iamshack

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 09:01 AM) I think that's what he is going with, but he still needs to get the DTV signal and the TWC internet signal into his house via coax somehow. Oh...well they can do that...I have DirecTV and Cox Internet...they'll figure it out, trust me...

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 24, 2014 -> 08:08 AM) Really dumb tech question: I used to have DirecTV with DSL internet, but the internet really sucked. I switched to the local cable company (which is now TWC which is being bought by Comcast) mainly because of the much better internet. Now DirecTV is making me ridiculous offers to switch back, and the TV portion of my bill would be much lower, but I'm not willing to give up TWC's internet. So, my question is, can DirecTV television and TWC cable simultaneously run through the same cable wiring in my house? What if you just had DirecTV and TWC internet? That is more expensive than having two television services?

Good look back at LOST on the 10th anniversary of the Pilot

any of the links still working?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 01:21 PM) I picked up FIFA 15 today. Between that and Madden, I'm going to do nothing but play video games for a while. Go outside, young man!

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 09:53 AM) I call it Jay using his receivers to his advantage. If it was anyone but Alshon or Marshall out there, I don't think he makes that throw and if he did, it would have been picked off. Yeah, if you saw what he was looking at, it was Alshon in the middle of the field with position over a shorter defender. That throw was fine there.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 08:12 AM) A different take on an offseason thread that I hope will invite some thoughtful responses. The rules: First name three moves the Sox absolutely need to MAKE this offseason, then name three moves the Sox absolutely need to AVOID this offseason. To wit: Three YEPS: 1. Sign Russell Martin at anything up to 4yr/$60m -- He will NOT ever be as good at the plate as he was this year, but that's okay because he was a MONSTER this year and doesn't need to be to make the deal worth it. He has a career high 145 wRC+ this season, but all we need from him is about 100, and his career line is 106. THat would make him an elite defender with a league average bat who also happens to bring Veteran Leadership™ to the table. Even if his bat begins to decline immediately, game-calling and pitch-framing tend to improve with experience, and having that kind of glove back there witha bat that doesn't kill you is worth its weight in blood diamonds. Admittedly, this was a much more attractive option when I first started clamoring for it midseason before the national media caught the scent, and he's going to be expensive as a result, but when you take a look around at the free agent classes of the next couple years and try to find ones that are going to pay dividends both immediately AND going forward, this is one of the few that jump out. And if paying Martin $14m a year is your big money acquisition, you're not really risking much, especially with our current payroll commitments being so low. 2. Trade Alexei Ramirez, probably to the Yankees -- I love Alexei. I really do. I have bragged about Alexei being the most underrated player in the game to all my friends for about four years now. But there are two reasons that it's time to move on: (1) he will be 33 years old, meaning that his defense will most likely decline as soon as next season, meaning that he will NOT be the player he is today when we need him the most a couple years down the line, and (2) we have a glut of MI prospects in the advanced levels of our minors, all of whom need a shot to stick at the majors. It is the position we are best able to fill with AT LEAST a stopgap. The market will be ripe this offseason as several big names will be looking for a SS, most notably the Yankees (who not only want a SS, but also one that will be an immediate contributor but won't require a long-term commitment, which is EXACTLY what Alexei is), who just happen to have a bunch of extra decent catching prospects laying around, which just happens to be exactly what our system needs. Even if none of the guys in the minor can cut it at SS, we have Leury, who can hold the position down admirably on defense until Tim Anderson or whoever is ready. Alexei is great, but he's not likely to be a part of our next contender, so it's time to move him while he has value and we have the in-house candidates to replace him. 3. Acquire TWO corner outfielders -- It is time for Dayan Vicedo to go. I have always, ALWAYS been down on Viciedo and have always been willing to go down in flames if he broke out. Remember when I agreed you guys could stone me if he was good? Well he's not. He sucks. He has to go. "But Eminor, he hit a few homers the other day!" Yeah, look at his line this year: .231/.281/.405 with 21 HR (87 wRC+). "But Eminor, right-handed power is at a premium!" Yeah, but when you do everything else like a minor league utility player (except defense, which you do like Carlos Lee), you do more harm than good. Just for reference, 87 wRC+ is 13% below league average, and is exactly equal to the average MLB shortstop. We should give him to Seattle or something for anything in return. But he should be replaced with TWO OFs, at least one of which needs to be left-handed. What this does is make our team more like Oakland in that it will allow us to play match-ups like crazy. THIS is what the rotating DH should look like: four starting outfielders, and extra starting caliber corner infielder, mixed handedness, use DH to make sure the best/hottest guys are in the lineup every night, maximizing platoon advantage and ensuring good health. Giving Abreu some days off, too. I think we sign one (maybe a mid-tier guy, maybe a reclamation. Probably not Markakis even though he makes sense in every way except price) and trade for another. Another guy like Eaton would be ideal but let's not kid ourselves. If we spend more on the FA, maybe the trade is for the reclamation guy. Dominic Brown? I don't know, but we need two. Three NOPES: 1. Do NOT sign James Shields -- He has been a great pitcher, had a cool career, he's eaten us up, I get it. But he's going to be 33 and is already experiencing the effects of a natural decline. His velocity is down and he's now relying much more on contact than before, which has kept his K/BB rates good, but cannot go on forever. Also, it's risky because you rely more on BABIP luck and good defense to get by. Shileds would be good next year, but already worse than this year, and it'll keep going downhill as his velocity goes. Given what he's going to cost (I'm guessing roughly 5yr/$100m plus a draft pick), we just are not ready to mortgage our future for 2015. It's just the wrong time, both for us and him. 2. Do NOT sign Victor Martinez -- This dude is about to get PAID. He's also really old, really injury prone, and really REALLY unlikely ever to touch what he did this year again. I'm not saying he's going to be useless, but guys at his age are one knee injury from becoming bums (see Carlos Beltran), and even if he stays healthy, you're not going to get that value back to justify the cost of what this season si about to earn him. He may be in line for 3yr/$60m. Also, locking up the DH spot with a one-dimensional player takes away our ability to do my rotating DH/platoon OF thing. This is money that can go toward Russell Martin! 3. Do NOT alter the pitching plan -- It didn't work out this year. With the exception of Noesi, all of our bullpen and rotation upside plays busted. That is NOT likely to happen again. It's a process that has worked wonders for several franchises in our position. We need to do a better job of selecting them, but the plan is sound. Do not let Felipe Paulino cloud your judgement, Hahn. Continue to leverage your pitching development staff, continue to find assets that can be moved if necessary, continue to find assets that don't block anyone, and continue to fish for upside. Bravo, bravo!

