Balta1701

Call it a career tonight #18. 2/4 in the show, 2nd time with the trophy, even the people who complain about you got nothin'.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 7, 2016 -> 10:01 PM) Then at least the Hillary Clinton discussion should pretend to be about substance...and ideology, rather than personal characteristics. Please????????????????????????????????????????????????? It's almost as if I've been asking for that too.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 7, 2016 -> 10:01 PM) So the MVP is going to a defensive player right? C.J. Anderson might be the only offensive player on either side who has a case. 6 tackles, 5 solo, 2.5 sacks, and that forced fumble? Clearly it's Miller barring comeback.

I don't see how it's possible for anyone to ever disagree with me again when I say that ads for prescription drugs need to be banned. Absolutely destroyed.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 7, 2016 -> 08:28 PM) Depending on how badly Rubio got dinged by the debate, Trump might still be the favorite. Unless Bush/Christie shift all their support behind Kasich. Can Kasich be dynamic and inspirational enough to tear off support? It seems Trump will have his 25% and Cruz his Santorum/Huckabee/Tea Party coalition of 15-17.5% https://www.yahoo.com/politics/hillary-clin...-210913805.html Probably not the best way to get young Democratic women back to your side.... Dude, I know it's your posting style, but 3 of the 4 unrelated clauses are about the Republicans. This thread doesn't need your speculations about how Republican debate performances will impact Republican poll results. We have a thread for that.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 7, 2016 -> 08:22 PM) Denver's going to win this. Top scoring defense against top scoring offense. It often looks like this.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Feb 7, 2016 -> 05:48 PM) When has budget really been an issue? The Sox apparently had a higher bid for Gordon but he chose to stay home. Even if the Sox had the money to outbid the Mets for Cespedes I'm not convinced I want the burden of that contract. If no further moves are made, then 3 out of the last 4 seasons the White Sox will have had an opening day payroll within a couple percent of $120 million. They may not have a hard ceiling on their payroll, they may be able to push through it if someone winds up being a bargain, but their actions so far have sure been consistent with it being a "soft ceiling".

There's the play that never happened to Carolina in their other playoff games. Newton hit and immediately bad things happen.

The Mississippi state/Confederate flag right in the center of the state flags is an interesting touch.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Feb 6, 2016 -> 11:17 PM) I realize as a Hillary-hater I'm kind of biased against her no matter what. But to the Hillary supporters I have a serious comment/question I'd love for you to answer. I listened to her today and want to know how you can stand listening to her SCREAM all her cliches. She gets to the mic and screams way too loudly and just utters cliche after cliche. Why is that working for you? Do you want her because she's the best of a weak crop or do you actually believe in Hillary? Jesus christ stop and read what you wrote. That's really the argument you want to bring? You don't like her shrill volume level at the microphone?

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 03:41 PM) Team Meeting = Death knell They so need to pull the plug and start aiming for at least next season, if not 2 years from now.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 03:20 PM) This. Just looking back at the last few HOF classes, the only player drafted #1 overall was Griffey Jr. The only other player drafted in the top 10 was Frank Thomas. Looking through a handful of recent drafts, there are a ton of names in the top ten of each year that never made much of an impact in MLB. Somebody did need to add one of these. There's a pretty solid average difference especially in the first 5 picks, after that there's a weak trend downward. Basically, on average, if you have the #1 pick and drafting is about as good as it was during this 20+ year time period, you on average get ~10 fWAR from that slot before they hit FA. If you're drafting 30th, you get on average about 2.5. However, those are again averages with wide deviations. There's a pretty clear benefit to being in the top 5 picks, and a lesser but still noticeable benefit of being in the top 10. The benefit drops off pretty dramatically after that and the scatter implies that much of it is taken up by "finding the 1-2 really good players who are drafted at a particular spot". To say that another way, if you're an average team at drafting and you want to build through the draft, you need to either pile up a lot of picks, or be in the top 5 (top 10 at worst), or both. And if you are giving up a pick in the first round after slot 10 to sign a free agent, that pick on average is worth about $15 million (considering the signing bonus and so on). However, it is also possible to significantly outperform those numbers either by: being really good at drafting, or by winning a lottery stacked against you, even if you're not in the top 10.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 03:27 PM) Hillary won some coin tosses for the 11,000 county delegates. These delegates meet later and chose the 1,400 statewide delegates that then choose the 44 delegates that will actually go to the DNC. The "state delegate equivalents" are the numbers that get reported as far as who "won" Iowa this week. It's not the actual delegate count because those aren't set for months still and are subject to some level of shenanigans (e.g. Republicans in 2012). But what the media stories are conflating are the SDE's and the coin flip delegates that Clinton won. They aren't the same thing. The news story makes no sense because Iowa's system makes no sense. And all of the "coin tosses" aren't being reported either, so the story that there were 6 coin tosses and Hillary won all of those is just the 6 that were reported to one paper. Another paper got reports of different ones and they got a different pool which Sanders dominated. And there are probably more out there not being reported. But if someone already believes everything is a Hillary conspiracy, they'll ignore that.

