MJLiverock

It isn't a big deal to have all your investments with one firm, it is a big deal to have all of your investments in one fund or one asset class. Or as many people find, a million funds that all invest in the exact same thing which is something banks and brokers love to do with unsuspecting people. I have a friend who showed me his Roth IRA with about $40,000 in it and his Wachovia broker had 30 different mutual funds in it. Needless to say the objectives and holdings of many of these funds were so similar he would have been better off owning about 4 and paying a whole lot less in transaction fees and managment costs. Stanford invested clients money in illiuquid assets like real estate or complicated deriviatives which have been unsurprisingly hard to sell. I still remember how many people told me in 2002 they wanted out of the market so they could buy real state because..."you never lose money in real estate." Never mind the illiquidity and difficult to value aspect of real estate. Just wait until all the pension funds start taking the write downs of their hard to value timber, real estate, private equity, and hedge funds that held illiquid assets. Most of these illiquid assets have been overvalued significantly and nobody wants to mark them down to the true value. I have already met with pension trustees talking about year end statements and saying how some of these asset classes held their value relative to the stock market, but what they are missing is that valuation is just a made up number not the true valuation of the underlying asset if it was sold today.

On the Plasma vs. LCD issue I would think about what you plan on using the TV for as a first step. If you are a video gamer I would steer toward the LCD - - burn in on the plasmas have improved but it still exists. I watch CNBC every morning before work for maybe half and hour and there is a faint ghost of the ticker and info box from the HD broadcast on my plasma. If you plan on watching movies mostly I would lean toward the Plasma, they tend to handle colors, especially blacks, much better. They also tend to have a smoother feel to motion. LCD's have made great strides in processing speeds and the old "screen door effect" isn' t much of an issue anymore. My 7 year old 60" Sony LCD has a little issue with sports where I can notice the pixels not keeping up with fast moving sports action but I think the newer LCD's have improved greatly on this factor. LCD's are usually better in bright rooms if you watch a lot of TV during the day but honestly my plasma does just fine in our main floor living room full of windows. As I mentioned above check out Sound and Vision magazine's online pages and search for TV reviews. They usually give a good review and tend to make note of best value for the budget as well. Not everyone is going to buy a top of the line Elite Series from Pioneer but you don't have to buy a Westinghouse or a Vizio to get a good deal either. For LCD's I am partial to the Bravia line by Sony. They also have another line of very similar TV's that are a little cheaper without quite all the top of the line features and then there is a third line that is the bare bones models typically sold at a Wal Mart and discounters. Samsung did have some good TV's a while ago, they are one of the leading makers of the glass used in the displays and try to make sure they always are on the latest greatest generation of glass for their top of the line TV's. When checking out the LCD in the store try watching some high speed sports like hockey, football, baseball, to make sure the picture moves smoothly, it should only be a potential problem on the cheaper TVs. Also check out something with a lot of black color, but remember the TV's brightness and contrast may be set to something ridiculous in the store. For Plasma I like Panasonic and Pioneer(the high end Pioneer are expensive though). Panasonic has a lot of well reviewed TV's that are priced fairly well for their capabilities. I will admit I hate LG and any LG electronics product. Every friend who has owned an LG TV, phone or DVD player, has had numerous issues and gotten huge hassles trying to get them fixed. I will also admit to being a bit of an electronics snob - - I will pay up for features that some don't care about or even notice are missing. I actually have both HDTV's professionally calibrated as an example.

