Balta1701

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:34 PM) Looks like Patterson might get thrown under the bus next... http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/06..._top_democ.html Your article, I can presume only entirely by accident because what motivation would they have to make things look bad for the Democrat...left out some key, key polling data. From your piece: The small bit they left out: You better hope that Cuomo has a hooker problem if you think the Republicans can beat those numbers with Rudy.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 04:01 PM) Was there some relationship of tidal cycle that had something to do with the tsunami three years ago? I remember hearing something about that but can't quite remember the details... something about those deep sea earthquakes occur much more frequently on the tidal cycle (pull of moon is greater). There was a big study done on the aftershocks of those quakes in Indonesia and their tidal cyclicity. I'll just copy the abstract: Basically, that means that there was a strong pulse of events above the normal level associated with that time.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 05:51 PM) itll be interesting to see how he does this year. he was really bad last year. i know that bcuz their pen was awful , he had to stay in there longer than he should have and gave up more runs but still. and he didnt look good at all today. If gameday's gun is to be believed, his fastball was better than it was to start last year by quite a bit.

It seems Elizabeth Warren may well be willing to stand up and be face of the the anti-Geithner plan forces.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 05:43 PM) the tigers ? blah. i really like ours but if it can be healthy. if all the members of the rotations stay healthy, theres no doubt ours is the best. but who knows. we have to see I think we have better 6/7 options than any team in the division except maybe the Twins if someone does go down.

Gates did not disappoint.

QUOTE (Melissa1334 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 05:07 PM) yea, i remember. but thats why i was saying, these aces getting lit up shouldnt be much of a concern. will lee be great like last year?no but he probly will still be solid. gota wait and see. On the other hand though...Lee barely made the Tribe's roster to start last year. Sometimes you just never know...

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 04:36 PM) They'll probably finish in last. But the O's are going to be at the very least an extremely entertaining team to watch. Adam Jones is gonna be special. Man the Mariners are f***ing morons. Think the Blue Jays will finish ahead of the O's? I think I'll take the young and hungry team over the team watching its parts leave due to budget cuts most years.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 11:30 AM) I think Floyd is the best pitcher in our rotation. I love Floyd. He certainly can be if he eliminates some of the issues he had last year. Scary thing is...I can point at each of the 5 pitchers starting this season for us and say "This guy could have a monster year and be the best guy in our rotation". Although I love Gavin also for proving me right as one of the only guys who kept saying "Just wait" on Floyd when we got him and 95% of this site seemed to think he'd always suck.

CC taking a very expensive beating from the young Orioles. Gives up 6 so far, leaves with the bases loaded and 1 out in the 5th.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 02:01 PM) Meteorology? The weather effects tectonic or volcanic changes? At some level, yes. Changes in atmospheric pressure can affect how rapidly the planet degasses. You have a rainy day or a low/high pressure day and that can actually change the rate of radon coming out of the ground. Probably isn't significant enough to drive changes in much of anything other than degassing, it's usually not going to trigger a fault, but when you get beyond that...there are fairly well established correlations between earthquake occurrence and the tidal cycle, for example.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:58 PM) His periphs in spring training were alarming though (Carmona's). I look at his periph's from spring training since he had a small sample size of a season last year due to injuries. Bottom line Carmona didn't show much this spring but I agree its far too early to write him off, given how dominant he looked two years ago. Coop will fix him?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:42 PM) What about radon gas before the earthquake? I think that is what this scientist was basing his "predictions" on as well as the swarms. Is there any link? Same deal. The radon gas releases would happen because of just about any shift in the fault happening in certain types of rocks. Just did a bit of googling, and it really does depend on the fault. Some faults, 50% of the events might be proceeded by a radon spike. In others, 10-20%. In others, meteorology determines it a lot more. I'd be surprised if any area having an earthquake swarm didn't show a radon release spike. The gas is produced by radioactive decay, and is released by the breaking/crushing/heating of rocks, which happens any time even a small event occurs. The issue is, if you think there's a 20% chance of a major earthquake happening in the next 3 months, what do you do? Right now, the Southern San Andreas is probably at a heightened risk, compared to the 2% a year or so chance we've estimated, given that there's an active swarm happening now. But what can you do? We don't know how to evaluate the probabilities that well at all, and we certainly can't put a date on when things will happen. Should we have evacuated these cities and kept them empty for months? Should everyone have been living in tents? Should we be evacuating L.A. right now because of what the San Andreas is doing right now?

