Balta1701

It seems a deal has been reached of sorts on how to get at least a partial bridge loan program through the White House. Of course he wouldn't veto over that. He'd just add a signing statement and refuse to do it. Man I'm going to miss this guy. We need $700 billion for the banks? No problem. We need $34 billion for the auto industry? Well that's crap. Where can we take the money from where it will do the most possible harm to the future of the country? How about we take it away from programs to build more fuel efficient cars, so that we stay years behind everyone else on their development? brilliant!

Man it's hard to fathom just how good he actually was. He put up a WHIP of 0.811 one year.

QUOTE (rockren @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) No way we get Gallardo. Parra maybe, but the Brewers won't move a MLB pitcher until they know whats going on with CC/Sheets. It sounds as if Sheets will accept arbitration. There is no reason to rush to trade Bobby unless we're getting a stellar return. If his strikeout rate went up slightly next year, he could well be worth more in a deal next year despite being at a higher salary, once people would no longer have to worry about his "Declining peripherals".

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 07:53 PM) BILL HALL SUCKS! AT this point, he's no longer a better option than what we already have in house.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 03:45 PM) Better to have one of those guys in the Senate from MN than in the White House like we've had for the last 8 years. (ZING!)

Whether we realize it or not, I think the signing of this guy is a great sign, because it shows that something I've been hoping might happen is starting to do so; we're becoming a destination for failed pitching prospects. With the years we've seen guys put up under Cooper (i.e. 2005, everyone) and the number of guys who have seemingly turned around what was a struggling pitching career before reaching our organization, such as Loaiza, Contreras, Thornton, the 2005 bullpen, and now perhaps most importantly Thornton and Floyd, we've seen a number of seemingly down pitchers, some of whom have a lot of talent, blossom in our organization. Now, imagine you're a high draft pick. You've got a good fastball or good repertoire but you've struggled in your early big league outings or you've gotten hurt and you've finally got released. Almost any team out there will probably give you an invite to spring training and a minor league deal, but nothing more. The difference between the contracts teams offer is like $25k. Which team do you pick? Well, if you still have any confidence at all in your stuff, you're going to try to pick a team with a reputation for turning people around. Mark Prior goes to the Padres because he's hoping the ballpark gives him an advantage, for example. All sorts of people wanted to pitch under Mazzone in Atlanta, because if they performed there, it could lead them a much bigger payday down the line. If JVB is signing with us, then maybe, just maybe, people are starting to notice the success we've had turning guys around. That is the kind of trend that can open up a new talent pipeline. Not every one of them is going to be good/useful/make the big league team, but if we can start getting guys with good stuff wanting to come to our org to try to rehabilitate their careers, that's a way to get cheap young talent that we wouldn't otherwise have.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 07:21 PM) Hart's K/BB ratio scares me a bit. I'd be after these players; Manny Parra - 10-8, 4.39 ERA, 147/75 K/BB ratio. Yovani Gallardo - 1.87 ERA in 4 starts. Cole Gillespie - 21 y.o OF prospect. .281/.386/.472 in AA. Caleb Gindl - 19 y.o OF spect. .302/.388/.474 in A ball. Jeremy Jeffress - 4.08 ERA in A ball. Frankly, if I'm trading Bobby, with the damage we've already done to our rotation in terms of innings-eating...I want Gallardo, or Parra + another guy. Our hole now is innings from our starters. We need a major league ready starting pitcher.

QUOTE (MHizzle85 @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 05:39 PM) False. The person below me will be drinking spike hot chocolate tonight due to the cold weather. False. Cold weather? I may drink some spiked hot chocolate, but not because of the weather. The person below me is wearing pants.

QUOTE (knightni @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 03:40 PM) One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong. Well that was just random and confusing. It seemed like no one really had a clue what was supposed to go on with this thing, the moderator didn't have a plan & didn't do very well, the film's director was up there also and he was pretty good, Keanu seemed to just be totally confused about why he was there and they weren't nearly ready for the kind of out-of-left-field-where-Q-plays questions that Caltech students think up.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 07:18 PM) Tony Gwynn Jr. is actually a pretty solid defender though. You don't trade Jenks for defense.

I really want the Dodgers to sign him.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) Recount complete in Minnestota, Coleman wins by 192. 130 votes went missing in a county, so that county isn't verifying their count yet. now the election will likely move to the 'go to court' phase as Franken will try to get more in his tally. Actually, that is not the next step, nor is the recount complete, and you can not say Coleman has won. There are still some 5000 challenged ballots, none of which have been counted yet, all of which will be ruled on within about 2 weeks by the state's election board. The Franken campaign has kept a tally of the recommendation of the local elections commissioners about what to do with each of the challenged ballots. If those recommendations were held up at a 100% rate, they say they'd win by 4 votes.