QUOTE (OmarComing25 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 02:39 PM) If you go by DRS, Fowler was considered a poor defender in 2015 as well. Big discrepancy between DRS and UZR for him in 2015, though Eaton had an even larger discrepancy in 2014. So basically either way if you were to pick which one to put in CF it's a coin flip.

QUOTE (SoCalSox @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 02:28 PM) Also have to take into account with Fowler that he was playing CF in Houston, which to me seems like an awful place to be at that field, especially with that mound thing. he also bounced between being a poor and average defender in Colorado. Quick check of his defensive value (position adjusted) 2009: -14.4 2010: -2.7 2011: -3.1 2012: -11.9 2013: -0.3 2014: -20.6 2015: 0.6 And just so it's here, Eaton: 2013 (1/2 season): -11.2 2014: -1.6 2015: -8.8 You find a pattern in that good enough to use for prediction, I can't. Both of them have bounced between poor and average, with one "terrible" season thrown in by Fowler. You could very easily shift one of them and have the guy who stays in that spot put up a "poor/terrible" season.

QUOTE (BlackSox13 @ Feb 3, 2016 -> 02:17 PM) Somewhere in one of the numerous outfielders threads, it was debated as to where to play the outfielders if Fowler was signed. According to fangraphs, Fowler is a slight upgrade in CF over Eaton and I think Eaton could play better RF defense than Melky and certainly better than Avi. The problem is - the numbers in CF are completely unclear. Last year, Fowler was a better defender than Eaton in CF, Eaton was a poor defender and Fowler was close to average. However, in 2014, Eaton was close to average and Fowler was abjectly terrible, worse than Eaton was in 2015. So somehow Fowler went from godawful to ok and Eaton went from ok to poor. Adding in previous years for Fowler does not help - he bounced between poor and average in years before that also. If you can predict which one of them will be better next year go ahead. I have no idea. They could both be terrible, they could both be ok, one could be ok and the other terrible, and I find no way in the available stats to offer a prediction.

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Attention media: You do know you made up the whole 'won on a coin toss' story, right?

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 04:00 PM) That shoulder injury really affected him mentally defensively going forward. He was a pretty good defensive RF with the DBacks. (minors and cup of coffee) Then he tore his labrum and pretty much stopped diving or running into walls and turned into Avi on the field. Luckily it never affected his hitting. He was always a very good hitter. IN 09 he also started dealing with the Plantar Fascia tear issue that also immediately hurt his defense.

QUOTE (shipps @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 03:59 PM) Buehrle should do this every year. He will pitch till hes 50. I cannot imagine Mark Buehrle staying in anything resembling pitching shape if he's not going through ST.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 12:52 PM) At present, the response seems to be: travel as normal, but understand that there's a tiny additional risk out there. If you come home and start showing symptoms of illness, get yourself to a doctor quick, make sure they know your travel history when you get there, and maybe be a little careful on the romantic contact for up to 12 days after your return? The CDC today confirmed a first documented case of a sexually transmitted version of this virus. So yeah, basically if you get sick in the first 2 weeks, head to a doctor and don't have sex during the period of sickness and that should basically cover everything.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 02:29 PM) For those who can't deal with the Sun Times on line, Cowley basically said Gar knows he won't win a power struggle with Pax and he is letting the rest of the league know the Bulls mess has nothing to do with him just in case he gets whacked. He is also cozying up to Michael Reinsdorf. He is getting his ducks in a row. But it is Cowley. Thanks.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 02:22 PM) When did I ever write that? Please show me. The one thing I have noticed from the doom and gloomers, your ideal situation is a guaranteed 3 or 4 year stretch where the White Sox are even worse than they have been. Seems to me they have been attempting to fill holes the past 2 offseasons, and are still trying to fill one or two right now. And it seems to me we've seen how well it's worked and you're ok with that. You asked me to show you where I said you were ok with where this team is and your reply then states you're ok with where this team is.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Feb 2, 2016 -> 02:16 PM) But you said earlier the White Sox don't give guys like Avi a chance to play because they are in win mode. Apparently you were wrong. As long as you're content with the performance of the White Sox for the past several seasons then I will concede. The White Sox should continue playing guys who are likely to fail in a number of positions while spending heavily elsewhere and ignoring those holes. It's likely to keep working just as well as it has been. And no one is more content with how this organization is performing than you.