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Sep 23, 2014 -> 07:43 AM) Jets were in the red zone six times. SIX. You should walk away from that game with at least 20 plus points. Sometimes Geno Smith looks really good and other times he is like I'm just going to throw this into double coverage and see what happens. I'm not sure he will ever be any better. I think it was actually seven...

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 08:47 PM) A win's a win, especially on the road. Way to get 2 Ws after the loss to Buffalo. Rodgers has to be licking his chops at the Bears safety situation. Yeah, we're going to need at least 30+ next week....

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 10:30 AM) Mark Simon ‏@msimonespn 1h For $28.9 million, the Braves have gotten -2.3 WAR out of B.J. Upton ... still has 3 years and $46 million left to get. It's just insane to me the difference in power between the baseball union and the football union...with all the money the NFL has right now, why on earth do the players not strike and demand guaranteed contracts? I know more of an emphasis has been made on guaranteed money recently, but jeesh...

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 10:38 AM) So without a new contract the new iphone is 650 bucks? Wow. Yeah, they've always been...but then you can pay like $50-60/mo instead of this $120 nonsense or whatever

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 10:09 AM) I'm on android though. It is equally buggy across both. My favorite one is the breaking news push notifications like "Derrick Rose breaks ..." and then I click on it and it can't find what it pushed to my phone and has no record of it, so then I have to scour the website looking for the bad news only to find it was an article like "Derrick Rose breaks the bank with new Giordanos sponsorship" Hah...I LOLd

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 09:39 AM) Braves fired Frank Wren Atlanta-Journal Constitution Hmmm

I'm thinking I am going to just buy unsubsidized when I decide to get the 6.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 22, 2014 -> 07:30 AM) And the peak for a typical ballplayer comes in the 27/28/29 year old range statistically. We have a lot of time and room for Avi to grow. I've always wondered whether this changes when a player is exposed to the major leagues at an extremely young age...

