Balta1701

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jan 20, 2012 -> 12:58 PM) Can we start a grassroots campaign to get him removed from the Sun Times? Doing so will only create more publicity for him and thus will only make the Sun Times hold onto him longer.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 20, 2012 -> 10:24 AM) Garza still has arbitration to settle. http://cubbiescrib.com/2012/01/19/arbitrat...for-garza-cubs/ ok, there was still some odd grammar there too.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 20, 2012 -> 10:21 AM) Either either $12.5 or $7.95 as of now. They could settle in there somewhere, but those were the figures submitted to the arbiter. Huh?

If Boston is really in the financial straightjacket they're pretending to be in, then absorbing garza's $10 million might be rough for them.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2012 -> 08:24 AM) I know he knows it's not scientific, but I do remember when he came out with this. It may be something I do over the next 2 weeks or so, but if anyone else has done it, I'd like to see some sort of working percentage within this group. Injuries, regression, progression, stability...anything. It's a decent guideline to follow, and it makes sense in a lot of regards, but there's obviously more to it than that, because CJ Wilson, not even caring about age, jumped 130 innings in 2010 and he was much better this year. Derek Lowe made a similar transition and he was mediocre in his second year and awful in his third year of the transition, but he's been generally fine ever since. My hypothesis is that it has no statistically significant effect, but that there may be certain characteristics that can be traced to it. Read his article, he includes some of those numbers.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 20, 2012 -> 08:09 AM) The developer of that statistic has said that it takes 3 years worth of data to develop any sort of consistent criteria on a player. This causes problems because players, as they age, get less athletic and slower, which will deteriorate defensive skills. You take whichever 3 year sample you like - 08-10 or 09-11 - and either way, you get a very, very bad defensive outfielder. At least IMO, the individual season numbers are pretty consistent with what we saw from him in the OF. He was terrible in 09-10, but that was when he was dealing with the foot problem, and he was noticeably better out there last year until he hurt the shoulder.

QUOTE (The Gooch @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 09:04 PM) Before Napster I was the owner of over 150 cds that I bought starting in 1992 when I started buying cds. I have bought maybe 3 cds in the past 2 years. I am including what I bought digitally on iTunes, so I don't mean physical cds, I am just talkng about music that I paid for. Its not that I am illegally downloading songs, I just used things like You Tube, Spotify, Pandora, etc to hear songs I want to hear. How many of those have you seen or heard ads during?

Newt released his tax returns during the debate tonight. Nice.

QUOTE (ScottyDo @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:26 PM) Well, I guess Chris Sale is a lock for that list next year. Like Verducci says, it's not that scientific of a study but worth looking at for very loose guidelines. 100% guarantee. He'll almost certainly be #1 on the list next year.

QUOTE (SI1020 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 04:07 PM) There's a stat for everyone. His DWAR was in plus territory in 2011 as were other metrics. Am I saying he's a stud defensively? No. At best he'll be somewhere around adequate with limited range. His defense in 2011 was much improved from 2010-2009, I'll definitely buy that, you could see that with the "Eye test" too. But he was awful in 2009, and there was another injury while fielding last year that could very well hurt his throwing ability going forward.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 05:12 PM) What is with people these days? Walter Payton or Jordan, there is an argument to made for both. Just like some people can argue MJ isnt the greatest basketball player or that Payton isnt the best football player. There is no definitive way to determine best ever, so what are people freaking out about? The fact that you asserted you could somehow tell.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:26 PM) GMAB, Balta. You need him to post that to figure that out. You're not an idiot. You just like to debate forever and ever. I know nothing about defensive win shares in basketball.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:19 PM) And if you google Wade and Hamilton together, you get a mass of stories talking about Hamilton being a Wade stopper, those stories of course being from first hand observations of the writers. Acutally I just did that and couldn't find any, they were all just about Hamilton signing with the Bulls. Can you give a good one?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) Balta, Im bored so I guess Ill show why the stat is meaningless. Lets take a random year, 2005-2006 pistons. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DET/2006.html According to basketball reference, Hamilton had the worst defensive rating of any piston (108), Wallace had the best (95) followed by Sheed. In terms of defensive win shares, Hamilton was once again last of the starters. That team was 3rd in ppg with 90 per game. If Hamilton's man was scoring 20+, that means Hamilton defensively was giving up 20-25% of all the points scored against the Pistons on any night. Furthermore, the stats would suggest that if the Pistons were playing optimum defense, that Billups or Prince would have been guarding the best perimeter player and Hamilton would not have been. The simple fact is, there are way to many variables to say that Hamilton definitely was the reason that those players scored less. Thank you! That's actually what I was hoping someone would do in reply, so that I could learn something!

