lostfan

I just find it funny that John Danks just turned down 15 million hoping for a bigger payday - and obviously Danks has proved far more as a major-league pitcher than Strasburg has or will for a couple of years.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 12:42 AM) It would be the death of athletics if Bolt was found to be using PED's. And yeah, he'll break 9.50 easy so long as he can stay healthy. Eh, Marion Jones was a huge source of excitement for the Sydney Olympics and she turned out to be a cheater too. I think we'd get over it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 11:12 PM) I guess you still want to discuss this. Logic 101 Your comment: Wise should absolutely NEVER bat late in a game. My comment: Wise got a walk off hit against the Yankees, obviously late in a game. Conclusion: Wise can effectively bat late in a game. His hit proved that. If that's not logic what would you call it? I'm not flaming, just curious. I think in a debate, I might win. I never said he should be allowed to bat late every time. Obviously we have better candidates to deliver a hit, on paper at least. It's logic, it's just not particularly good logic. If you're playing odds you don't want to go with the WORST odds. What happens after the fact is hindsight and is irrelevant, but Joe Morgan says this kind of stuff all the time (it doesn't matter what the strategy was, it worked, therefore it was the right strategy) and it makes me bang my head against the wall.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 11:52 PM) You could bet your life that he has been put through waivers already. I was going to say this but I forgot. Hundreds of players get put on waivers every year, just for the hell of it.

lol, I missed that thread. Happy Birthday dude

Your calculations don't factor in acceleration. He's not running at max velocity instantly and the full time.

What? You've been saying the public option was the trojan horse. Consistency please? edit: nevermind, you edited what you said. Cheating ass admins

How is that an "attack"? Balta said that because he's obviously a liberal and he posted something from a well-known libertarian study group that he probably agrees with.

QUOTE (G&T @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 12:38 PM) There's a quote somewhere about Boras wanting to remake the way draft picks are valued and the Nationals basically told him they won't be a part of it. Good. Draft picks should not be any more valued than they are right now. You want the big money, then make it to the majors and accomplish something. The NFL is getting pretty out of control too.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Aug 16, 2009 -> 07:28 AM) This "sanctity of the game" stuff really gets annoying after a while because so often it seems brutally disingenuous. When f***ing trash like Bud Selig and Jay Hineybird talk about the game having a sacredness, and how records and historic performances in baseball hold more significance than they do in other sports, they don't really mean that s***. They're complete liars. Pro sports = $$$$$$ and not much else for a lot of these guys whose records are supposed to be sacred. For instance, Manny Ramirez was making like $22M per year or whatever to lope around LF like a f***wad, and challenge clubhouses attendants to fights, and load up on roids, and skip games, and quit on his team, etc. Meanwhile Ernie Young has spent practically his entire career playing hard in the minors helping young prospects learn and just waiting for another shot. I guarantee Manny's records mean a lot more to Ernie Young than to Manny himself as a result. But what I'm getting at is this sanctity of the game s*** really doesn't apply to many people - and many if not most of the people who crow on and on about it are only lying to themselves and trying to be part of the "in-crowd" that places an absurd level of importance upon any sport and any athlete. I mean, just considering abandoning the sport over an esteemed player roiding is childish - it's like if you don't get what you want, you just cry and go home. What adult thinks like that? What adult actually considers Derek Jeter - or any athlete - a f***ing hero? That is ridiculous. This guy wouldn't quit watching baseball over Jeter roiding, and if for some reason he did, it would be either because he's a complete p**** who is WAY too close to Jeter's nutsac or it would be because he never loved the game as much as he preached to begin with. Look, it f***ing blows that Bonds* broke Aaron's record. It f***ing blows that Roger Clemens' entire career numbers will be viewed as tainted. But to me, what really f***ing sucks about it is not where their numbers rank with or without the asterisk, but it's the fact that I know they cannot appreciate where they stand. Barry Bonds cheated because he wanted to reach a number only, same with Clemens. If Bonds for example gave two s***s about Hank Aaron's career he would have tried to pass it with honor and as a result wouldn't have taken anything. Bonds, by cheating and out of total selfishness, put himself one peg higher in the record books than a man who dealt with rampant racism and whose home runs came in an era of larger ballparks and without the juiced ball and who also played in an era where players didn't make the same kinds of salaries they do now and therefore would have viewed playing the game of baseball for a living as more of a privilege than a job. That's what gets me about the roiders. They have so much in today's game that gives them an advantage naturally just through improved medicine and a more powerful union, and they make so much more money, that they should at least try to respect the game somewhat. So when they cheat to break a major record they're just doing it for personal satisfaction and they don't care about the player whose record they're usurping. Fifty years from now none of this will matter. Most all of these roiders are going into the HOF, if not by the same journalists who are b****ing now (and who will suddenly have a change of heart when it comes to someone like ARod) then the roiders will be elected by the veterans committees. Most of the old players' records will all be broken and the new ones will appear artificial anyway, and future generations aren't going to remember who cheated when and where, nor will they care. Ultimately as a fan it sucks that this has gone on, but the problem isn't irreparable so long as Commissioner Sweepitundertherug actually does what he should do and release all the names to protect those who were NOT caught using and do whatever it takes to come up with a system for testing for HGH. But although that's not going to happen anytime soon, it could happen in the future. Either way, looking down on the game itself and giving up on the game itself because of the selfish actions of some overpaid celebrity just because you feel victimized for stupidly idolizing him is only something a p**** would do. I love this rant

