lostfan

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 05:19 PM) I remember that game right before the ASB when we took down Papelbon and were 26 games over .500 still at that point. Undoubtedly, the starting pitching just wore down. Javy was always terribly erratic that year...but consistently a victim of the one bad pitch or one big inning. Then there was the Brian Anderson fiasco in CF. Eventually the offense cooled down and they actually did need both a competent offensive CFer and a league-average defensive contributor up the middle. And with Liriano and Santana dealing for much of that second half, the Twins were just a team of destiny as they reeled in the Tigers over the last 3 months. KW has tried both approaches with the pen. He's gone for the guys with the track record (Dotel and Linebrink) as well as the likes of Sisco, MacDougal, Masset and Aardsma. Power arms not fulfilling their potential. He's also brought in a dozen crappy lefties to audition for one role...and then traded the best of that group (Javier Lopez) to the Red Sox. I don't think anyone could have predicted Hermanson, Politte, Jenks and Cotts to pitch as well as they did. In the end, bringing in Thome wasn't the wrong move...it was believing that Brian Anderson was the guy to keep after parting with Chris Young, Anthony Webster, Jeremy Reed and Rowand. When the offense started to fold halfway through the season, that's when Anderson actually started hitting (of course, he'd never again do anything worth mentioning after about early September of that year)

Before I really got into politics my big prediction was "these tax cuts are a terrible idea, we just started a war and this is going to lead to massive deficits"

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 06:48 PM) I'd bet that if you really scaled most of the people in here on how they felt about things from 2003 to 2011 there'd be quite a few policies they feel differently about, and it's affected by debates on this board. Maybe with the benefit of hindsight but probably at the time, people were pretty locked in to whatever their opinion was.

QUOTE (oldsox @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) If Dunn is worth $60mm, then Danks is worth something in the neighborhood of our national debt. I lol'd at this

I've used Rosetta Stone (ummm... sure... it was "expensive"... yeah that's the ticket) and Live Mocha (which sounds suspiciously like a porn site). I haven't gotten too deep into live mocha but that's a good way to get some feedback on how you're doing and to practice some speech more openly. If you took Rosetta Stone in high school you'll probably start to feel it coming back really fast, and Level 1 will be pretty boring to you and you'll pick it up pretty fast. It starts to get really difficult about halfway thru level 2. Now I'm in, I think unit 2 of level 3 and I'm way past anywhere I was in high school. The only bad thing I have to say about Rosetta Stone is it doesn't ever tell you "why" you do something so verb tenses start to get confusing when you learn the different forms of past tense. Google translate comes in handy and some of the websites that explain that kind of thing to you.

QUOTE (G&T @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 12:56 PM) If the suit is in founded under anti-trust laws then the price is only important in creating standing for consumers. It sounds like you are right. THere is an allegation that EA monopolized the "football video game" market. Part of the legal argument will be whether such a market actually exists (which is why they have to say "alleged". it has nothing to do with arrogance). EA will argue that the only market is the "video game" market or a "sports video game" market so that their ownership percentage will be low enough to withstand the anti-trust claim. There's definitely a market... I don't know how anybody could think otherwise

My theory: the smarter a person is the easier it is to rationalize something they believe. Balta and 2k5 for example, both obviously not dummies, hardly ever agree about anything or see anything the same way. But both are totally convinced they're right and the other is totally wrong, and when they see something that goes against what they believe or challenges their assumptions they have an explanation for why that is.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) How the F*** do you not have any birthers on your facebook list? I dunno. Luck I guess.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 06:17 PM) Doesnt he have a history of being mediocre for Utah in the playoffs too? I could be making that up but thought it was always a knock against him. He had a reputation I guess cuz he'd fold against the Lakers, but he was 20-12 there, not exactly b**** numbers. And the Bulls would be beating Indiana by double digits if he was doing that. His rebounding is fine though. He gets them easily because he boxes out.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 06:12 PM) I think there might be something off with Boozer... earlier in the season (and especially during Noah's injury) he was scoring at a fine pace. He seems almost useless lately. It's different in the playoffs when you're facing elite front lines though. Boozer is only, what, 6'7"? He has decent post moves but it's not like he's much of a ballhandler or anything that'd mitigate the height disadvantage when he gets trapped under a 7 footer.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 02:15 PM) Wait, so you mean he's not the perfect player? That he is lacking in certain areas? Well good god damn. And I'm not being condescending towards you, Q. You and lostfan off the top of my head are pretty sound when it comes to Rose. It's a shame. I feel like a Rose hater when I'm not. I didn't expect this shout-out after I got pissed off last night. lol.

