Jake

I'm sorry for comparing Pau to Boozer

I don't think he's any better of a bet than Semien or Sanchez and comes with more risk

Just got Lollipop on my HTC One and this thing is beautiful. I want to use it just to look at it.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 4, 2014 -> 04:08 PM) 7 years ago today... http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=2...b&fext=.jsp

I think I'd rather give Scherzer the kind of megadeal he's expected to get than the deals the next tier of guys are likely to get. I'd also prefer that to trading anything valuable for Samardzija and then giving him a big contract.

The "black folks should join the police force" argument has a serious problem. Many of the people who are so upset with the police force, believe it or not, have no faith in the police or probably the criminal justice system. "Reform from within" only makes sense when the system you're in works. I don't want to make a false equivalency, but any revolution makes sense to understand this thought process. Americans went to war with the British because they didn't feel that legal recourse had any chance of working. Confederates seceded because they felt the USA wouldn't let them keep their way of life. There are countless examples. The sentiment behind things like the Gawker article is that for as long as American police have existed, they have not treated black people fairly. Certainly, there are countless times each day in which well-meaning police act fairly towards everyone. Those incidences obviously outnumber the one we're talking about in this thread. In many ways, the plight of black people has improved in the recent past. One of the best things to happen is that it is almost always socially undesirable to be racist. But we're left with implicit biases - all of us are - that we struggle to recognize and even if we do, most of us try to convince ourselves that they aren't there. Most people would agree that the officers involved in these cases are probably not virulent racists who were thinking, "this guy is black, let's get him!" The allegation is that, unconsciously, their judgment of the people in question was influenced by their race. Michael Brown seemed more dangerous than he was because he was black. Tamir Rice's blackness made it more plausible that he was waving a real gun around. What is frustrating is the refusal by anyone to face their shortcomings. When we can't even get an indictment in these cases, many people see this as the police establishment saying, "no, this cannot possibly be fueled by a racial bias, even an unintentional one." If you walked up to a young man or woman at work and asked them to make you some copies and came to find out that, oops, this person is your superior...what would you do? Always assume that other young people are your inferiors or realize that you might not be able to make these judgments based on heuristics like how old somebody looks? That's all people are asking for here ... except there has been a far longer time to learn. You know that bias your profession always seems to have? Maybe be a little more careful, or at least act like you've accepted the possibility that it's an ongoing problem. At the very least, don't expect the group suffering at the hands of these biases to join the club as if that will fix things. It's a structural problem. We actually have research showing that, while less frequently/intense, even black folks have learned some biases against other black people. These things are pervasive. I like to think I'm a pretty thoughtful person, but I found myself referring to a female doctor as a nurse the other day. Why? Not because I'm evil, I don't think, but because I've been conditioned to assume that to be the case. We aren't perfect and never will be, but we'll only get better if we actively work towards fixing the problems rather than constantly confusing the victims and the perpetrators for one another.

I'm still scratching my head about them letting Lind go. They have a void at the DH spot now.

I don't think Lester is going to do all that much for the Cubs. All that does is replace what was lost in Samardzija, more or less.

Shark won't be signing an under-market deal.

The similarity to the Radio Raheem death in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing is absolutely chilling

QUOTE (WhiteSoxLifer @ Dec 3, 2014 -> 10:35 AM) There isn't low end free agents getting compensation picks. It's really only the high end free agents getting compensation picks. 12 players got qualifying offers in 2014 were Max Scherzer, Victor Martinez, Russell Martin, Francisco Liriano, Hanley Ramirez, Nelson Cruz, James Shields, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera, Ervin Santana, Michael Cuddyer, and Pablo Sandoval. Those are high end free agents. Only other free agents that are higher end didn't get the qualifying offer is either traded during the season or were on options and team/player declined them. For all of those players, there isn't a ton of excess value after the draft pick. They may be high-end FA compared to Gordon Beckham but they're all forgettable players that will come with considerable risk even w/o the loss of a draft pick.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Dec 2, 2014 -> 04:06 PM) Yosemite is brutal, the windowserver process just eats CPU's when it gets stuck at full throttle, the updates for this version will be many. Been like a dream for me. You're not the only one having that problem though.

I bet he likes Wilin Rosario. In my "what would you do in the offseason" post at the end of the regular season, I said I'd flip Dayan for Wilin Rosario. I don't know if Dayan is actually the right fit, but I don't think they're in love with Rosario over there. Rosario could DH against LHP and get most of the catching reps against RHP.

I actually don't think that Forte is that great. He is an above average runner and a top tier pass catcher as a RB. He's an awful pass blocker, from what appears to be laziness. He's really good, I want him on the team, we should be running more, but I don't think it's any kind of travesty that he doesn't get 30 rushes per game.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Dec 2, 2014 -> 07:51 AM) Forte had some pointed criticism about it Forte pretty much called out Cutler, talking about repeated audibles. A lineman, can't recall who, gave the impression that we ultimately only ran a very small portion of the times we called for run plays.

You don't trade players for the right to pay a guy what other teams would be willing to pay that player in the open market in one year. You only trade the players that make the first season worth it to you.

I'm a picky eater, so more often than not I get just ketchup (no cheese). I like the meat to really stand out. When I want to spice things up, I go with bacon, cheddar, and ketchup of course. Five Guys is awesome, but I'm also a big fan of Backyard Burger. Portillo's is definitely in the top 5 too.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 1, 2014 -> 10:36 AM) Nelson Cruz to Seattle, 4/$57m, via Enrique Rojas of ESPN He's exactly what they've been looking for. It's a longer term than they probably wanted, but total $$ isn't insane. Good deal.

The Bulls look so good

Amazon workers have been f***ed up and down in all kinds of ways and the only reason it hasn't been as publicized is because we don't interact with those workers while we shop. They have tried to unionize and been shut down, have had several instances in which they have been made to work overtime with no pay, and all kinds of other ridiculous things. The trick with our economic system is that we can't do s*** about it. Shopping elsewhere means cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Assume Samardzija won't sign for a discount. Then it doesn't matter whether he's going to sign an extension before you trade for him. You trade Player X with no extension for him, you sign him for whatever he's worth. or... He signs for whatever he's worth, and you trade Player Y. Why would the player change? The only way you pay more (in talent) for an extension now is if you think his value is likely to increase dramatically between now and the end of next season. I don't see why it would.

I'd rather pay market price for Scherzer than trade anything of value for 1 year of Shark and then having to pay him market price

I'd also like to point out that this guy will be 30 years old by the time he could put on a Sox uni

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Nov 29, 2014 -> 01:49 PM) Then you hang up the phone. Obviously we're not giving up Q, but when you consider his production and his contract situation, he is worth relatively little in terms of what we ought to be willing to trade. Give them Carlos Sanchez and you might even lose the deal - though I'd probably give them Carlos Sanchez.

All I'm saying re: Shark is you're going to be forced into paying in talent and dollars as if those WAR figures are 6-7 each year when in fact he's relatively unproven as a front-of-the-rotation starter. His talent is the main thing garnering him this attention. Jose Quintana has been a better pitcher at least each of the past two years and I bet Billy Beane is asking for him in return