Balta1701

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 02:13 PM) Jordan Danks? He dropped Boras before we signed him.

Last song to pop up on my iPod in shuffle mode at the Caltech Gym before I leave: Journey - "Don't stop Believin'" That's how I wanna go out. Yup.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 10:12 AM) How can you offer arbitration to a player on another team? If JD were to sign with Texas right now...it's still before the arbitration deadline. Thus, we could offer him arbitration but he'd still already be under contract with another team, so we'd steal Texas's draft pick by offering him arbitration.

QUOTE (Ranger @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 10:00 AM) From everything I hear, it sounds like Quentin had made a ton of progress by the end of the year and there is reason to be hopeful he'll be productive again next year. Both Q and Rios seemed to be ripping the ball the last week. It was a bit too late but I liked how it looked.

It's also worth noting that no team wants to sign someone before the arbitration deadline and then wind up giving up an extra draft pick because they jumped the gun. Sign Matsui right now, or Thome, and the other team can offer arbitration without having to worry about the player accepting because they already signed a contract with another team.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 09:15 AM) LeBron could do any sport and dominate. He's the best athlete ever alive, and everyone knows baseball is all athleticism. I'd take him in the 2nd or 3rd round, just to sell merchandise. If he can play, that's good too. Guys that tall seem to always wind up being a little bit too awkward on the swing IMO, with the one obvious exception.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 07:33 AM) No, its seasonally adjusted, so its not a holiday bump. But...the seasonal adjustments are always, always tricky. Let's say that my seasonal adjustment gave extra weight to what happened the previous year. Last year's holiday season had retail sales shrink like 4% from the year before. Thus, if I was comparing to a number that included last year's data, I might expect less hiring than I'd get in a typical year because last year was so far down.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 09:05 AM) I can only speak for us -- what the rest of the world is doing while it may be a shared issue there isn't anything we can do about it. Standing in front of a steam roller about to plow down the rain forests doesn't work...all it gets you is dead. We can try to reason with them, but there isn't much we can force them to do. Yes there is...and that's where the economics of this plan that you hate come in. If it costs more money to harvest trees by destroying a rainforest because you've priced carbon, then there's an economic benefit to producing them in a sustainable way as opposed to destroying old-growth. This is why we want to do a cap and trade system; if you put a price on carbon and do it correctly, then you line up the economic incentives in the right way.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 09:03 AM) With all due respect -- which means with no due respect -- I like my Jeep, and f*** Europe and they're stupid little cars. At least IMO, we have the technology right now (or at worst within 5 years) to get ourselves nearly independent of oil and coal and let you keep your jeep at the same time, we just have to make it economically feasible to use it.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 09:01 AM) Seriously, though, we have farms of paper mill pulp trees...we have more trees now than we did 50 years ago...we've been improving on this aspect. Big issue though...if you count only the U.S., I'm sure you're right. If you count the whole world, I'll guarantee you're wrong. A lot of what has been done is to simply outsource that resource destruction.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Nov 25, 2009 -> 07:43 AM) I said the small things are things we are all already doing -- like cutting down needless waste. Actually no we're not. There really is very, very little economic incentive to cut down on waste at the levels at which we could. We could quite literally meet the Kyoto goals and catch up with Europe based solely on energy efficency. But what you're missing is...there's one big constituency who benefits from people using more energy; energy companies.

Sigh

QUOTE (Bonderman38 @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 08:22 PM) First of all, this is incorrect. Cabrera was not arrested. He didn't say arrested, he said Jailed. That is actually correct; Dombrowski had to get him out of jail at 6:00 a.m.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 08:02 PM) OK so I watched America before Columbus tonight and had this thought. The Euro's came over and brought all kinds of diseases that Indians had never seen before and 60-90% of them died after that. So how come it didn't work the the other way? After thousands of years of isolation, why weren't there any nasty things that were here that the Europeans had never been exposed to? Here's one possible answer; livestock. Another is probably immigration patterns; much larger population between Europe and Asia.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 08:00 PM) Crappy European Islands had better keep it together. Eventually another chunk of Hawaii will go also.

QUOTE (Tex @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:59 PM) but how dies it happen? The embedding? Diamonds, for example, are xenoliths that are entrained in a specific type of eruption called a kimberlite. They are more dense than the liquid and sit in equilibrium within the mantle. However, the liquid is moving fast enough and its viscosity is high enough that the liquid is able to pick up and carry these xenoliths. Once it reaches the surface, the liquid cools, trapping anything it picked up en route.

All because I have so many.

Yay! (Goes and grabs one of his xenoliths)

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:45 PM) They'd ask for Beckham before Flowers. If they asked for Beckham, I'd respond by asking them to pay 1/2 of his contract. After which point, we'd part ways.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:29 PM) So if I say I'm not proud of our president today, and meant it, without the Dixie Chicks reference, I'd be flamed all over the place. Hell, I might even be considered to have portrayed a death threat or something.

QUOTE (1977 sox fan @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:14 PM) The Twins payroll will be about 100mil after they extend Mauer The Twins payroll in 2009 was $65 million.

QUOTE (1977 sox fan @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 07:27 PM) Danks was dominant in 2008 ? he was 12-9 3.32era 195inn 182 hits 159 SO . WELL he was good but i wouldn't say he was dominant . You do realize that a 3.32 ERA in 2008 was the 5th best ERA in teh American league?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 24, 2009 -> 06:53 PM) some of the largest punative corporate measures in the history of the United States If we pile enough money on top of the banks...the weight of the money will squeeze on top of them and that will make them truly suffer. Now that's punishment.

Roy.

Giving up talent and taking on this contract: 2010: $20 million 2011: $20 million 2012: $21 million 2013: $21 million 2014: $22 million 2015: $22 million YUCK.