Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 07:51 PM) Playing in the biggest media market in the country does that to some people. Ask Amare Stoudemire why he went to the Knicks. No one else was going to give him $20 million a year, especially prior to Lebron signing his deal.

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 07:32 PM) Yes...but why the hell would Melo? Is he dying to win 45 games next year? I haven't a clue. Like I said above, that's no where near a championship roster, and it's likely to be trapped in that 7-10 range in the conference every year where it has no chance at a high lottery pick, cap space, or help.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 07:39 PM) I don't really want Omar as option #1 next year, but it can't be denied that this teams turnaround directly correlated with Omar going into the starting line up. Really...let's be honest...Omar hasn't played poorly this year...and if Ozzie's the manager, I think the only thing that keeps Omar from starting the season at 3b next year is Omar deciding to retire. Or Ozzie deciding Omar is the full time DH.

QUOTE (fathom @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 07:00 PM) Screw you ozzie for not playing Viciedo against a LHP (especially one he's hit well). Can't Manny just fake injury so we don't have to keep playing him? LOL...the emotions about Manroid went from elation to "Kotsayesque" pretty darn quickly didn't they?

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 06:57 PM) It is if Melo refuses to sign there and as long as the Nugs aren't stubborn enough to just keep him if he won't go to the Nets Well obviously that plays in to it...but quite simply, if I'm the Nuggets and I'm sitting there looking at Deng + Noah + a late first round pick, and comparing it to AK47's expiring contract + Favors + Golden State's late-Lottery pick and I get to choose which one I take because Melo would accept either...I take the Nets offer. Wouldn't you?

QUOTE (Jenksy Cat @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) If it turns out true that we passed on Melo to keep Noah, entire front office should be fired. I still don't think an offer of Deng + Noah is anywhere near as good as an offer of Favors + Kirilenko + Golden State's 1-7 protected draft pick with AK's expiring contract.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 05:29 PM) You only do that for elite prospects. You don't keep him in AAA entirely because of the Super 2 deadline. Starting him in AAA next year, as young as he is, is the right move unless he's absolutely needed. The Super 2 deadline is a second-order benefit.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 05:29 PM) Is this really exciting? I mean, why would Anthony want to leave the Nuggets for this when he can stay one more year and then choose wherever he wanted to go? Get extension before the new CBA negotiations. The Lockout will start on the day of the opening of FA next year.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 01:02 PM) http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/carmelo...in-works-092410 Done deal, Melo agrees to an extension and trade to the Nets. ESPN is still not saying it's done, they're using the phrase "advanced discussions" several hours after your post. If the Netropolitans actually do this deal...anyone think they wind up as anything other than the late-Garnett-year TWolves? One big scorer who wins enough games that the team never drafts in the top 10. Brook Lopez Carmelo Anthony Presumably Troy Murphy is the PF DJ Augustin and Jordan Farmar at the point Terrence Williams and Anthony Morrow at SG.

QUOTE (hitlesswonder @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 11:03 PM) Noah is a restricted FA. He'd be under control for, what...2 more years after this season? A package of Noah, Gibson, Deng, and some first round picks wouldn't be bad for Denver (if it works under the cap). You're assuming that the next 2 seasons happen.

I have no interest in adding any extra teams. If you want to reform the postseason and make it better...you can do 2 things. Fewer days off, and a 7 game opening round.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 25, 2010 -> 12:03 AM) Anybody but Teahen. I love Morel's glove. Hope he can hit a bit. Does he project to hit better than Omar would next year? Both have great gloves. Isn't it funny we dump Uribe and he would have remained a contributor? It's probably pretty likely that Morel would hit better than Omar because Morel would make up for being a worse hitter by actually hitting with some power. If Guillen stays...my guess is that Omar Vizquel starts the season at 3b and they try to keep Morel in AAA until at least the Super 2 arbitration deadline in early June...both to save the arbitration year and to give Morel some extra AB's in AAA.

Whoever is playing the Yankees and whoever is playing the Heat for good measure.

I can think of at least one minor investment-related blip that happened in 2008 that would have allowed a lot of very wealthy people to claim very large year over year losses.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 06:00 PM) They're at least happy to see a kid of Hispanic descent go off and risk his life for them. If you search hard, there's an Asian American and an African American in there too. But I'm pretty sure they're outnumbered by the horses.

That is the collage of images that the Republicans included with their new contract document they put out yesterday. They can't even find stock photos to make themselves look inclusive?

QUOTE (J.Reedfan8 @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 04:46 PM) Sorry Joakim, your going to have to do this one more year (and healthy at that) for this organization (hopefully) to commit that kind of money. I'm sure they've learned from the Deng situation, and Luol was at least more proven from a couple productive years even though he was hurt in one of them. The bigger reality is...if he thinks he's going to get max money, he wouldn't have a shot at it until after the 2011-2012 season. Considering that season is plausibly not going to happen...and then even more importantly, the CBA is likely to undergo huge changes before then...the Bulls would be insane to offer more than 5/$60ish right now, and frankly Noah'd be an idiot not to jump at it.

