chw42

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 04:03 PM) Was there even a dedicated Madden 12 for Vita? I never saw one. There probably was a PSP version that could be used on Vita but as far as I know there was no official Vita release like there is for 13. The NFL season was over when the Vita came out.

QUOTE (Cali @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 04:48 PM) Oakland is full of so many "Who?'s" it's ridiculous. Besides Cespedes and maybe Reddick, it's a team of nobodies and they are getting it done. Pretty impressive, I must say. It's also nice to see The Coliseum packed for an A's game.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 01:11 PM) He's not that old. At least he doesn't lie about his age like some big leaguers do. Not putting words in your mouth, but there's something about Paulie that makes people get on him whereas other players like Rios seem to get a free pass when they stink (last year). I've never understood what makes some players likeable and some not. Not sure how he can really lie since he was born in the US.

QUOTE (Cali @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 12:48 AM) They won 93 games with that rotation. As has Baltimore, and I couldn't name you one starter from that team. That is insanity. I don't know if that'll hold up in the playoffs. I mean ask the Twins of the last decade how it worked out for them in October without an Ace/MVP-type offensive player to rise up. It's why the Yankees always beat them. Speaking of which suddenly they look like the class of the AL heading into the playoffs. Ugh. The O's have been real lucky this year. Their run differential is only +10. Oakland's pitching has been good in the regular season, but we'll see how it holds up against good offenses in October. Their offense is also heavily dependent on home runs. Those types of offenses tend to stall against really good pitching. So we'll see.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 12:53 AM) I dunno, I play The Show on my Vita more than I play anything on my xbox for the most part. I liked Golden Abyss too but towards the end there is a fight and the screen wasnt reading my finger swipes correctly and it was impossible to beat. I will probably get Madden on it too for Superstar mode. Madden 13 Vita is Madden 12 with new announcers. Plus, the freaking thing lags when you scroll through plays. Really frustrating to deal with something so simple, yet so slow. The 3DS isn't doing well either. Perhaps the era of dedicated gaming handhelds is dead with smartphones and tablets taking over.

QUOTE (flavum @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 10:58 PM) If the A's win, it's Ryan Dempster vs AJ Griffin tomorrow at 2:35 for the division. I have some serious questions regarding the A's rotation in the playoffs. Parker, Milone, Griffin, and Blackley? I don't know... Their offense really needs to step it up.

How crazy would it be if the A's won the division? Texas led the division 97% of the year.

So I played 2K13 today. 2 games. Don't play it on simulation, they totally screwed up those sliders this year. Your guys get tired after 4 minutes (ridiculous). It's hard to improve over 2K12, but they did. The game is just so crisp. Rondo will do his fancy passes (no extra button pressing needed), Rose drives hard to the lane and does some crazy ass moves to finish, and your defenders close out on shooters without you having to jump (they put their hands up when you get close to the shooter). The animations are improved. Sure, there are those moments where you're just like "WTF?", but this is a good improvement over 2K12. I'm not a huge fan of the new right stick control scheme. I really enjoyed shooting with just the stick alone. I guess I'll have to get used to this. I used the X button to shoot in my first few games.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 10:07 PM) Vita is going to die It's starting to look that way. It's a shame too, because the processing power on it along with the fact that it has buttons can support games that can blow anything on iOS or Android away.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 09:28 PM) I was reading an article in Kotaku where a rep from Sony admitted that they were surprised at the lack of 3rd party interest in developing games for the Vita. They just aren't into it for whatever reason The Vita hasn't been hacked either, so no piracy to blame this time around (PSP's demise was blamed on piracy for the most part). If the Vita doesn't get a can't miss game soon, I'm gonna sell mine. I had such high expectations for it. But so far, the games that are out seem extremely limited (except Uncharted Golden Abyss and that even seemed a bit boring...) and laggy (try playing MLB The Show on the Vita and then on the PS3, there's a huge difference in smoothness). Did I also mention how lame and ugly the UI on their firmware is? Yuck.

QUOTE (justBLAZE @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 10:48 PM) Cabrera wins, last time I checked Angels did not make the playoffs. Not sure if serious...

So umm...why did Ozzie have Greenberg bat against R.A. Dickey of all people?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 05:30 PM) If Trout was batting 3rd and started the season when everyone else did, he'd have at least 110 RBI and around 40 HR. I'd say 35 and 120.

QUOTE (DrunkBomber @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 04:44 PM) It kind of blows my mind that 2k13 is released on PSP but not on Vita. I know I can use the PSP version on Vita but the whole thing still doesnt make sense to me. I don't think 2K had sufficient time to make a Vita version. I'm kinda bummed too. I would have loved a non-laggy version on my Vita.

QUOTE (SOXOBAMA @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 04:50 PM) I'd let go of Peavy, Youk, Myers, Humber, Wise and Hudson. I would trade Dunn,Floyd Viciedo,and Thornton. My ideal lineup would be 1 De Aza CF 2 Ichrio DH 3 Ellsbury LF 4 Konerko 1B 5 Rios RF 6 AJ C 7 Alexei SS 8 Keppinger 3B 9 Beckham 2B Bench: Danks OF, Sanchez Utily, Pena 1B, Flowers C Rotation Sale Greinke Lohse Danks Quintana Bullpen Santiago LR Veal LR League RR Adams RR Jones RR Crain RR Reed CLOSER Why would you ever DH Ichiro? His greatest asset is his defense nowadays.

