Balta1701

Hot.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 07:31 PM) Interesting that Mitchell is our #2 now...I dunno if that is good or bad... Mitchell seems like the kind of guy BP would really like.

Even though he played, I didn't really notice. He was 6/22 from the floor.

Can't imagine that would work well and that's an awful, awful contract. Arenas isn't even playing.

And these days, Shaq isn't exactly Shaq either.

You gotta wonder, when they can't even hang with the 2-7 Wizards...

Former Bears safety Mike Brown named AFC Defensive player of the week

Without Shaq, the Cavs still were a dominant team last year in the East. They've just been a shell so far this season.

The Cavs are losing to the Wizards? Seriously? WTF Cleveland?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 06:11 PM) Actually, this is a terrific idea. (Faints).

"Really, I won't give all your money to Goldman Sachs, I promise".

Potentially just means you haven't completely sold your soul to a drug/insurance/financial/food service company yet.

Now just because the voters strongly supported something doesn't mean they strongly supported it.

Killer.

I think you're either talking about anchovies or David Bowie, i can't tell which.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 03:52 PM) They may want to get the no-doubt staff ace, get Pods/Thome and call it a night. You may think that they've got 4 guys who could have an ERA around 4...but I'll lay you 10 to 1 if you asked KW somehow, he'd tell you he got his no-doubt staff ace last July. The guy did the pitching triple crown only 2 years ago (ERA, wins, and strikeouts). And the Detroit Tigers might agree, FWIW.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) I would imagine any trade bringing in Halladay has a current young starter outgoing. So people would be willing to give up 1 of Floyd or Danks for a 1 year rental of Halladay and at the same time leave us with zero funds left for the DH/LF spots? Adding Halladay to that rotation is simply overkill. You can't offset a weak offense by producing a moderate upgrade out of your #3 starter spot.

The "Cash for Caulkers" stimulus idea. Have the government pay for a portion of the substantial cost of seriously upgrading the insulation in people's homes. Cut carbon emissions and wasted electricity, put people back to work at the same time. (A carbon pricing system could have the same effect, FWIW).

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 03:23 PM) Heyman on MLB right now - disses Konerko and these rumors. I'd rather see the Sox trade for Doc. Really? You think we need to invest more in starting pitching?

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 02:50 PM) Alex Rios never had the same plate discipline as Jordan does though. Hell this year, which was Jordan's worst overall (bummed wrist or not) in AA, he still walked 37 times in 284 abs. Alex Rios in AA walked 39 times in 514 abs. I don't care if Jordan strikes out 150 times (which BTW K's are very overrated in baseball even if Riccardi [who lost his job now] doesn't think so when he bashed Adam Dunn) as long as he continues to have good discipline at the plate averaging a good walk rate and hitting at a solid average, he will be fine. Now if he's striking out and averaging Joe Borchard/Brian Anderson type walk rate/numbers.. then there's a problem. I will agree though that it would help if he did put the ball in play more. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that his wrist and hamstring issues did more harm than good in the second part of the year when he was doing very well prior in AA. Here's my problem with his K's...I can't figure out how it'd be mathematically possible for him to continue hitting at a solid average while striking out 150+ times. In the minors, when he was on fire, and now in the AFL, he's been putting up BABIP values of >.400. Now, I know all the other caveats that go into that about how hard you're hitting the ball, how much bat control you have, etc., but bear with me here. Even the great players can't sustain those type of numbers once they get to the big leagues. Mauer pushed .373 this year with that stat, and his career mark is around .350. If you look at the guys in MLB who struck out 150 times+ last year, which is the pace D2 makes in the minors, you have 2 types of guys. You have Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, Mark Reynolds...guys who don't give you a great batting average but you don't care because they're hitting 40 home runs. The other guys with 150 k's however, are guys like BJ Upton, Brandon Inge, Mike Cameron. These are guys who are playing because they give some performance with the bat, but they're out there either in the hopes that they'll develop (Upton) or because they have very good gloves. They wind up hitting below .250. Because they're not hitting the ball out of the ballpark, they're not putting the ball in play enough to put up a solid batting average with that number of strikeouts. If Danks stays on the 150k/year pace and is a 15-20 HR guy at best, then he's going to wind up hitting somewhere in the neighborhood of .250/.260 for his career. Against major league pitching, you just can't sustain that number of strikeouts and a really good batting average unless a lot of your hits are leaving the park.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 02:44 PM) Or there has been no asking price and the Padres are exploring all possibilities (farm systems) before committing to an offer. If the Padres don't currently have an "If you offer this level of deal you've got him" asking price, then they need a new GM again. That asking price can be ridiculously high, but it should have existed the day they hired their new GM. For example, if the Sox offered Beckham and Hudson or something like that...they'd be out of their minds not to accept it that second.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 02:24 PM) I think everyone knew this deal wasn't going to go-down ASAP and that the odds were ultimately remote. Does the media indicate that the Sox have interest in Figgins, etc. Absolutely. This really isn't much different than that, with the exception we are indicating that the three teams had a preliminary discussion on a potential trade. The discussion most likely occured at the GM Meetings and odds are it wasn't going to go anywhere (given all of the variables). But, there is perhaps even more useful insight that can be gained by reading between the lines of this report, if one thinks about it. 1. KW realizes he's hamstrung somewhat by contracts, and if he could move Konerko to save a couple million it'd give him more flexibility. 2. KW definitely has interest in Gonzalez. 3. Despite KW's interest in Gonzalez...right now the asking price appears to be essentially "So much of our farm system that I just can't do it". Whatever piece he doesn't want to give up, the Padres are asking for a guy or for a combination of guys that is more than he's willing to give up right now. One way around that would be to swipe someone from another team that would interest the Padres instead of one of our guys, and KW is currently exploring that. It could be that either the price for Gonzalez may come down as the offseason wears on and offers come in from other teams, or it could be that signings/other trade opportunities might make things shift in a way that could fill that hole.

Oh, and they just benched Trent Edwards. Man, that kid showed a world of promise for a 3rd round pick when he first got the ball.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Nov 18, 2009 -> 02:00 PM) Oh, god yeah. If he makes the 25-man, he sure as hell better be on the bench. He really does remind me (and his brother too) of an early Alexis Rios. A very, lanky defensive oriented OF whose loopy swing suggests both plus-power potential and a bucket-load of K's. Rios has been striking out in about 17-20% of his at-bats since he came up (including his rookie year). Danks has been striking out at 25%. Rios struck out 109 times last season in 630 PA's; at the pace he's been on this year, D2 would K about 150 times in a full season.

One thing I will say about the Bills/Shanahan matchup. I'm not sure that they can pull off the money issue, but there shouldn't be any other team in the league that would have less trouble giving him 100% control over personnel decisions than the Bills. He can't possibly do worse than how they've done the last decade.