Jake

http://archive.gao.gov/f0302/109884.pdf One 18 wheeler at 80,000 pounds wears on the roads as much 9600 cars. Is your tax burden 9600 times higher? I'm happy (again as a person whose life has depended on the trucking industry) that the general public supports the highway system.

There has been a lot of discussion from former players about suspected use from Piazza. A grown man who suddenly gets outbreaks of back acne is a telltale sign

Oswaldo Kenny Rick (only if Tanaka is signed) Craig Krenzel

With a guy in Tanaka's position, there will be other costs, benefits, and risks to think about beyond mere guaranteed dollars. Take the Cespedes deal as an example -- people don't think Oakland offered the most money, but they renounced their team control of him after the contract ends. Cespedes was willing to take that gamble.

Easy to say players always go for the money when we hardly, if ever, know what their other offers were

QUOTE (Reddy @ Jan 11, 2014 -> 08:58 AM) So what about Frank's "physique"? He went from 240 in 1990 to 275 a couple years later. This is 18-19 year old Frank Thomas This is ~27/28 year old Frank Thomas This is 38 year old Frank Thomas This is 44 year old Frank Thomas Here is a freak of nature, huge for his whole life, saw his waistline expand while the rest of him stayed the same, and had a pretty benign career in terms of really suspicious events. Was phenomenal, then started missing time from injuries as he got to around age 30, started getting really slow and dealing with more injuries, kept chugging along while becoming more one-dimensional and flawed as a player. By the time he turned 40, he wasn't fit to be a DH in the MLB anymore. He was also a lot less...fit. But hey, at least he's not as fat as Tony Gwynn

I usually hate myself after eating Five Guys. Those Cajun fries coupled with the pure indulgence means I'm perspiring after a meal

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I don't have hard evidence, but the sparse evidence/anecdotes I have along with my gut feeling based on physique and all that make me want to withhold my "vote." I'm more amenable to voting for Bagwell than Piazza, but I'm not yet comfortable making that vote. The fact that many other writers aren't, despite his quite wonderful career, makes me think I'm not alone in that suspicion.

There are serious doubts about how much money the Cubs can spend -- they have very few future salary commitments, but adding a $20M/year guy will make things real tight over there

QUOTE (Knuckles @ Jan 11, 2014 -> 04:59 AM) Im intrigued. If Jerry is out there, means somethign is going on. What's the scouting report on this guy? Is he next Daisuke or next Darvish ? I think the best, most realistic comps for high/low is: prime Dan Haren or pre-big season Ryan Dempster

QUOTE (oldsox @ Jan 6, 2014 -> 09:38 AM) I noticed the other day that the White Sox Web Site has pitcher Erik Surkamp as its # 11 prospect. No one here has him listed anywhere. Not sure why Sox have him listed so high. He was well within the top 10 in the SF organization, so shouldn't be a surprise. He figures to be a useful major league starter

I like the 10-person limit and I don't mind that many people vote for fewer than that. You should vote for everyone you believe ought to be a Hall of Famer. If your standards are so loose that it means you want to vote for more than 10 people, too bad -- this is an exclusive club. The way I would vote would also involve voting differently on a player's first ballot than second, if appropriate. My vote would have been: Frank Thomas (1st ballot) Greg Maddux (1st ballot) Curt Schilling Edgar Martinez with plans to vote for Mussina and Glavine on their second ballots. Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, Bagwell, Palmeiro excluded for steroid suspicion

I think ClipGrab works on all platforms

My grandpa was an immigrant from Greece and it took him no time at all to acquiesce into becoming quite the bigot

