Balta1701

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 02:29 PM) The Sox want a top pitching prospect in return. The cubs don't have one. Rich hill is as close as they get. Donald Veal is a good prospect (former Sox pick) but he's too far down the chain. The Sox want a guy who could be thrown into the fire in '07 if need be. They want them to be knocking down the door so that in a years time we can find ourselves in the same position, being able to move a pitcher to help field a better team in '08. If the Cubs had any talent whatsoever in their minors, I'd be interested in plucking it, because they'd be an ideal destination for one of our starters given their pitching situation. But seriously, they could offer Pie and Murton, and basically whatever else they had, and I still wouldn't have much interest. The White Sox still have a lot of OF guys/prospects, and that's the place the Cubs might be looking to sell people now. The only way that would work is if we wound up with a 3-way, where the Cubs' guys go somewhere and something more valuable comes back to the Sox.

QUOTE(ptatc @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 11:24 AM) Two out of the three Cardinal pitchers who started at Comiskey were not on the playoff roster. And they didn't have Rolen either. They did get on a playoff roll but they also got healthy at the right time. They were good enough to hold on in the regular season which wouldn't have happened in the AL. And this Pujols guy was just barely coming back fron an injury. He's not bad.

No, Dye does not have a shot.

QUOTE(Rex Kicka** @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 10:48 AM) I'll go one farther. If it turns out that the cop tasered improperly, he ought to be tossed out on his taser. So, it seems that it is actually UCLA policy that it is acceptable to use a taser on a person who is only passively resisting, taking no aggressive actions, and is in no way demonstrating a threat to the officer. So in other words, the cop is probably not going to be in a huge amount of trouble, because he was following UCLA policy. UCLA however is going to have to justify that policy in court, and that's going to be pretty darn rough on them.

QUOTE(knightni @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 09:40 AM) They're making a Nixon coin huh. Are they making a Reagan and possibly a Ford coin? It seems like they're doing it chronologically, so I'd assume in 2016 or 2017, yes.

The Reds agreed to a deal with lefty Mike Stanton. Nomah signed a 2 year deal with the Dodgers. Moises Alou is supposedly close to signing with The Mets.

That's quite surprising.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 07:33 AM) What is up with the mint's obsession with these things? Have they not yet figured out that they are heavy, inconvenient and unwanted by American consumers? We are getting more and more AWAY from coins, and these clowns are spending money trying to move us backwards through some sort of novelty. I believe that the reason they keep pushing these is that it's a lot cheaper to produce a dollar coin than it is to produce paper dollars (could be wrong on that though).

This guy just Rules.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 04:36 PM) My eyes see a much higher obp from Jeter, more consistency, and a higher sb %. Defensively he's more valuable. And Helton's been a monster over most of that contract, it's not even close. You expect Soriano to not have a dip at the end of this contract, as he approaches 40? This is an awful contract. So, while Jeter is more valuable defensively than Soriano, it's not a huge difference to my eyes. Soriano is not good, but Jeter is certainly not great either. It's the difference between bad and acceptably poor. And yes, Jeter has a higher OBP than Soriano, but Soraino has quite a few more RBI and Home runs.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 04:27 PM) Umm... Why? Because Soriano's Numbers, at least to my eyes, are much much better than Jeter's, and Todd Helton's numbers are way way down in the last 2 years (35 home runs in the last 2 years, for example).

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 04:23 PM) Great win obviously. Defense finally stepped up today, and showed what they are capable of. Romo continues to shine, and we took advantage of some turnovers. If the Giants lose tomorrow, there's about 5 teams all on 6-4. With the Cowboys playing another 4 games at home IIRC, we're in a great spot to get 2nd place in the NFC behind the Bears and a week off. And one of the 2 teams in your division that could have been real competition is suddenly without its best weapon, which will only help.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 04:10 PM) Frankly Hendry just kissed top of the rotation pitchers bye bye to maybe increase his offense. Soriano had a career year and will make more money than Beltran? You gotta be kidding me. Good luck with Gil Meche as your #2 starter. Also Pie is obviously trade bait at this point as well. So, I got the impression that Pie's trade value seemed to decline significantly last year. He only put up a .793 OPS at Iowa, so his AA year sort of looks like it might be higher than he should project. I'll bet that Hendry tries to move him for pitching, and I'll also bet he'll regret not having done so last offseason when his value seemed higher. QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 04:17 PM) I dont know about you guys, but I dont think Soriano is even in the same league as those guys. I'd take him over Jeter and Helton at those prices.

And the Dolphins open up the champagne.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 05:49 AM) When I was at UIC, we had to have our IDs at all times. They were not checked very often unless we were on campus late or entering the library after 6 - then we had to show it to get in. Having never gone into the dorms, I do not know how often they were checked there. According to the LA Times, the Taser incident happened at about 11 at night, and just as I sort of said earlier, the UCLA Library seems to be open during the day, but they close it to everyone except students at 11. The Library then has security go through and check ID's at right around 11 to ensure that the folks who are still in there are all students. So this was the 11:00 check to make sure it was only students left. Also according to the LAT, he was tasered 5 times. Most of them were in response to him "Passively resisting", so he was basically going limp, and they hit him 5 times for it. UCLA has enlisted a former LAPD Person to lead an independent investigation. QUOTE(BobDylan @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 11:42 PM) Word is somebody asked for badge ID's, and an officer threatened to taze him. Ideally, he should have been tazed once. If he was cuffed and wouldn't get up after that, the REAL police should have been called. If you watch the full Youtube/camera phone video, you can actually hear one of the officers at the end tell a person following to get away "unless you wanna be tased to".

