Balta1701

QUOTE (jwmann2 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:13 PM) I think he just hasn't fully adjusted to being the DH on a full time basis. I think if you were to make Konerko the full time DH, and Dunn at 1B, Dunn's stats would rise dramatically. Not that it should happen. He also needs to drop a few pounds and speed up the bat. We did that in August, and we wound up having a better 1b in Lillibridge.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 02:10 PM) How do you figure? I believe they'll be better at 5 spots in the order and 3 spots in the rotation than they were last year. Konerko and Humber being guys who decline. You take Buehrle, Santos, and Quentin out of last year's roster, and we're 8 WAR behind where we were last year. Really is that simple. That's the ground we need to make up just to get back to where we were last year, 78 wins. If we got good seasons from Dunn and Rios, we could still be 2 wins worse than we were last year if everyone else were to repeat their year.

Cardinals grab Linebrink on a minor league deal.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 01:28 PM) But then with that argument, Dunn shouldn't be at the bottom due to one bad season after almost a decade of incredibly consistent results. I would bet on Dunn being comeback player of the year 100 times over Morneau. Not sure what they're going to get out of Mauer/Morneau/Span. At least with Morneau, you know what went wrong.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 01:16 PM) Marty34 has been advocating his trade for months now. I'm in between. I do see the point that he will be entering his early to mid 30's as the team theoreticallly starts to compete again in the next 2-3 years, but his salary will also jump up quite a bit 2-3 years from now as well. One thing you can also see this year is there hasn't been a whole lot of a market for SS's. Boston even was selling theirs off. Florida replaced theirs when they didn't even need one, and Reyes will probably be on the trade market in a year or two when Florida tries to dump contracts.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 01:19 PM) Which means Avila really deserves to be ranked ahead of Mauer, and Morneau realistically should be last if Dunn is last. For that matter, Denard Span should be last too. Avila's only been in the bigs for a year though, so he doesn't exactly have a track record either way.

QUOTE (Marty34 @ Feb 11, 2012 -> 12:50 PM) This is the same team that was supposed to win the division last year. Except it starts off 8 wins back of last year's performance.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 11:13 PM) Empire New Hope Return Revenge Clone Phantom Thats how I see them. And its hard to compare because of nostalgia. As a kid I just loved Star Wars. I actually phind Phantom Menace to be more watchable than Clone Wars. The "emotional" crap in #2 is just that awful.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:14 PM) If it's "bringing down the Paterno who helped to cover for a child molester", then yes. How many defenders does he have just in here? Let alone in that state. Thatd end any politicians career in that state if their name was personally attached, rather than just as part of the trustees.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:12 PM) I can see a guy in that position having some pull, enough to get a kid out of a DUI or something. I don't think any coach would have the pull to prevent a governor from looking into a child rape.but when the program says they'll take care of it, that's normal. They say it's not a probl, they're expected to take care of it.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:44 PM) Well the whole romance was awkward because Ani was like 9 when he meets Padame? I mean thats a seriously messed up relationship. Imagine ending up married to your babysitter. And Star Wars is all about awkward romance, you know the whole Luke/Leah thing. In terms of dialogue, I dont really remember any of them being amazing literary works. The part where he's 18 ish and they flirt on Naboo? My God, awful.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 10:01 PM) Balta, Do you really believe that? Tressel got axed at OSU, you really dont think Paterno could have been fired at PSU (odd especially as Paterno was fired when these facts came to light.) The simple fact is, that while PSU was a sacred cow to some, to others it was a kobe beef ready to be cooked. You dont think Tom Ridge's Presidential Campaign in 2000 would have sounded a lot better if he had "the man who brought the PSU rape scandal to light", you dont think there is some Senator or person in Pennsylvania who would have loved to further their own career at the expense of PSU? As I said, Im done with this thread. I have no problem with anyone, I dont take any of this personally. I hope that the facts come to light, I hope that all those involved are held responsible and I hope that one day the facts/truth come out. I just personally feel that Im not getting a lot of thought provoking discussion here, so instead of just fighting 20 people for the sake of it, Id rather quit. Milkman, Its a fair response and I never asked you to clarify. I just always meant the state, because in order for a District Attorney to get shut down or a police investigation (im talking 1998) it has to come from someone in the Govt. Even the BOT/President of PSU would have to make a call to someone in power to get that done. Thats where I was coming from, that you cant just make that go away as a College, to many star players etc go down for way less because the school and the police/etc dont see eye to eye. Are you kidding, you really think "bringing down Paterno" would be a good thing for a politician?

