their workouts need not look that much different from month to month. There are certain lifts and movements that should always be in your routine if possible. Suddenly you've made me feel much better about my weight training routine.

QUOTE (Tex @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 01:51 PM) Whle the term is designed to scare people, the sunny side is deficit reductions by stuff that both sides protect. It is a way for both sides to makethe sacrifices that need to be done and have political cover to do it. Finally, an honest porson who is willing to dump the country back into recession to shrink the deficit.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 11:53 AM) Exactly. Reasonable restrictions are fine, and should be put into place. This applies to just about everything around us. If this was possible politically... we wouldn't be having this discussion.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 11:43 AM) I don't see how. Rose/Noah/Taj is already $40 million and you'd have to offer Mirotic an MLE-type contract in order to make it profitable for him to come to the NBA. Add in the various draft picks and you're at $50 million, more if they really do get the Bobcats' pick, and you need 6 or 7 more guys signed. Are you expecting the cap to go up like $10 million in the next two years? Because that's basically the only way they'd get THAT much cap space. Edit- I missed the "before signing Mirotic" part, which does help their cause. Still probably not $15 million, more like the 8-10 range. Could the Bulls actually use the MLE to sign Mirotic? I.e. if they signed a player beforehand to max out their cap space, could they then sign Mirotic with the MLE in the same year, and then fill up the remaining roster with veterans exemptions and a draftee or two?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 10:25 AM) You are looking at the same problems with gun control as well. There is no perfect solution. I could live with that if we even pretended to make an effort at trying in the first place.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 10:18 AM) 1 DUI, license suspended for a year; 2 DUI, license suspended indefinitely until re-approved by said power; 3 DUI, never, ever, ever get your license back Obvious problem with that setup is that you haven't prevented the person with no license from owning a car, and you might well have transformed them into a person who drives without a license. It might work for some people but not for others. If it reduces the incidence, it's a decent regulation, but it still leaves a "gun show used car purchase" loophole to fix.