Balta1701

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 27, 2011 -> 12:11 PM) Well if that was their decision, then JR isn't at fault, but I would expect to see changes in the board for ISFA. The people who wrote this contract probably did so back in the early 90's.

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QUOTE (Tex @ Oct 27, 2011 -> 06:53 AM) Do you think they had any discussions about other candidates or just said Oz is gone, hire Ventura? As far as your two candidates that you wanted interviewed, I believe they know enough about Cooper to make a judgement without a formal interview. Hell he negotiated his contract by going over his bosses head, so he and the front office are very comfortable with each other. I'd say Cooper had many informal interviews over the past few years. Plus, they may have actually done something classy and not announced who they interviewed and didn't hire. They didn't come out and say, Hey, we interviewed (insert names here) and they sucked during the interview. Image how Cooper would have felt answering questions about how he failed in the interview. I can't for the life of me figure out why you keep thinking I wanted Cooper interviewed. I'm going to start asking you why you're so mad about Greg Walker not being interviewed for the managerial spot. Sure, you haven't written that you wanted him interviewed, but hey, I never said I wanted Coop interviewed either.

Oh and the reason why that was in the street was that in response to the threat to break the camp up, it wound up turning into a march, and that location was where the police decided to stop the march.

Warnings to leave? Because those were out 6 hours in advance. Warnings that they were about to open fire?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 07:52 PM) So what exactly is the cut off of where you eat a bad contract, and how much before you're badly run? If the team is out of the race and they can save anything...that's a sunk cost. A team out of the race ought to save what it can. Saving $500k would be better than nothing, again assuming that the team was clearly out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 07:40 PM) Not to mention I never remember the Sox eating upwards of $10 million They've also never had a contract as large as Peavys before, nor a guy who has underperformed his contract this much. If theyre not willing to eat the cost to save a few mill, then they're worse run than I thought.

The fact that there is a clear gap between the police line and the protestors, the fact that there's no obvious activity near the police line , and the fact that everyone else is just milling around (and a substantial portion arent either flocking to or away from the confrontation) argues pretty strongly that they fired without warning. If the police even threatened force, a decent chunk of that crowd would have moved quick, the other would have been pushed towards the threatening line. There are also plenty of anecdotes saying the shots came from no where without warning, but those are admittedly anecdotes and I think the crowd behavior is much more conclusive. I think it's probably very likely that they decided hours beforehand that they weren't going to go through the trouble of dispersing the crowd and arresting people who refused, and the weapons were easier and quicker.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 07:34 PM) Eating $3 million still leaves almost $10 million. I didn't say eating $3-4 million, i said moving him to save 3-4 million, ie eating the $16-$17 million. If the team is out of the race at the waiver deadline, it's a sunk cost. Might as well save a bit.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 06:58 PM) Where are you getting the bolded from? If he didn't want to do it, he wouldn't have taken the job. Didn't he say himself that he had to be talked into it, then had to go talk his family into it?

Here is helicopter news video of the start of the attack. The crowd stands there, milling around, people walking around, for the first :30. Then things start exploding in the middle of the crowd and everyone runs.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 06:52 PM) And death wasn't their response. You know what else occasionally kills people? Tear Gas / CS. And OC. And batons. And physical restraint. And tasers. These are all force tools that rarely kill people, but on occasion do. Then none of them should have been used to disperse a peaceful crowd (sans physical restraint in the event that a person is actually arrested).

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 06:43 PM) You cannot put more resources into drafting and stop making stupid player signings? Interesting. You can stop making stupid player signings, but aside from hiring better scouts, you cannot gain any advantage by "putting more money in the draft" in the NBA. The player you pick is paid based on where he is picked. The NBA has a hard-slotting system...more stringent than the one the NFL moved to this year (when the amount guaranteed to their #1 pick declined by 60% year-over-year). Derrick Rose will get paid something like $5 million this year, and that number is fixed based on his rookie contract. Bud Selig would like to move MLB closer towards this setup in the next CBA, and frankly, I'd like to see movement in that direction happen. If you stop making stupid player signings...that money basically goes unspent. It becomes open cap space...which basically can be used for player signings...usually stupid ones.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 06:19 PM) And when they stopped doing that and put more resources into their drafts...voila Which of course, cannot be done in the NBA, which uses a complete hard-slotting system and includes foreign players.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 06:19 PM) 3. If the protestors were doing something illegal - breaking stuff, burning stuff, throwing stuff, whatever - what tactics would you suggest they use? Prior to the police moving in, by all accounts, the only illegal thing the protestors in Oakland were doing was occupying a public space that is allowed for protests but not permanent occupation. The police warned that they were going to disperse the camp well beforehand. Several hundred protestors chose to stay and be arrested. The police responded with force.

