MJLiverock

Well apparently the unwritten rule in baseball is that using pine tar is OK as long as you are discreet about it but since Pineda was so blatant about it it rose the hackles of the keepers of the code.

Had to laugh at this article pointing out the idiocy of baseball's unwritten rules and how people twist themselves in knots to make sense of them. Also a few nice shots at the "Cardinal Way". http://deadspin.com/pine-tar-should-be-fully-legal-and-baseball-is-still-f-1567100538

According to an ESPN poll only about 22-23%of people answering have a problem with hitters admiring a HR, maybe eventually we can end this ridiculous unwritten rule allowing pitchers to find reason for tantrums after failure.

both Hardicourt and I believe McCalvy had tweets out talking about how Maldonado is one of the best bunters on the team right when he was trying to get the bunts down. I personally don't recall how good Maldonado is at bunting but 2 people who follow the team closer than I do disagree that he can't bunt. I also want to thank you for posting the baserunning stats earlier, everyone acts like no other team makes outs on the basepaths so it was nice to see stats showing the Brewers are pretty normal in that regard and even a bit better than average at taking the extra base.

Can anyone remember the last time a Brewer's pitcher went after a hitter for any of this stuff? I ask because I keep reading national reports taking Gomez to task for always starting these things and hinting that it is the Brewers who are bush league for doing this yet I have seen plenty of opposing batters stare, walk slow, bat flip etc. and just can't remember a Brewer pitcher going after them and staring a brawl. I seem to recall Carlos Villanueva maybe getting into it with the Cardinals or something but not much else.

Pitchers getting upset at batters for how they run, stare, toss a bat, etc. are quite possibly the most childish act in any sport. All it is is an excuse to vent frustrations at giving a long ball or hard hit. If baseball truly wants to send a message start suspending pitchers for acting like spoiled toddlers when they give up a big fly.

I've never rooted against Marquette or felt any animosity towards the basketball team despite my Badger blood but hiring Wojo makes me rethink that stance. I absolutely hated him as a player and just seeing and then hearing him in the ACC tourney reminded me again my loathsome feelings toward Wojo.

If Henderson's velocity was down from 97 to 91 then it absolutely made sense and has nothing to do with experience or grittiness. I applaud RR for making the call and not just sticking with the closer of last year even though something is clearly wrong, be it injury, dead arm, etc. Just like if KRod was throwing his fastball in the low 80's I think many would be happy with him not getting any work. Henderson has been successful when his FB is in the mid to upper 90's, if he can't pitch in the zone where he has been successful it makes zero sense to just trot him out there.

If the Brewers were "horrible" the last 2 seasons at 157-167 what were the Twins and their great method of team building? The were 132-192 in that span. The last 3 years the Brewers trounced the Twins record with 253 wins compared to 195 for the Twins. Even on a 5 year plan the Brewers have outpaced the Twins 410 wins to 376. I just don't see the Twins as having done something right other than be bad and have a few years of top picks.

Right, because Melvin assumed Garza was out of their budget so he hadn't even bothered to investigate until the owner said it was OK.

Or it simply means Melvin has a budget or limit to work within, if he wants to go over it or the opportunity to do so arises he has to talk with the owner since that is where the extra money will come from. Or he can sign any contract up to X guaranteed dollars and over that he has to go to Mark A. It is a fairly simple and common business practice. I worked in a bank years ago and could give a loan of up to $1MM with my signature and no further approval. Sure after the fact I had to present it and defend it if it went bad but up to a $1MM it was my call. If a company needed more than $1MM, I had to go to my boss and get his signature too.

I'd say the day after the Super Bowl has a better shot, more popular and one day vs. differing opening days around baseball and home vs. away opening day.

I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in downtown Pittsburgh a few years ago and walked to the Steeler game from there over the Clemente bridge which they shut down on that football Sunday. I believe there is a sidewalk on the bridge even if they don't shut it down for baseball. The hotel was pretty new at the time and located within walking distance of everything. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/pitcy-courtyard-pittsburgh-downtown/

I watched an episode of Hawaii Five-0 off the DVR last night and immediately thought of this thread when I saw Carol Burnett (80) on the show and still acting well. My Grandma loved the Carol Burnett show when I was a kid so ended up watching it and thought it was funny even though I probably didn't get half the jokes. Also had the late great Harvey Korman, who was an awesome "villian" in Blazing Saddles.

