Balta1701

I know you included a half-detail on where this came from, but can you please add a link?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 09:26 AM) Infante just hasn't been that good at the upper levels, and hasn't added much to his tool box other than velocity. Bellamy had surgery and missed some time, now he's back, so I wouldn't count him out just yet. Here's the other problem with Infante: K/9: 2010 (BHam): 11.6 2011 (BHam): 8.2 2011 (Charlotte): 7.4 2012 (Charlotte): 5.6 That's not just "hasn't been that good at the upper levels", that's having your performance fall off a cliff. Always had something of a high walk rate, that hasn't changed, but when your strikeout rate falls in 1/2, your performance will go down. I'd guess there has to be a velocity dip in there somehow, or something mechanical, to drop a strikeout rate that badly.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 09:07 AM) If he was that good, he wouldn't still be across the pond. To be fair though...even if he wasn't the greatest PG ever, Jeremy Lin did float around without a chance for some time, including being waived by the Rockets and Warrios.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 08:40 AM) I understand they have to wait on the legal cases to work their way through...but I can't fathom how the NCAA could take no action in response to this. Here's the current NCAA statement:

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 08:44 AM) Bill James(yes, THAT Bill James) feels like the Freeh report exonerated Paterno. the story is on deadspin, my s***ty phone won't post the link Yes I'll steal this to pad my post count, thank you Kyle. Of course, the concept that the reason they decided no action was appropriate was that the 4+ of them were involved in a criminal conspiracy to make sure that no legal action would be taken...doesn't cross his mind.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 01:36 AM) This post. And the funny thing is that at this point we're getting very nice production from all three of those positions. It's possible that 2/3 or even 3/3 of ours could have better second halves where I find it far less likely that one of their other position players (perhaps Fielder or Avila) will have a surprisingly good second half and outperform one of our guys. Both teams have some uncertainty with pitching, as it always seems to go. Whichever team gets healthy has the inside track.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 08:11 AM) Would be nice to see the BIG take a stand and give them the boot, but I give that about a 0.0001% chance of actually happening. I understand they have to wait on the legal cases to work their way through...but I can't fathom how the NCAA could take no action in response to this.

QUOTE (Joxer_Daly @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 04:02 AM) Injecting chicken? Not something I'd heard of before, but sounds interesting. I like to try random stuff with food. Does much of the sauce actually stay in the meat, though? I would've thought it would just ooze back out once the syringe was removed. If you squeeze/push down on the thing you're grilling, you'll push everything out.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 07:25 AM) No one ever reads under my name...

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 07:15 PM) Remember the mystery flavored ones? They were Mountain Dew flavored. The Spicy Sweet Chili ones are pretty solid. Those spicy sweet chili ones are simultaneously the best, worst tasting things ever.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 06:53 PM) I've worked on summoning that meteor. It takes a lot of work. Plus, I asked the Gods for a whole Sodom and Gomorrah thing, they said it's too much now with Twitter. No one ever asks the guy who works on meteorites...

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 05:35 PM) I love how some in the media want the NCAA to keep its nose out of this but they look for blood when a recruit takes some money from a booster. One difference here is that if the NCAA got involved now or over the last few months, it could have impacted both the civil and criminal cases pending from this mess, because they'd have to be conducting another parallel investigation. The investigations here aren't even done yet. This report makes it seem very clear that the other guy, Spanier, who hasn't yet been charged with obstruction/failing to report, only has a matter of time before something is returned against him.

The US Department of agriculture has issued the largest declaration of a state of emergency in US History as a result of severe drought conditions. Covers 26 states, more than 1000 counties, about 1/3 the area of the U.S. About 1/2 of the U.S. is currently in a state of moderate to severe drought. The scary good news is, it seems like an El Nino is going to build next fall, which will shift rainfall patterns over the US and might break some of that drought...but El Nino years are always messy weather otherwise, especially if they're severe.

(At what point do we start randomly tweeting reporters and asking if Danks's contract is insured?)

