Balta1701

QUOTE (FedEx227 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 12:36 PM) The salary structure of the NBA will basically not allow us to resign Ben Gordon, there is absolutely no way to do it without paying a luxury tax. I highly doubt we want to pay a luxury tax for a team that is still not quite "championship" material. Getting past the C's makes a solid argument that this team is closer to championship material than we thought.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 12:06 PM) How does it not matter? He is accusing them of causing him to fail his test, how can he prove that it was their product and not something else? Actually, what he's probably accusing them of is creating a supplement with an ingredients list that did not include a prohibited substance and which he was personally assured was clean. If he has a sample of the stuff and can have it tested to prove it's contaminated, he wins the case. The only way that proving it was the specific thing that caused the positive test comes in to this matter is in the question of damages.

FWIW, probably isn't the worst idea to give Q a day to rest the legs without losing his bat either.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 12:02 PM) I can't tell whether you are kidding or not (i think you are), because taking Heyward-Bey over Crabtree and then drafting Mitchell 4 rounds too early do not point to a great draft. Which as a die hard KC Chiefs fan doesnt bother me at all Any positive comments for the Raiders right now should automatically be assumed to be sarcasm.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 12:00 PM) I heard Schlereth blasting McDaniels today on the radio as well. I'll withhold judgment until I see the team on the field, he could well prove he knows the game better than me. But I have to think he's going to be treated like he's on a very short leash the next 2 seasons.

QUOTE (WSoxMatt @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 11:45 AM) Lillibridge-4 Fields-5 Quentin-DH Dye-9 Konerko-3 Pierzynski-2 Ramirez-6 Anderson-8 Owens-9 Danks-1 Anderson in CF and Owens in right? Are you suggesting or saying that's official?

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 11:40 AM) If that is what happened then it really sucks for him, but I imagine it will be difficult to prove that he didn't take anything else as well. Doesn't really matter...what he ought to have done, and what every MLB player ought to do, is keep 2 or 3 samples sitting around from every bottle they take (they're making at least $400k a year, call it insurance). If you're taking something that should be clean, that you're told is clean, and that you have a bottle displaying ingredients not including any banned substances, and you do test positive, you're going to lose 1/3 of your season's salary, and thus having a sample to have tested could be worth up to several million dollars for you.

You're a baseball player who's gotten a steroid suspension and who wants me to believe you're really innocent? Do this. And then actually be able to make an effective case, not like Clemens.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 10:51 AM) See the part about the Coke, I made a post a couple of days ago in response to mocking about "giving up information over a nice cup of tea." Well...? There's a teabagging joke here somewhere that I just can't manage to articulate...

Newsweek has scored an interview with the guy leading the interrogation of Zubaydah before the clan decided it was time to "Get tough" with him.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 09:10 AM) Beam solar power from outerspace I will defer to a useful alternate opinion for comment. More discussion other than just that professor's commentary at the link.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 08:53 AM) That'll show 'em! Oh, wait... Balta, I've been meaning to ask what your geological specialty is, if you don't mind. Igneous Petrology. Specifically, I melt rocks for a living looking at the chemistry. But I like to consider myself fairly well rounded...the only part of geology I usually can't at least talk intelligently about is geobiology (detailed genetics are just beyond me and there's a lot of that in that discipline.) If nothing else, a well rounded set of skills should be useful in teaching classes.

That's an odd matchup for a sunday night game.

On a different topic, I'd just like to bring up this little ditty from one Karl Rove from barely 2 months ago arguing how the stimulus package included such horrid and unacceptable wastes of money. Thankfully, the Republicans and their couple who were willing to negotiate were able to effectively strip that provision from the bill. What could go wrong?

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 08:04 AM) It's because people only attribute it to him being a rookie rather than laziness. He has the size and athleticism. He has pretty good technique, but fact is, he doesn't try to play defense a ton of the time which is why guys like DJ Augustin could go off on him. He coasts a ton. I have more of a problem with that, but no one does. I'm willing to give him a pass on it for now for multiple reasons: 1. He's a rookie 2. He has a dreadful coach 3. He's going from a 40 game season to at least an 88 game season, hopefully more. With that change, the conditioning difference is so big...we saw guys like Wade and Lebron take a couple years to round in to solid defensive players when they came up, and simply having the energy to keep the effort up throughout the game was a big reason why. 4. His body still has development to do, especially in the strength category.