A magician with the strike zone.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 02:53 PM) Is that the official MLB arbitration rule? No lower than 80% of last year's salary? Also, in arbitration, you're saying the arbitor does not make up a number, he chooses between what the club offers and what the player demands? Yes, if you offer a player arbitration, and he accepts, his salary can be no less than 80% of what he made the year before. If it reaches that phase, the player will submit a salary number, the team will submit a salary number, there will be an argument phase where the team says how much the player (i.e. Ryan Howard) sucks and then the player points out that he doesn't suck, and the arbiter chooses 1 bid or the other, weighing his previous salary, salaries of comparable players, and performance.

QUOTE (Markbilliards @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 02:45 PM) 2 questions, 1) Is that the deadline for arbitration to be accepted? (12:00AM Monday morning?) 2) Does OC know yet how much the arbitration offer is for? Or does that not get determined until after he accepts it? Arbitration wouldn't be settled until several months from now when the case goes before an arbitrator, unless the team and Cabrera came to an agreement in advance. The lowest the team could offer would be a 20% pay cut compared to last year, and if they offered that it's likely they'd lose their case if it came before an arbitrator unless Cabrera's request was even more outrageous (if it reaches an arbitrator, the guy can only choose 1 number or the other, not anything in between).

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 02:43 PM) I'd rather have Charlie Villanueva. Bulls need that post up offense and Skiles doesn't seem to want to use it. He's too tall. He wouldn't fit in our no-rebounding-ever lineup.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 02:34 PM) There once was a woman named Vick Whose dogs had not yet been mauled sick

In about 3 hours here, I get to go see a panel discussion of some of the nation's top scientists discussing the science behind the movie "The day the Earth Stood Still". The nation's top scientists, and Keanu Reeves, as well, I might add. If nothing else, I get a free dinner out of it.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 12:59 PM) CNBC had a stat that percentage wise the job loss report was the 41st worst ever, still significant since it's in the top 50 ever, but infotainment won't report that and point to the raw numbers But, alternatively, there are some numbers that are actually comparable over the years, regardless of whether or not they're altered for population growth. For example: You can also compare the current numbers to the number of jobs generated during the expansion after the last bottom in unemployment:

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 12:46 PM) Hanley was not a find. Everyone knew he was a top notch prospect. In fact, BA rated him Boston's #1 prospect in 2003, 2004, and 2005. It's safe to say you won't need to give up that type of prospect for Cantu. While Hanley was just an example, I think the verdict on most trades with the Marlins other than the Derrick Lee trade winds up being surprisingly kind to the Marlins.

QUOTE (sircaffey @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 12:36 PM) I don't think you can use the phrase "buying high" when it comes to dealing with the Marlins. They trade to dump salary and take less talent in return. If anything, when the Marlins want to dump salary, it's always buying low. If you can buy Marlins-price for Cantu now and he replicates last season, you have a somewhat valuable trading chip next year when Viciedo may be ready to step in. Take advantage of the fact most teams are dumping payroll this year. I would like a Cantu deal if it was meant to be a 1 year stop gap for Viciedo. It's nice to think that, but that assumes that the Marlins scouts aren't better than yours. If the Marlins know your system better than yours, then while they're dumping expensive contracts, say something like Josh Beckett, they also find guys like Hanley Ramirez who wind up tearing up the league.

QUOTE (BaseballNick @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 11:55 AM) Does Brian Roberts really cost that much? If he cost less than that he would have been traded already.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 5, 2008 -> 11:57 AM) Its new tech. I still think its cool when new connections like this are made, and experimented with. Some succeed, some fail, some take time before succeeding... its still good to see. I think the thing that annoys some people about these sorts of "Discoveries"! are the press release campaigns, where a small step that 30 or 40 years from now combined with dozens of other developments and fundamental shifts in human behavior are treated as the next big thing. You're not going to get a scientist to disagree with the idea of basic, seemingly useless research in a number of areas, because that can often produce big ideas. But the publicity, press campaigns, the use of those campaigns to grab funding that might be significantly better spent on other projects...those sorts of things can get on our nerves. The amount of money being spent on things like hydrogen and flex-fuel cars today that could go to much better uses is a classic example.

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