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 03:47 PM) They are going to need a s***load of these to keep their spring training throwing sessions in full check. My idiiot cub fan brother just called me to tell me that they are going to be printing up WS tickets now. Before I hung up on him in laughter, I told him well if you want to see a WS ticket come over to my house, I have the one that I used in Game 2 of the 05 series hanging up autographed in my basement. Freakin wierdos. The sad thing is, depending on injuries, based on last season, the Cubs do have a real shot in the NL Central, and as we all saw, if a pitching staff gets hot at the right time, all it takes is getting into the playoffs for things to go right. I'm still waiting to see what team in that division manages to piece together a pitching staff. The Cubs' lineup isn't all that much more potent than the one in St. Louis, if both teams stay healthy, nor is it that much more potent than the Reds. It's a lot better than the Stros, but the Stros could still add Lee and solve a ton of problems, and who knows what the Brewers are going to grow into. That division is going to be decided by pitching.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 19, 2006 -> 03:23 PM) That I agree with. Anaheim is looking for a pitcher, but IMO a bat is the 1st priority. I dont see Garland/Garcia and a prospect enough for Santana. The other side of the coin just appeared for Anaheim today; by far their best option, Soriano, just signed with the Cubs. If Carlos Lee does end up in Houston, that means that J.D. Drew is the only really remaining above average bat on the market to my eyes. Which means that if Anaheim wants a bat, and they want one now...we might be an ideal trading partner on that end as well. We do have some talent at the minors that could move in, we do have people who are about to go up in cost who would fit in well in their lineup (Crede, Dye?), and they have people who would fit into our team/system very well also (Wood, Santana, etc.)

Man, I understand why the Cubs did it, and it's not an ungodly risk, but that is an awful lot of money for yet another guy who is coming off of a career year and who is not exactly a spring chicken in age. Let's see, looking at the NL Central, what do we have. Cardinals, with a potentially very good offense if Edmunds and Rolen can stay healthy or they find another outfielder, and a damn good defense. The Cubs, with a potentially very good offense if no one regresses, but a potentially godawful defense. The Reds, with a very good offense and an improving defense. The Brewers, with a young offense high on potential. The Astros, who have pitching, but desperately need to sign Carlos Lee and to have Ensberg return to his 2005 form. Someone in that division has to find some young pitching. Or some experienced pitching. Or something. The Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Brewers and Astros all have exactly 1 quality, proven potential #1 guy, but then after that, it looks like a wasteland.

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 06:27 PM) UCLA's interim chancellor, Norman Abrams, cautioned the public against jumping to conclusions before a university investigation is completed. "It would be best if everyone, within and without the university, would withhold judgment pending review of the matter," Abrams said in a written statement. Check and mate. So, the other thing probably worth noting is that the UCLA library is heavily covered by cameras, not just student camera phones. So in other words, the chancellor is almost certainly releasing that statement after having seen the event, including the start of it before the student got her phone up, and probably from a couple different angles as well.

I see no problem at all with the routine ID checks. They do the same thing here, the libraries are open with no ID before 5, and they do a routine ID check when the card-system kicks in. But seriously, if a person doesn't have an ID, you ask them to leave a couple times, and then escort them out. You don't repeatedly tase them. There has to be some measure of proportionality here. And the officers ought to at least be trained on what situations are appropriate for making use of a weapon like that before they're permitted to carry them. QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 18, 2006 -> 11:23 AM) OK, hold on. More people die while being handcuffed than with tasers or chem-weapons. Tasers are non-deadly force weapons. I don't agree with the tactics either, but a taser is no more a deadly weapon that cuffs or zip-ties. From 2004... Link. From This year

The Dodgers are close to re-signing Nomah Bill Mueller has retired, and will take a job in the Dodgers front office. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see him wind up as a hitting coach somewhere someday. Backup IF Alex Cora signed a 2 year deal with the Red Sox.

So wait, you're telling me that it's ok to repeatedly use a potentially fatal weapon in response to a person not displaying an ID? They also reportedly threatened bystanders who demanded the officers' badge numbers with the taser as well.

QUOTE(bschmaranz @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 11:28 AM) Is Figgins, Crawford, Dye or Jones going to play catcher? With that lineup, who the hell cares?

Well, it's another one(What!?) In the gutter one(What!?) Ghetto runnin' 'em Troublesome - Extra double dum; I come to beat 'em Defeat 'em and mistreat 'em - so what if that I'm cheatin'? Now everyone wanna say I'm grimy (Yeah, I know!) I'm-a show ya' how; Come on! (All in together now!) Yeah, ooh, yeah - YEAH! - That's how it's gotta be, so Stop tryin' to be loud as me, 'cause you can't do that! Think about it! Playin' Russian roulette with an automatic, I put my ass against the line, the last bullet is first - on line Toughest step, and I rep and I run; Packin' a weapon is wild! Peace to the brothers on Ryker's Isle - Toughen up; A-tremble-em-ba-lin Like a crimin-a-million puffs I took: I - ooh, my god, I'm so high! Just they say, "Hey, Rodney," say, "You look like a - - Grem-a-lin!" A What!? Just they say to make a kid Make a million children slam! Slam! SLAM!

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Nov 17, 2006 -> 09:39 AM) I agree. KW should wait until all the free agent dust has settled and a couple of teams have come up empty. He will be able to maximize his return IMO. It's also entirely possible that the team the most desperate for pitching might put out an offer for a starter on the FA Market at the same time as putting up their biggest offer on the trade market.