I always wondered how anyone could get hooked on sticking a needle in their arm but my understanding is the heroin addiction rise often comes from an addiction to pills, specifically the opioid painkillers. The prescription painkillers become hard to get but the heroin is cheap, easy to find and fills that void/need/addiction that began with the pills. I just had friend I grew up with that had fallen from a ladder, messed up his back, took painkillers for sometime and has a very addictive personality. I just found out his wife left him and he has burned many bridges because he now has a heroin addiction. The guy used coke and other drugs in high school but had been clean for a long time, he's in his 40's now and was running a successful business married to a school teacher, 2 kids, etc. so I was surprised to find out he was hooked on heroin until the news of his back injury and months of painkiller pills apparently awakened his old addictive nature/cravings. I'm not saying all these people dying, being revived, passed out in cars, etc. with heroin in their system started down that path because of injury but I think a number get their first exposure through pain pills. The pills are easy to take, sometimes easy to find or get until the addiction takes over and they start going through them way too fast to get replenished and the alternative is quit, start robbing pharmacies, or try heroin, and too often the choice of quit is too hard or not the path taken.

This argument continues to drive me nuts, and I don't know how it got started, much less become so prevalent in this conversation. Let's be very clear about this. Systemic steroids, and PEDs in general, do not help aid in recovery. In fact, in general steroids have the exact opposite effect, actually impairing the healing process. Now, there are select situations that they are used in the medical profession, i.e. a local steroid injection at the site of a stable injury purely for pain relief, which is also legal for athletes. But using them systemically in someone recovering from injury would have the exact opposite of the intended effect. Plain and simple, athletes that take PEDs are doing it for one reason and one reason only - to get bigger, stronger, faster, better - to gain a competitive advantage. Perhaps they are doing so in the context of regaining strength, speed, and ability after an injury, but there is simply no good scientific evidence that these drugs help with healing of an actual injury itself. I didn't say Braun did or didn't take PED for the strength or even speculate as to his reasons for taking them. But there are plenty of cases where HGH was used to recover from injury and my point has been at what time will the so called PED's just be considered a medical improvement like taking a ligament from somewhere in the body or a cadaver and using it in the elbow? Nothing too natural about that procedure. Or having blood drained and mixed for platelet plasma therapy. It doesn't take much effort to find plenty of articles about the healing benefits of HGH, especially in repairing cartilage. There aren't much for long term studies on the effects(good or bad) but plenty of doctors have used HGH to help in the recovery from surgery. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2574291 HGH injections to recover from knee surgery rowth hormone is regarded as a performance enhancer by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the NFL and other leagues, and thus a banned drug. It is usually discussed in tandem with anabolic steroids, for the drugs have been used together by elite athletes who seek a competitive edge. After steroids and HGH user Ben Johnson was stripped of his sprint gold medal at the '88 Olympics, the two substances were criminalized by federal lawmakers. In the public mind, GH and 'roids are the Beavis and Butt-Head of sports dope, as inseparable as they are subversive. But many athletes such as al-Jabbar think of the drugs in distinct ways. One set (steroids) is known to build powerful muscle, while the other (growth hormone) is "more to recover from injury," he said. "I haven't heard of growth hormone giving you strength." His impression has some support in the scientific community. Most of the research on HGH has been done on the elderly, not elite athletes, but studies have shown that while the drug might grow the size of a muscle, it is not associated with a spike in strength. In a 2004 review of the literature that was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine and written as a guide for team doctors, the authors concluded that "there is no evidence that growth hormone supplementation will lead to an increase in performance." Produced naturally by the anterior pituitary gland, at the base of the brain, growth hormone plays a major role in body growth by stimulating the liver and other tissues to produce insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-1. One of the chief actions of IGF-1 is that it stokes the creation of cartilage and bone, a benefit that has not gone unnoticed by athletes and orthopedists. Injected, synthetic HGH has the same effect. "I've seen a whole spectrum from professional athletes in all sports, down to college and even high school players that have been on growth hormone," said Dr. Rick Delamarter, a Los Angeles spine surgeon and UCLA professor who has treated scores of big-name athletes. "I have seen the benefits of growth hormone post-operatively in recovering from surgery." http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/12/031204074202.htm It activates a gene critical for the body's tissues to heal and regenerate, says Robert Costa, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the UIC Cancer Center. While several studies have shown that prolonged growth hormone therapy has dangerous side effects ranging from diabetes to carpal tunnel syndrome, Costa believes that short-term treatment with growth hormone could be used to speed repair after injuries or surgery in the elderly, shortening recovery time. ********* I could also add that when my brother had rotator cuff surgery in high school (wrestling injury not baseball) he was put on some sort of steroid by the doctor. We all joked about him being on 'roids at the time.

