Balta1701

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 12:06 PM) Chris Broussard @Chris_Broussard 56 sec Reply Retweet Favorite · Open There r only 4 teams Dwight Howard would sign longterm with - Orl, NJ, LAL, Dal - source says. Rules out a possible DRose-D12 duo in CHI Not that we didn't know this. If the Magic are smart, they read this, and realize...none of those teams will be under the cap far enough to offer anything close to a max contract next year...Except Maybe the Nets, and it would be really pushing it for them to do so. Thus, if Dwight Howard wants to play for any of those teams other than Orlando, it's going to be really hard for him to have a team around him, and it's going to cost him $30-$40 million, and that's in NJ (depending of course on what the Nets do this year in order to fill out their roster and get to the salary floor).

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:55 AM) I thought perhaps a busted water pipe, or maybe a sewer. I thought it looked a little too clean/finished to be the bat cave. I think of it as having the walls of an actual cave, in my mind. Let's not forget that the "Bat Cave" as shown in Batman Begins was likely to be at least partially reconstructed in the process of strengthening the foundation of Wayne Manor during its reconstruction.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:44 AM) When's the last time a team traded a good prospect/trade chip with a terrible salary player in order to make a team take on the salary? It doesn't happen very often. The only case I can really think of is the Marlins trading Lowell and Beckett for HanRam, and that worked because Boston was Boston and able to eat Lowell's contract without a second thought.

Please keep actual legit spoilers under the spoiler tag, that's all I ask.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:35 AM) Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal Saunders last two seasons: 21-30, 4.07 ERA, 415.1 IP. Buerhle last two seasons: 26-22, 3.94 ERA, 415.2 IP. #Diamondbacks #MLB Saunders was non-tendered. Buehrle was tendered hardcore. Average fWAR the last 3 years: Mark Buehrle: 3.5 Joe Saunders: 1.3 Mark Buehrle has been a $15 million fangraphs value player almost every year of his career. Saunders, abouta $5 million player. ERA is not telling even a fraction of the story here.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:33 AM) I disagree about Dunn. I think he will produce enough to be worth 14 million. The other two not so much. If he does that, then spectacular! Trade him instantly. That second. Don't care who takes over at DH/1b. Peavy also, even if he doesn't pitch to the $20 million he's paid this year, if he pitches well enough to be a decent starter, the Sox might be able to save $5 million or so by dealing him at the middle part of the season and sending along some of his contract. That would be an intelligent move also.

The right way to look at Dunn, Rios, and Peavy right now is "Sunk costs". We're going to spend $20 million on Jake Peavy this season, $14 mil a year on Adam Dunn for the next 3 years, and $12 million a year on Rios for that period. They're unlikely to produce that kind of value, but they're also unlikely to produce zero value again. If they continue to produce zero value, they're going to wind up on the bench after the 2012 season. If they produce better than zero value, then at least the team is getting something out of them. And if they happen to produce well enough to live up to their contracts, they might reach the magic place where their contract becomes "Moveable" on its own. If that happens, jump at it.

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:18 AM) Interesting topic in this boring time I thought about. Some team might be desperate enough and not of spent their offseason $ (Nationals, Orioles) and may bite at that chance at getting a Danks/Floyd/Quentin for nothing if they take on Rios, maybe even Dunn or Peavy? Worked for the Blue Jays on Rios..... Think about the numbers though. A team taking on say, Both Danks and Rios, has to take on $22 million+ in salary for this season alone and a long term commitment of $50 million+, $150 million+ if they have any interest in resigning Danks. That fact alone knocks out 90% of the teams in MLB as options, because there are only 3-4 who would even have the practical resources to absorb that kind of hit in any given offseason. This gets even worse if you try to move Dunn or Peavy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 09:43 AM) The Subatomic particle that is responsible for basically the existence of "Mass". In other words, it pretty much makes up...everything. It's just been really, really, really hard to detect up until now. The difficulty of detecting it and the fact that it seems so important, causing "Mass", is where that name has come from. Here's a different, somewhat-readable, 2 page writeup of where this particle sits in modern physics thinking.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 12, 2011 -> 12:50 PM) Aramis Ramirez signs with the Brewers. It's going to be a really nice to get to root for him after having to root against him for 8 years. He's going to be a monster in that park, as he lost more homers than anyone at Wrigley with the wind blowing in. Actually, there's good reason to believe the opposite, that Ramirez has benefitted quite a bit from Wrigley. .972 home OPS over the last 4 seasons, and if park dimensions are calculated alone (not accounting for wind) he'd lose 6 HR's out fo the 16 he hit at Wrigley last year just from the fence position.

Canada will seemingly become the first country to pull out of the Kyoto protocol entirely. It would have been subject to substantial fines in a few years under that treaty due to the enormous increase in emissions caused by their production of oil from tar sands.