Amazing how the Senate can get incredibly worked up about possible corruption in a loan to a solar energy company, but the response to possible corruption in the approval of a tar-sands pipeline produces a response of "I just don't think it's that newsworthy."

Oakland police broke up their "Occupy Oakland" protest site last night using force. One of the protesters was an Iraq war veteran...he was shot in the head by a "Non-lethal weapon" and is now lying in a coma in a hospital with multiple skull fractures. After the man was hit and went down, a crowd of 10 people formed around him to try to either render him aid or move him out of the tear gas cloud (unconscious people can't get away on their own). An Oakland PD officer fired additional weaponry, what video seems to suggest was a flash-bang grenade (although Oakland PD Denies having used those) into that group to force them to disperse. He was eventually taken to the hospital by other protestors anyway.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 05:47 PM) Excellent point. The standards of success set forth by the Royals and Pirates are clearly ones that should be emulated by NBA Franchises. I missed that line. Actually, you do see the Royals and Pirates overpaying for people fairly often. Gil Meche comes to mind for the Royals. Jack Wilson and Jason Kendall come to mind for the Pirates. I'd say that signing Tyrus Thomas to a riduclous contract is pretty equivalent to signing any of those guys...and the Royals/Pirates couldn't even say they're trying to keep a guy who helped them make the playoffs.

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 05:40 PM) And they will be, but likely in the same way they're in the race at midseason most years. That is to say, not really in contention, but close enough that people won't admit it. If they're at that point while playing Viciedo, Morel, Beckham, Peavy, Rios, Dunn, Humber, and Flowers regularly...this isn't a bad sign. If Danks and Quentin are moved for talent and the team can hover for a year...they will have saved some money, given the younger guys they do have a chance to develop, and worked themselves out from under enough contracts (Jake Peavy) that they can legitimately be a player on the free agent market.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 05:37 PM) I get "why" they have to overpay marginal players to get there, my point is why bother? The return on investment is absolutely horrible. You don't see a team like the Royals or Pirates making an $16 million a year bid on AJ Burnett very often, but for some reason that kind of thing happens regularly in basketball (obviously the numbers are a little different). I guess it also depends on how you define "marginal player". I'm not talking about someone like Rudy Gay or Joe Johnson in that scenario (who while overpaid do have a fair amount of talent and probably have some drawing ability), I'm talking about deals to guys like Corey Maggette or Stephen Jackson or Emeka Okafor or Chris Kaman. Yeah, those guys have some value as the fourth best player on a contending team, but what the heck is the point on Charlotte? To win 30 games instead of 20-25? While we're ripping the bobcats and saying that Memphis did ok for itself since its attendance went up... I should point out that the Bobcats outdrew Memphis, by a non-trivial amount. The Bobcats have been ~21 in the league in attendance for the past 2 years. Memphis sat at 27th last year and 28th the year before (when they threw all that money at Rudy Gay).

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 05:25 PM) What is that in response to? Was there some sarcasm in your post that was missed?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 04:53 PM) At midseason, a team would still have to take on at least $12.5 million to get Peavy. (Half of his $17 million, plus the $4 million buy out for next year.) He would have to be pitching like Cy Young to get that picked up. You don't think the Sox would eat a portion of that to save some money? They've shown a willingness to do exactly that in the past with guys who are free agents at the end of the year (Thome, Iguchi come immediately to mind). They obviously wouldn't if they were still in the race of course, but assuming they fell out, if they could save $3-4 million by moving Peavy midseason, I don't know why they wouldn't.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 04:36 PM) I haven't either. We agree on something! I haven't either.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 04:15 PM) and Memphis could join them rather quickly if they build on their strong playoff run from last year. Exactly. Memphis had a choice. Let Zach Randolph hit FA once a new CBA was signed, or try to build off their 8th place playoff finish and following playoff run. 4 years, $71 million for Zach Randolph. Nearly $18 mil a year. It was either that...or go back to 20-25 wins. Edit: Just like Atlanta, when they threw $125 million at Joe Johnson. And I still got decent seats for the Bulls playoff game in Atlanta 2 days before Game 6.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 26, 2011 -> 04:11 PM) Thing is, OKC draws but have a horrible color scheme and logo, which is why they don't sell jerseys or merchandise. But they have one of the best fanbases in the league. Memphis drew once they started winning. New Orleans is the only one you could really make a case for. Which is exactly why teams spend stupid money on these players to try to make a run at the 8th spot. Memphis included. It paid off for them in 1 season so far.