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 09:55 PM) First of all, I'm not attacking you. I just brought up people creating straw man arguments and happened to use one of your quotes. Secondly, I thought it was common sense that I meant Paterno was the most powerful person at the college, not the state. I can't speak for Balta. That part seems a little ridiculous to me as well. If a governor had made it his personal mission to bring down Paterno in the mid 90s, wouldn't Paterno have won? We're talking about a legendary coach here. He's not making state policy, but if he wanted a problem to go away, it would go away, whatever level it was at, and everyone here knows that's how a program like that runs. Sad thing is, that's not always a bad thing. College kids do stupid things, and if JP could help some of them get second chances because he could make everyone look the other way, great. But there's also a level of trust where you don't expect the program to cover for a child rapist. You expect a legend to be better than that.

When it involved penn state, and especially the football program, you're right, he was the most powerful person in that state. The governor can't touch a program like that. As long as he's winning, no one would bother them with anything.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:57 PM) Balta, not trying to flame, explain to me how this year isn't "all-in" compared to last year. Just because we don't have Mark? The same bodies are here with Sale filling in for Mark. What young guys are we playing to not be all-in?? Many consider Tank an upgrade over CQ. DeAza over Pierre is an upgrade as well. De Aza is still a gamble, and beig better than Pierre is still not necessarily good. Viciedo is going to need time to develop. Ditto Morel, Sale, Reed, and Flowres. Humber is a gamble, who knows if he'll step up or down from last year. And there is very little depth behind position players. The only reason more vets weren't moved is that they know it would be harder to refill the stafium in the future if they empty it this year.

This team is not built to contend. It's built to get as much out of the guys who Ozzie couldn't deal with as possible. Cutting $25 million in payroll is not loading a team with veterans.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:29 PM) And I already addressed that statement was merely: It was hyperbole, maybe 10% were saying it, maybe 50% were saying it, it didnt matter to the point of the post. The point was, that I from the beginning said that it was likely a cover up that went above Joe Paterno. If everyone in this thread now wants to agree with that, so be it. But if you go back through my posts, you will constantly see that I do nothing more than respond to other people, who continually are arguing with me. It stands to reason if they are arguing against me, that they disagree with my point. Since I can only recall a handful of people agreeing with me, it is logical that the most disagreed. Maybe thats wrong, and people were arguing with me because they agreed with me, either way, I dont care. What you're missing is tht there was no one above Joe Paterno. In a legal sense yes there was and those guys are deservedly facing charges. But those guys would not touch that program without Joes permission.

QUOTE (CrimsonWeltall @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 07:51 PM) I don't think it has anything to do with Jar Jar. They've got awful dialogue (PLEAAAASE fast-forward any scene with Padme and Anakin) and lack memorable moments. The most memorable is Vader's "NOOOOOOOOOOOO", and only because it's so laughable. Yeah, the romantic dialog is just the most awkward, poorly written, painful bit of the whole series. Jarjar is more coherent.

Btw, Pearl Jams concert bootleg albums? Awesome listening:

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:17 PM) Why is that? He gets the free pass for 05 that everybody accuses me of giving Ozzie? If Rios, Dunn, Peavy and the team suck again and if our closer sucks after trading Sergio, good luck to KW. Because this is a recovery and rebuilding year.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 08:15 PM) Robin will do the same thing Ozzie did. Play him every day and bat him third, fourth or fifth. If Dunn sucks as badly as last year, maybe he'll move down to sixth. He makes one billion zillion dollars a year; he plays every day and bats in the meat of the order. This year, playing him anyway is te right move. We're not "all in" trying to save the managers job. Last year, we were all in to win the division with the roster, but the manager just admitted he gave 500 pa's to a guy whose swing was screwed on day 1.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 05:39 PM) Kenny will be gone at the end of this season. Virtually zero chance that happens unless he retires.

Plaintiffs appeal to US Supreme Court (already), request a stay of the Montana ruling in anticipation of it being overturned.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 05:13 PM) We should be talking a lot more about the people nobody knows instead of the guy everyone knows and who a bunch of people insist on defending because he was a good football coach. I'm sure the state of Pennsylvania will lower its flags to half mast when those 2 pass away, right? After all, we have to treat them as poorly as Paterno was treated.

QUOTE (Tex @ Feb 10, 2012 -> 05:06 PM) Why do you think the eye witnesses deserve a pass? When has anyone rose up to defend any of them and said that they were treated unfairly as you have done consistently with Joe Paterno?