Disco72

I live in Knoxville, so I usually see the Barons when they are in town playing the Smokies.

Exactly. He didn’t hit anything hard tonight. His speed is impressive though.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ May 19, 2016 -> 01:48 PM) You can master's out but I just completed my first year. I just wanted to pound away some debts and save some money before coming back. I took a huge paycut coming back to school (obviously) and I don't think I was prepared for it. I absolutely want to finish my degree but I also can't focus if I'm worried about how I am going to pay for s***. The rules vary by school and program. Our school allows for a leave of absence, but I am not familiar with the particulars. Of course, the vast majority of people that leave school don't ever return to complete the degree. It's really hard to get back into it. How many years is your program?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 12:49 PM) Definitely get to a consulate in person. It's pretty expensive, a shame you aren't going in June when its free. What cities you going to? Definitely Sao Paulo. We're still figuring out the rest. We'll probably have to do mail or use a service, as I don't think we'll be able to get down to Atlanta to do it in person. If in person is absolutely the best way to go, we'll find a way.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 10:53 AM) Okay, made the submission for a Visa successfully. Some tips - the form on the Chicago Chinese embassy site is WRONG, go to the national Chinese embassy site - As my wife and I were going together, we only printed one set of our flight/hotel info. They luckily had a copy machine there. We pick up on wednesday thouhg, and the embassy was very fast. Overall a pretty good experience, better than Brazil's. Advice on Brazil's visa process? I'll be doing that in the next couple of weeks (traveling in March).

QUOTE (SnB @ May 7, 2015 -> 08:47 AM) IPA's are ok, but my favorite beers are dry, somewhat hoppy, red ales. Unfortunately, there's not that many of them out there. My favorites have been: Kingpin Double Red Ale and Sierra Nevada's Flipside Red IPA. Any other rec's? It's probably not available in the midwest, but Highland Brewing Company has a red IPA that might fit your taste: http://www.highlandbrewing.com/craft-brews...ls-britches-ipa

QUOTE (scs787 @ Mar 31, 2015 -> 06:58 PM) This is killing me.... What the hells a COP back? It was used describing Rodgers..... Is it "Catcher of Passes" or does it have something to do with his ability to protect the QB or is it because cop sounds like comp and they're saying he's a complimentary back. I'd say it's probably "change of pace" back.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 27, 2015 -> 03:31 PM) That drive into NC and back to Gatlinburg is do-able in 1 day and if you can get down to the river (chatahoochee? sp?) it'd be worth it with the kids. It's in NC but it's a 1 day voyage that covers the heart of the park. All good advice here. Dollywood just re-opened for the season.

QUOTE (Jake @ Oct 15, 2014 -> 12:55 AM) I want to own this cat. I'm horrified by the thought he might belong to somebody, though. I've gone ahead and made some found cat postings, so we'll see if anything comes of that. How long do I give to sort those things out before we go ahead and more clearly make him ours? I don't want to invest in micro-chipping, vaccinations, collar/tags, etc. just to have someone take the cat a day later. FWIW, we do not plan to let this cat outdoors. He's been very okay with this so far, too, which is surprising. Hasn't made any attempts to go out the door nor does he pay much attention to it at all. There are a number of programs to neuter stray cats to keep the population down. It is entirely possible that this cat was neutered that way. I think you are going about it the right way. You might even post a few "found" flyers around your neighborhood. If there is an owner out there that cares about the cat, they will be looking.

Does anyone have a favorite site for up-to-date depth charts?

Thanks for all the feedback! I've starting toying around with One Drive, and so far, so good.

What online file storage set-up do people recommend? I'm looking for the simple ability to access documents from home, work, coffee shop, etc. These would be mostly Microsoft Office documents with some larger data sets as well. I don't plan on using it for photos, music, or video. I enjoy Drop Box's ease of use, but I do not really want to have to buy extra storage (my current storage needs are about 5-6 GB). I also could use Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive. I am leaning towards One Drive due to the relatively high free storage size, the fact that I am using Windows 7 and 8.1 on my computers, the apparently good file and folder syncing (as several reviews have pointed out), and the fact that my work might be moving to Office 365. I realize I'm probably way behind on this, so any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I wonder if the Sox are using a "fail fast" approach with respect to some of their top hitting prospects. This is a common notion among entrepreneurs who would rather "fail fast," meaning that it is better to find out quickly if your idea is going to work. If it doesn't work, you can move on to something else before putting in too much time, energy, and money. When you look back at Sox top hitting prospects in the KW era, many were not rushed. Yet, they often arrived in the majors with pretty important flaws in their swings or approaches. These flaws were never corrected in the minors because inferior minor league talent could not exploit their flaws. Guys like Mitchell and Hawkins have both been described as stubborn and have both been aggressively pushed through the system. It seems to me that the Sox may be trying to get them to fail, so they can learn how to adapt and adjust from the failure. Hopefully they can fix fatal flaws in their hitting before they get to the majors. In contrast to the KW era, when prospects needed to have gaudy minor league numbers to build their value in trades for veterans, Hahn is trying to build from within. To do so, he needs to promote guys to the major league team with some reasonable hope at succeeding. Thus, the top guys are pushed to see if they can handle the challenge so the Sox know early who might make it and who probably won't.

