Balta1701

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 13, 2009 -> 07:40 AM) Yeah, I tend to agree - they are predators for things we don't want and that are overpopulated. They will also, unfortunately, occasionally take small pets - but that is rare, and people can take precautions. But what will happen more and more, and is already happening in the burbs where coyote are more common now, is that people are freaking out about not only pets, but also their kids. Mind you, their kid is more likely to be killed by a racoon (or a rat or other disease carrying animal), but, a recent news story will make things worse - a woman in Canada was actually killed by coyotes. They think it is probably the first human death by coyote in modern recorded history for the US and Canada. So again, very, very, very, very rare - but that's all it takes for some folks to get into a panic. I really wish those people would focus on things that are actually likely to hurt their children, but, oh well. We're still angry at wolves and coyotes for never domesticating themselves, so they've all got to be killed. Preferably from helicopter because that makes you feel extra manly.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Nov 13, 2009 -> 06:47 AM) LOL. And I thought my Raiders sucked. Maybe lovie should beat up an assistant coach and a few random women.

Yeah, this was fun.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 07:52 PM) Their revenue has always been good. What is the biggest contract they have handed out? The last Pujols deal, right? Yeah, 7 years, $100 million, at age 24.

QUOTE (MattZakrowski @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 07:11 PM) The offensive ineptitude is overshadowing a pretty good defensive performance. Isn't Alex Smith still the opposing QB?

QUOTE (lostfan @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 05:49 PM) How can you get out of first gear when there is a brick wall in front of your car? Drive around it. Or use the fancy thing you just bought to jump over it.

Every time I accuse you of being wasted you seem to just be confused and say "dude".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 05:09 PM) I could see a scenario where he asked for a big huge extention making him available. I think the Cardinals will pay the big huge extension, frankly.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 03:20 PM) Brandon, your hate is ugly. Amy Winehouse ugly. Can we all agree that Noah isn't the prettiest view either?

Awesome! All 11 defensive players hit Cutler simultaneously! I've never seen the like!

Link

You're possibly mistaking Ron Turner's game plan for someone else's.

Well, they need to give us a reason to be optimistic then.

Very big game tonight if they want to start turning things around.

QUOTE (balfanman @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 02:43 PM) The truth is that any way we go has risk involved. Personally, I think that going for it all for the next couple of seasons has less risk than hoping a few of these minor leagers pan out. It really does depend on what your team thinks of these minor leaguers. This is where the scouting comes in. Give you some examples. Hudson. Guy jumped 4 levels all the way to the big leagues last year. That's pretty darn rare. We could legitimately have something here, another Danks/Floyd, or even better. Your guys saw him pitch every day, dealt with him in the Locker room, worked out with him, know his brain, know his attitude. If you think he's a guy who's likely to come up and within 1-2 years be able to win 15 games for $400k a year followed by 3 arbitration years...then he's worth Gonzalez on his own. But...without having all those other details, ti's hard to judge. Viciedo is another. Guy struggled at AA last year, but has serious talent. He's a guy who in 2-3 years could come up and give us 40 HR on his own if he develops. But it's hard to say why he struggled last year without knowing how he took to the coaching, what they had him working on, etc. Danks, in a year or two he could be giving us Granderson numbers. But...they could all bust. Entirely possible. If your system isn't producing guys with their head on straight (i.e. Brian Anderson, 2005) then maybe trading these guys is the right move. If you've got confidence in these guys and your scouts, then maybe you hold onto them and in 3 years you've got a team with young talent every bit as good as the Rays but you also have the money to spend to put a Peavy on top of them. And if any one of these guys actually reaches their ceiling...they're literally more valuable than Gonzalez because of how cheap they would be for how long. But you just don't know if they will.

Somehow I don't think that one was fair.

QUOTE (KevinM @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 02:28 PM) Still pulled out of your ass, along with the other figure. Consider this the general warning for everyone from an Admin to "Cool it" on the personal attack stuff in this thread. (Note; not just directed at the post included here. Directed generally.)