QUOTE (chunk23 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 06:58 AM) I managed to get an autograph from Flowers after the game. He is much much bigger in person than you'd expect. Still bothers me hearing things like that given his past.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 05:35 AM) Ot that ice is growing on the east side of Antartica while all we hear is the Ross Ice Shelf is collapsing and the oceans are going to rise 6 metres. Please, both sides are guilty. Of course, this is actually predicted as an early consequence of warming, because as you warm the temperatures in the southern and northern oceans, you cause more evaporation of water from the ocean, and having more water in the air leads to more precipitation, and because of the defined circulation boundaries in the atmosphere (you know them as jet streams) moisture moves from the equator to the poles and not the reverse, so if you warm the oceans slightly you first cause an increase in ice mass in certain areas because they're getting more precipitation, and the atmosphere is able to respond to changes on a timescale of days to weeks while ice sheets are a big thermal mass and can take years to decades to respond to major changes. Wow, that was all one long run-on sentence. Basically, here's the trend if you start your northern and southern oceans on a warming path: 1. Oceans start warming. 2. More winter precipitation falls in antarctica, leading to slowly increasing ice mass in the interior. 3. More winter precipitation falls at the north pole, but that isn't continental so it doesn't matter in any balance and the only thing controlling that ice volume is how much melts from below. 4. The most exposed spots, where you have ice close to the ocean, start to rapidly decline, through processes including thinning/disappearance of sea ice, collapse of ice shelves that are floating on the now warmer ocean, acceleration of ice streams that root in to the ocean, retreat of calving fronts, and major effects in isolated areas like the Antarctic peninsula. 5. The effects of the warmer ocean propagate inwards in to the heart of the ice sheets and they become more and more unstable due to increased melting. The major ice shelves collapse, removing the thing that is supporting the weight of the ice sheets. The increased ice mass due to the increased precipitation is lost at this stage. 6. Eventually, the instability runs away as the melting ice leads to warmer air which in turn leads to more melting ice. With the rate that we're pumping the climate system, we're at step 4 in that flow chart. The major ice streams in West Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula, and especially Greenland have seen huge jumps in their flow rates in the last 10 years, especially after the 2003 warm event (the heat wave in Europe), and they have taken a beating. The central parts of Antarctica are currently shielded, but that's a temporary state.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Apr 27, 2009 -> 05:36 AM) Last night on the radio John Clayton said that no one has had a worse offseason than Josh McDaniels. He downgraded from Cutler to Orton, didnt address any of the team needs through the draft, traded away future picks. He was quite critical of young Josh After seeing the Broncos not draft a QB, perhaps the worst part for the Broncos is the part that won't hit them until next offseason...barring a miracle sitting somewhere on their bench, they're in the "Orton or nothing" boat next offseason. Orton's an unrestricted FA. Let's say he starts off the season well. If the Broncos don't offer him a big time deal, he can play out the season and they're virtually forced to give him the franchise tag, guaranteeing him at least $15 million over the next year, because they can't afford to let Orton walk and be left with Chris Simms now that they have no other drafted QB. It's the same mess the Bears were going to be stuck in...offering way too much money to a QB because he's the only option on their roster or going through next year's offseason totally desperate for a QB.

Tex Winter is recovering after suffering a stroke yesterday.

QUOTE (Soxpranos @ Apr 26, 2009 -> 04:59 PM) Tell that to the Panthers when they played in the Super Bowl. The screen and other quick hitting plays counter your theory. Teams don't sit in the pocket for more than 3 seconds , and if they do that's because the secondary has done a great job in covering. Yes a good D-line helps but saying its better than a good secondary is preposterous. On the other hand though, I look at the Giants in the Super Bowl up against one of the best offenses in history. Their secondary and even their linebackers weren't exactly legendary, but the thing on that team everyone learned to fear was the strength of their D-Line.

20% of Congress has received a DUI in the last year? That seems simply implausible.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 26, 2009 -> 04:17 PM) May or may have not. Keep in mind, the Celtics have ran Allen through a ton of screens from Game 2 on. The Bulls, which is one thing I'd like to see VDN change up a bit, always switch when there is a screener involved, even when it gives the Celtics the matchup they want. That's why alot of Allen's shots have come against Noah(and Noah's played decent defense on him), or Hinrich as well as Allen. How about give the Celtics a bit of credit for some smart decisions. So basically you're saying I should blame the fact that Gordon keeps being totally screened out of position on Allen, thus creating repeated open shots for Allen at the end of the game, on the fact that the Bulls for some strange reason are totally unable to adapt to anything another team is doing no matter how many times in a row the opposing team does it, almost as if they are being totally outcoached. I can go with that explanation.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Apr 26, 2009 -> 04:09 PM) The stats say different. Much different. In that case, he decided to stop playing defense when Ray Allen did anything in the 4th.

Seriously though, if we're so worried about Brian maturing and everything...after several years of waiting, he's finally performing adequately, and when Ozzie's given a chance to speak on the subject, and all we get is "we'll reevaluate it." At least give the kid a vote of confidence or something.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Apr 26, 2009 -> 03:36 PM) The swine flu is just a lie perpetuated by the racist anti-Mexico lobby. Probably should get some congressional hearing to look into this big time scandal. I heard the whole plot was hatched by Carl Rove and Rush Limbaugh. Who is Carl Rove?