Jake

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 26, 2014 -> 09:53 AM) Would ANYONE fire Hahn and keep Ventura instead (in one of those hypothetical situations where you have no choice but to lose one or the other)? I bet those in favor of that would be comprised of....well, who exactly would take that position? The question there is just whether you think Hahn is doing a good job. The GM has infinitely more influence on the team's success than the manager. You only pick the manager if you like the GM

There's nothing like a bad bullpen to make a manager look inept

I'm unmoved by Downs's peripherals because his walk rate was too high. I take the low HR rate less seriously than the high BB rate, especially given how much the BB rate is a departure from career norms. Makes it seem like he's actually, legitimately playing worse and not suffering from poor luck

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 12:49 PM) I agree I think it's good design...but only to a certain point. I felt I enjoyed it more when all three had their own look and feel...now that they're all converging into something very similar...meh. Honestly, I don't really see Windows Mobile as a valid choice...at least with Apple you get Google stuff, as Google doesn't support windows mobile much at all, and with Google you get the openness of having a lot of choice available. What exactly do you get with Windows Mobile aside from being stuck on Bing and IE? I would really like to test drive a Windows Phone for a while to see if the shortcomings are as glaring as they might seem. I love the interface and a lot of MS is doing, but not enough to pull the trigger on a WP and gamble on years of owning one. I think Google is really targeting MS in various ways. They don't see Apple as much as a serious competitor, because Apple is less interested in market domination as much as niche domination. Google obviously doesn't want Apple to dominate its market segments, but that's more tolerable than MS, who has always been more Google-like in their desire to be in as many places as possible. Google wants to knock out Windows on desktop, in mobile, and in enterprise (which includes desktop/mobile, but also office applications, hosted services, etc.). By not supporting MS products, Google makes MS much less appealing. IMO, it doesn't make MS a worst choice in many situations (no way in hell am I abandoning MS Office), but it makes both choices have flaws instead of Google looking like an obviously inferior choice.

Why the f*** would you trade a first round draft pick for Omer Asik? Good god is that stupid. NBA GMs never fail to baffle me

Good guy, but I'm not going to waste too much breath arguing the move.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 25, 2014 -> 03:27 PM) I think Smith needs to have time taken with him to work on defense. On the bright side, it's literally impossible for him to be a worse defender than Phegley

Self-promotion alert: Live stream available here with my live-blogged reactions - http://geeksided.com/2014/06/24/google-io-...ream-live-blog/

Jonah Hill also went through with what seemed like a genuine act of contrition

Parking for Bears games is an expensive f***ing nightmare

I always remember the good things the Sox do in the games I go to, but I honestly don't think about the bad play in the losses I've attended. It's fun either way. The games I've been to have been some of the best times of my life. I love going and try to make it every year.

As s***ty as it is, there are worse scams than those that help a sick little girl. I hope her need of help is at least sincere

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jun 24, 2014 -> 03:37 PM) I've been thinking the same thing, plus if the Bulls trade Boozer as an expiring contract couldn't they amnesty one of those guys anyways (if it really came down to it)? Boozer and Noah are the only amnesty-eligible players as they were the only contracts signed before the most recent CBA

I see Johnson as either a 2-3 type of starter or toiling in AAA forever. No middle ground. If he gets "his stuff" back, he's going to be good. If he doesn't, I don't see any reason to think he's worth a s***.

Pretending to know who we would have picked or how they would have fared in our system is silly talk

I went: -Gillaspie -Alexei -Semien -Viciedo I'm much more committed to the first three than the last. That is my order of preference as well. Viciedo gets to stick around due to upside, but I wouldn't be promising him any particular amount of ABs; he can be next year's more versatile Konerko and everything else must be earned. Re: middle infielders, my ranking of most likely to be a good contributor in MLB 1. Semien 2. Sanchez 3. Johnson 4. Saladino 5. Garcia And I don't think it's out of the question for any of them, which is nice. I'm still happy to have Davidson around and think he'll be a fixture in our order very soon. Even if he gets back to his old ~.275/.345/.475 self, he might have to learn a new position, though. He or Gillaspie. We'll want both of them on the team and playing a lot. I honestly don't have a strong impression of which is a stronger defender at 3B. They're both fringy to average to me.

If Chad Ford is right that Mirotic would be one of the 5 first picks in this draft, would you really trade him just to clear salary space?

I don't think Bosh opts out. I'm inclined to think that his value has declined significantly due to his reduced role on the Heat. Is he going to get over $20 million a year in FA? That would surprise me at this point.

I'm not going to get too worked up about this until signing day is near. Also, I doubt there is a player of his caliber available at 4 next year. Boras knows that. Hahn knows that.

I don't mind giving Carroll another shot. Not everyone gets it figured out right away in their first shot in the bigs. He has a great sinker and I know Hahn values groundball pitchers highly

We no longer make moves to accommodate Derrick Rose. We hope and will be prepared for him to be an MVP, but we'll be just as prepared for him to be absent. Carmelo is the target that makes by far the most sense. f*** Kevin Love.

I'll have to look for it, but I think This American Life did a story on a police officer who later realized that he forced a false confession out of someone and his quest to make amends.

This is what we get for choosing "rule by rich lawyers"

Not getting the best players available is one thing. We've clearly done that. We have at least done it out of what seems to be a principled stance that we believe in deep squads a la Spurs. Unfortunately, our best player has been hurt since the plan seemed to start working. That doesn't mean that our fruitless plan to build a team that is impressive from top to bottom is the one we should stick to. What it does mean is that it would be dumb and make mockery of everything else that has been done to completely gut the franchise of all of its assets to bring in a star player. Imagine a deal of...this year's 2 first rounders, Mirotic, Butler, and Noah for Love. That's an awful deal because you're left with a team that has Rose, Love, and Taj only. Even if only Taj is the one to go, you've basically decided that your team will have 3 or 4 NBA playoff-caliber starters on it, at best. The whole point of the easy-does-it approach is that we should be able to make the big, bold move and bring a star player onto a team that is built to win. This is why I think we should ignore this Love business entirely if it is as it seems and focus completely on Carmelo, since we can likely get him to the team without moving nearly every positive asset the franchise has. I see no scenario in which we get Melo yet have a shallow team.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jun 21, 2014 -> 01:56 PM) ... give it up. Tyler Flowers is an awful hitter and there's not much chance he'll ever be anything else. Judging someone by two nights is silly, particularly when they went 1 for 7 with a single and 2 Ks. It's not that I think he's good, it's just the fact that someone's blind disdain for the player made them fail to realize that his last two games were far from something to b**** about, relatively speaking