Balta1701

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Nov 15, 2011 -> 12:57 AM) The Bears just seem to always get better as the season goes on. Weaknesses turn into strengths, strengths stay strengths and he'll let the team bend but they never really seem to break. I think about Lance Louis, like where the f*** did that guy come from? He's playing like the best OL I've seen on the Bears since John Tait or Big Cat. Chris Conte, DJ Moore, Matt Spaeth, Corey Graham, Brian Iwuh, Nick Roach--these guys are marginal talents that have found a way to really succeed and become a vital part of this team. His roster management is almost perfect (minus the love affair with Omiyale that lasted a season too long). He makes a lot of something out of what looks like nothing. My one long-term worry re: Smith is that all of these things are able to happen because he also happens to have been gifted the single most perfect possible player you could imagine for his system. Without that advantage, I wonder...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 15, 2011 -> 01:12 AM) So Sanduskys lawyer impregnated a 17 year old client of his? Wow. Well, technically the age of consent in PA is 16...so...

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Nov 15, 2011 -> 07:57 AM) It may not happen in time for 2015, but at some point, the NL will finally adopt the DH, at which point MLB will eliminate the AL and NL and realign the teams into divisions geographically, which would allow any two teams to meet in the World Series. The NL is never going to adopt the DH. That's like saying that at some point, 2k5 and I will agree about everything. It's just not going to happen. Some people prefer each style of ball, and there is nothing wrong with this fact.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 09:33 PM) But you're also getting rid of a guy who is arguably the best player in NFL history. If you don't believe Luck can be the next great qb, then you trade Luck for an entire draft and add in 4-5 first round picks in the next 2 years around him. You just can't sit one of them on the bench, not when you can rebuild the entire roster.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 09:10 PM) Who can absorb Peyton's $24 million salary or whatever though? And even though Peyton may be worth 10 wins to the Colts, that is only because their team is entirely built around him. Are they built well for a rookie QB? I don't know...they get away with having a small OLine because Peyton gets rid of the ball so quickly and because he can adjust the play at the line. They get away with having an undersized DLine because they play with the lead so much. I'm not sure their window with this current team is long enough for them to win with Andrew Luck. It's $18 million, and you know as well as I do that half the teams in the league will find a way to make that happen if he's available. There would clearly need to be rebuilding, but that's why they'll be having almost 3 first round picks this year.

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 08:34 PM) Peyton Manning is a unique situation. We've seen that he's apparently worth 10 wins a year. I think the decision will have to do with how healthy Peyton is come draft day. You have to trade 1 of them. I don't care that the new cap rules would make it possible to hold on to both. There is just too much value tied up in the qb position. Someone would empty 2 drafts for either of those guys, that would rebuild to Colts for 5 years.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 08:28 PM) I'd love to see Congress have to operate on the system that the SEC requires employees of financial firms to operate on. You remember how the reaction to the banks dropping the fee on debit cards was "they'll get theirs anyway"?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 08:12 PM) There are still fixed costs for any franchise even when teams aren't operating. If they were really worried about that, the owners would have had more motivation to cave.

It was loud and they wanted to flag someone. I'll just be mad if he's fined.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 07:09 PM) This should be the single biggest scandal ever. EVER. But notice, no one is even talking about it. The hits on Pelosi and Boehner were pretty weak sauce, they had a much stronger case against Spencer Bachus, but they wanted to hit on the big names more. Personally I think the abramoff story last week of lobbying is still the worse scandal, but it's long past admitted that congress is corrupt, so yeah.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 03:39 PM) Slowly raising them to levels not seen since Carter and Reagan? How do you think 12% or 14% mortgage and corporate loan rates are going to go over? As long as employment is back down to 6%, which it had better be if the fed decides to fight inflation that hard, I'll stand by the "largest party in the history of mankind." Worrying about inflation at 9% unemployment is worrying about flu season after being shot. And Europe is reloading.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 07:41 PM) yes, the owners could easily swallower their 500 million dollar investments going bunk. The Maloofs especially could swallow that. I seriously doubt the Maloofs have brought in positive revenue from the kings in a while. I'd bet they've had to put money into te team the last few years, so this is more a bill going away, at least in the short term.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 05:16 PM) Matt Schaub has a hand injury too? Foot injury for Schaub. Yesterday was a bad day to be a QB named "Matt".

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 04:16 PM) 27 year old rookies (or close to it) don't tend to all the sudden figure it out. However, I think Scotty Pods was even older than that when he broke through, and he enjoyed a decent prime. This is definitely going to be a "wait and see" situation. Why do you say anything about him "Figuring it out"? He nearly destroyed his leg. That's his excuse, there was no "3 years of minor league struggling" or anything like that. He hit .278 or above and put up a .350 or above OBP at every minor league stop since A-ball in 2004. He made it to the big leagues at age 23. He then destroyed a leg. He did not play baseball at all while he was age 24. He returned at age 25. Since returning to baseball at age 25, he has hit over .300 with solid overall numbers, OBP, and slugging, 3 years in a row, at AAA. He has hit at every level since high-A ball, he has put up consistent numbers, the only time he needed to show that he "Figured something out" was when he broke into the big leagues at age 23. In that case, he was given under 200 at bats to figure things out because of a career-threatening injury. Yeah, he could still implode, but we have got to give this guy a chance.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 04:42 PM) Kemps deal is the biggest in NL history. The AL has the 6 biggest contracts, two of them by the same guy. Unless the AL picks up 2 first-basemen in the next 2 months, this statement will soon be untrue.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) The Colts have already said if they have a chance to pick Luck, they are keeping him. If that is the case...then I think it winds up we'll see what the trade value of "Peyton Manning" is.

Matt Cassel has a throwing hand injury and his season is in jeopardy.

The HTMl code wont' work, but here's Stern with a 10:00 interview on ESPN. He used the phrase "Guaranteed years of litigation."

The Players Group's lawyers.

I can safely say this is the first time I've ever linked to "Athens News".

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 03:40 PM) Thanks Balta just seems messed up to me. It is totally messed up, but the reason it is messed up has to do with arcane legal quirks.

Due to Europe, the Sanfran Fed. now estimates there is a 50% chance of a recession in the U.S. in the first part of 2012.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 03:30 PM) I'd be mad, but laugh for eternity if the owners right now came out and said "We are now disbanding the NBA. Go get your Masters Degrees guys! The players would be absolutely thrilled if that happened, because then the NBA would be giving up its special anti-trust status, which is exactly waht the players have to challenge in court here.

QUOTE (Soxfest @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 03:28 PM) Union wants to decertify ............They want to be a Union when they fell like it, work on a deal then they will want to be a Union again afterwords. Be a Union or do not be one. I did not like this in the NFL and now the NBA the Union wants it both ways. The response to this is pretty simple...there is special right given in labor negotiations to the professional sports organizations, where the owners are protected in a unique way from anti-trust lawsuits. Basically, the players have no way of challenging that protection while they are organized as a union. I'd say it actually sounds worse than it is, it's a set of steps taken because of various exemptions in the law given to the professional sports leagues. Be more mad about the players deciding to cut off any hope of negotiation.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2011 -> 02:38 PM) He also, while working for the DOJ, beat Microsoft on an anti-trust case, he's on the team of attorneys for Jamie McCourt, and he worked with former solicitor general Olsen on a case which so far has beaten back California's Prop 8. I just learned that Boies also represented the NFL owners (not the players) during that lockout.