Balta1701

Mark!

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 10:14 AM) White Sox made a statement and said they don't agree with Ozzie. No team is going to come out and say publicly "yeah, we treat our latin players like dog sh*t." What is more plausible though is that other teams may sit down behind the scenes and say "oh is there a problem here" and actually give it some thought. If nothing else, that 80% of the PED positive tests being Hispanic players ought to set off alarm bells that they're missing something. It's also plausible that by going out and making issues like this public, Ozzie could give some teams an advantage in signing guys from those countries, because they might figure they have a better shot in teams that go farther to make sure they can overcome the language/coaching/PED barriers.

Moscow hit 100 degrees F for the first time in recorded history last week.

Kap, you any good with Photoshop? I suggest an image of Timothy Geithner standing on an aircraft carrier with a sign behind him saying "Welcome to the recovery". Seriously, WTF Geithner? "Welcome to the recovery" sounds like the article I'd write today if I wanted to ridicule policymakers for not having done enough, such that we're going to have stagnant growth for the next decade.

Carlos Santana was carted off last night after an impact at home.

QUOTE (IceCreamPants @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 09:39 AM) Wow than it must have been over 7 years since I have been to Cedar Point because I dont remember that beast. You'd remember it if you'd been there. It's taller than anything between Cleveland and Toledo.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 09:38 AM) To be honest it wasn't Peavy's arm that exploded, but his back Though it was his shoulder? Maybe Jake Peavy just completely detonated.

Oh, and Cedar Point = my version of Heaven. Been going often since my dad took me at age 8 in 1989, and we hit the Magnum XL-200 the first year it opened, after at the time a 3 hour wait. Millennium Force, Magnum, Raptor, Maverick, Dragster, Wicked Twister, Mean Streak as a ridiculously pounding wooden roller coaster...God I love that place.

I got off that F***ing thing for the first time and it was like every ounce of adrenaline in my body had fired off and I was completely drained despite it only taking 15 seconds. At some point right around the time we started going up the hill I think I got the words "Holy s***" out of my mouth successfully.

That is the Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, Sandusky OH. Opened in 2003. I moved to California in 2003. I moved to TN in 2009. I finally made in 2010. There's one other thing like that in the world, I believe the other one is a foot or two taller. The specs on that thing: it is a hydraulic pressure launch. No chain. You go 0 to 120 in under 3 seconds. You then rocket up a 420 foot hill with a 90 degree twist. You barely crest the hill, then free-fall 420 feet straight down the other side of the hill, with a 270 degree rotation, hitting 120 mph on the way down. The brakes are fully magnetic. The ride takes 17 seconds.

/thread.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 10:06 PM) You're a week late. Of course, I live here, so I heard about this and thought how stupid people are. Serious point in reply... There was, for obvious reasons, something of a rash of anti-Muslim violence back in 2001, if memory serves; but aside from the government round-ups and arrests of Cat Stevens at the airport, it seemed to stay fairly subdued. There'd be bouts of it after things like the Netherlands comic riots, but for 10 years, it never really struck me as pernicious and widespread. Suddenly now, we've got people firebombing mosques in multiple states, we've got people organizing Quran burnings, we've got people declaring publicly that they can't build a Mosque in place X because I like most muslims but the ones that want to be here are all terrorists and dirty. There's a line of thought out there that the anti-Muslim hysteria that wanted to percolate out was actually kept under wraps by noneother than George W., who, although he screwed up a lot and alienated a lot of Muslims with policy, flat out rebuked almost every attempt to demonize Muslims from private groups and did a lot of things to publicly embrace them. It would then follow that now that there's a secret Kenyan Muslim terrorist plant running the White House, it's bubbling to the surface without the big blockhead that was there the last 8 years. Just wondering if anyone had a response to that one.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 11:13 PM) I think a ton of people don't realize it's just not the Mexicans down here. Arizona is a noted hotbed for entry other people as well...notably terrorists. I was worried about this for years. But here's the counterpoint...and it's one I can't avoid...can you cite a single example anywhere of this actually happening?