He looked absolutely thrilled to be playing for Birmingham when I saw him earlier this week vs Tennessee.

Looking at the rotation the past couple of weeks, it looks like the starters for the upcoming Birmingham/Tennessee series will be McCully, Beck, Jaye, Snodgress, and Doyle. Anyone have anything different?

I grew up there and still have family there. Feel free to PM me any questions you have.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Dec 31, 2013 -> 07:33 PM) It's really hard to apply any statistical significance to this type of thing. If you were talking about a random lot. Say how many bad parts a company manufactured out of 569, we would already have enough data at just 16% to make a fairly accurate call. The problem here is that you're dealing with humans. There are so many old crotchety guys that have hall of fame votes that a) will not publish them and b) are the guys that would have a vendetta against steroid guys/DH/whatever the hell is they have issues with. That gizmo has shown to be accurate within around 10% in past years, so I would say it's looking pretty good for Frank. As lastriptotulsa said, it's a question of representiveness, not sample size, so it complicates things.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 08:37 AM) If anyone has a playstation, you can stream it right from your playstation to your TV. Amazing quality as well. I understand not wanting to watch on the computer- another option would be to link a HDMI cable to your TV and watch this way. Roku does a great job of this as well.

I hope that there isn't too much sun because I've heard that Gordon Beckham sucks in the day.

Homebrewers Association list of best beers. I've had many of these but really need to try the Pliny the Elder.

You cannot do it for very long, especially if the non-Crain and non-Reed bullpen options fail to step it up, but I wouldn't mind seeing a series of skipped starts for the guys that went well over their prior innings last season. I suspect this is what they are doing with Sale, and I would prefer to see the Sox buy some time to find out if Danks can be effective. The other issue not discussed is if the Sox are deliberately handling Santiago this way, not because they 'hate him,' but because they are trying to develop him. To me, it's clear that Santiago's stuff is better than Axe's, but I'm not sure he's a better pitcher yet. In either case, Santiago needs to keep getting enough innings this season to be a full-time starter next season.

QUOTE (KPBears @ May 15, 2013 -> 11:04 AM) to teams like the Pirates and the Royals. I think the biggest argument I hear against a rebuild is "look at the Pirates and Royals, it can take 20 years and not work, and draft picks are not guaranteed to work out". There's a big difference between the Sox and those teams. The Sox actually have money, and a willingness to spend it. The Sox aren't the Yankees, but despite JR's reputation, he's clearly invested in pretty high payrolls for several years now. The Pirates and Royals, on the other hand, are among the league's poor. They just can't spend the money to compete more often than not. And for those who freak out and say you can't build through the draft, teams like the aforementioned poor teams actually have been drafting very good players for years, but just didn't have the revenue to keep them. I remember when the Royals had Jermaine Dye, Johnny Damon and Carlos Beltran. I'm confident that the Sox would be able to retain players like that if they are able to draft, and more importantly, develop them (which is my main concern with a rebuild). I hate to be pessimistic, but the Sox are going to be awful for at least three or four more years, and it's time for a fire sale (and hopefully guys like Konerko and Peavy can be dealt to contenders so they can get another shot at a ring). But I'm also going to be optimistic, and believe that once the young players are in place after that time, the Sox will spend the money necessary to keep them. So, to which rebuilds should a potential Sox firesale/rebuild be comparable? Houston? Seattle? Baltimore? I don't see a lot of positive examples no matter which team / market is doing the rebuilding.

QUOTE (Chicago White Sox @ May 14, 2013 -> 09:48 AM) I'm fine with taking offers for Peavy & Rios if we're out of the race come the trade deadline, but IMO you have to be blown away to move either of them. I'm talking about receiving at least one high-end, close-to-ready minor leaguer for either of them. Both guys are under contract for another season at cheap salaries plus they each have an option year. Short of injury, they'll still be extremely valuable next trade deadline. You don't move guys like them simply to move them. You only move them if you feel like the deal(s) has a very good chance of making you better in the near future. If all you can get is a couple of low A prospects, then you should hold on to them. I completely agree with you. If the prospects are too far away, they likely won't be ready when the Sox pitching gets expensive (and/or old and injured). Hahn's major task is how to build a league-average or better offense in the next two years.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 13, 2013 -> 12:44 PM) Yes, ideally, that's true. But finding 3 or 4 guys is going to be even more difficult than one impact left handed bat, at least in the short run. Moreover, not having that impact bat makes it harder for the rest of the lineup to perform. There is no protection for anyone with this lineup. The problem is that the one impact left-handed bat is likely to be prohibitively expensive, in terms of players/prospects and/or salary/years. The Sox need an average offense, not a great one (though a great one would be nice). Some of that is going to have to come from current players performing better.

QUOTE (Lillian @ May 13, 2013 -> 11:22 AM) Sadly, you guys may be right. With regards to replacing Dunn, I just don't think that big fish is out there. The better approach is to look for a lineup that can produce up and down the order, not one big hitter who solves all the Sox's problems.