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 02:11 PM) We had to put one of our cats to sleep yesterday that we got in 2000, the week after we got married. It was hard for us, but it was really bad for the kids, who are 6 and 8. Condolences

Today, it looks like a bad trade. At the time, it was my favorite Hahn trade to date. Ultimately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Results matter. If Hahn ultimately cannot turn the organization around, he will be asked to step down, and whether the trade "seemed" wise at the time won't matter. That said, I support the general thought process that went into making that trade at the time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 19, 2014 -> 05:49 PM) Bah, he might be most useful moved all around the field. He's a kid learning several positions. Welcome to rebuilding. How about we hire a coach? But Ventura is growing!

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 19, 2014 -> 05:12 PM) From Outside the Lines: Rice case: purposeful misdirection by team, scant investigation by NFL Great article. Thanks for posting.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 11:59 AM) Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan 16m Ron Washington: “I was not true to my wife after 42 years. I broke her trust. I’m here today to own that mistake and to apologize to her.” Hearing he may have sexually assaulted a reporter?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 06:14 PM) Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush seemed to be backing Peterson, as did Charles Barkley. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. They are most likely where they are in spite of those beliefs.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 04:56 PM) Yes, but I'm still going to call BS on it. First off, your comments imply spanking always leads to negative outcomes, which can't possibly be true. Second, there is no way in hell that full-on physical abuse has anywhere of a similar impact as light spanking. It's just a ridiculous suggestion and I would question the credibility of any article you post that suggests just that. And can you please explain in a bit more detail what you mean by violence? Are we talking about violent crimes here? Getting into fights at school? Willing to use violence to defend yourself or your loved ones? There are varying degrees of violence and grouping them all into one bucket seems like a pretty convenient way to support this "spanking is evil" argument. I read the studies and they make sense, but I'm skeptical as to the controls and just how you separate a kid that gets spanked frequently with one that gets spanked sparingly or infrequently. One would think frequent spankings are also correlated with lower income, educational level, potential alcohol and/or drug abuse within the family, all of which probably correlate to weaker parenting skills. I just wondering if we're talking about the kid who gets his ass kicked a few times a week or the kid who gets whacked maybe once every three months for kicking the family dog. Or both. Edit: Balta, feel free to comment on your studies.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 04:40 PM) In that case I'll drop it, but I will note that you replied specifically to my post with the "now post 100 links on..." comment that I can't figure out how to take any other way than scornful, so I think I replying with that answer was appropriate. Last I'll say. Balta, I can't really fault you, despite my severe inclination for wanting to do so, for jumping into these discussions with all your studies and data, because you're just providing evidence of your point. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just extremely annoying when you're on the other side of it It would be nice if you'd do the same sort of "aha" routine when others that are on your side of the issue make an incorrect statement, but I realize that might not be a popular thing to do either.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 03:46 PM) Every link I posted regarded spanking as a standard form of punishment and found it was strongly correlated with more violent, criminal, antisocial behavior late in life. I started off with the correlation between more violent forms which I thought you were defending, and then backed up to the "corporal punishment in general" level. Spanking in general, physical punishment in general, produces kids who grow up to be more violent, based on decades of research. When I went to five you said "please post 100 on the results of the access of poor to smartphones". You then followed it with asking about less-extreme forms of corporal punishment, clearly noting that you completely missed every single link I gave you on that subject. The historical parenting setup on this produces kids who are more likely to commit violent crimes, have more issues later in life, be more violent. Spanking or other physical contact is not that different from full on physical abuse in the end result, in either case it really does bad things to the outcome of the child. I wasn't responding to you in regards to posting studies about spanking when I said I'd like to see others thoughts on the matter. I read your studies and understand what they are stating. I was more interested in the opinions of other posters here, since not many wanted to address that, but rather, actions more in line with Peterson's.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Sep 18, 2014 -> 02:59 PM) Nobody here has, but several NFL players and many commenters around the country have. Justifying what Peterson did? Or more typical spanking?