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 04:46 PM) I'd prefer to go for Dempster, who for 2.5 months won't cost a ton in prospects, and the Sox could even get some money back against his remaining salary (which would be around $6M for the rest of the year). He would also probably be happy to stay in town. The biggest factor on Volquez is, does Cooper think he's fixable. Don't forget that Dempster can say no to coming to the Sox if he wants.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones' first performance.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 04:17 PM) Can Coop fix him this year when we need him? He could be a great project for the future, but we are in a race now. I missed his minor league innings in 2010/2011, so nevermind the comment about not pitching that many innings. For comparison, Edwin Jackson rapidly caught fire for the Sox when they traded for him in 2010. Matt Thornton took about 5 minutes, according to myth. It can be done, question is whether it would actually happen.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 03:49 PM) I think Thibs contributed to Rose's injury. Look at the game logs, after his first few games out, basically every time he played 38+ minutes he got hurt again. Rose should have been handles with extreme caution and being ultra-conservative. No reason for your star player to get hurt in the regular season. But you have to admit, it's very difficult to give a "guarantee" either way. Especially since people have said Rose's style of play might start getting him banged up for years.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 03:41 PM) Its not panic, panic would be if the Bulls went to the ECF and lost to the Heat in 7 and were blowing up the roster. Its being realistic. Rose tore his ACL, this is not a good thing. The way the Bulls roster is constructed there are major cap issues on the horizon. If the Bulls want to do something they are going to have to start planning ahead. They cant just go into every off-season and try and make moves ad hoc. That just doesnt work. People keep saying "results speak for themselves", but the Bulls have 0 NBA finals. Not 1, not 2, 0. If you are satisfied with great regular seasons and losing in the playoffs, then those are great results. If you dont care about the regular season and want playoff wins, those are terrible results. So the results do speak for themselves, just not in the way you think. If you say "assume Derrick Rose tore his ACL", then yes, I am satisfied with these regular seasons and playoff runs, because simply the rosters could not possibly have done better. The only way you can make me unsatisfied is if you can successfully hang Derrick Rose's injury on Thibs, which I think is difficult to do given the type of injury, the fact that it wasn't obviously an over-use or poor condition injury, the fact that it didn't happen until the playoffs started, the fact that it happened away from contact, and seemed totally unpredictable beforehand, and could have happened at any point.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 02:47 PM) Oh boy. Sox are gonna have to give up a lot to get this duo. So who do Sox say goodbye to, forever. I'd say Jordan Danks, Mitchell, Flowers and Q will probably be the ransom. Anything but Quintana would be acceptable from your list.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 02:38 PM) Call me crazy...but I'm not of fan of how some of you are giving these politicians excuses for prolonged absence from work without showing/stating an actual reason why. We aren't talking about some perk-less minimum wage job here...we're talking about a very high paying job, with perks the likes of which none of us could even imagine. If I, or anyone on this forum (that I know of) missed work for this long and cited the reason of "exhaustion" or "personal", we'd be in the unemployment line within a week. I'm not saying a person with a legitimate reason cannot miss work for an extended amount of time...but like the rest of us, you need to tell your company/bosses why...and in the case of an elected public official...WE, the people...are his f***ing boss. Another politician taking advantage of his high paying, high powered position. If you take a group of 535 people, almost all of whom are past the midway point of their life in age, some fraction are always going to be sick from one ailment or another, and at some level even if they're public servants, it isn't my business to know what treatment that person is going through. At some point, yes it does become excessive, and yes it does start impacting their district, but that point can vary depending on the political season (nothing will get done this year anyway), the party in power, the district in question, and the type of votes being taken. If he is out of service so long that it begins to impact his district, then either it's his responsibility to resign, or it's his district's choice to remove him, either through primary or general election. Especially in the House where the terms are only 2 years, if he's absent for too long, then his district can choose to remove him. They also get some fairly nice health care plans that us proles aren't worthy of.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 02:32 PM) Without any solid evidence on his inability to stay at short, dropping him 12 spots on the list, given his improvements in several major areas, is too much. His move downwards also reflects other guys moving upwards and other guys being drafted too, don't forget.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 02:18 PM) Don't rule out Mr. Stanford, Jeremy Guthrie Is his 6.05 ERA and 1.644 WHIP really a significant upgrade from Humber/Axelrod? (Yeah, it's in Colorado. I don't care.)

Gerald Green to the Pacers, 3 years $10 million (Bulls could not match this without the full MLE available).

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Jul 12, 2012 -> 02:11 PM) What? We can add a starting pitcher without trading Viciedo. Maybe not Hamels or Grienke, but we can definitely get a decent innings eater for much less. Also, the cost of rentals should drop with the change in compensation rules. If you count Humber, we're already sitting here 6 deep in terms of starting pitching, right? Sale Peavy Floyd Quintana Axelrod Humber Which means if this team is trading for a starter, it needs to get someone who is significantly more reliable than either Humber or Axelrod to make it worth doing the deal at all. After Greinke and Hamels, you get to guys like Garza and Dempster (Dempster can say no to us). Wandy Rodriguez is available but has big money next year. Brett Meyers has started before but he's in the bullpen now. Then that leaves you Liriano.