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 04:06 PM) Balta, prosecution DID happen, and a default judgement was entered, then Holder droppped it because he didn't want to deal with the case. Now, let's not parse our words here... It wasn't exactly "Prosecution". The idea of prosecuting the actual people involved for voting rights violations was considered by the DOJ and they decided not to prosecute. The date on that decision was early January, 2009. Read that date again and consider who made that decision. The Bush administration left the Obama administration an active civil case against the NBPP, not a criminal case. Basically, there was a lawsuit outstanding. A preliminary injunction was issued again the one of them who was holding the nightstick, but not against the other 3. One of them had a license as a poll worker, in fact. The current DOJ dropped the lawsuit...before Basically, they got the court to say that the guy couldn't do it again, and that as long as he didn't do it again, there was no evidence of actual violence, there were no intimidation claims, and nothing that the local authorities could charge him with. Furthermore, the actual NBPP itself could not be a target of the suit, because there was no voting-rights act style evidence of widespread, systemic intimidation. Basically...going forwards with that lawsuit would be spending government money to sue a guy for carrying a club to the place. The courts gave the first guy a slap on the wrist. Said "Don't do it again". If the civil case was expanded...the likely result was to be...slaps on the wrist for 2 of the other 3 guys. No one was going to jail. No one was even paying a fine despite the victory. It was literally as empty of a win as you could get.

Citizens United summed up in 1 paragraph.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 03:22 PM) Hm. Definitely seems fishy, I'll agree. I remember when that happened, it seemed like pretty blatant intimidation, and there was every reason to prosecute them. There's a couple big problems with that. First and foremost...not a single voter from that site has filed a complaint about intimidation. Therefore...there's limited standing with which to bring the case. This is of course not surprising, because the polling place they were at was a largely African American polling place. Furthermore, the part of the law that they'd have to have been charged under without actual intimidation complaints was written in a way so as to allow for prosecution of large scale voter intimidation efforts. There's actually a precedent issue here; the last time it was used to prosecute anyone was decades ago, and it was used to prosecute a large scale, state-wide voter caging effort. Without actual evidence of a conspiracy and without actual complaints of intimidation, it'd have been a nearly impossible case for the DOJ to bring and win. The actual reality is that the armed black panthers at the site were probably doing what they actually said they were doing, trying to in some misguided fashion "protect the black voters at this site from the White man!" to paraphrase a quote. Had anything actually happened involving any of the voters at the site, prosecution probably would have happened. It didn't.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 10:31 AM) It bugs me a lot that Ozzie is saying this s*** during the season. One way or another, a lot of these players will be back in 2011, and it can't make them happy to see this going on while they are still playing. It would bother me less if this was November. They're still playing and the season isn't over? I'd consider putting that in green...but really...am I being sarcastic?

Near death experiences at the hand of a shattered bat in the month of August in Major League baseball: 2. Cliff Lee was only slightly wounded...but the dude was hit in the back of the ear by a shattered piece of Jack Cust's bat last night. Yeah, I may be exaggerating by calling it near death...but the dude got hit in the head. If he hadn't turned to look where the ball went, that shard could have taken out an eye or worse.

So, the hearing for that topic is underway on CSPAN-3 and can be streamed.

QUOTE (T R U @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 04:56 AM) apparently you didn't see their week 1 performance.. and i know they are talented, every team in the NFL is talented.. you said insanely talented though which is a completely false statement and laughable at best.. Their week 1 performance is exactly the kind of performance I'd expect from an undisciplined team going up against a very disciplined team.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 12:22 AM) Every position is filled at least temporarily...that might be the problem in itself. Ok...so go to a team like Minnesota, or the Rays, Yankees, Red Sox...how many of their positions are filled long-term and how many are filled temporarily? Based on that same standard at least. The Red Sox have long term guys at: 2b, DH, 1b/3b (Youk, wherever they stick him), closer, RF, and SP. They've had rotating holes at SS, 3b, CF, LF, C, and they're going 6+ deep in the rotation because of injuries. The Yankees have, thanks in no small part to an enormous amount of money, had long term guys at C, 1b, 2b, SS, closer and 3b. They've had rotating OF's for the better part of this decade, but recently have probably quasi-filled some of those spots with Swisher and Granderson. Practially their entire starting rotation is FA acquisitions that they paid handsomely for. The Rays have changed enormously since their W.S. run if nothing else and they're looking at huge turnover this year. They've got 2 guys in their starting rotation who were there in 2008. They have a new RF, 2b, C, closer, and they've found no one to DH. They'll also be rotating out their LF and 1b this offseason.