Balta1701

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 11:22 AM) Inaccurate. The Bears have made their runs, they've made the playoffs, hell a Super Bowl, but the same problem has persisted. Instead of shooting to the next-level, you know, where the Packers/Saints/Patriots have resided for some time despite numerous personnel changes, they have stayed exactly the same... cover-2, bend don't break effective defense and an offense that is utterly pathetic. Yes, it's been a successful run for the Bears and certainly better than the 90s, but that doesn't mean they've capitalized on the possibilities. The fact remains, the Bears are 25+ years removed from their last Superbowl win. That's a long f***ing time. GMAB man, the "Next level" with the Packers/Saints? Patriots I'll grant you but they have one incredible QB that keys the whole thing, and still they haven't won a Super Bowl since 2004, so by your own standard there's something wrong. The Saints had that Conference championship run in 2006, then dropped to 7-9 and 8-8 and missed the playoffs the next 2 seasons before finally snapping together their super bowl run. The Packers went 6-10 as recently as 2008, struggled mightily with their offensive line throughout 2009, and frankly nearly missed the playoffs in 2010. The only thing different here with the Bears compared to those 2 teams is that the Bears didn't finish the Super Bowl win. All 3 of those teams have had down/inconsistent seasons, playoff runs that ended in disappointment, etc., the only difference is a Super Bowl win.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 02:56 PM) Oh, I don't know about that, haha... But in regards to your first statement, that's a good point. Pearl did get most of the coverage on ESPN even though Kiffin (probably) did worse things. I won't deny that certain institutions seem to turn a blind eye towards the SEC regarding football (e.g. NO ONE is mentioning Trent Richardson owning a new 2011 Yukon worth ~$45,000 even though his family is not "well off"). But, yes, I do think that we should come out okay. At least this violation for paying for Lache Seastrunk's unofficial visit involves a coach and player that are not apart of the program. Let's be honest though...I've been in both SoCal and Knoxville, and when I was in California, I think it was just sorta accepted that SC was probably dirty as Hell but it was a fun ride so no one cared. I can't imagine that anyone hiring a coach who had grown up in the USC program was expecting anything different than that.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 11:02 AM) Nope, Kenny was stupid for trading minor leaguers away. The thing is...this may very well be right when applied to the last 5 years. If we could undo every deal KW had done since 2007 where we gave away a minor leaguer, we'd have lost Quentin yes, but having back Gio + Hudson + the money blown on Peavy would make this org quite a bit stronger going forwards.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 10:40 AM) Funny thing is.. neither one of those guys were top 5 prospects (well... Crede on scouts list) but I remember guys like Kip Wells, Myette, Rauch, Barcelo, Dellaero, Borchard, Hummel (both just drafted during that time) and Garland (didn't quite graduate yet with his 13 starts in 2000) being up there. (some even still liked Christensen) Buehrle and Rowand were very underrated during those days. Addin to my list then...Rauch wound up traded for the guy who was our somewhat less than acceptable but maybe adequate DH in 2005, Borchard was in the 2000 draft so he might not exactly qualify for a 2000 prospect list but his return appears to have been useful anyway, and yeah, Jon Garland wound up being moderately important in 05 as well.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 10:29 AM) His argument, not mine. To be fair...some of KW's recent deals of prospects for players haven't worked out quite as well as say, the Freddy Garcia deal did.

More at link

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 10:15 AM) I think he's gone too, but all of his pitchers were equally awful in september. What was the usage of Beckett/Lester et al. like earlier in the year? Were they pushed particularly hard to say, cover up for Lackey's weakness?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 10:17 AM) With none of those guys. Mark Buehrle? Joe Crede? And don't forget the other thing that happens...elements of your great farm system can be traded to fill in other gaps which develop.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 10:06 PM) a lot of schools around here have ipad sets that teachers can check out for the classroom. It's not fully there yet, but smartphone based polling/question responses (and presumably ipad based ones soon) are slowly getting integrated into higher ed courses. If I get to teach an intro course at a place that has them I'm just going to start off building courses with that in mind because its going to become more prevalent as time goes on.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:43 AM) Kinda like taking the nutcase in the desert somewhere ranting about holy war seriously... What'd Obama do now?