Logan3825 is right, always be sure you are comparing apples to apples when looking at TV's from WalMart, Sam's, Costco or even online places. WalMart and Costco both sell brand name TV's that look very similar to more expensive models from the same manufacturer and people fall for it all the time. Check the exact model number to compare. As an example I bought a BluRay player from Amazon.com just after Christmas. I saw what looked like an identical one at Costco for $20 less but knowing the trick WalMart and Costco like to play I checked the model number and saw it had an extra "S" or someting in the model number. The Costco version did not support Blu Ray Live, and had different sound capabilities than the one I bought from Amazon although the packaging was nearly identical, the players and remote are identical to look at but they are different. Check all the stats on a TV to compare not just lines of resolution, but refresh rate, Mhz, 24f/s capability, color saturation, black levels, number of HDMI inputs, etc. Some of the cheaper TV's like Vizio will claim equal footing with much better TV's based on meeting one criteria but missing a lot of other criteria. It all depends on what you value in your TV and how you plan on using it. I would search for reviews online for any TV before buying. Sound and Vision Magazine has a lot of good reviews online or archived. Searching by model numbers usually gets you some good information or reviews. Another good website that may be of interest to people is www.monoprice.com This place sells HDMI, optical cables and such for much lower prices than retail stores. I bought an HDMI switcher (my oldest HD TV only has 1 input) for around $10 here versus $40+ at Best Buy. I must say I have been disappointed in the so called deals at Circuit City. I walked around the store near my office and found the TV's to be priced fairly similar to Best Buy, American, and Crutchfield. That may be different now as the last few items are really pushed. I bought a spool of 14 guage speaker wire that was 30% off since I needed some for a new run to my surround speakers but when I was in Best Buy the next day I saw the same spool of wire was actually $1 cheaper than the 30% off spool from Circuit City.

Ouch! That is disappointing, especially since I keep reading his thowing is the area of his defense he needs to improve to cut down the errors. A guy I played ball with a few years ago had a shoulder impingement and it bothered him all summer long as a shortstop. Hopeully the good professional treatment lets Gamel heal up and work on his defense pain free.

I knew people would get a kick out of the rankings. I forgot about the Burrell comment, I laughed when I read for the first time. I also like his comments about the Cardinals and Astros. Basically the Cardinals did nothing but Carpenter may be back so they could win 90 and the Astros needed pitching so they got Hampton and Ortiz (improvement?) Meanwhile the Brewers need pitching- no mention of Gallardo but hey Hoffman apparently sucks?

I think we are kinda of arguing the same point but from diffent angles. I think too much is extrapolated from the good AB's just like you think too much is extapolated from the bad AB's. I see Dillon as a guy who got a lot of attention based on his good 75 AB's and when the next 75 AB's were poor the reality set in of why he hadn't played much at the ML level. He isn't as good as the first 75 AB's and maybe not as bad as the next 75. I think there really are plenty of AAAA players or in other words good minor leaguers, not so good major leaguers. Just like the guys who can't make the jump from A to AA. Swindle is a guy who just hasn't done enough to make any sort of solid prediction. I wouldn't be surprised either way on how he performs.

I am leaning toward 83-79. I saw the Foxsports Power Rankings today and saw the Brewers ranked 19th to start the season behind the Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Braves, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Marlins, Astros, and Dodgers in the National League. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/powerRankings

Swindle hasn't even thrown 200 innings of professional ball and most of that was in the low minors so it is pretty hard to say with any certainty what he is going to bring. He has had good results in a very small sample against non ML talent. He is worth a shot and if he pans out then great if not no problem but I can't automatically call him good yet. There may not be an official AAAA level but baseball is littered with guys who dominate AAA and can't make it at the ML level. The Brewers farm system of the late 80's and most of the 90's produced plenty of them. Even looking back just to Ben Hendrickson, Nelson Cruz, Jorge de la Rosa just to name a few. Career ML guys like Joe Dillon do well in AAA and bounce around for the occasional shot at the big leagues and after all the excitement of his first 75 AB 's with the Brewers he put 75 AB's that reminded everyone why he was in the minors for so long.

I guess I just don't call a .312 obp good. He put up a .292 OBP for the month of June. I just don't agree he had a bad 3 weeks. He had a horrible 3 weeks and a pretty weak 3 or 4 months. His OBP for June through September was .277, even throwing out his atrocious September he only averaged an OBP of .302 for June, July, and August. Those are pretty terrible numbers for a corner outfielder and for a lot longer than just a 3 week period. I still can't believe I see posts where people want this guy to lead off over Weeks.