I pretty much agree with the take Baldkin provided, except I do have kids. Braun got caught, served his time, it is time to move on. I don't hold any grudges about it. I am firmly in the camp that PED's have been widespread in baseball for 30 years so no reason to get all worked up about it now. I graduated high school in 1991 from a small school in WI with about 600 total kids int the high school. I personally know of 3 players I played football with that took steroids while I was a sophomore and junior (they were in the two classes above me) so that puts steroid use in small town WI high school sports in about 1988. One of my best friends was from Texas and when we went down to visit his dad we stopped by his old HS to work out and visit their football team's private weight room. He told me how one of his workout partners used to shoot up right in the work out room (the guy went on to a scholarship at Texas A&M). I figure if steroids were being used in small town WI high schools and in Texas high schools in the late 80's, MLB players were well aware of the them and were likely using them much earlier than that. Not to mention the recuperative effects of HGH that doctors have used for patients for years. Knowing how long PED's have been around I am not prepared or willing to pretend that they somehow just made it the game in the 90's. My best friend's Dad played D1 college football in the late 60's/early 70's and admitted he used to inject steroids. He had connections to some Olympic weight lifters who he said all used back then. I think some of the indignation of the sports writers is ridiculous but getting people all riled up is what sells for journalism today. I don't think MLB or the writers really care to know the extent of the PED use or for how long players used. Writers, MLB, and the HOF don't worry about the heroes of the game from yester years that were wife abusing, racist, alcoholic, greenie popping, coke snorting jerks but take a PED, many of which are available over the counter or are prescribed everyday by doctors to non athletes to help recover from injury and suddenly these guys are ruining the game? How many of Barry Bond's HR's were hit off of guys like Clemens that were just as juiced as he was? Maybe they will eventually get to the point where HGH and testosterone are administered by a team doctor and it is viewed as no different than the personal trainer, video studying, personal nutritionist, personal swing coach, ligament replacement, etc. that players use now. If I blow out my ACL and a doctor prescribes HGH to help speed my recovery why shouldn't pro athletes use the same technology to recover or stay on the field through nagging injuries? Or just be flat out better at their chosen profession? I don't advocate juicing up a kid but I also don't buy into the poor me I couldn't make it because someone else in the minors or college was using PEDs. I see parents spending thousands of dollars on sending kids to highly specialized camps for baseball, hockey, etc. is that fair to the kids who can't afford to get this training from a young age all through their teen years? Which kid has a better shot a scholarship or getting drafted? The kid who plays 15 high school baseball games a year and maybe 15 more over the summer while coached by a history teacher who played D3 ball or the kid who plays those games plus travels all winter, has a former MLer as a hitting coach 2x a week in a private cage, etc.? Getting back on topic, I just don't get upset at Braun and hope he continues to hit at the level he has every year of his career. He served his time and isn't very different that a lot of MLers. I just don't care about PED use because it is so prevalent and has medical uses like many other advances in the sports world. I think most of the writers and indignation is just simply jealousy and finding something to get angry about.