My POV on that is that yes, Angelo constantly supplies a weak offense, but he constantly supplies an above average defense. The only year that really wasn't true was when they lost their HOF middle linebacker to injury in game 1. Winning football games with an intelligent, bend but don't break defense is not a sexy thing in this league, but it is more effective than almost anyone is willing to admit.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 09:43 AM) Kenny had the #1 farm system in baseball when he got here, how did that work out for him? Usually it takes about 3-4 years for guys from a farm system to start reaching their peak. He won the World Series 5 years later.

QUOTE (Papa Tru @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 02:54 AM) So assuming Morel has settled in, what does his full season next year project at? .275 30 2B 20 HR 80 RBI 40 BB 70 K .750ish OPS Something along those lines? The numbers you wrote, 30 2b, 20 HR, 40 BB's and a .275 average are very similar to the numbers Hosmer put up this year...19 HR's, 27 2b's, 34 BB, and that was a .799 OPS for him. He puts up the numbers you write there, and he's probably putting up an .800+ OPS just based on how the math works out.

QUOTE (SpainSOXfan09 @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 11:14 PM) Another wildcard is to just keep Danks and offer him Arb after next season and hope he has a great year and he walks. We get 2 comp picks that should be decent even if he barely makes type B status. Here hoping he rebounds in such a scenario. Although he could have easily been 12-12 or 13-11/14-10. He had a few starts with 0 run support IIRC. ? The Sox would only get 1 comp pick for D1 if he was a type B free agent, and a Sandwich pick should still be much less valuable than Danks in a trade (And I write that as a person who thinks Danks seriously hurt his trade value this year).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 07:15 AM) Ideally, if it's going to be like 2011 again, Dunn retires and we can package Rios and whatever we have of value to dump him....leaving only Peavy. Dude, seriously, GIVE IT UP. We're not packaging Chris Sale and Alex Rios to move Alex Rios next year. It's not happening.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 12:33 AM) I have another question for you guys. Seriously, Atlanta and Boston did not make the playoffs after looking like they were locks. They blew it. Their fans bases must be furious, FURIOUS. So should their managers be fired??? Answer this please. Should Boston and Atlanta fire their managers. Those were EPIC failures in not making the playoffs. My point so many fan bases want to fire their managers. I think Ozzie is a good manager. I don't think Atlanta's guy should be fired. First year manager, young team, team simply refused to make the moves they needed to be competitive down the stretch (3rd worst offense in the NL in September). Francona...I think he's gone for this.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 03:03 AM) A four year deal? I was mocked for suggesting he'd get one. That's the last time I'll mention it, but since nobody congratulated me so I had to take credit myself since a lot of people on here think I am a moron who does not know baseball at all. You are correct. I thought you were wrong on the 4 year deal and that's what the Marlins gave him. Congrats.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 08:47 AM) They got rid of Ozzie, they don't have to pay him, and they got a couple of B level prospects back. They are about has happy as you can possibly be when getting rid of your manager. More specifically...there's probably some level of a handshake agreement not to pursue tampering charges in exchange for those 2 minor leaguers. It almost has to be explicit, because otherwise the Sox could take the minor leaguers and then still pursue the charge.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 29, 2011 -> 07:11 AM) But supposedly it was said SOMEWHERE that he would get at least 2 seasons to clean this mess up...yes? If you're bringing him back with the intent of cleaning up, you can't really fire him because of a losing record next season. You could fire him if you spent another $135 million on his advice and wound up with a losing record, but if you're genuinely tearing some of the mess down and reconstructing it, you have to give that time to happen.

I miss being in the pacific time zone.

So the Braves bullpen has to finish it to make a game happen tomorrow.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:27 PM) I am almost alone in wanting sandy, which makes sense, because I am not sure why I want him. I kinda have the same feeling. What I really want I guess is for someone to blow the interview out of the water:

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:19 PM) They simply had to do the opposite of the Bears should have done to achieve the same goal. Lose this game to help eliminate the Red Sox from the playoffs. This game means nothing to them. That being said, I'm not sure the theory at this point isn't to try to eliminate the Rays and their much stronger pitching staff than the Red Sox and their incredibly struggling staff... That's what I'd think.

QUOTE (MAX @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:15 PM) Dunn getting cheered for his bloop single. Was in that crowd too

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 28, 2011 -> 09:11 PM) Yeah, the Yanks should have done what they had to in order to get their main rival out of the playoffs (one they know has more talent than the other team that could make it). The yanks should have thrown the game?