Now hopefully he doesn't fall in a well like the entire perioed after the all star break, he wasn' t just bad in September it was July, August, and September. If he hadn't hit 8 HR in June that month would have looked bad too with the .292 OBP he put then as well. G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Pre-All Star 93 357 48 103 26 3 15 58 17 66 13 3 .289 .327 .504 .831 Post-All Star 64 255 28 61 19 3 5 33 10 43 10 4 . 239 .263 .396 .659

Maybe the Brewers realize they have a bunch of starters who don't go deep into ball games so the bullpen needs to have depth. They will have to go to all guys in the pen and can't afford to have 1 or 2 guys just there for emergency use only like in past years. The CG's thrown by Sheets and Sabathia won't be there to provide rest for the pen or even consistent 7-8 inning starts to limit pen usage.

For those that don't like waiting for charcoal to get ready I recommend this grill http://www.homedepot.com/...10053&productId=100022174 My gf bought me one for my birthday a couple years ago and it works really well. The gas ignition gets the charcoal going quickly, run the gas burner under the charcoal for about 5 minutes and turn off. Let the coals warm for another 15 and it's 500 degrees in that thing and ready to go.

Manny's attitude was called into question a few times last year by both Yost and himself. He tended to pout and even admited it in a post game interview with Trenni in the clubhouse. I seem to remember some teammates getting on him about watching the game after he was pulled instead of sitting in the clubhouse by himself. The incident with Fielder started because Manny whipped his towel in frustration and hit Fielder in the back of the head or side of the face as Fielder walked away which incited the Fielder attack. I remember this exact arguement with others when it happend that many thought Manny did nothig but if you watch the whole incident he does whip the towel and that spins Fielder around immediately. I think Fielder gave him a talkting too about his pouting and when Parra accidently hit him with the towel Fielder's anger shot up because he thought Parra purposely whipped him with the towel. They later cleared the air with each other and that was why we saw them act fine toward each other and even joke around a bit in the dugout. I think Manny can be a good pitcher, he has some wicked stuff, but his attitude has been questioned and his mental approach is one area of improvement that he needs. Sort of the anti Gallardo, whose mound pressence and attitude is often cited as a strength for him.

I would agree with you Joe Pepsi, sometimes these projection systmes are treated like they have reinvented the wheel or something. Basically a regression is just a line of best fit for a set of data points, doesn't mean it is going to be right on, just closesest to the wide array of possiblities. I can look at player's history and come up with an eyeball guess that ends up being being pretty close as some regression model and will probably be within the 1 SD band as well.

Try out the website antennaweb.org they have the compass headings for the direct line of sight for the best reception of the digital signals as well as the type of antenna that may be best suited for a given zip code to receive OTA channels. I also wouldn't worry too much about the developer and your DirecTV dish. The FCC has special regulations that override any condo association or neighborhood covenents regarding the satellite dishes. There have actually been a number of cases where the renter or owner has won these disputes. The burden of forcing removal falls on the association and it does't go their way very often if at all.

I didn't get a chance to read his column on the message boards but if you ever read any of the comments on the Badger Beat section online I can see why he would rip the boards. I follow college football recruiting fairly closely and the level of rhetoric on the WSJ/TCT Badger Beat board is pretty much untolerable since most posters seem to have zero facts or just plain made up facts to support their own beliefs - - sort of the anti-Brewerfan type board. Once again reminding me why I read this board for Brewer News. I guess I should just stick to the pay sites when discussing college football as well.

I think we are quickly finding out it wasn't really much of an advantage to be using steroids since everyone in the leauge was doing it. I just don't care anymore when a guy gets named simply because it was so prevelant that the argument that a few guys ruined baseball is just going to be proven wrong. I liked Buck Showalter's comments this morning on ESPN radio when asked if he ever noticed players and thought they were juicing. Showalter said he thought about it in pitchers first, specifically relief pitchers. He said he noticed guys still had their best and nasty stuff even after working 3 straight days. Everyone gets so caught up in HR hitters but forgets that pitchers have been the most likely benefactors of steroids and HGH. As a percentage of players the pitchers have had the highest rate of suspension for banned substances. It made me wonder about how pitching staffs will be affected going forwad since the rise of the specialty reliever coincided with the 80's and 90's when steroids really started to take off. How many of these guys are really going to be able to work effectively for 3 straight days, have a day off, and work 3 straight days again all through the season without the juice?