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 07:30 PM) Anyone have any thoughts on Scion, the tC more specifically? I don't know anyone with one I can ask. I know they're Toyota, that's about it. Good luck trying to brake.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 01:17 AM) Christ...I'd rather see Dye in the cage for 2-3 weeks and give him a shot then some of these retreads I'm reading. Can't believe nobody's given him a shot yet... Plenty of teams have given him "a shot" (= a contract offer for more than Thome's making this year). He hasn't shown any urge to accept a minimum deal.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 07:11 PM) if Danks ends up at $15 million territory, I could see the White Sox going 5-6 years to make a play for him. That's still a serious hometown discount.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Aug 3, 2010 -> 04:52 AM) I understand baseball is build on pitching and defense but if Ranger saying we win or lose because of pitching is a little too much. If we go on and lose a series in the playoffs 1:0, 2:0, 1:0 would you go on and say we lost because of the pitching? Teams need to score runs to win games, and I think it falls equal on pitching and hitting. Let's assume Adam Dunn was trader here on Saturday, do you think Kenny would keep Kotsay on the roster? I don't think so. If we're shut out, yes, I'd say we lost because of pitching. We lost because the other team flat out pitched better than us.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:34 PM) But keep this in mind...they mentioned it last night on Sunday Night Baseball, and I don't know if a more accurate and concise way of putting it exists....in baseball, you pay for past performance. And Danksy will get paid on his past performance moreso than his projected performance, and that simply does not match up to CC or Johan. So basically, you're saying that if D1 wants to get paid, he needs to kick some major arse in his 25-27 year old seasons, just like the other guys did. You know, I could totally go for that. One other note...CC probably added $25 million to his final contract with how he carried the Brewers to the playoffs in 2008. If he can get the team around him...there's nothing stopping D1 from ripping people apart down the stretch or in the playoffs. I can think of one fairly entertaining game with playoff implications where he stepped up just a little bit.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:36 PM) I wonder about the variance/standard deviation, though? I would think that a few bad apples (huge contracts) would spoil the bunch, and teams like Yanks/Mets/Flubs/Sawks would be mostly to blame. Take a look at the actual numbers. There was a big boost in average salary (total salary paid out divided by number of players) going into 2008. The Yankees did their most recent Tex/Cheeseburger spending binge going into 2009, and there was a much smaller increase between 2008 and 2009. It's possible we could see a decline this year...but I'm not sure it's likely. The Yankees aren't going to cut salary hugely (they have the captain to extend), the Twins are suddenly flush from a new packed ballpark, the Red Sox are out of luxury tax territory, the Dodgers have already cut back on salary, and teams like the Padres and Rangers are now discovering pennant race revenue streams. The Dodgers are probably the only team to make a decent cut this year since they have Manram's contract ending, but they have guys like Ethier and Kemp to pay.

QUOTE (Greg Hibbard @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:31 PM) Contracts also seemed to peak around the time Santana signed his deal. Doesn't anyone else believe that contract values will actually slightly (not much, but slightly) regress? The average player salary has not declined year over year since 2004. The rate of increase slowed this year, probably recession related. The only thing that is going to cut the amount spent on contracts is the Yankees deciding to pull back...but...the luxury tax level goes up every seaosn, so the Yankees are penalized less every year.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:26 PM) CCs and Santana's WAR was in the 7s leading up to their FA. Danks is 3.6 now, 2.9 last year, and 5.2 two years ago. I will say there is no way on earth he gets the ridiculous contract numbers thrown around here. Beckett money (4/68) is more realistic and even then I think Beckett is pretty much a better pitcher. So was Lackey. CC's first time with a WAR over 5 was when he put up a 5.5 in 2006 at age 25. D1 is well on his way to his 2nd season with a WAR of 5 by the time he's 25.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:19 PM) So he's going to get more money than Sabathia and Santana even though those guys were the best pitchers in baseball when they signed their contracts while Danks isn't even in their league? You guys need to slow down. It'll be 4 years after Sabathia's deal.

QUOTE (Frankensteiner @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 06:06 PM) Why wouldn't they just re-sign him, especially with Peavy and Buehrle no longer under contract after 2012? They're going to have to pay someone. Are you prepared to go to 8/$180 million on him?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) My limit on contracts for pitchers would be the one Lackey got this past offseason. I would offer Danks $5/80 million, and if he's not cool with that, than sayonara. John Lackey was 31 when he signed that deal. D1 will be 27 when he hits FA. That should tell you all you need to know about contract lengths.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Aug 2, 2010 -> 05:42 PM) I see they were discussing this issue on ESPN, but I was a at a coffee shop and unable to follow much Check the links I posted for some chat. Also go to their homepage for a video where Curt Schilling agrees with Oz.