Totally ignoring the Rose-Paul bulls*** again so I can post an observation: Boozer appears to suck badly, especially at finishing around the rim, because he was MUCH more efficient on the pick and roll in Utah with D-Will feeding him. So here, he's always fumbling the ball, or it seems like he's going up weak and getting punked but that's not really on him, it's on Rose. Rose is always about a second late getting him the ball, he'll see Boozer in the post and feed him the ball, but by the time it's down there Boozer's lost his advantage. In Utah the plays were by design, but in Chicago it looks like a reaction from Rose as a kind of fallback when he can't penetrate. Same for Noah, actually, but not as pronounced since Noah's not really a go-to option. This isn't really because it's something Rose can't do, it's more because Boozer missed so much time to start the year, and they didn't play together in camp because of Boozer's broken wrist. It's something they'll have to work on in the offseason regardless of how far they make it in the playoffs.

I know plenty of Republicans and libertarians, borderline anarchists, and some people who barely live in reality, and I don't think I've ever met an actual birther in life. I know they exist because I see them on the internet, but where are they in real life?

QUOTE (almagest @ Apr 22, 2011 -> 12:34 AM) He signs with the Bulls? lol. that would take some kind of miracle involving the use of chloroform in a sign-and-trade and I'm not even sure it can actually be done but I'd jizz myself. Not like Joakim Noah is chopped liver but the Bulls would be a juggernaut... fun to think about, anyway.

Brian Anderson had so much talent but he never got a legit shot here. Ozzie killed his career

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Apr 20, 2011 -> 03:10 AM) So, going through Mass Effect 2, just got to the Jack/Miranda fight. Sided with Miranda, lost Jack's loyalty. I got 4 of the 5 Paragon bars filled up...how can I get Jack's loyalty back? Jack is a s*** character, I don't care about her. The only reason I bothered to keep her loyalty was for the achievement on the last mission.

Whatever with this discussion. What happens to Dwight Howard is the Magic happen to lose in the first round?

oh, this

Some of you guys have easily hurt feelings apparently... I'm not really going to get into that and I don't care who argues about what, but you better damn follow the board's rules. Nut up.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:58 PM) I got that E-Mail and my first thought was: how could they argue that you were "overcharged" when Madden/NCAA cost the same as virtually any game released, exclusive license or not? I mean if you want to argue anti-trust or that the quality of the product suffered that would be one thing, but the price is a dumb thing to target IMO. That was my first thought when I read it. 60 bucks is 60 bucks. I guess you could argue that EA started mailing it in and basically making roster updates with minor tweaks (Madden 06-08 was pretty much the same game) so they didn't get what they thought they could've gotten for that 60 bucks which is most peoples' main criticism of EA. Also the 2K Sports games sold for about $20 less, IIRC. I don't remember about the other franchises

QUOTE (Whitewashed in '05 @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:45 PM) Is anyone worried that the 8th seed Pacers are really pushing the Bulls to the limit and are in real trouble versus better teams than the Pacers? not really. Had the Pacers been healthy all season, properly utilized their personnel, and been properly coached, they might be a 4th or 5th seed. They'll win a lot more than 37 games next year. They are giving the Bulls matchup problems w/George's long arms guarding Rose, trapping him, and factoring Deng out of plays. Boozer is... eh. They won't necessarily see the same matchups against Miami or Boston. Plus I mean a 3-0 series lead is a 3-0 series lead. It doesn't really matter how they got there.

QUOTE (Felix @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:32 PM) If people can do the same thing about others who disagree about Rose, I'm not going to feel any sorrow about doing it right back. Had I seen someone say someone was "f***ing stupid" for disagreeing about Rose (which I didn't) I'd have said something. This isn't up for debate though unless you, or whoever else wants to participate in this unnecessary f***ery, don't feel like posting for 10 days.

QUOTE (Felix @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 10:27 PM) That was actually the first thing that came to mind. It's amazing how f***ing stupid people can be. You don't have to like what he said, but you need to knock it off right now.

Anyone else get this e-mail from EA? It's basically saying that a lawsuit was filed against EA for violating antitrust laws which resulted in overcharging of customers and gives information for people who want to get in on it. The case hasn't been settled (or heard) yet. One part of it I thought was particularly funny was that they said "...which Plaintiffs claim foreclosed competition in an alleged football video game market." LOL. Alleged. Holy s*** that is one arrogant statement. Well, I guess there WAS a market before EA bought it out and started making minor improvements to the same game every year.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Apr 21, 2011 -> 09:52 PM) AND THAT'S FOR DUKE b****! Those two have been going at it the whole series. lol.