Here is a little info on cable and satellite penetration by DMA. http://www.tvb.org/rcentr...DS_Penetration_by_DMA.asp sattelite TV Penetration by DMA. A place like NYC is 95% penetrated, Madison, WI is 80%, Milwaukee is 79%, Chicago 86%. (Madison pay TV subs are split 60/40 for cable/Satellite, or other as well and has been trending away from cable for months. Charter really did lose a lot of subs with the whole NFL Network/Big 10 Network spat). So the 75% estimates is probably safe enough to use and maybe even a little conservative. Assuming a 33% increase in viewership if on over the air and 100% penetration probably gets hurt by selection bias. A good portion of that 25% are probably just not that interested in TV so they don't pay for it (some may be poor but a lot of poor people still subscribe to cable because it is a priority or entertainment). Many of those people also may just not be that interested in watching sports which is another reason they don't subscribe to cable. Live sports are typically among the highest rated cable shows - - driven by the many sports fans who just have to have cable so they can watch sports.

I recorded the Prime 9 episode covering greatest rookies seasons and just got around to watching it but was surprised Braun's rookie year didn't make the list. Does anyone know if this is a recently produced show or is it old? I think Pujols was the most recent rookie to make the list. Edit: I should say not really surprised but thought he might have a chance or at least get a mention.

I just don't see the hitter guessing on a pitch as strategy of the game more just a function of the game play. Aren't hitters taught; don't guess, see the ball. I could turn the arugment that Football is just throw the bomb to the triple covered WR into why not just throw a 96 MPH split finger that drops from the thighs to the ankles every pitch. Had AZ just started throwing bombs every play, the defense can counter by bringing all out blitzes forcing a throw earlier than desired or flat out knocking the QB senseless. Why do you think a team like the Steelers employes a strategy of shutting down the run game, making an offense one dimensional and then T'ing off on the QB?

Even with zero serious injuries or DL time I just don't see how the current staff can thow enough innings as constructed, they will need a minimum of 150 innings of starting pitching from somewhere outside of the 5 mentioned. They really need to add at least one starting pitcher. Capuano would be a nice story if he can come back but when what if it is too late for when really needed or why count on a guy coming off a major arm surgery. I just can't rely on a guy like that to be "the guy" as an answer. Any performance out of him is just icing on the cake for me.

See that is the exact fallacy. Football isn't just saying throw the ball deep to Fitzgerald every time. The reason it doesn't work is because the coach has to understand he needs to protect the QB for 4 to 5 seconds for that to happen, how does he do it? Keep two tight ends in, a running back? If all it was was throwing bombs all day, the defense knows play a few guys deep and blitz like crazy and probably kill the QB. The o-line has to adjust to where the potential blitzers line up an who actually comes at them vs. dropping into coverage. Players in football adjust on the fly at probably 10x the rate of baseball players. Listen to Harrison's interview about the 100 yard interception return. He knew they had a blitz package coming at Warner, limiting the amount of time he had to throw, so it would probably be a slant or quick out. Harrison faked the blitz, causing Warner to misread the play and attempt a quck slant to his receiver at the goal line, but Harrison, knowing a slant was likely slid to the outside on the snap and stepped right into the throwing lane.

