Balta1701

Signing a boatload of suck worked for the Yankees last year.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 10:48 AM) Even if Montero is Miguel Cabrera, it'd be hard-pressed for him to earn his value as a DH. No matter how good of a hitter you are, you'll only be like a 5-6 win player as a DH. One plausible difference here is that if the Mariners are looking 2-3 years down the road, they can give Montero the catcher's spot or a corner OF spot and give him time to embarrass himself while learning the position. The Yankees can't do that, they are trying to win the pennant.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 10:48 AM) Why would we want Edwin back if we're going to "rebuild"? Apparently the logic involves then trading Floyd away in some fashion to a team that wants Floyd but not Jackson and is willing to give up talent + money to Floyd rather than just money for Jackson.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 14, 2012 -> 10:20 AM) Jake Long is a Dolphin...? "Chris". d'oh.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 10:31 PM) 11-2 With Hamilton out for more than half.

QUOTE (DirtySox @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 09:27 PM) Also have Betances and Banuelos waiting in the wings. Great depth. It is really hard to see why those 2 teams with those kind of resources would go into best season without upgrading their rotations.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 09:17 PM) Fair value. He's a 3 win-ish pitcher. So he's worth about $15 million in terms of WAR $. Gotta be tough shifting from dodgers stadium and the NL west to Yankee stadium and the al east. Really good chance to see how good he really is.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 09:05 PM) Kenny loves Cespedes and wants to make an attendance-splash move. Cespedes is an attendance move? A guy who probably starts the year at Charlotte? Are there that many Cuban expats in Chicago to buy tickets? Other than the 2 already on our roster?

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 08:43 PM) Why not move Felix unless they are going to ink him to a long term deal? I would think Felix would net more and is under less team control. Isn't Felix already under contract for another 3-4 years?

Deng is a rebound from a double double.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 08:28 PM) Yanks also signed Kuroda tonight Dollar value?

Holy crap. Guess Seattle is out on Fielder then. Gotta have the DH option. Smoak and Montero is a really high hype middle of the order.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 06:38 PM) Carmelo does have a higher assist % (by like 4%). Not sure what that stat is, is it assist/touches? The other things that will play into it, at the percent level, are what kind of guys each player gets to pass the ball to and where guys fit in the offense. No one is going to leave Derrick Rose open to double Luol Deng, whereas a great number of people would leave someone open to double Melo, thus creating an assist opportunity for Melo in a case where Deng has a clean shot. (And yes, this still does not mean that Deng is better than Melo, I'm only disputing the use of that statistic).

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 06:30 PM) He also passes the ball better, as evidenced by his superior assist numbers. If he's selfish, so is Luol Deng. Now wait, I actually agree with you that Melo >>>> Deng, but there's a layer here you've forgotten...and that's touches of the ball, and how the ball is in people's hands. If Carmelo is in an offense where the ball is in his hands a lot more (almost certainly true), and the team builds the offense around Carmelo as an offensive threat, then Melo's assist numbers are going to be higher simply from him having the ball in his hands more.

That's our good friend Timothy Geithner, discussing the Housing market in 2006 Federal Reserve board meetings (minutes recently released).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 06:11 PM) He's not named Corky or Spanky I hope? ...yet...

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 05:52 PM) Deng's Games Played from 2009-2011: 7,524 AK's Games Played from 2009-2011: 5,313 S***, no wonder Deng was hurt so often, he was playing 10 games a day.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 05:25 PM) What I don't understand if the Sox have 30M-40M to sign this guy, why can't get we take that money and spend it on more establish players this off season Because the Sox might be willing to spend that as $8 million a year. And $8 million a year isn't going to make a huge dent in this team right now.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 04:26 PM) ChiTribRogers Phil Rogers @BNightengale reports Rangers are meeting w/Prince Fielder today. He's perfect fit for The Ballpark. Makes even more sense that Pujols did. definitely one way to respond to the Angels.

QUOTE (WHarris1 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 04:31 PM) Id like to see a list of 15 SFs definitively better than Deng. This version a year ago had Deng at #9, after Caron Butler and Rudy Gay. Deng's regular injury history until last year probably hurt him a fair amount on that.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 03:53 PM) However, good for the Rams. The old man is stoked as he's a big Fischer fan. Hopefully they figure something out as things continue to get worse year in and year out... The Rams had a huge problem coming into this season, as they were paying big time money to both Jake Long and Sam Bradford, from being top draft picks under the old CBA. The money those 2 were getting put the Rams right up against the Salary Cap last offseason. Normally you'd think that a young team tends to be well under the cap, but the old CBA/Draft salaries were so screwed up that the Rams were an incredibly expensive young team. They had no room to actually add anything of substance in free agency last year, and they probably couldn't even hold onto their own guys. Throw in an injury or two and an improved division, and you've got a recipe for disaster. This year the Rams ought to be in much better shape, they're another year down the path of both of those contracts and the salary cap should be going up. Plus, they have another top pick, but a top pick that won't break the bank. They ought to be in a position to actually add depth and useful pieces this year, even if they can't go all-in on someone like the Bears can/should. That ought to make them a whole lot more competitive next year.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 03:33 PM) The Cubs aren't winning anything in 2012 or 2013. If they go from 2014 to 2023, and make the playoffs 7 out of 10 years, and win a World Series in there somewhere, then the Theo Plan will have worked, in my opinion. For the Cubs to be competitive in 2013, they first need a lot of their young guys, like Rizzo now, to step up and have big time seasons in their rookie or early career campaigns. That alone seems pretty unlikely. Then they need nothing to go wrong with guys like Castro going to jail or something along those lines. Then, they're still going to have a fair number of obvious holes. They will presumably have some money to spend at that point, being rid of Dempster and Zambrano's deals, but the Free Agent pickings don't include a Pujols or a Fielder next offseason. There is good starting pitching in Cain and Hamels that could make a difference for them if that's their one big need, but those guys could well get extended first, and if not, there's no way the Yankees and Red Sox aren't in on them, so they won't be cheap. So, for the Cubs to win in 2013, they need everything to go correct in 2012 in terms of development, land someone like Hamels to bolster their rotation, then get really lucky by adding someone like Quentin in Free Agency and having him suddenly return to form.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 3, 2011 -> 12:23 PM) Yup. See you in what, 3-4 months when this deal stops working out? Who had 2 months, 10 days? This will of course be patched somehow, with the results being Greece's economy being forced to contract further, which will of course put us right back here again in a few months.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) Well "pretty decent" relative to the rest of the Nazis. Well, he didn't personally kill thousands of jews, but he also was a major enabler of that happening, and he was at some level similarly willing to turn a blind eye to that part of the regime as long as they were winning battles. So yeah, you're right on that statement, but let's not mistake that for meaning he's a good guy. He's at best an accessory to some of the worst crimes in history.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 13, 2012 -> 03:10 PM) "Rahmel" is pretty clever. Rommel's usually regarded as a pretty decent commander from a humanitarian perspective, isn't he? He's a very conflicted figure historically. He was clearly content to allow the regime to make a propaganda tool out of him and bask in the glory when things were going well, but then also hesitatingly gave his support to the '44 plot to kill Hitler after things turned poorly.