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 07:17 PM) I think it provides some real insight in to the type of hitter you have, and whether or not a hitter is down or up by some amount of luck. That's something you know intuitively just by looking at batting averages. Everyone likes to use Swisher last year as an example. I looked at Swisher's batting averages and BABIPs and there is always about a 30 point spread between the two, give or take. So if you tell me his BABIP is down, I say "no s***." It doesn't tell me anything I don't already know.

Please. I'm not doing that.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 10:17 PM) I think people think certain players are clutch because they have succeeded in a larger number of situations in high leverage situations than other players simply because they had more opportunities to do so...so even though a player's percentage of success in those situations may be similar to their career numbers, the sheer number of opportunities they have experienced, and the corresponding number of times they have succeeded, presents the illusion that they have been "clutch," even though it is more likely that they simply have had more opportunities. Case in point is Mr. Jeter. Firejoemorgan did a blog about this one day where he thoroughly debunked the concept of "clutch." My favorite line was the one he did about Derek Jeter. Second favorite part:

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 09:04 PM) I believe cutler had 3 series. He threw one (really bad) pick, had a couple of nice throws(one in particular to Dez Clark). It wasnt great, it wasnt horrible. WTF is up with Fox. The broadcast has been completely unwatchable since the second half started, this is ridiculous. His accuracy was good, decision-making not so much. He got rushed and threw one right on the hands of a Buffalo DB that got dropped. I imagine this is something that'll smooth out when he gets more familiar with the offense and the WRs. He was throwing way too much to Hester IMO.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 07:49 PM) I'd rather have my QB, the most important player on a team, be able to win football games. End of story. Orton and everyone else like him can go play for some other team. But all Orton does is win

Cutler doesn't have the timing/rapport down yet.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 11:36 AM) And people still like him a ton. He's showing the same problem he had late last year. He's staring down the receiver that he's going to pass it to. That and his long-range accuracy is still bad.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 07:07 PM) The point is that this issue isn't just being made up, like the left wing nutjobs are trying to convince the country. It's not that it's being made up, it's that it's being badly and hypocritically misrepresented.

How often do we win series late in the summer, in Oakland?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 06:59 PM) What is being lost in the usual stereotyping of the nutjobs as representatives of the mainstream is that a governmental agency will be in charge of your loved ones lives. Even if the vast majority of the time they are going to force/allow treatments, there will be a time where the government is going to sanction the killing of someone. It is just not going to be nearly as often as some would like to indicate it will be. That's the status quo though. Insurance companies already have been dealing with issues like this for decades (not that I'm using that to make them sound evil, just stating a fact). It's a very difficult thing to have to think about, but the nutjobs have really dumbed this one down.

BABIP (for hitters) is my least favorite of all sabermetric stats. My 2 cents.

QUOTE (forrestg @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 10:57 AM) Alexei play on the throwout to second was a play only alexei could've made. A play last night involved ALexei taking a throw to the shortstop side of second base but with Alexei's long arms he swept his arm to get a tag down for a throwout by ajp. He's not all bad. Of course he's not all bad, no one denies his physical ability. It gets mitigated by his mental errors and lazy plays. I wouldn't say he has a loafing attitude out there, but like Dick Allen said, he doesn't seem to be completely in the action.

My sophomore year I was in football practice without a cup and I went to field a spinning kickoff that bounced once on the ground, kept spinning, and hit me right in the dick. That was not a fun practice.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 06:28 PM) My point was that if there ever was a point that the government made the judgement that you were not going to get treatment anymore, they have just acted as a "death panel". That's where that stupid idea came out of. Fair enough, we both agree that the suggestion at face value is stupid.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 15, 2009 -> 05:15 PM) Here's what I don't understand... Is this new plan going to always include all life saving procedures, always, if the patient didn't say they didn't want them? If there are situations where they aren't, someone is becoming a defacto "death panel". ??? I don't follow this train of thought unless doctors had the power to fix everything and/or provide immortality. What exactly are you getting at? If I'm close to dying or have a terminal illness where the outcome isn't certain, and I tell the doctor I want him/her to do everything possible, then that's what should/will happen. If I'm dying and I talked to my family about it and I told the doctor that I don't want to go to the struggle and let nature take its course on me, that's what should/will happen (I'm guessing this is the source of the manufactured outrage, because I'm choosing to let myself die whereas conservatives seem to want to make this decision for me, for some reason). In any case, when I ask, the doctor tells me the list of options. It's my choice, not the government's, and the language in the bill I saw didn't say otherwise. It doesn't seem much more complicated than that to me. The phrase "death panel" is pure, naked, unmitigated hyperbole, and portraying it as anything other than that smells like a copout.