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:12 PM) Khalil Greene might be the worst #4 hitter in the history of baseball. There's his first RBI. Drove in 17 runs in the spring. LaRussa's gambling on it, but if the guy's hot, then why not?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:29 PM) Gotcha. I figured the players were to some extent the victims, but if they were culpable, then they should have legal trouble. Yeah, it was a 2 way street. The players signed contracts with fairly large bonuses and then passed along a portion of those bonuses to the guys doing the scouting and falsifying their ages. There's also rumors of significant doping involved.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 10:47 AM) Yeah, the connection between measurable radon anomalies and pending quakes is interesting. Some researchers have called it quackery and others recognize a connection but don't know how realistic or useful monitoring would be. I expect Balta can chime in and give us the skinny on the actual importance of the relationship. The problem with saying that earthquake swarms are going to be a precursor to a larger event is that it's a crapshoot. In some cases, a swarm of smaller events can certainly presage or even cause a larger event. On the other hand, a swarm of smaller events can actually wind up releasing some of the stress and could delay a larger event if a fault was primed for one. Couple random examples...the fault system that creates the San Andreas produced an earthquake swarm in the Cerro Prieto area of Northern Mexico but it never produced anything larger than a magnitude 5 event in that case. There's been a bizarre earthquake swarm near Reno for the last year or so, but again, nothing larger. About 2 weeks ago an earthquake swarm started on the Southern part of the San Andreas in the Salton Sea area (we actually had a class out there at the time) and it made some noise in the press & local fire departments were notified, but so far nothing. 3 months from now that segment could break and it could be directly related to them, the fault could sit idle for 20 years and then go with no warning, or the fault could rupture at some other point tomorrow and it might not have anything to do with that swarm. If you run around saying that a swarm is a precursor to a larger event, especially if you're familiar with a fault, there's going to be a reasonable chance you'll be right, but there's probably a much larger chance you'll be wrong.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:20 PM) Have you seen there rotation? Have you seen them do anything the past 5 years. Didn't they have a really good run in 2006?

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:20 PM) So, the players are here illegally? Based on that report, in some sense yes. What would have happened was people like Wilder were falsifying their ages so that they'd appear to have developed at a younger age than they actually were. Thus, you see a kid who's raking, he's actually 21 years old, you write down that he's 17 and everyone's jaw drops because of how big he is at such a young age. Entering this country with falsified documents would be an immigration violation and yes, if that were the case, they'd be here illegally.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:12 PM) Not to mention I think most experts would agree that most of the A's young pitchers aren't necessarily upper echelon pitching prospects. They have a nice collection of talent, but I'm not overly impressed with what they have. Eh, outside of a select few in the David Price class, if they're good enough to make the big leagues I'm not going to write them off just because they're not "upper echelon prospects".

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) Given that TO has zero off the field issues and the fact that he'd clearly be the focal point of the passing attack, a Cutler Owens combo would have been the fantastic stop gap necessary for the Bears to get things turned over to Hester/Bennett (if in fact they believe in that duo). I expect them to surprise us and get in big with Holt, just too good of a fit. And I think the more Holt things about things, he'll see that there is more potential for him to put up numbers in Chicago and truly be a savior as opposed to Tennesse where he'll be playing with a far worse QB (no knock on Collins, just pointing out how good Cutler is). I'd also argue the Bears would have a strong chance at making the superbowl since they would be playing in the NFC as opposed to the AFC, so Holt might just have a better chance to win in Chicago (however, the Titans obviously have already proven very recently how good of a team they already are). Although...despite how they looked in the 1-2 games he was out last year, the Titans defense is now Sans Haynesworth. And in a full season, that's going to sting. Who would have thought that out of Denver, Tennessee, and Arizona, the 3 teams that grabbed 1st round QB's in 05, the team that would wind up with the one most people think is the best would be the Bears?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) Plus they took the division by 20+ games IIRC, its not as if a slight slipup would have much of an effect on them and no one in the division significantly upgraded, imo. A's made some big moves but there rotation seems to be completely up in the air and come July will be dealing Holiday and Cabrera. Unless something remarkable happens with the Rangers, I agree that division will be decided by whether or not the A's young pitching can come out hot to start the year, and with a bunch of 21 year olds, it's hard to expect the world.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:50 PM) How is the Angels lineup weaker than in the past. Tex was there after the Angels were already dead locks to make the playoffs and now they have added Abreu for a full season and have primarily there entire offense heatlhy. They will need to see who steps up at closer but regardless Shields and Arrondondo both have a ton of talent. The A's did add Holiday, but they also have an atrocious starting rotation as evidenced by there consistent attempts to try and figure out who the heck is going to be pitching for them. I don't buy the A's one b it. Texas is the 2nd best team in that division. Well, it's plausible they could suffer at a couple positions. Vlad may finally be starting to show some age related creakiness. Figgins has been hurt 1/4 of each of the last 2 seasons and is now 31. Torii Hunter isn't a spring chicken any more either. Their lineup may be healthy for now, but you never know how it will play out. They need a couple of Morales, Kendrick, Wood, Aybar, etc., to step up.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:42 PM) No organization valued him enough to put them on their 40 man roster by claiming him off of waivers before he could be outrighted off of the Sox roster. That tells you it isn't just the Sox that don't see him as much. A ROOGY who has Righties put up a nearly .900 OPS against him isn't that useful (thats' what happened to him in 08). In 07, righties put up a .430 OPS against him. Lefties put up a 1.350 OPS against him.

QUOTE (JPN366 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) Could be, good point. Another part of the definition of the restricted list is an unexcused absence. The specific reason I ask is that a week ago I posted an ESPN piece suggesting that the U.S. was going to use immigration law to go after some of the people involved in the Wilder scam.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 12:30 PM) Cliff Lee gave up 7 or more ER in exactly ZERO games last year. Kevin Millwood is this year's Cliff Lee.