Trade Rios and Thornton (hopefully get cheap MLB-ready players or prospects in return), decline Floyd's option or trade him (he's a decent pitcher for $9.5 million). Decline Youk, Peavy, and Myers options. Bring back Peavy and A.J. on short term deals. Hopefully hometown discount. If not, bye. Get a stop-gap 3B solution that doesn't completely suck balls (Alberto Calllaspo? Jeff Keppinger?). I'd be fine with a David Wright or Chase Headley, but no way any of that is happening. I think our rotation next year is set if Danks is back, we'll at least have Sale, Danks, Peavy/Floyd, Quintana, Santiago/Axelrod. That's an acceptable rotation. Our bullpen should also be pretty good if there are no injury issues. The biggest issues lie with our hole at 3B. We need a way to plug that up without spending a ton of money or prospects while getting acceptable production.

QUOTE (knightni @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:38 PM) Kevin. Love. I seriously thought he was Joe Mauer in that picture...

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:18 PM) And in completely unshocking, no one saw this coming news: Paul Konerko is having wrist surgery on Thursday Well, at least he didn't b**** about it all year. Unfortunately, he also hit like s***.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:50 PM) So if Hamilton hits 1 more HR than Cabrera that will swing your choice to Trout? It should have no bearing. If you seriously think Cabrera is better than Trout, then you vote Cabrera. You shouldn't vote for Cabrera just because he wins a Triple Crown. Is having one more RBI or one more home run than Josh Hamilton that important?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:32 PM) Something that hasn't happened in over 45 years is hard to overrate. Here's the thing. The Triple Crown is hard to obtain because it's both an individual and a team achievement. It also depends on your competition for the achievement that year. Players can be great and lead the league in home runs and batting average, but not lead in RBI due to the fact they might never bat with as many runners on base as another player. Barry Bonds was possibly the greatest hitter in baseball history when he was roided up between 2001 and 2005. But he never once came close to a Triple Crown. Why? Because he was the only real hitter on that team and he got walked 200 times a year and he didn't hit with a lot of runners on base. So he had no chance at leading the league in RBI. It's hard to achieve, but at the same time, you have to ask yourself, are all of the stats it takes into consideration related to individual performance and individual performance alone? The answer would be no. The flair of the Triple Crown is pretty much that it hasn't been done in almost 50 years. However, just because it hasn't been done in 50 years does not mean the player A, the player who achieved it, is better than player B, who just happens to destroy player A in base running and defense while being comparable on offense. Moreover, what if Cabrera loses the Triple Crown by 1 RBI or 1 point in batting average? Is Cabrera any less valuable because he got one less RBI or one less home run? I seriously doubt it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 02:43 PM) Daryl Van Schouwen ‏@CST_soxvan Rios, konerko, pierzynski, beckham, youkilis getting the night off. Might as well try for a slightly better draft position.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:17 PM) From the twittersphere in the past 24 hours: Thibs extended 4 years KC Johnson is optimistic that the Bulls will work out an extension with Taj Gibson before the upcoming deadline Boozer and Rip are reportedly in noticeably better shape, according to Thibs (Rose listed as day to day) Thibs claims the Celtics tried to trade for Hinrich while he was an assistant there ...typical Thibs. Hahaha

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 02:25 PM) This. I get that when you figure in defense, Trout has been a more valuable player statistically, but a triple crown winner on a division-winning team gets my MVP vote. Otherwise, you might as well just let the computer pick the winner every year. The Tigers will probably win less games than the Angels. It's not like Trout played meaningless baseball all year. And honestly, the triple crown is probably overrated. Leading the league in HR and AVG does matter. But RBI? I wouldn't go as far to say that RBIs are completely meaningless, but that's a team-dependent stat. If Cabrera didn't have Jackson and Berry hitting in front of him, would have have the amount of RBIs he has? I doubt it.

Nobody has NBA 2K13 for PC in stock. Not even Amazon, it ships in like two weeks. Looks like I'll just download the game for now and buy a key later.

This season will be yet another challenge for the BBWAA when it comes to the AL MVP. Last year, they voted a pitcher the MVP, even though Jacoby Ellsbury had one of the best all-around seasons in very recent history. This year, Miguel Cabrera looks like he will win the Triple Crown, the first since Yaz in 67. However, Mike Trout is having one of the best seasons in the history of the game and he's doing it at 20 years old. From a statistical point of view, Mike Trout wins and he wins by a lot. Not only is Trout MORE potent on offense (his wOBA is 6 points higher than Cabrera's), but he's light years better on defense. From an offensive standpoint, it's debatable, but you cannot compare the two on defense. According to UZR, Trout has saved 13.3 runs this year. Cabrera? -9.1. Since the BBWAA is a bunch of journalists looking for a good story, I wonder which one they will take. The guy who wins the first Triple Crown in 45 years or the 20 year old phenom who gave his struggling team a jolt and put up one of the best all-around seasons in the history of the game? What's your take?