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 12:00 PM) The Bulls have a President of Player operations who punched out a coach. Their medical staff nearly killed a player. The GM fired the coaches favorite assistant for talking s*** at a local charity event. They are not a well run organization. They do have a good mascot. This is a negative now? I suppose you don't like Kendall Gill either? QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 12:49 PM) (IMO the way to clear enough space to offer a guy like Melo is to trade Noah, and I'm not sure you can do so without moving him. But Noah ought to be worth a late first round pick and an expiring to someone right now, he'd be a major upgrade at Center for most teams not named the Pacers) Noah is worth more than that -- we just got better than that for the expiring contract of Luol Deng. Plus, the net gains of trading Noah and getting back Melo aren't large enough for it to make sense. Sign and trade for Melo seems much more likely, with NYK not getting anything too great in return. Dunleavy or something and a future 1st and 2nd

Pods was a no-defense, no-arm, no-power, little-walk, okay-hit, super-fast-until-he-got-hurt-all-the-time player. Eaton is a good defense, strong arm, better hit tool, many more walks, and just as promising but as-of-yet less productive runner. They're really not very similar. Pods should be seen as a floor of Eaton -- productive as a LH speed guy for a few years

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/looking-for...prospect-lists/ Also, look at this link. He goes over the best players, by position, to miss the Top 100. By and large, they don't miss. You might not pan out if you make the top 100, but if you don't make the top 100 you probably won't pan out. Get as many T100 guys as possible.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/top-...ospect-tidbits/ 1. A player being ranked in the top 100 doesn't prove anything, but it means we are dealing with a much higher probability that he becomes a contributor and star. 2. The top 25 is much more rarified air.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 12:13 PM) Voted approve/agree that it's premature. The major source of my anxiety is that the two guys from AZ only achieved upper-level success in the PCL, and those types of guys are numerous, and dicey. Cautious optimism. This is what league-adjusted statistics are for. All players mentioned did very well relative to that league

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 10:58 AM) This minus the love part. That means "I Danks." That makes no sense!

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 10:42 AM) See, I don't necessarily agree with this, because I think this was something Williams wanted too. I just don't think he had or has the patience Hahn does. If the Sox thought Williams did a poor job, he would have been fired. Instead, he was promoted or, at the very least, re-assigned to a still very prestigious position. My main problem with the Williams era is that the Sox simply didn't have depth. Depth affords you the opportunity to make moves either internally or externally. There have been articles about KW going to JR after 2010 and 2011 and proposing that they do a rebuild, but he was told to keep pushing

You have to wonder what it would mean for LeBron's legacy to switch teams again. A lot of the mystique of great players comes with the idea of a city and the team's fans coming to love the player over the presumably long time that the player is there. A team's fans can really like any good player, but especially if he changes again, who will feel that real attachment to LeBron? Who will feel like he built something? Anyway, while I've always believed he'd better off with the Bulls, I don't see a good reason for him to come here. Sure, we're younger, but especially after losing Deng there are a thousand and one question marks on this team. You have Joakim, Taj, and...Jimmy. I'm pleased with some of the talent on the team, I think we could be relatively close to having another good team, but there is a bunch of uncertainty. Why would LBJ go to a team whose second and third most reliable players are Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler? With a healthy Rose, sure -- you have an amazing big three. Subtract just one superstar, though, and who knows what you have.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 10:16 AM) The Sox apparently have earmarked some money for him if its in the right arena. They had a budget meeting weeks ago and apparently have had the calculator nerds in there all week. I wonder if that means "if he goes for much less than anticipated, we can get him!" or if we're really going to try to roll with the big boys. I suppose we could also try to do something funny with the contract terms to make it work, as well

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Jan 10, 2014 -> 09:59 AM) I'm no expert on WAR, but from what I can understand off FanGraphs, I believe his defense was rated so badly over that time, that it more than negated all of his offensive production. In '07 he had a .869 OPS with 30 HR, 6 SB, yet had a -0.7 WAR? His defensive rating was -35.4 (whatever that exactly means) It means he was 35 runs worse than the average CF that year. He was once one of the greatest CF ever, but somewhere around the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th hamstring tear, he got really god damn slow. I'm not sure what the replacement level CF defense was at that point, but from the looks of it replacement level was maybe -10 or so. Contrast that to the season where he was positive 33 runs, before all the injuries.