Furthermore...there is an awful lot of potential bias in how you get the facts. Great example...if you're looking for a front page story, you can talk to the Iraqi National Congress who says Saddam has WMD, and then talk to the administration who says that Saddam has WMD, and then just run the story confirmed by multiple anonymous sources, or you can spend the effort to actually check out whether or not those high strength aluminum tubes could actually be used in centrifuges. If you put your resources into telling a certain story, that means there's probably another story you're not telling.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 01:35 PM) I could not disagree with you more, and as a person with a scientific background, I expect more from you. First of all, the question that was asked was qualified by asking how many times has this occurred (have 7 prospects been traded for 1 player) in the HISTORY of the game. That would be like me asking you "How often has civilized man caused as many ill-effects on the environment as he has during the industrial age in the HISTORY of the earth?" It's not an accurate question, as posed. You're asking about a result that has only come about due to a set of circumstances that have occurred over a very small percentage of the whole history. It couldn't possibly have occurred much in the history of the whole, because those circumstances have not existed for all but a small percentage of the history of the whole. Second of all, the other situations you mention are simply not entirely analogous with this situation. Miguel Cabrera was due to make $11.3 million dollars in 08', in a deal he made with the Marlins to avoid arbitration. He would have made even more in 09', his final year of service time. So you're talking about a guy that probably would have made closer to $27 million over two seasons (still a good deal for MCab), but not nearly as paltry as the $10.25 million AGon will make over the next two seasons. The same thing goes for Teixeira. He agreed to a contract of $12.5 million with Atlanta in 2008, avoiding arbitration, and they paid him approximately $4 million in 07' as they acquired him on the day of the trade deadline. They would have paid him, had they not traded him, approximately $16.5 million for less than 1.5 years of baseball. And Teix was a player everyone knew wanted to play out east - there was no way he was staying in Atlanta, there was no way he was going to re-sign with LA. He was going to the Yankees, to Boston, or worst case, to his hometown Baltimore Orioles. So an extension to keep him was simply not possible. Who is Captain Cheeseburger? CC sabathia. In tersm of 7 guys being dealt for one, yeah, i'll grant, that deosn't happen vary often. The point I'm trying to make is not that that large of a trade is uncommon; if it takes 7 guys to get him, we're not getting him. The point I'm trying to make is that we shouldn't sit here and think that getting Adrian Gonzalez is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get a 40-50 home run guy. Those type of players are moving quite commonly. In the next year or two we'll see another one move in Fielder. Gonzales may have a cost for 2 years that is unusually low, but that's something we'll see more as teams sign guys early like Longoria.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) Right, these have all occurred when? In the last how many years? Now start naming all those that it happened before. So when I say, how many times has this happened in the HISTORY of baseball, am I really asking how many times it has happened in the last 150 or so years, or practically, am I asking how many times has it happened in the last 10 years? Basically within the last less-than-a-decade, we've had on average at least 1 absolute marquee guy get traded each year, and then probably an additional really good player or more as well. We were told 2 years ago that Miguel Cabrera moving was a once in a lifetime chance. Then Tex being traded was a once in a lifetime move. Then Captain Cheesburger was. These just aren't once-in-a-lifetime moves any more, not with baseball's current economics. They're opportunities that come along every year or two at the most.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 12, 2009 -> 12:48 PM) Now I tend to agree with you about the 7-8 prospects thing. I think it would probably be more like a 5 for 1 or 2. But honestly, from a historical standpoint, placing a player like Gonzalez on the trading block is a relatively rare occurrence. It just hasn't happened very often. So asking how many 7 to 1 trades have there been in the "history" of baseball is not exactly asking the the question that it sounds like it is asking. Honestly, is that true? I can think of a number of really big time players, even 1b, who get moved a year or two before their contract has wrapped up, from just the past few years. Johan. Tex, twice. Beltran. ARod. Soriano. Captain Cheeseburger. Manny. Miguel Cabrera. If you move down to the next tier, you get even more names, who are either discussed or actually moved. Halladay, Holliday, Bay, Crawford, just from teh past year. These guys move a lot. The problem is they often move towards the Yankees, but that doesn't mean they're not being dealt with some regularity.

Quit tempting the Feds to come after you. Obama's watching.

Obviously might have some permitting issues.

Maybe they should open a sportsbar in my office. That's about the only way i'd have pulled that off.

Yeah, that's entirely a case of a coach taking the fall for managements mistakes.