Dr. Elizabeth Warren's last major competitor in the MA Democratic Senate Primary has now dropped out and endorsed her, seemingly leaving the field clear for her to challenge Senator Brown.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 10:00 AM) The one I see is the Nov 8.6% number being charted at the same height as the 9.0% right next to it. There is also a problem with the slopes. The 8.8% should be on a line with the 8.9% and the 9.0% at the beginning, but there is a change in slope going to 8.8%. The Y axis scale is a bit funny and it's hard to match whether it works with all of the data, but that of course depends on which slope you're comparing it to, and since that's not a constant I can't tell exactly which numbers are at the spot where they should be. Really, just use Excel.

I think Mr. Scrooge figured that out.

Goose

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 01:06 AM) I still have no clue what the God particle even is. The Subatomic particle that is responsible for basically the existence of "Mass". In other words, it pretty much makes up...everything. It's just been really, really, really hard to detect up until now. The difficulty of detecting it and the fact that it seems so important, causing "Mass", is where that name has come from.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 09:24 AM) Morales is still recovering from his injury from 2010, he missed all of last season. There are worries that it will be a career-ending injury, so it's not someone you can try & depend on anytime soon. That's actually the kind of guy the Sox could try to target, if things got to the point where the Halos were willing to give him away...a guy who might someday recover but who won't get playing time with his current team, but I don't see the Halos being willing to "Give him away" yet.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 08:42 AM) With the mess of lefties the Sox have signed in the last month or two, I can't see it happening. They are going to go cheap on the pen for sure. In the fangraphs world, Mijares was a "negative value pitcher" last year. He was worth at most $2 million in previous years. If he's available for a major league minimum contract, that wouldn't be the worst deal in the world, esp. if Thorty is actually moved and we clearly throw in the towel on this season. Having him around would make Ohman more easily movable, and if somehow he had a good opening to the season, he'd become moveable as well.

QUOTE (MAX @ Dec 12, 2011 -> 11:25 PM) What? Care to explain? After 2008, the entire financial sector would have ceased to exist had the government not stepped in with several trillion dollars to keep the institutions currently on Wall Street in existence. Doing so was the right move, but a side effect of this move was the government's failure (by choice) to do anything about the entrenched group of people on Wall Street who caused the mess in the first place.

Evidently I don't see enough movies.

QUOTE (Springfield SoxFan @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 06:34 AM) Agreed. But he will get some interest, no way do I want Ohman to be the primary set-up man or first LH out of the pen. I have no problem with Ohman starting the season in that role (it'll be nice to see early on if Ventura can figure out how to handle a LOOGY), but if Thornton is traded, it's with an eye towards Santiago taking over as the primary LH reliever, so Ohman would be getting that job with an eye towards trading him as well.

QUOTE (Lillian @ Dec 13, 2011 -> 07:21 AM) Excuse me if this has already been discussed, but I'm just wondering about the Brewer's potential interest in Dunn, as a replacement for Fielder. They could also use Quentin, couldn't they, especially if Braun is going to be suspended for 50 games. What do the Brewers have that they could send in return? I would also like to know what it might take to get Kendry Morales from the Angels, now that they have Pujols. He would be a great replacement for Dunn, wouldn't he? Please bring me up to date. They might well be able to use Quentin but they don't have a lot to trade right now. You could probably get them to take Dunn if the Sox paid >$30 million of what's remaining on his contract, but the Sox would be nuts to do that at this point.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Dec 11, 2011 -> 12:54 PM) Source: Braun tested positive for a prohibited substance, not a performance-enhancing drug. More coming on FOXSports.com -- Ken Rosenthal So gonna go with GUY at the GNC told me excuse? QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 11, 2011 -> 05:26 PM) JeffPassan Jeff Passan Another source said WADA lab tests B sample using IRMS -- a carbon-isotope-ratio test. Experts say false positives are almost impossible. BenBadler Ben Badler NY Daily News source on Braun's test results: "Insanely high...twice the level of the highest test ever taken. effPassan Jeff Passan Union could fight it since Braun technically tested positive during old CBA, during which major leaguers found guilty were still protected JeffPassan Jeff Passan Source also confirmed that MLB has not lost an arbitration case with PEDs. Just to add an extra stress to this one point: Whatever the exact details are...he had an enormous amount of a foreign, performance enhancing substance in his system at the time of a test (something that was not an amphetamine), his sample was tested several times in several different ways by MLB, and the fact that he was tested again a few weeks later pretty much establishes nothing since the body could have returned to normal by then...and he waited weeks after being required to pee in the cup, not hours.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 12, 2011 -> 10:25 PM) And make millions doing it. Thanks to trillions from uncle Sam.

Isn't Loria incredibly rich?