Mittens's SuperPAC has dropped a bit anti-Newt ad buy in Florida today. Seems like they're seeing the same polling data as everyone else and they're now jumping back on him, they haven't had their guns on him since Iowa in December.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 03:05 PM) The argument is awful. There is the anecdotal evidence of multiple writers and the statistics back it up. Unless someone has actual evidence, the only thing faulty here is people's memories. You've actually got 2k5 and I on the same side here. If Wade's career average was 5 points higher against the Pistons, that'd be solid evidence that Hamilton isn't slowing him down and even that the rest of Detroit's defense was the strong spot so they needed to rely on Wade more. It's not a perfect statistic, but it's a good first glance test. I'm awaiting more details from someone to tell me why that statistic is wrong.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:55 PM) So what is more likely, Hamilton is secretly one of the top defenders, or he played on a good defensive team that held players below their average? Of course, clearly "playing on a good defensive team" can't have anything to do with that player in particular, right? After all, he was obviously the weak link, look how much shooting guards went off on him.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:51 PM) Now all I gotta do is go to bballreference and find one player in which Rose's PPG total is lower than his career average and I can dub him a Rose stopper. Please. So, you're the one who said that Hamilton was definitely not a Wade Stopper. So far, the only stats presented in support of this argument suggest that his scoring has definitely dropped against the Pistons. How about you give a stat that supports your argument?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:51 PM) Now all I gotta do is go to bballreference and find one player in which Rose's PPG total is lower than his career average and I can dub him a Rose stopper. Please. Golden State.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:44 PM) Balta, That stat is so meaningless. What are Boston/Piston pace statistics, do they play as quick as other teams? Do they overall keep opponents to lower points? You're asking if 2 of the best defensive teams of the last decade and the 2 teams I can think of who won titles while being dominant on the defensive side of the ball keep opponents to lower points?

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:33 PM) That's false. I have no clue who perpetrated that myth. That's almost as bad as Gerald Wilkins somehow getting a "Jordan stopper" reputation back in the early 90's. Wade's 21.5 points per game against the Pistons is tied with his 21.5 ppg against the Celtics as the 2nd fewest ppg against any team in the league. He has only scored fewer points per game against Charlotte, and that's in 3 fewer minutes per game (probably a lot of Bobcat Blowouts where he didn't need to score). His career splits suggest that the Celtics and the Pistons have at least held him in check on scoring. Whether that is Hamilton...I dunno.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:17 PM) And trading brewer significantly hurts defense, which is still what the Bulls are about. Ray Allen though has been pretty successful in Thibs's defense before, and then if ever healthy he'd be backed up by Hamilton.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:09 PM) There's definitely a chance this team can be solid. I don't think it's going to happen but it's certainly possible. Basically, it takes as many things going right this year as went wrong last year.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 02:05 PM) Reading about predictions and projections and saying a $19M salary is justified if you win four games? Did I read that right? What the Rangers paid for Darvish and I am only talking his salary is crazy enough. $51M just to talk to him is crazy cazy. Maybe the Rangers figure they will offset the salary by letting Hamilton walk? Again, take the time to go understand what "Wins above replacement" are before posting. We'd really appreciate it.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 19, 2012 -> 01:17 PM) I'm sure they care when they have to sign his paycheck. Money doesn't grow on trees so salary absolutely matters in a player's value. More than that, they're going to care next offseason when Josh Hamilton is a free agent.