Throwing a a nasty curveball 2-0 for a strike is more about talent than strategy, it's not like Turbow chose to throw a nasty breaking ball in the dirt or over the cather's head when it was 2-0 or 3-0. That's like saying it was great strategy to throw the football to the open reciever. Now if you want to argue about the strategy of the designed play to get that guy open that is different versus just the ability to throw the ball 50 yards and hit him on the run which is more anagolus to locating a wicked pitch. Don't get me wrong, I like Football and Baseball, both have strategy but I just can't agree that baseball as more or better strategy components. Baseball allows more time to think about stratgy because there is no clock but the options that really impact the game on any given play are fairly limited. In football there are 11 players on offense and defense that can be moved in or out at wil resulting in compeletely different formations and skillsets that greatly impact a given play which can also be changed to directly attack or defend a set of skills. Yes teams know Prince Fielder isn't a very good fielding first basemen but they can't really tell every hitter to try and hit the ball toward Fielder to expose his weakness. Hitters tend to hit what they are pitched and most plays result in only 1 or 2 guys being involved after a pitch is thrown. In football any one of the attacking linemen, linebackers, dB's may be blitzing and/or covering a guy causing them to actually move on each play and their movement dictating the flow of the game and actions of the play. Manny Ramirez can disappear into the Green Monster and take a leak and it won't matter unless a hitter can hit the ball to his place in LF. Most baseball plays result in 7 guys standing pretty much still and watching. While batting a manager basically has to decide pinch hit or not, steal or not (if anyone is on base), bunt or not, hit and run or not. Most of these calls are eliminated by who is at the plate. Prince is up with nobody on - - not a lot of decisons to make, he ain't bunting and you ain't pinch hitting. Whether or not he can hit the ball is not strategy that is ability to recognize a pitch and hit. Just like a WR crossing the middle catching the ball and hanging on while a safety lights him up is ability not strategy. The pitcher decides do I throw my FB, Change, or slider if he actually has 3 effective pitches. Location can be attempted but again more a skillset than a strategy and the manager most likely isn't calling the pitch. The pitch call is more like the play calling on Tecmo Bowl for Nintendo, you get four choices and that is it. The QB decides where to thow it and complete it if he can, sort of like locatiing a fastball except strategy wise...On every single football down the offense decides run or pass, sometimes easy choice given down and distance, then decides formation, then decides play package and call play. QB's wear a wristband with 150 different plays (not 3 pitches to choose from) on them that they have to know how to execute along with 10 other guys whose jobs change dramatically depending on the play call. I would say you way shortselling the amount of strategy in football and way overstating the strategy in baseball. I would easily take 25 posters on here and find people that could effectively manage the in game decsions of a baseball game. I seriously doubt I could find 1 person on the best football message board who could effectively gameplan and adjust in game for an entire NFL game.

I kinda agree with your last paragraph Crew. Perez at this point is probably about equal to Parra and is close enough in age to not matter. Perez has been erratic career wise but is at least a ML pitcher. First round draft picks are not guaranteed superstars and I think that assumption is made an awful lot when valuing draft picks. For every Braun or Sheets there are 2 or 3 Krynzel's and Nuegebaurer/Rogers types in the first round. Maybe if the Brewers would have gotten a first for CC and hand sewn up an additional first for Sheets they wouldn't even think twice about it and grab someone like Perez if his price has come down some as the reality sets in that the Yankees are the only ones throwing huge ridiculous contracts around and they aren't really setting the market price for all. I see a guy like Perez with way more upside than someone like Mulder who seems to get mentioned a lot. I am not even sure Mulder can lift his arm above his head, there has been talke he may have to become a side arm or submariner. The downside of Perez is that he may be 4.5-5.00 ERA guy at a few million, the downside of Mulder is he may never pitch again or if does he may be a 6-7 ERA guy at $1 Million.

Didn't the Cardinals shut Mulder down early last year because his arm just couldn't take it and he was completely ineffective? I wouldn't put any stock in those 03-05 numbers from Mulder, he just isn't going to be that pitcher again. http://www.stltoday.com/s...748300116895?OpenDocument He may try and come back but he was not good in the minors last year when he was able to pitch and really has sat out since last July. In the above article he states he would probably retire if further surgery is needed. If he can pass a physical and takes a minor league deal fine, low risk, but I wouldn't count on him for much of anything at the ML level and certainly wouldn't call him a #4 caliber guy given nobody knows if he can even throw 6 innings let alone every 5 days, and even if he can does he have any left? He certainly didn't last year during his attempted come back and it doesn't instill a lot of confidence that he will ever pitch effectively again.