Stores need to have an express lane at checkout, not limited by number of items but rather by simplicity of transaction. No questions allowed of the cashiers, no coupons to haggle about, no check writing, just have the cash out or card ready to pay when the total comes up and move on.

Yuni's playing time in Sept. wasn't at 1b it was at 3rd or 2nd if it wasn't as a PH so it really had no impact on Halton or Morris getting AB's.

Because generational sure fire Hall of Famers are going to cost $30MM in future not $20MM/year. I can see the point and belief that signing guys to guaranteed contracts for 10 yrs. is dumb, but if they can insure the deal to at least get some of the money back if the guy has a career ending injury in year 4 that helps mitigate it. But in the dollar terms of the deals I think we have to come to grips with the idea that salary inflation is about to explode. The top 10 teams in payroll averaged $155MM last year. My guess is that number moves closer to $200MM in the very near future due to the doubling of national TV money for everyone and the explosion in local TV money for the big markets. That is an additional $450MM in annual salary spend for the top 10, or roughly 22 more $20MM players just on the top teams. This may actually be understating the money available since teams like the Phillies, Mariners, Rangers, Angels, Dodgers, are seeing increases in excess of $75MM, even the Padres and Astros are getting $50MM plus bumps. This also doesn't include what the Cubs, Red Sox and Yankees are capable of doing. Middling guys like Feldman are getting $10MM/year. I expect a lot of people are going to be surprised at how many non stars are going to paid in the $10MM+/season range.

They likely just bought the ROOT NW from DirecTV and not every market. The soccer deal may just be a programming filler for all ROOT markets. Pirates and other markets probably wouldn't want the Mariners controlling their TV distribution.

The amount of new TV money that will be flowing into baseball is huge and the big markets are about to reset all salary thought processes. The new national deal with ESPN that kicks in in 2014 will result in 52% more TV money to everyone but the regional deals is where the big jumps will come in and where the market differences play out. Earlier this year Seattle bought the regional sports network ROOT that carried their games. They had an out clause to renegotiate rates or open it up for bidding in 2015. One report estimates that their TV revs will be $2B over the next 20 years as a result versus the previous deal of 10 yrs. $450MM. Their TV revs jump at least $25MM from the national deal and the regional deal add about $55MM annually to their budget. They should have at least $80MM and by some estimates $100MM annually in added revenues starting next year. They also avoid all start up costs for the TV network and are one of the few teams that are completely debt free and owe nothing on their stadium adding to their financial flexibility. Their revenue package is smaller than the $3B the Angels and Rangers are expected to generate over 15 yrs. but still puts them worlds above the levels teams like the A's or even the Brewers will generate. So while the Brewers are hoping to add $10MM or $15MM to local TV deals, the big markets are adding 8x to 10x that amount locally. I am willing to bet that in 10 years a $20MM+ contract will be viewed about the same as a $8MM deal today and will hardly be seen as hamstringing big market teams.

Well, I'm not a law enforcement expert, and I don't want to get into a bunch of improbable hypothetical scenarios, but I'm guessing someone is much more dangerous if they slip into a public stadium undetected, versus trying to do something while they are still outside the facility. I just don't see the difference between a nut shooting into a crowd waiting to get into a game versus shooing at a crowd walking on the concourse inside, or the deterrent a metal detector even poses to someone who is determined to cause harm at a baseball game. If a nutjob's goal is to get in an start shooting people they can just start with the guy at the metal detector or the crowd bunched up at the door waiting to get in. It doesn't make me feel any safer or unsafe, just more of a way to point out to media and any potential fall out if something were to happen to be able to say, "We did all we could, so don't blame me for the actions of a nutjob, and don't sue us."

How does this make it any safer? If an unstable person is willing to do something like shoot a bunch of people at a game or bring a bomb or something they can easily just start their spree at the door, or with the usher motioning them to walk through the detector.

I don't know the NHL rules but I know Ryan Suter signed a 13 yr. $98MM contract in July, 2012. Was the 7 year rule later or are there ways around it?